Full Faith and Credit Clause

Discussion 3: Full faith and credit clause

Although the constitution focuses on the interaction between the citizens and state and federal government, article IV, section one (full faith and credit clause) focuses on the relationship between states. The clause holds that states should honor judicial proceedings, records, institutions, public acts, and state laws established in other states (Bardes, Shelley & Schmidt, 2021).  However, the full faith and credit clause conflicts regarding laws concerning same-sex relationships. The recognition of heterosexual relationships is still a dominant limiting acknowledgment of abuse among the victims in the LGBTQ community. 

Most of the states in 2015 had legalized same-sex marriages to avoid violating the constitution's equal protection clause. However, the full faith and credit expressly authorized the states to neglect enforcing orders of states regarding same-sex relationships being legal marriages (Bardes, Shelley & Schmidt, 2021).  For instance, in the case of child custody, a state could not enforce another state's order favoring the biological parent of a child. This conflict leads to the increasing under-reporting of abuse in the LGBTI community. The dominance of heterosexual hegemony makes the victims of LGBT domestic violence fail to acknowledge their rights or feel intimidated to report cases of abuse (Reuter et al., 2017). For example, in the case of lesbians, the victims could fail to acknowledge the abuse as, in most cases, in heterosexual marriages, women are viewed as the main victims of domestic violence. This negligence results in a lack of a clear picture of the extent of domestic violence among the LGBTI community (Reuter et al., 2017). Therefore, although most states have legalized same-sex relationships as marriages, the heterosexual hegemony dominates, which leads to the lack of acknowledgment of abuse by LGBTI victims.The full faith and credit clause leads to conflicts concerning same-sex relationships. The increased recognition of heterosexual relationships limits acknowledgment of abuse among the victims in the LGBTQ community.

References

Bardes, B. A., Shelley, M. C., & Schmidt, S. W. (2021). American government and politics today: The essentials. Cengage Learning.

Reuter, T. R., Newcomb, M. E., Whitton, S. W., & Mustanski, B. (2017). Intimate partner violence victimization in LGBT young adults: Demographic differences and associations with health behaviors. Psychology of Violence, 7(1), 101–109. doi.org/10.1037/vio0000031