Same Sex Marriage
...In the United States, same sex couples have fought to achieve legal acknowledgment for their unification since 1970. Lesbian and Gay couples have applied for adoption of children, adoption privileges, marriage licenses and spousal immigration rights, but had minimal success getting legal acknowledgment of same sex unions (NOLO Law for All 2003).
In 1971, a trial argument between a gay male couple and the state of Minnesota stated that “the absence of sex-specific language in the Minnesota statute was evidence of the legislature’s intent to authorize same-sex marriages" (Baker v. Nelson, 1971). Since then many gay and lesbian couples have attempted to get same sex marriages legalized in the United States, Jones v. Hallahan (Kentucky, 1973) Singer v. Hara (Washington, 1974), De Santo v. Bamsley (Pennsylvania, 1984), Matter of Estate of Cooper (New York, 1990), Goodridge v. Department of Public Health (Massachusetts, 2003).
Currently, America has a small list of states that reconsider same sex unions Vermont, Hawaii, New Jersey, California and Massachusetts. Vermont is the only state the civil unions aloud gay and lesbian couples to benefit from their union such as rights under the family laws, rights to sue for wrongful death loss of consortium, under any other tort or law concerning spousal relationships, medical rights, family leave benefits, joint state tax filing, and property inheritance when one partner dies without a will (Margaret Saffell Frankell 2008).
In Hawaii, any two people can sign up for the Reciprocal Beneficiaries. The Reciprocal beneficiaries laws aloud gay and lesbian couples who sign up to have some of the rights and benefits ranted by the state to married couples. In New Jersey and California the union between same sex couples is call Domestic Partnerships. Domestic Partnerships laws allow couples insurance...
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