Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law Volume 20 | Issue 2 Article 12 3-1-2006 Same-Sex Marriage: When Will It Reach Utah? Robert Wintemute Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/jpl Part of the Family Law Commons, and the Sexuality and the Law Commons Recommended Citation Robert Wintemute, Same-Sex Marriage: When Will It Reach Utah?, 20 BYU J. Pub. L. 527 (2006). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/jpl/vol20/iss2/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by BYU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Brigham Young University Journal of Public Law by an authorized editor of BYU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Same-Sex Marriage: When Will It Reach Utah? Robert Wintemute∗ Attempts to amend constitutions so as to make legal1 marriage impossible for same-sex couples are futile. Amendments of this kind are nothing more than temporary “legal dikes” designed to create “legal islands” in which a heterosexual majority can continue to discriminate against a lesbian and gay minority in relation to access to legal marriage. These amendments seek to strip the gay and lesbian minority of any possibility of seeking protection against such discrimination from either the legislature or the courts. Where such amendments have been adopted, they will eventually be repealed or invalidated, because the “incoming tide,” i.e., the long-term international trend, will eventually bring full legal equality to our fellow human beings who happen to be lesbian and gay individuals, or members of same-sex couples, with or without children.