Abstract
The political terrain surrounding the legalization of same-sex marriage and the need to accommodate individuals' faith-based objections have been part of public discourse since the passage of initial marriage equality statutes. These exemptions played an essential element in the bills' passages and have mainly gone unquestioned from proponents of marriage equality. But for many of the supporters of these religious exemptions, they did not go far enough to protect business owners or government officials who objected on religious grounds. This chapter discusses the resulting tension between religious freedom and marriage equality.
TopThe Rise Of The Lgbtq Civil Rights Movement
The LGBTQ civil rights movement was in its embryonic stage in 1970 when two University of Minnesota gay rights activists applied for a marriage certificate in Minneapolis. After being denied the certification based on a Minnesota state law that defined marriage as between one man and one woman, the gay couple invoked the help of the Minnesota courts, arguing that the Minnesota law offended the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually dismissed the case “for want of a substantial federal question” (Baker v. Nelson, 1971).
Even though scholars and practitioners debate the extent of its precedential effect, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case was cited as grounds for denying same-sex couples the right to marry.
Following the Baker decision in 1971, states began codifying the traditional definition of marriage by enacting statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. Marriage equality gained additional salience as an alternative to traditional marriage in 1993 when Hawaii's supreme court suggested in Baehr v. Miike that the state's restriction of marriage to heterosexual couples might be unconstitutional.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Accommodation: A settlement or compromise.
Marriage Equality: The situation in which same-sex couples have the same legal right to marry as opposite-sex couples.
Secular: A concept wherein a state or country promotes itself to be officially neutral in matters of religion.
Sectarian: Belief in the idea that the sect to which one belongs is the right and proper one, and that others belonging to other sects, even if they're still of the same religious group, are completely wrong.
Free Exercise Clause: A clause in the First Amendment that prohibits government from interfering with individual religious practice.
Establishment Clause: A clause in the First Amendment that prevents government from establishing an official religion, preferring one religion over another, or promoting religion over nonreligion.
Religious Liberty: The right, especially as guaranteed under the free exercise clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, to practice one's religion or exercise one's beliefs without intervention by the government.