Politicized Gender and Politicized Religion : Same-Sex Marriage in the Discourse of 21st Century American Politics

Politicized Gender and Politicized Religion : Same-Sex Marriage in the Discourse of 21st Century American Politics

&nbsp;&nbsp;Along with the abortion issue, gay marriage became the focus of the 2004 presidential election. Since the Clinton administration enacted the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), there already existed some signs of politicization of this issue, but a recent series of attempts by some states to legalize the rights for same-sex couples heated the debate. For example, under the name of civil union, Vermont officially gave same-sex couples the same kinds of benefits of marriage. In 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Court decided to order the state to apply the rights to marriage of same-sex couples within 180 days without finding any persuading reasons to prevent it. California also gave some rights to same-sex couples as a partnership.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;These recent trends among the liberal states raised a national debate. Many interest groups reacted to these developments. Many gay-groups welcomed these changes, on the other hand, conservative religious and family value groups were against them and began to move actively by mobilizing many people and money. Federal congressmen also chose to not ignore the situation. Even if only one state legalized various rights of a same-sex marriage, the license would be effective in the other states. Although DOMA allows each state to ignore the license of same-sex marriage issued outside the state, the possibility still remained that the courts might overturn the stipulation of DOMA. So some conservatives in Congress attempted to amend the Constitution to define marriage as a union between men and women only. Their intent was to prevent a few judges from deciding the course of this issue. Rather they wanted the issue to be decided by elected officials.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Using legal rulings such as the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision and the state code of Vermont, state and federal reactions, the results of the election and referendums, the opinions of various church and interest groups, polls, academic arguments, and the mass media, I intend to critically analyze the discourse of this issue.