I'd say that there are three levels of a country not recognizing gay
marriage, from loosest to strictest:

1) The law simply doesn't recognize gay marriage as legal. (In other words
   gay marriage simply doesn't exist as a legal institution.)

2) Gay marriage is actually banned and explicitly illegal.

3) Gay marriage is banned at the consitutional level. In other words,
   not just the law, but the constitution itself declares it as illegal.

  The last one is the strongest form of ban, as it makes it the most
protected ban that there can be. It's also a travesty. It's one thing
that a country's law just doesn't recognize gay marriage, and a completely
different thing for it to be illegal at the constitutional level. Using
the constitution to explicitly limit people's freedom like this is an
affront to what constitutionalism is all about. This is not what a
constitution is for. It doesn't matter what your opinion on gay marriage
may be, that doesn't change anything.

  So guess how many state constitutions in the United States explicitly
ban gay marriage? Just take a guess.

  Answer here:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/north-carolina-voters-banned-gay-marriage-civil-unions-011158194.html

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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