经济学人下载:美国佬的幸福婚姻

So far neither side has scored a decisive victory, though each will occasionally claim one. When it was passed, DOMA looked like a solid victory for enemies of gay marriage. Its aim was to nip moves towards same-sex marriage in the bud by defining marriage as a legal union “between one man and one woman as husband and wife”. It also stipulated that in the event of an individual state making same-sex marriage lawful, no other state needed to respect the rights or claims arising from such a marriage. To buttress this apparently formidable firewall, three dozen states have imposed constitutional or other legal bans.

即使中间有一方会时不时声称自己占了上风，但至今双方并没有获得决定性的胜利。当年的<<婚姻保护法 >>一被通过，就被看作是反同性婚姻者们一次坚实的胜利。这个法案的目的就是要将婚姻在法律上定义为由一男一女结合的夫妻关系，以此将同性婚姻扼杀在萌芽中。法律还规定若某州份使同性婚姻合法化，其他各州份不需要承认在这种同性婚姻下产生的权利或诉求。接着，为了支持这一看似强大的禁令，有36个州份都通过立法或修改宪法来确定它们不认可同性结合。

And yet gay marriage marches on, scoring its own victories along the way. Among the greatest and most recent was New York’s decision last month to become the sixth and most-populous state to allow same-sex marriage. If the Respect for Marriage Act were to become law (though this will need to await a more sympathetic Congress), this would defang DOMA and mark another victory for gay marriage. But DOMA is anyway not the deterrent it once seemed. The ever-cautious Barack Obama, who favours civil unions but says his views on gay marriage are still “evolving”, has ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the law, which is under challenge in the courts.

时至今日，促使同性婚姻合法化的斗争仍在继续，并取得了不小的胜利。最近的一次大胜便是纽约州在上个月通过了同性恋婚姻法，成为了全美第6个也是最有名气的实现同性婚姻合法化的州。如果<<尊重婚姻法案>>也被通过(当然这需要等待一个更加人性化的议会出现)，这将是对保护婚姻法案的有力一击，也将预示着同性婚姻合法化运动更深远的胜利。但不管怎样，<<婚姻保护法 >>并不像它表面上那样充满威慑力。支持同性间民事结合的贝拉克.奥巴马一贯小心谨慎，也表示他自己对待同性婚姻的立场正在”演变”，他要求司法部不要再为在法庭上备受争议的<<保护婚姻法案>>辩护。

The relentless back-and-forth in Congress, the courts and state legislatures transfixes the minority of Americans who feel strongly about this issue. And yet the cycle of victories and defeats may in the end matter less than one startling underlying fact, which is that America’s attitudes to homosexuality appear in recent years to have undergone a dramatic change.

议会，法庭 ，州议会间就<<婚姻保护法>>问题的拉锯战让大多数强烈反对同性婚姻的人无计可施。而他们之间轮番的胜败在此刻也显得不那么重要，更重要的是，美国民众对同性恋的态度在最近几年将会发生巨大转变，这是一个令人惊讶的潜在事实。