California voters on Tuesday will consider a referendum that would ensure marriage remains an institution between a man and a woman. Vermont legislators, meanwhile, are debating whether to create a separate legal relationship for gays that is just like marriage but doesn't have the name. Few issues are as divisive as the push by gays and lesbians to have their personal relationships recognized. Churches are divided. Families are confronted with internal prejudices.
Politicians struggle with finding a middle ground.
Among the most religious Americans, opposition was 70 percent, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At the same time, the gay community has become more visible in American society. And gays and lesbians have become more vocal about having not just their individual rights recognized but their relationships legitimized. In 1996, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act to give states and the federal government cover if one state took the significant step of legitimizing same-sex unions. The national debate began in 1991 when three homosexual couples in Hawaii sued, charging the state with discriminating against them by denying them marriage licenses.