Another Small Step Toward Equality In U.S.

Even though the Constitution guarantees all citizens of the United States equality under the law, that has never been a reality. The primary reason for this is that some people in the U.S. still think their religious book should trump the Constitution. But slowly, the country is making positive stapes toward that goal of equality.

One of the major battles currently being fought is to extend the same legal rights to same-sex couples that opposite-sex couples enjoy. A couple of weeks ago, New Jersey became the 14th state to recognize same-sex marriages as legal. And only a week ago, Illinois became the 15th state as its legislature passed a bill to recognize same-sex marriages. That bill is still awaiting the governor's signature, but he has said publicly that he will sign it (and same-sex marriages in that state will be legal next summer).

Now a 16th state has climbed on the equal rights bandwagon. On Tuesday, the legislature in Hawaii passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriages, and the governor signed it into law on Wednesday. The law will go into effect in a little over two weeks -- December 2nd. Here are the 16 states that have extended equality to include same-sex couples:

1. California
2. Connecticut
3. Delaware
4. Iowa
5. Maine
6. Maryland
7. Massachusetts
8. Minnesota
9. New Hampshire
10. New York
11. Rhode Island
12. Vermont
13. Washington
14. New Jersey
15. Illinois
16. Hawaii
and
District of Columbia

The tide is building and soon the entire country will grant true equality to same-sex couples. The only question now is how soon -- and which state will be next.

The chart below shows that, as usual, the Republican Party is out of step with the rest of America on this issue (as they are on many social issues). While only 37% of Independents and the general public, and 20% of Democrats, remain opposed to same-sex marriage, a substantial majority of Republicans (64%) remain opposed.

But the tide of history is against them, and it could easily hurt the party's future membership. Only 20% of the young remain opposed, and the other 80% are unlikely to join a party that remains opposed -- since this is a big issue with the young. As older party members die off, the party will shrink if it cannot moderate its views on this issue. Unfortunately for the GOP, the fundamentalists and the teabaggers control their party in most states, and those two groups have the highest percentage of opposition (while moderate Republicans show a percentage very similar to the general public and Independents).