The Defense of Marriage Act and American Exceptionalism: The "Gay Marriage" Panic in the United States

SINCE 1995, when Utah passed the first law of its kind, thirty-seven states and the federal government have moved rapidly to legislate bans against something that does not, in fact, exist in the United States, namely, "gay marriage." 1 Termed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) at the federal level, the speed and success of the passage of this law and the "mini-DOMAs" at the state level show many of the earmarks of a moral panic, especially when swept into law through referenda. What is especially noteworthy about this American trend is the degree to which it is exceptional on the world scene. At a time when the legal recognition of gay and lesbian relationships has been proceeding apace in advanced industrial nations around the world (most notably, in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Canada, Germany, and Hungary and partially or locally in Australia, Austria, Brazil, Colombia, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), the efforts of U.S. legislators to prohibit legal recognition demand explanation. 2 While none of these countries introduced full legal recognition of same-sex relationships all at once, and few have granted the full range of [End Page 259] rights and responsibilities accorded to heterosexual relationships, legal reform has steadily become more comprehensive in sociopolitical environments that lack comparable DOMA-style countermobilizations.