How We Won Marriage Equality

Socialism 2017

August 15, 2017

In 1996, then-President Bill Clinton signed into law the reactionary “Defense of Marriage Act” legally defining marriage as being "between a man and a woman." In October 2009, 200,000 people poured into Washington, D.C., demanding the right for LGBT people to legally marry their partners. The culmination of the struggle, which had begun years before, came in 2015 with a Supreme Court Decision ruling that states cannot ban same-sex marriages. As the movement built momentum, some argued that it was wrong to fight for marriage equality because marriage is a reactionary institution. Others pointed out that the right to marry was not the same as defending marriage as an institution, and refusing to support it meant backing the discriminatory status quo. This panel will discuss the history and politics of this struggle and what lies ahead.

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