troducing same-sex marriages in the legislature. Despite this development, many states passed laws anyway against same-sex marriages, but when they did, Americans continued to keep an open mind about the issue. The younger groups were more receptive than their older counterparts. A handful of churches began to conduct same sex ceremonies and then by a stroke of luck, the legal system started to exhibit more tolerance [4, p. 113]. State of Vermont, for example, ordered legal parity for gay and straight unions; the response was the growth of «civil unions» for gay people. Some countries in Europe have done the same, and in 2001 the Netherlands adopted a gay marriage law.sex marriage in the United States is still not recognized by the federal government, but such marriages are recognized by several individual states. The lack of federal recognition was codified in 1996 by the Defense of Marriage Act, before Massachusetts became the first state to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004. Such licenses are granted by six states: Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire , New York, and Vermont, plus Washington, DC and Oregon «s Coquille and Washington state» s Suquamish Indian tribes. The states of Washington and Maryland have passed laws in 2012 to begin granting same-sex marriage licenses, but each may be delayed or derailed by November 2012 voter referenda [11, p. 212]. Sex marriages could be legally performed in California between June 16, 2008, and November 4, 2008, after which voters passed Proposition 8 prohibiting same-sex marriages. California also recognizes any same-sex marriage from around the world that took place before that end date, while Maryland and Rhode Island recognize all same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. The legalization of same-sex marriage has been achieved by court rulings and legislative action, but not through voter referendums. As of May 2012, with the passing of North Carolina «s gay marriage ban, 12 states prohibit same-sex marriage via statute and 30 via the state» s constitution [3, p. 48]. Sex marriage hasn «t been legal long enough to establish reliable statistics, and many statistics don» t separate gay or lesbian marriage from general marriage rates. Marriage rates have been dropping world wide since 1990. In America, the marriage rate dropped from 232,900 in 2000 to 217,800 in 2004.sex marriage, having been illegal for so long, takes a sharp rise wherever it is introduced. When San Francisco legalized same-sex marriage, 4,037 marriage licenses were issued and 3,995 gay couples were married in the several months before the state intervened and voided the marriages. In a review of the names of couples it was found 57% of the couples were lesbian. Demographic information also showed most of the couples were older and better educated than average newlywed couples, with more than 74% over 35 years old and 69% holding a college degree.the first six months after gay marriage was legalized in the Netherlands, same-sex marriages made up 3.6% of the total number of marriages. The numbers have steadily dropped since then to around 3%, with 2,500 couples marrying in 2001, 1,800 in 2002, 1,200 in 2004, and 1,100 in 2005.the 2010 census it was found that there were 835,146 committed same-sex couples in America. 2011 President Barack Obama defended his view that gay couples should have the right to marry, saying that the country has never gone wrong when it «expanded ri...
