The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

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Recommended: The history of same-sex marriage paper

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is a controversial law in the past as it is now in the present. I chose to write about this law because the concept of gay marriage is being liberally accepted today compared to its heavy intolerance in the past. Today, countless couples are trying to marry yet must face obstacles such as DOMA that hinders their freedom to marry. I, myself, is an advocate for same-sex marriage and learning more about DOMA lets me see what these same-sex couples go through. In this paper, I will discuss the origins of the DOMA, what it encompasses, what the effects are today and in the future, how DOMA affects me, and how DOMA affects Guam.
I. The Origins of the Defense of Marriage Act

The historical context of DOMA arose from a Hawaii Supreme Court Case, Baehr vs. Lewin (1993). Nina Baehr sued the state of Hawaii stating that the state’s refusal of giving her and her partner a marriage license was illegal discrimination and unconstitutional. The court saw that case had merit and ruled that the prohibition of same-sex marriage constituted to discrimination based on gender. Under Hawaii’s Equal Rights Amendment, the state would need to exhibit a compelling state interest in order to ban same-sex marriage. The case was remanded to a lower court, which declared that Hawaii must permit same-sex marriages because the state failed to exhibit that its ban on such marriages gathered a compelling state interest.
The ruling of Baehr vs. Lewin was a victory for gay rights activists, hope for other states searching for the same freedom, and disappointment for opponents of same-sex marriage. Yet this victory was short lived (until complete legalization in November 13, 2013) since the state appealed the lower court’s decis...

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...NSE OF MARRIAGE ACT. http://www.law.fsu.edu/ journals/lawreview/frames/252/kanofram.html (accessed November 12, 2013).

"Frequently Asked Questions: Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)." GLAAD: Leading the conversation for LGBT equality. http://www.glaad.org/marriage/doma (accessed November 10, 2013).

"Respect for Marriage Act." Human Rights Campaign. http://www.hrc.org/laws-and-legisla tion/federal-legislation/respect-for-marriage-act (accessed November 22, 2013).

"The Constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in the Wake of Romer v. Evans ." New England Law Boston. http://www.nesl.edu/userfiles/file/lawreview/vol32/1/robb. htm (accessed November 12, 2013).

Thompson, T. "Marriage Equality: Ramifications of the Supreme Court's DOMA Decision" SHRM Guam Chapter. http://guam.shrm.org/sites/guam.shrm.org/files/Todd% 20Thompson.pdf (accessed November 22, 2013)

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