Recently, in November of 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the state's ban on homosexual marriage was unconstitutional. The justices, however, agreed on a six-month intermediate period for the legislature to amend the law. This flexibility gives the lawmakers time to propose a law that will give homosexual couples, who want their unions legalized, the same rights as heterosexual spouses. The state of Vermont faced the same issue some years before, and while they did not allow homosexuals to marry, Vermont legalized "civil unions" between homosexuals. However, Vermont and Massachusetts are the only states, which have declared this prohibition unconstitutional.

Most of the fifty states in the US have banned same-sex marriages. In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal benefits to same-sex couples. Furthermore, The Alliance for Marriage, a group concerned with the preservation of the institution, has drafted a federal...