Same-Sex Marriage and the Constitution. By Evan Gerstmann.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 236p. $60.00 cloth, $22.00
paper.
One hundred and twenty years ago, the Congress of the United States
was embroiled in a debate over how best to regulate a type of marriage
that appalled most Americans. Republicans were making political capital
out of their vigorous and vitriolic attacks against the idea of such
marriages, while Democrats were looking for a way to finesse the issue
to maintain the political support of the unpopular minority believing
in such marriages without offending the majority. Laws were introduced
and passed prohibiting these marriages. Fearing that a law would be
insufficient, however, a constitutional amendment was proposed to ban
such marriages. The Supreme Court upheld the right of states to
criminalize such marriages, though it was never asked to rule on the
right of a state to recognize such marriages. Persons wishing to enter
such marriages were advised to go to a neighboring country that would
recognize the legitimacy of their unions. In the 1880s, the issue was
polygamy, the unpopular minority Mormons, and the neighboring country
Mexico (see Edward L. Lyman, Political Deliverance, 1986).
Today same-sex marriages between gays or lesbians, some marrying in
Canada, are causing as much turmoil in Congress as the issue of
polygamy did then.
