Same-Sex Marriage: For Liberty and Justice for All?
Carly Baxter

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is a U.S. law that defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman. Last year, President Obama's told the Justice Department to stop defending DOMA. There were worries that it violated the equal protection element of the Fifth Amendment (Montopoli). Later in 2011, the Obama administration confirmed that it would back a bill to get rid of DOMA (Nakamura). Same-sex marriage is now legal in seven states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York) and also the District of Columbia. Maryland, Washington, and New Jersey will eventually allow same-sex couples to marry, but the bills haven’t taken effect yet. There are several other states that respect out-of-state marriages, and recognize domestic partnerships or civil unions (“States”).
Denmark has accepted same-sex marriage for over twenty years and for several years now in Canada. No societies in these two countries have collapsed nor are divorce rates rising, which are common accusations (Eskridge). If Denmark has had a successful twenty years of same-sex marriage without the fall of their civilization, I doubt the societies in the United States will breakdown if same-sex couples get married. However, that doesn't stop the arguments from being made. So, the only thing someone has to do to cancel out a logical argument is to introduce fear.
Nearly forty-six percent of people in the U.S. oppose gay marriage, but fifty-eight percent of people are supportive of gay rights (“Most Say Homosexuality Should be Accepted by Society”). This means that many of the same people who are passionately in favor of gay rights oppose same-sex marriage. This may be because a majority of the population doesn’t understand what homosexuality really is. There are also a lot of stereotypes about gay