Several states legalized same-sex marriages throughout the 2000s. But on June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states (Obergefell v. Hodges). This historic decision recognized same-sex unions as legal marriages, defuncting remaining state marriage bans and granting same-sex couples the rights and protections granted married heterosexual couples.
A Brief History Of Same-Sex Marriage In The United States
Calls for legalization, or at least recognition, of same-sex unions began in the 1960s. One of the key events, later cemented in history as Baker v. Nelson, happened in 1970 when a male couple applied for a marriage license in Minnesota. The application was rejected; appeals were also denied.
Various states wrote definitions into their constitutions and statutes limiting marriage to heterosexual couples in the following years. In 1973, Maryland also became the first state to legally ban same-sex marriage in statutory law. Read about same-sex marriage in Virginia.
In 1983, discussions on spousal rights for same-sex partnerships became an issue when a woman was denied the right to care for her partner, who was disabled after a car accident. The woman was granted guardianship, marking a major win for the gay rights movement.
The next year, the city of Berkely in California passed the first domestic partnership law in the US. And in 1989, court rulings New York and California began to recognize same-sex couples as families, extending certain benefits previously reserved to heterosexual unions.
In 1993, same-sex marriage became a national issue when the Hawaii Supreme Court deemed that an existing law banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. This decision sparked backlash across the nation. In the same year, Hawaii legislators passed an amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
Over the next decade, several states passed Defense of Marriage Acts (DOMAs), defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman only. Then, in 1996, President Bill Clinton signed a federal DOMA that denied same-sex couples over 1,000 federal benefits and protections granted by marriage.
Despite the majority of the country pushing for same-sex marriage bans in the early 2000s, Vermont was the first state to grant same-sex couples the same benefits and protections as other married couples.
In 2003, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, with the state court requiring the legislature to pass a law granting full marriage rights to same-sex couples. The following year, the first same-sex marriages were celebrated in the US. San Francisco, California, and Portland, Oregon also began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004.
Still, between 2004 and 2012, 30 states banned same-sex marriage, the most notable being California who wrote same-sex marriage bans into their constitution in 2008.
By the 2010s, however, events took a turn in favor of same-sex marriage. Many states (Maine, Hawaii, New Jersey, etc.) overturned previous same-sex marriage bans and legalized the unions. In 2011, President Barack Obama even declared DOMA unconstitutional; the following year, he supported same-sex marriage. In 2013, several state Supreme Courts removed barriers for same-sex couples, and by the end of 2014, same-sex marriage was already legal in 30 states.
At the start of 2015, the US Supreme Court reviewed the decision of the Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit on Obergefell v. Hodges, which comprised six consolidated cases challenging same-sex marriage bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. On June 26, 2015, the Court reversed the decision, legalizing same-sex marriage in all 50 states.