and governments offered domestic partnership
benefits to their employees. In most cases, the ar-
rangements were nonstatutory—that is, established
by orders issued by corporate chief executive offi-
cers. Governors of Connecticut, Delaware, Massa-
chusetts, New York, Oregon, and Washington also is-
sued executive orders, as did heads of about seventy
cities and counties.
Impact The Hawaii case catapulted the concept of
same-sex marriage to public attention. States with
equal rights amendments in their constitutions were
demonstrably vulnerable to lawsuits. The first case
was in Vermont, where on December 20, 1999, the
Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples must be
accorded benefits equal to those enjoyed by married
persons. The court left implementation to Ver-
mont’s legislature.
Subsequent Events In 2000, Vermont’s legislature
established civil unions with rights and privileges
equivalent to marriage. Thereafter, several states
adopted civil union or domestic partner legislation,
and Congress allowed the District of Columbia to
implement its earlier domestic partnership law.
From 2000, same-sex couples have been embold-
ened to challenge marriage laws in various states,
but other states have sought to outlaw same-sex mar-
riages as well as recognition of domestic partner-
ships.
Further Reading
Duncan, William C. “Domestic Partnership Laws in
the United States: A Review and Critique.”
Brigham Young University Law Review, 2001, 961-
- Detailed delineation of the benefits ac-
corded to domestic partners, particularly at the
state and local levels, with a summary of court
challenges to the benefits. The author opposes
domestic partnerships as a way to weaken the in-
stitution of marriage.
Raeburn, Nicole C.Changing Corporate America from
Inside Out: Lesbian and Gay Workplace Rights. Min-
neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004. In-
cludes a section on domestic partnership bene-
fits.
Solomon, Todd A.Domestic Partner Benefits: An Em-
ployer’s Guide. 4th ed. Washington, D.C.: Thomp-
son, 2007. Comprehensive compilation of bene-
fits enjoyed by domestic partners.
U.S. Government Accountability Office.Defense of
Marriage Act: Update to Prior Report. Washington,
D.C.: Author, 2004. Identifies more than one
thousand federal benefits derived from marriage.
Michael HaasSee also Baker v. Vermont; Defense of Marriage Act
of 1996;Egan v. Canada; Homosexuality and gay
rights; Marriage and divorce; Transgender commu-
nity. Don’t ask, don’t tell
Definition Popular culture reference to military
policy toward homosexuals
The phrase “don’t ask, don’t tell” originated as a slang ex-
pression in American popular culture referring to the posi-
tion taken by the U.S. Department of Defense regarding the
retention of openly gay or lesbian members of the armed
forces during the 1990’s. The new policy did little or noth-
ing to stop harassment of gays and lesbians within the vari-
ous branches of militar y service.
The new policy stated that the military would not in-
quire as to the sexual orientation of potential re-
cruits or currently serving personnel of all ranks and
that it did not want them to volunteer the informa-
tion. The policy occurred in response to a series of
highly publicized cases in which long-serving and
decorated men and women had come out in an ef-
fort to oppose the operating policy of the U.S.
armed forces and the legal provisions of the Uni-
form Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). The UCMJ
regarded homosexuals of either gender as unfit to
be part of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine
Corps. If discovered, such persons were to be termi-
nated with an undesirable discharge without regard
to their record of service.
The eradication of this discriminatory practice
had long been one of the gay rights movement’s
primary goals, and at the beginning of the 1990’s
Democratic candidate Bill Clinton promised in his
presidential campaign literature that, if elected,
he would remove the ban on homosexuals in the
military through the issuance of an executive order.
This promise failed of fulfillment after his election
because of strong political opposition from mem-
bers of both parties and senior military personnel,
and Clinton sent to Congress a compromise mea-264 Don’t ask, don’t tell The Nineties in America