On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state bans on same-sex marriage—and, by extension, bans on recognizing same-sex marriages legally performed in other states and jurisdictions—were unconstitutional under the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. More than half of an estimated 513,000 same-sex couples (as of March 2020) in the U.S. married after the ruling.
Was same-sex marriage illegal before Obergefell v. Hodges?
Prior to the decision, same-sex marriage was recognized in 36 states and the District of Columbia, with bans in 13 states. The first state to legalize civil unions was Vermont in 2000, which provided most of the state-level benefits of marriage. Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriages three years later and began issuing marriage licenses on May 17, 2004. That same year, the Republican-controlled Senate blocked a Constitutional Amendment supported by then-President George W. Bush that would outlaw same-sex marriages nationwide.
2013’s United States v. Windsor struck down a section of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)—which defined the institution of marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman and barred federal recognition of same-sex marriage—that defined “spouse” only as a person of the opposite sex, thereby prohibiting the federal government from denying federal benefits to same-sex couples. However, the ruling maintained state authority to regulate marriage, allowing states that banned same-sex marriage not to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states or jurisdictions.
The Obergefell decision made all of DOMA unconstitutional, thereby making marriage equality the law of the land.
How did the decision affect LGBTQ+ families?
The decision also granted same-sex married couples the same rights and benefits as cishet married couples, such as the right to adoption, the ability to be a spouse’s next-of-kin in an emergency medical situation, access to a spouse’s employment and social security benefits, such as health care, citizenship rights, and legal protection for current and future children.
As of 2018, 119,000 married same-sex couples were parenting children under the age of 18. Approximately 35,000 same-sex couple parents have adopted children, with 6,000 fostering—the majority of them married.
What is the future of marriage equality in the current anti-LGBTQ+ political climate?
A recent study from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law found that nearly 80 percent of the 484 married LGBTQ+ people living in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. surveyed feared that the Obergefell decision could soon be overturned, with a quarter of them saying that they had sped up their timelines for marriage and children in order to secure their legal rights to them.
Several respondents cited the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the election of Donald Trump in their decision to expedite their marriage plans. And respondents with at least one trans partner expressed more concern for a legal challenge to their marriage than cisgender couples, as anti-LGBTQ+ bills largely targeting transpeople are swelling across the country.
After President Trump’s Day One executive orders either impacting or directly targeting LGBTQ+ persons, many have expressed a desire to move to another state or overseas to protect not only their marriages but also access to their constitutional rights.
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