Civil Right Gay Marriage: A Thesis

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But in 1973, the American Psychological Association announced that they would be removing homosexuality from the list of recognized mental illnesses, as growing numbers of researchers and doctors realized that it represented fairly normal sexual behavior (Head par. 17).

A quick bit of simple arithmetic can tell you that it still took thirty years after the medical community determined that homosexuality was not dangerous or especially abnormal for the law to catch up. And in many instances, there still aren't laws protecting gays. All that the Supreme Court ruling did was ban laws that banned homosexual behavior; they cannot make laws to protect gay rights.

This has been the major issue plaguing the civil rights of homosexuals. Until the legislative branch of the government becomes involved in mandating that certain rights are protected, nothing that the judicial branch does will ever really be secure. This was shown most recently in California, in a case before the voters of that state that caught national attention. Some time before the general election last November, the state supreme court in California had ruled that same-sex couples' civil rights were being violated by not being allowed to be married.

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This effectively created a loophole in the marriage laws that allowed same-sex couples all the rights and privileges of heterosexual married couples, without actually establishing any laws that protected these rights. Many accused the court of being too activist, and of using their judicial powers to circumvent the legislative process, and this argument ahs some merit.

The legislative process kicked in quite quickly, however, and on election day a proposed amendment to California's constitution redefined marriage as a partnership exclusively between a man and a woman, thereby rendering the court's decision moot. Because the state constitution is the highest body of law in the land, no court can say that any portion of it is against the law. The system of checks and balances between the branches of government is quite effective at barring one branch from moving ahead without the others, and that is exactly what has occurred here. Until the legislative branches of the state and federal governments align themselves on the same side of the issue, civil rights for homosexuals will continue to remain in question. History suggests that eventually equality will exist, but for now we just have to wait......

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