Last Thursday, the Obama administration endorsed marriage equality and urged the Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage.
The obama’s administration argues Proposition 8 violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause to deny homosexual couples the right to marry, stating that the proposition fails the heightened scrutiny test.
California is one of eight states in the U.S. to provide gay couples with all the economic benefits of marriage through domestic partnership or civil unions, but doesn’t allow them the right to be married. The brief submitted by the Obama administration argued that same sex-couples have already received the rights of marriage in everything but the name and therefore should have the right of actual marriage.
Seven other states could be affected if President Barack Obama’s position is adopted by the court. According to the New York Times, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island have “similar all-but marriage frameworks,” which could result in legal gay marriage for those states as well. Though the brief does not directly ask the court to strike down the laws in the seven other states, the implication of the argument is obvious.
“I do believe that this could possibly be the tipping point for marriage equality, and after enough states have it legalized, it would become something to be discussed on a federal level,” San Diego State’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Student Union president Michael Manacop said.
“More and more people are coming out and becoming more comfortable with their sexual identities, and I think we will someday come to a point where these types of issues of inequalities cannot continue.”
The Obama administration is also asking the court to examine the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman for the purposes of federal laws and regulations. The ruling for the Defense of Marriage Act will help determine if the federal government is able to discriminate against same-sex couples who married in a state that allows homosexual marriage. Currently there are nine other states as well as the District of Columbia that allow same-sex marriage.
Obama has not always supported gay marriage the way he does now. When he first ran for presidency in 2008, he opposed Proposition 8, but didn’t directly say he supported gay marriage. In Obama’s 2012 campaign, he endorsed gay marriage, but stated that the federal government would stay out of the issue. But, by the time of his inaugural address, Obama presented the issue of gay marriage as a simple factor of equality.
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” Obama said.
Obama’s stance on gay marriage reflects the shift of public opinion regarding marriage that has occurred within the past few years. According to Gallup, in May 2008, 56 percent of Americans thought same-sex marriages shouldn’t be recognized legally. However, by the election last November, 53 percent felt that gay marriage should be valid.
Obama’s brief could change the way future presidents look at the issue of marriage equality, as it is the first time a U.S. president has asked a high court to expand the right of gay and lesbians to wed.
Manacop hopes the support of gay marriage will become a trend among future presidents.
“I think it would be very disappointing to see a future president be unsupportive to the LGBT community,” Manacop said. “I would like to hope that we could continually progress as a nation until someday it will not even be an issue anymore.”
The Supreme Court will hear the case regarding Proposition 8 on March 26, and the case on the Defense of Marriage Act on March 27.
Manacop’s opinions do not reflect the opinions of all the members of the LGBT Student Union.
