Assignment 5

1) According to the article, what percent of Americans polled support gay marriage and why is this news?

45 percent (or 50 percent) of Americans supported gay marriage. This is news because in 1996 when congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, only 25 percent of Americans supported gay marriage. In 11 years the percentage of American that support gay marriage has doubled.
2) Click on the link to Proposition 8 in the NY Times article. What is Proposition 8? Also, briefly describe the history of Prop 8 over the past few years.

Proposition 8 according to the NY Times, "Proposition 8 was a 2008 California ballot measure that outlawed same-sex marriage.  After its passage, it continued to be one of the central battlefields in the fight over same-sex marriage in the United States." (NY Times).
People who did not support same-sex marriage fought for the rights to be taken away, finally they won, and then people who supported attempted to fight back. When the final Act was passed and same-sex marriage was banned, people of who supported same-sex marriage decided it would be best to wait it out instead of fighting back again.
3) Go to this website: Defense of Marriage Act Amendment
According to the this amendment, what is the definition of marriage in the U.S.?

"`In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word `marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word `spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.'" (The Library of Congress).
4) Okay, one last website from National Public Radio. Go to this link NPR state by state map of gay marriage

You can click on a state to see their stand on gay marriage, adoption of Defense of Marriage Act etc. Choose two states and compare their positions on gay marriage. Please don't all choose NJ!

The state of Louisiana passed a constitutional marriage amendment on September 18th, 2004. The state also has adopted a Defense of Marriage Act. Unlike the state of New Hampshire, on June 3rd, 2009 gov. John Lynch signed legislation legalizing gay marriage in New Hampshire. The law will take effect in January 2010, exactly two years after the state legalized civil unions. It includes language giving religious institutions the right to decline to marry same-sex couples. The state passed a Defense of Marriage Act in 2004. New Hampshire state lawmakers twice defeated proposals for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.