Editing Defense of Marriage Act (section)

==Background==
{{main|Same-sex marriage in the United States}}

The issue of legal recognition of same-sex marriage attracted mainstream attention infrequently until the 1980s. A sympathetic reporter heard several [[gay]] men raise the issue in 1967 and described it as "high among the deviate's hopes".<ref>{{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/11/12/83645750.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012225016/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/11/12/83645750.pdf |archive-date=2019-10-12 |url-status=live |first=Webster |last=Schott |title=Civil Rights and the Homosexual: A 4-Million Minority Asks for Equal Rights |date=November 12, 1967 |access-date=March 28, 2012}}</ref> In one early incident, gay activist [[Jack Baker (activist)|Jack Baker]] brought suit against the state of Minnesota in 1970 after being denied a marriage license to marry another man; the [[Minnesota Supreme Court]] ruled (in ''[[Baker v. Nelson]]'') that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples did not violate the Constitution. Baker later changed his legal name to Pat Lynn McConnell and married his male partner in 1971, but the marriage was not legally recognized.<ref>{{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/01/07/119453382.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012225019/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/01/07/119453382.pdf |archive-date=2019-10-12 |url-status=live |title=Homosexual Wins Fight to Take Bar Examination in Minnesota |date=January 7, 1973 |access-date=February 6, 2012}}</ref><ref name=mw1>{{cite web |work=Metro Weekly |url=http://www.metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=6213 |first=Chris |last=Geidner |title=Domestic Disturbance |date=May 4, 2011 |access-date=February 10, 2012}}</ref> A 1972 off-Broadway play, ''Nightride'', depicted "a black–white homosexual marriage".<ref>{{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1972/01/23/91318536.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012225017/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1972/01/23/91318536.pdf |archive-date=2019-10-12 |url-status=live |last=Barton |first=Lee (pseudonym) |title=Why Do Homosexual Playwrights Hide their Homosexuality? |date=January 23, 1973 |access-date=February 7, 2012}}</ref><ref group=n>For a review of the play see {{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1971/12/10/90705873.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012225015/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1971/12/10/90705873.pdf |archive-date=2019-10-12 |url-status=live |first=Clive |last=Barnes |title='Nightride'–No Apologies and No Regrets |date=December 10, 1971 |access-date=February 7, 2012}}</ref> In 1979, [[IntegrityUSA]], an organization of gay Episcopalians, raised the issue when the U.S. Episcopal Church considered a ban on the ordination of homosexuals as priests.<ref>{{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1979/09/17/120959164.pdf |first=Nathaniel |last=Sheppard |title=Panel bids Episcopalians Bar Homosexual priests |date=September 17, 1979 |access-date=February 7, 2012}}</ref><ref group=n>For the theological background beginning in 1967, see {{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/12/03/84992192.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012225015/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/12/03/84992192.pdf |archive-date=2019-10-12 |url-status=live |first=Edward B. |last=Fiske |title=Views on Homosexuals |date=December 3, 1967 |access-date=February 7, 2012}}</ref>

''[[The New York Times]]'' said the question was "all but dormant" until the late 1980s when, according to gay activists, "the AIDS epidemic...&nbsp;brought questions of inheritance and death benefits to many people's minds."<ref name=gutis>{{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/05/weekinreview/ideas-trends-small-steps-toward-acceptance-renew-debate-on-gay-marriage.html |first=Philip S. |last=Gutis |title=Small Steps Toward Acceptance Renew Debate on Gay Marriage |date=November 5, 1989 |access-date=February 6, 2012}}</ref> In May 1989, Denmark established registered partnerships that granted same-sex couples many of the rights associated with marriage.<ref name=gutis /> In the same year, New York's highest court ruled that two homosexual men qualified as a family for the purposes of New York City's rent-control regulations.<ref name=gutis /> Within the movement for gay and lesbian rights, a debate between advocates of sexual liberation and of social integration was taking shape, with [[Andrew Sullivan]] publishing an essay "Here Comes the Groom" in ''[[The New Republic]]'' in August 1989 arguing for same-sex marriage: "A need to rebel has quietly ceded to a desire to belong."<ref name=mw1 />  In September 1989, the [[State Bar of California|State Bar Association of California]] urged recognition of marriages between homosexuals even before gay rights advocates adopted the issue.<ref name=gutis />

[[Gary Bauer]], head of the [[social conservatism in the United States|socially conservative]] [[Family Research Council]], predicted in 1989 that the issue would be "a major battleground in the 1990s".<ref name=gutis /> In 1991, Georgia Attorney General [[Mike Bowers|Michael J. Bowers]] (who had previously been the defendant in a [[Bowers v. Hardwick|failed Supreme Court challenge to a law that criminalized homosexuality]]) withdrew a job offer to a lesbian who planned to marry another woman in a Jewish wedding ceremony.<ref>{{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/06/us/georgia-denies-gay-lawyer-a-job.html |title=Georgia Denies Gay Lawyer a Job |date=October 6, 1991 |access-date=February 7, 2012}}</ref> In 1993, a committee of the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]] released a report asking Lutherans to consider blessing same-sex marriages and stating that lifelong abstinence was harmful to same-sex couples. The Conference of Bishops responded, "There is basis neither in Scripture nor tradition for the establishment of an official ceremony by this church for the blessing of a homosexual relationship."<ref>{{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/21/us/lutherans-asked-to-decide-on-blessing-of-gay-unions.html |first=Tamar |last=Lewin |title=Lutherans Asked to Decide On Blessing of Gay Unions |date=October 21, 1993 |access-date=February 7, 2012}}</ref> In a critique of radicalism in the gay liberation movement, [[Bruce Bawer]]'s ''A Place at the Table'' (1993) advocated the legalization of same-sex marriage.<ref>{{cite news |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/11/books/books-of-the-times-a-strong-gay-dissent-on-public-spectacles.html |first=Christopher |last=Lehmann-Haupt |title=A Strong Gay Dissent On Public Spectacles |date=November 11, 1993 |access-date=February 7, 2012}}</ref> 

In ''[[Baehr v. Miike]]'' (1993), the [[Supreme Court of Hawaii]] ruled that preventing same-sex couples from obtaining marriage licenses was sex discrimination. Thus, the court found that the Hawaii State Constitution required the state to demonstrate that its opposite-sex marriage definition satisfied the legal standard known as strict scrutiny.<ref>Ken I. Kersch. "Full Faith and Credit for Same-Sex Marriages?" Political Science Quarterly, Volume 112, Issue 1, Spring 1997, Pages 117–136, https://doi.org/10.2307/2658165</ref> This ruling prompted concern among opponents of same-sex marriage, who feared that same-sex marriage might become legal in Hawaii and that other states would recognize or be compelled to recognize those marriages under the [[Full Faith and Credit Clause]] of the [[United States Constitution]]. The [[House Judiciary Committee]]'s 1996 Report called for DOMA as a response to ''Baehr'', because "a redefinition of marriage in Hawaii to include homosexual couples could make such couples eligible for a whole range of federal rights and benefits".<ref>{{cite web |author=United States House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary |url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-104hrpt664/pdf/CRPT-104hrpt664.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090601050914/http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CRPT-104hrpt664/pdf/CRPT-104hrpt664.pdf |archive-date=2009-06-01 |url-status=live |title=Report 104-664: Defense of Marriage Act |date=July 9, 1996 |pages=4–11 |access-date=August 15, 2013}}</ref>