Same-Sex Marriage

Bloggers and social media balanced their attention last week among a wide array of subjects that differed dramatically from top stories in the mainstream media.

Overview Washington’s policy agenda has been dominated by the economy and financial crisis during President Obama’s first two months in office. Yet a number of other policy proposals are currently being considered or may emerge in the future. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March […]

Members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, two mainline Protestant denominations, are considering whether to allow the ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians as members of their clergy. The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, finds that majorities of […]

On Nov. 18, 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage following a ruling by the state’s highest court. In the five years since the Massachusetts decision, 26 states have amended their constitutions to ban gay marriage. Before the Massachusetts ruling, only three states had passed constitutional amendments prohibiting the practice – Alaska […]

To explore arguments for and against gay marriage, Senior Research Fellow David Masci interviewed Jonathan Rauch of The National Journal and Rick Santorum of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. The Q&A’s were done as part of the Pew Forum’s special report on gay marriage. Jonathan Rauch: The Case For Same-Sex Marriage “America’s problem is […]

The debate over same-sex marriage in the United States is a contentious one, and advocates on both sides continue to work hard to make their voices heard. To explore the case against gay marriage, the Pew Forum has turned to Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and now a senior fellow at the […]

The debate over same-sex marriage in the United States is a contentious one, and advocates on both sides continue to work hard to make their voices heard. To explore the case for gay marriage, the Pew Forum has turned to Jonathan Rauch, a columnist at The National Journal and guest scholar at The Brookings Institution. […]

The controversy ignited by the Massachusetts High Court ruling allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry continues to rage in state courts and legislatures as well as in churches across the nation.

Updated Nov. 21, 2008 In this article: The Debate Begins The Goodridge Case and Its Aftermath The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ignited a nationwide debate in late 2003 when it ruled that the state must allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. Almost overnight, same-sex marriage became a major national issue, pitting religious and social […]

The combination of widespread religious commitment and leadership in science and technology greatly enlarges the potential for conflict between faith and science in the U.S.