ABSTRACT
By the late 1990s, same-sex marriage had emerged as the dominant “gay rights” issue in national politics in the U.S. and Canada. State courts in the U.S. set the policy agenda by fi nding in favor of same-sex couples in a series of decisions beginning in Hawai’i in 1993. By 2005 when Canada legalized same-sex civil marriage, American policy outcomes were much more diverse, with marriage available in Massachusetts, civil union available in Vermont (and pending in other states), and domestic partnerships recognized in Hawai’i and other states. Same-sex marriage had been rendered unconstitutional in some state constitutions, banned by statute in other states, and its recognition in federal law had been prohibited through the passage of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (1996), which had also explicitly recognized the right of the states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. While Canada legalized same-sex marriage, the U.S. Congress tabled a constitutional amendment to ban it, an amendment supported by President George W. Bush. These divergences show the long-term impact of policy legacies on the defi nition of this public policy issue in the two contexts, the ongoing impact of institutional differences in shaping policy discourse, political struggles and policy outcomes, and the contrasting dynamics of partisan confl ict.
