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Overview

It is often said that one man can change the course of history. Presidents like Washington, Lincoln and the two Roosevelts have undoubtedly put their mark on American history – but they weren’t alone in achieving greatness. They needed help from others to do so. The founding fathers were a group of people who made significant changes that led to the creation of America, which was a powerful nation at its time. Since then it has been civil activists who have pushed for change in America as well.”

This is a list of key points about gay marriage, gun control in Florida, and Abu Ghraib prison.

Big Idea #1: A dispute over child custody led gay rights activists to win the right to marry in the state of Vermont.

The civil rights activists were happy when gay marriage became legal in the United States, but this was not a quick process. It took years of hard work and determination to get there. The first step was made by Vermont back in 2000.

Gay marriage in Vermont began as a child custody case.

Susan Bellemare and Susan Hamilton were parents to Collin, who was fifteen months old. But tragedy struck when Hamilton died in a car accident.

In the event of Hamilton’s death, Bellemare was to raise Collin. However, Hamilton had written a will stating that her partner should continue to raise their child in the event of her death. Had she not done this, Bellemare would have lost custody of Collin. This case made it clear that gay partners had very few rights and prompted activists to campaign for change. These activists were motivated by three couples who sued Vermont for refusing them marriage licenses because they were gay. They defied negative stereotypes about gay people and proved themselves worthy as respectable citizens with steady jobs and caring relationships. Two of these couples even raised children together!

It took years of lobbying and court battles to get the Supreme Court of Vermont to recognize civil unions between same-sex couples as equal to any other union.

The gay marriage movement, however, did not stop there. Activists continued to lobby for the cause and in 2009 Vermont legalized same-sex marriage by a narrow margin.

Big Idea #2: California’s battle for gay marriage led to fierce activism, and wins and losses on both sides of the debate.

Although Vermont is the first state to legalize gay marriage, California was also an early leader in this movement. The debate over gay marriage began in 2004 when San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples even though they weren’t legally recognized. Years of activism followed until California finally legalized gay marriages in 2008. This victory didn’t last long, however, because a conservative group gathered signatures for an amendment that limited marriage to unions between a man and woman.

After many signatures were collected, the proposition was put to vote in California. It was highly disputed and each side spent $40 million campaigning for it.

A particular television ad changed people’s opinions in favor of conservatives: It showed a young girl saying that she can grow up to marry a woman.

Some voters were upset by the ads that said gay marriage would influence children’s values. As a result, Proposition 8 passed with 52 percent of the vote.

However, the Supreme Court decided that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional because it would take away rights from gay couples.

Eventually, the issue of gay marriage reached the US Supreme Court. However, there was no state representative willing to defend Proposition 8. Even Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown refused to continue defending it. Therefore, since the California Court of Appeals ruled in favor of gay marriage, Proposition 8 was annulled and gay marriage became legal in California.