The 2004 Congressional Budget Office study, which assumed “that about 0.6 percent of adults would enter into same-sex marriage if given the opportunity” (an assumption in which they admitted “significant uncertainty”), estimated that legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States “would slightly improve the household`s bottom line: by less than $1 billion in each of the next 10 years. This result reflects an increase in net government revenues (higher income taxes due to marriage-related penalties more than offset lower tax revenues due to deferred estate taxes). Marriage recognition would increase government spending on Social Security and health benefits for federal employees, but that increase would be more than offset by lower spending on Medicaid, Medicare and Supplemental Security Income. [145] Beginning in 1998, the Belgian Parliament granted same-sex couples limited rights through registered partnerships. Same-sex couples could register with a city clerk and formally assume joint responsibility for a household. Five years later, in January 2003, the Belgian parliament legalized same-sex marriage, giving gay and lesbian couples the same tax and inheritance rights as heterosexual couples. While recent polls show that a majority of French adults support the law, opposition to the change has been intense. Since the beginning of 2013, several demonstrations against same-sex marriage have taken place in Paris and elsewhere, with sometimes unstable crowds of hundreds of thousands of people. Same-sex marriage is celebrated throughout the country with Obergefell v. Hodges Same-sex couples in Canada enjoyed most of the legal benefits of marriage in 1999, when the federal and provincial governments extended marriages to gay and lesbian couples under common law. Through a series of court cases that began in 2003, same-sex marriage has gradually become legal in nine of the country`s 13 provinces and territories. In 2005, the Canadian Parliament passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. In 2006, lawmakers thwarted an attempt by Canada`s ruling Conservative Party to reconsider the issue, leaving the law unchanged.
In June 2012, the Danish legislator passed a law legalizing same-sex marriage. The measure came into effect a few days later when Queen Margrethe II gave her royal assent to the law. The premiere of the 22nd season of PBS`s animated series Arthur featured teacher Mr. Ratburn`s marriage to his male partner. [166] Alabama Public Television refused to air the episode. [167] On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all prohibitions on same-sex marriage, legalized it in all fifty states, and required states to recognize licenses for same-sex marriage outside the state in Obergefell v. Hodges. One study surveyed more than 1,500 lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults across the country and found that respondents in the 25 states that have banned same-sex marriage had the highest ratios of “minority stress” — the chronic social stress that results from stigmatizing minority groups — as well as general psychological distress. According to the study, the negative campaign associated with a ban is directly responsible for the increase in stress.
Previous research has shown that minority stress is associated with health risks such as risky sexual behaviors and substance abuse. [157] Proponents of same-sex marriage have successfully used social media sites like Facebook to achieve their goals. [95] Some have argued that the successful use of social media by LGBT rights organizations played a key role in defeating religious opposition. [96] Some of these states` same-sex marriage bans were part of a national movement in response to President George W. Bush`s call for a constitutional amendment banning the practice. Human rights observers note a strong correlation between LGBTQ+ rights and democratic societies; The research and advocacy group Freedom House lists nearly every country where marriage equality — when same-sex couples have the same right to marry as opposite-sex couples — as “free.” “Wherever you see restrictions on individuals — in terms of speech, expression, or freedom of assembly — you see a crackdown on LGBT rights,” says Julie Dorf, senior advisor to the Council for Global Equality, a Washington-based group that promotes LGBTQ+ rights in U.S. foreign policy. “It`s the canary in the coal mine,” she says. Just years after President Obama declared DOMA unconstitutional and ordered the Justice Department to stop defending it in court, the Supreme Court promoted marriage equality through landmark decisions in 2013.
Hollingsworth v. Perry concluded that Provo. 8 had no legal authority, while United States v. Windsor declared DOMA unconstitutional – paving the way for full equality. Northern Ireland was the last part of the UK to ban same-sex marriage; England and Wales allowed gay and lesbian couples to marry in 2013 and Scotland followed suit in 2014 (see below). Finland is the latest of the five Nordic countries to legalise same-sex marriage, alongside Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. In 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex couples to adopt children, according to the Boston Globe — but the journey to national adoption equality was far from over. In April 2009, the Swedish parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. In Sweden, same-sex couples have been able to register for registered partnerships since 1995.
One of the biggest uses of social media to mobilize support for same-sex marriage preceded and coincided with its arrival in the United States. High Public Profile Supreme Court of Legal Affairs for Proposition 8 and DOMA in March 2013. Launched by the Human Rights Campaign, the Red Equal Sign Project was a Facebook-based email campaign that encouraged users to change their profile pictures to an equal red sign to express their support for same-sex marriage. [97] At the time of the hearings, approximately 2.5 million Facebook users changed their profile picture to an equal red sign. [98] Same-sex couples face the same financial constraints as opposite-sex couples when it comes to legal marriage, including the tax penalty associated with marriage. [145] Although social service providers do not normally count one partner`s assets under the income needs test for social assistance and disability assistance for the other partner, the joint assets of a legally married couple are normally used to calculate whether a married person is eligible for assistance. [145] Until the June 2013 Supreme Court decision in United States v.