Same-sex marriage legislation in the United States
The legislation on same-sex marriage in the United States is regulated by the level of individual states.
On the state level
In 1996, the U.S. Congress approved the Defense of Marriage Act ( DOMA ), which was signed by President Bill Clinton. The act defines the terms "marriage" and " spouse " and thus prohibits same-sex marriage at the state level. The reason for the ban was a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, which was discussed at the time in the Hawaiian Senate. It was feared that same-sex couples ( which was not granted ) in approving gay marriage would travel to Hawaii to get married there, and thus the federal government or the individual state would have to recognize these marriages. With the approval of the Defence of Marriage Act, same-sex couples who have been married in a state where same-sex marriage is recognized, not in another state that is not issuing these types of licenses, recognition of their marriage. Opponents of the Defence of Marriage Act have particularly out that by this law couples the example have married in Massachusetts, benefit from the 1,138 laws and grants that provide the United States heterosexual marriage partner.
The challenge of DOMA was decided by the Supreme Court in Washington on June 26, 2013 in favor of same-sex couples. In the future, married same-sex couples are equal at the federal level.
Since February 2014 get gay couples who go to a registrar's office, at the federal level in all the land more rights, including equal rights in personal bankruptcies in the widow's pension in incrimination rights in the federal courts or even with visitation rights in federal prisons.
On national levels
From the nineties the issue of " gay marriage " was a political issue. First of all states on the coast legalized unregistered partnerships, but also limited registered partnerships. By court order in Massachusetts the New England state was legalized for the first state in the United States, same-sex marriages. However, there were mainly states in the south and inside the United States, which decided by constitutional amendment bans marriage for same-sex couples.