Last year was both a sobering and progressive year for civil rights activists striving to advance the legalization of same-sex marriages across the United States, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA Law School.
Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community came together with legal and academic experts Friday to attend the institute’s sixth annual update on sexual orientation law and policy.
Panelists reviewed current policies in Europe regarding same-sex marriages and discussed the United States’ present stance on this issue.
Despite what they called setbacks in 2006, including the Supreme Court’s ruling that marriage is not a fundamental right for same-sex couples, panelists said legislation on the issue has come a long way in the past few years.
The Family Code Section 300 states, “Marriage is a personal relation arising out of a civil contract between a man and a woman.” But in 2005, California legalized domestic partnerships, allowing same-sex couples to enjoy most of the state law benefits given to heterosexual couples, said Ted Trimpa, a public policy lawyer for Brownstein Hyatt & Farber.
Despite such changes to the legislature, Jennifer Pizer, senior counsel for Lambda Legal, summarized the past few years’ litigations as having their “ups and downs,” with successes in 2004 and 2005 and some setbacks in 2006.
The California Court of Appeal declined in 2006 to allow same-sex couples to marry, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the first same-sex marriage bill enacted by California legislature in 2005.
Massachusetts is the only state that allows same-sex marriages, but New Jersey, Connecticut and Vermont allow same-sex civil unions.
“This was a great achievement,” said panelist Evan Wolfson, executive director for Freedom to Marry, a gay and non-gay partnership working to achieve marriage equality nationwide. “Six years ago civil unions didn’t even exist. We created the term when it never existed, when it was unattainable. Winning the freedom of same-sex marriage is imminently within our reach if we do the reaching.”
Panelists said they are optimistic that the United States can follow in the footsteps of Europe, which they believe has made significant advances towards marriage equality.
Following the example of the Netherlands, which in 2001 became the first country in the world to pass a law to open up marriage to same-sex couples, several other European countries have taken significant steps towards legalizing gay marriage, Wolfson said.
He said he believes Sweden will legalize same-sex marriages within the next couple of years and other countries may follow.
“The Irish Parliament just voted down a civil-union bill, but it’s coming back; the Italian government will continue to push a civil-union bill; and Colombia now has civil unions,” he said.
Wolfson predicted the majority of European nations will legalize same-sex marriages in about 10 to 15 years.
“If South Africa can do it, if Europe can do it, so can we. So let’s do it,” Wolfson said.
Students at the conference said the discussion was valuable because it clarified the current status of LGBT rights.
“I’m interested in learning more about marginalized communities and what issues the LGBT community is talking about,” said Pamela Nakagawa, a law student. “I think these conferences are very important, because they bring together people from different communities.”
Galen Roth, a first-year English student, said she valued the information the conference provided for her.
“I think LGBT and non-LGBT students alike should learn about these issues because they are increasingly moving to the forefront of public discourse,” Roth said. “People should be informed of the facts behind marriage rights. It would awaken people to the fact that gay marriage is not as uncommon globally as they may think.”