admin
Proposition 8.
The decision paves the way for gay unions there.
Opinion polls show that most Americans support gay marriage. Yesterday’s decisions do not affect the bans on same-sex marriage enshrined in the constitutions of more than 30 US states.
Twelve US states and the District of Columbia currently recognise gay marriage.
The Doma decision means that legally married gay men and women are entitled to claim the same federal benefits available to opposite-sex married couples.
Yesterday morning, crowds gathered outside the Supreme Court hours before the rulings were due, in the hope of getting a seat inside the courtroom.
US President Barack Obama yesterday hailed the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a law defining marriage as between a man and a woman — a major victory for gay couples.
“I applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Defence of Marriage Act,” Obama said shortly after the announcement of the 5-4 decision ending the 1996 law.
“This was discrimination enshrined in law. It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people.
“The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it.
“We are a people who declared that we are all created equal — and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.”
Last year, Obama became the first sitting president to publicly endorse same-sex marriage. — bbc.co.uk/AFP.
Online Reporter