There are still laws making it illegal to have gay sex on the books in parts of the US, they just aren't usually being enforced. They could start enforcing them any time they want. They're not constitutional, but that hasn't stopped states from doing lots of other unconstitutional things while people sued to block them. Once those suits go to the supreme court, the modern set of judges might validate those laws.
In some cases these laws also criminalize some forms of heterosexual intercourse, as a fun little example of how discriminatory laws targeting the minority can often be repurposed to punish members of the majority who step out of line.
Homosexual sex was illegal in some states as recently as 2003. Consodering the transformation in the USA since then, I don't think it's premature to start campaigning for marriage rights.
Every state, prior to the second half of the 20th century had sodomy laws - which made being in a homosexual relationship a felony, at best, and a death sentence, at worst.
Interracial marriage was illegal in much of the US until just 45 years ago. The Stonewall Riots were the same year we landed on the moon. Romer v. Evans wasn't until 1996, and Lawrence v. Texas is just eight years old. You have a poor sense of history and the passage of time if you do not recognize the staggering speed with which the world can and has changed.
"All the way between 1776 and 2015 it was illegal..."
The legality of SSM was decided by individual states. While not 'sanctified' (up to religions ... for those who cared) or 'state-certified' (for those who cared), millions of same-sex relationships existed during those two centuries. Most of them un-persecuted.
I don't see any prohibition in my reading of the Constitution, which I'm pretty sure was designed to protect individual liberties from the powers of the State. Of course, there have always been so-called 'citizens' fond of their own liberty to deprive others of theirs.
Gay people won their culture war in some places. Gay marriage is still illegal in most countries. In many countries even homosexuality itself is illegal.
How so? That's generally how these things have progressed in most countries I'm aware of. First you make the simple fact of being homosexual not be illegal. Same-sex marriage often comes much later.
Pretty sure they have been illegal for way longer than 20 years, for example the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) of 1978 and discriminating based on sexual orientation has been illegal since 1992, at least in California.
The big political fights we are seeing in USA are not local reality. It is like me being in Sweden saying that we aren't progressive enough since Poland has a lot of conservative views, and that therefore we need to add even more protections for women and minorities in Sweden until they are properly accepted in Poland. If someone told me that I have to be engaged in their rights in Poland or I am a misogynist and homophobic then I'd just sigh and ignore them.
Sexual Orientation, unfortunately, does not have explicit federal protections from all forms of discrimination. Though there are state-level protections, and there are a couple of cases that will be heard at the Supreme Court this year that claim otherwise (we'll see if those pan out).
I expect the US still does do this, but only for gay people in the closet since an openly gay person is immune to that sort of blackmail. Same goes for infidelity etc.
The ECHR was founded in 1953, at that time homosexuality was illegal pretty much everywhere. And if you look at UDHR (from 1948), There is article 16 that is kind of against same-sex marriage. But it's not very clearly stated; I don't think they even imagined that same-sex marriage could one day be a thing.
Agreed. But the laws of today have to apply to society as we know of today. I'm all for forward progress but we can't make laws for how our evolved selves.
In 10 years same opposing sex marriage might the same as opposing interracial marriage is today. But we're not there and the laws have to reflect what society as a whole is ready for.
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