Same-sex couples parent, partner, and sometimes marry under law
A same-sex or same-gender relationship is a romantic or sexual bond between people of the same sex or gender. Partners may raise biological, adoptive, or foster children together. Some countries offer marriage; others offer civil unions where marriage is unavailable.
Historians believe the lives of Socrates, Alexander the Great, Hadrian, Edward II, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Marlowe, Lord Byron, Oscar Wilde, and Vita Sackville-West included love for people of their own sex. Michel Foucault warned that calling such figures gay risks importing a modern idea of sexuality into eras that lacked it. In ancient Greece, historian Rictor Norton notes, egalitarian partnerships existed alongside the more privileged institution of pederasty. Older labels such as gay or lesbian relationship have been criticized for erasing bisexual and transgender people, and same-gender relationship is now used interchangeably.
Culture kept these bonds visible: homoerotic verse by Abu Nuwas and Omar Khayyam, Japan’s shudo literature and shunga prints, and Chinese works like Jin Ping Mei that survived repeated purges. Japan’s male homoerotic art, including today’s yaoi, has mostly been made by women for women. In America, Ellen DeGeneres came out on her sitcom in 1997, Will & Grace ran on NBC from 1998 to 2006, and Brokeback Mountain succeeded worldwide in 2005. Fallout 2, released in 1998, was the first video game to let players pursue a same-sex romance.
Marriage is recognized in 36 countries, from Andorra and Argentina to Taiwan and Uruguay, while other nations provide partnerships covering matters such as inheritance and immigration. In the United States, the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling requires every state to recognize these marriages, and Arkansas became the last state to allow adoption by same-sex couples in 2011. The European Court of Human Rights affirmed a right to adopt in January 2008.
The 2000 U.S. census found children under eighteen in 33 percent of female and 22 percent of male same-sex households, and between 2007 and 2011 American disapproval of same-sex parenting fell from 50% to 35%. More than 25 years of research show no link between parents’ sexual orientation and children’s emotional or behavioural adjustment, a consensus backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other major bodies.
Source: Same-sex relationship
