ment under the law. One of the results, probably a predictable result, has been a backlash on the part of many against the gay community, leading to incidents of gay-bashing as well as the passage of laws against the so-called gay lifestyle and against giving gay people civil rights as a group. The picture that much of America has of gays is based largely on media images from urban centers, but this ignores the fact that gay people are found throughout America, in every walk of life, and probably in every community, though they may not be open about it in many places. This also means that there are many gay couples who live together in committed relationships that for all intents and purposes would appear to be marriages if the couple consisted of one representative of each gender. This fact and appeals for justice for this particular type of domestic partnership has produced some results, for in 1993 the state supreme court of Hawaii opened the door to legal marriage by ruling that Hawaii's existing ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional unless the state can show that the prohibition is justified by a compelling state interest (Leo 19).
In part, the argument may be waged over the meaning of marriage and specifically over what those asking for the right for gays to marry mean by the term. It is clear they mean for some sort of legal recognition of the domestic arrangements of gay citizens so those citizens can enjoy certain legal benefits. This may be all that some are asking, while others are demanding a social acceptance as well. At present, there are huge legal hurdles to same-sex marriage, but there are social and religious barriers that are even greater. Homosexuality inspires ambivalence and confusion in much of the straight population. Attitudes toward gay rights have generally become more liberal over time, but still 70 percent of Americans oppose same-sex marriages, while only 53 percent oppose homosexual rel...