20世纪70年代美国同性婚姻权司法诉讼评述

An analysis of lawsuits for the right of same-sex marriage in the U.S.in the 1970s

2015年6月,美国联邦最高法院对"奥伯格费尔诉霍奇斯案"作出判决,裁定同性婚姻在美国全境合法化。该案争论的问题,即同性伴侣有无婚姻权,在40多年前的美国便已出现。早在20世纪70年代初,便有数起有关同性婚姻权利的司法诉讼,但最后均以同性伴侣的败诉告终,并促使一些州立法禁止同性婚姻。美国婚姻平权倡导者从这些早期的诉讼经历中汲取了两条重要的经验教训:其一,作为一项涉及社会变革的运动,婚姻平权运动若要取得成功,必须要有民意的支持;其二,联邦制赋予各州管理婚姻事务的权力,因此,婚姻平权运动更适宜于在州和地方层面先行展开。回顾这些早期的司法诉讼及其经验教训,有助于更为全面、深入地了解美国婚姻平权运动的发展历程。

The decision of Obergefell v.Hodges made by the U.S.Supreme Court in June,2015 legalizes same-sex marriage in the United States.The question at issue in this case,i.e.,whether same-sex couples have the right of marriage or not,appeared more than 40 years ago in the U.S.Ever since the early 1970 s,there have been several lawsuits for the right of same-sex marriage.However,the same-sex couples failed all these lawsuits.What's more,these lawsuits prompted some states to pass laws prohibiting same-sex marriage.The advocates of marriage equality learned two important lessons from this early legal experience:①As a movement involving social change,the marriage equality movement has to gain popular support in order to reach its goal;②Federalism grants states the authority to regulate marriage.Therefore,it is preferable for the marriage equality movement to be carried out at the state and local levels.Reviewing these early lawsuits and their lessons is helpful for a deep and comprehensive understanding of the development of marriage equality movement in the U.S.