Same Sex Marriages

9 Pages 2334 Words

arital failure itself, rather
than the fault of one partner, may be grounds for a divorce. Societal change
have been felt in marriages over the past 25 years as divorce rates have
increased and have been integrated into even upper class families.
Proposals to legalize same-sex marriage or to enact broad domestic
partnership laws are currently being promoted by gay and lesbian activists,
especially in Europe and North America. The trend in western European nations
during the past decade has been to increase legal aid to homosexual relations
and has included marriage benefits to some same-sex couples. For example, within
the past six years, three Scandinavian countries have enacted domestic
partnership laws allowing same-sex couples in which at least one partner is a
citizen of the specified country therefore allowing many benefits that
heterosexual marriages are given. In the Netherlands, the Parliament is
considering domestic partnership status for same-sex couples, all major
political parties favor recognizing same-sex relations, and more than a dozen
towns have already done so. Finland provides governmental social benefits to
same-sex partners. Belgium allows gay prisoners the right to have conjugal
visits from same-sex partners. An overwhelming majority of European nations have
granted partial legal status to homosexual relationships. The European
Parliament also has passed a resolution calling for equal rights for gays and
lesbians.
In the United States, efforts to legalize same-sex domestic partnership
have had some, limited success. The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.
reported that by mid-1995, thirty-six municipalities, eight counties, three
states, five state agencies, and two federal agencies extended some benefits to,
or registered for some official purposes, same-sex domestic partnerships. In
1994, the California legislature passed a domestic partnership bill that
provided official s...