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As Rulings Are Announced, Cheers and Tears Among Waiting Crowd

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The global divide of same-sex marriage remains a controversial and convoluted topic across North America. The civil rights of human beings were put into question against the underlying discriminatory issue of homosexuality within the state in the New York Washington post article, “As Rulings Are Announced, Cheers and Tears Among Waiting Crowd”. Wednesday June 26th, 2013 at 10:00am marked the official ruling that the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as a union between man and woman, was unconstitutional. History was made as gay spouses were given the legal right to social security benefits such as, shared health cares plans without tax penalties and gay foreigners married to Americans were given access to…show more content…
Overall, DOMA’s downfall will result in the rise of same-sex marriages in the state.
It is no coincidence that the last word in the opening paragraph is ‘nation’: “For more than two weeks […]waiting to hear decisions from the justices about two cases affecting millions of gay men and lesbians across the nation” because it instantly questions America’s national identity (NY Times, 2013). Historically speaking, the U.S had the DOMA in effect because they classified that the institution of a marriage was between a man and a woman. America’s nationalism is tremendously difficult to alter because the belief in a national identity holds immense power over its civilians and it is especially hard when laws are written. Furthermore, homosexuality is a very complicated topic that emotionally affects people such as the social activists who invest their life protesting for rights and freedoms. Whether one is against or for same-sex marriage, it stirs a lot of passion or resentment because it draws in conflicting religious world-views. Furthermore, religion is mentioned when Joanne Joseph, a law student at Cornell studying religion freedom states “You only can sleep on the cement and witness history once” (NY Times, 2013). In a sense, the constitution had written laws based on the very nature of religious morals and practices because in past times, America was not considered very multi-cultural nor was homosexuality permitted but condemned. We observe how national identity has
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