Gay marriage timeline
October 16, 2014
Same-sex marriage timeline in America
October 1972 – The U.S. Supreme Court dismisses Baker v. Nelson, one of three cases brought by same-sex couples challenging the denial of marriage.
January 1973 – Maryland becomes the first state to pass a statute banning marriage between same-sex couples when it includes in its Family Law Code a line reading, “Only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid in this State.”
May 1993 – The Hawaii Supreme Court rules in Baehr v. Lewin that denying marriage to same-sex couples violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Hawaii Constitution.
September 1996 – President Bill Clinton signs the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) into law.
September 1999 – California becomes the first state to create a domestic partnership statute allowing same-sex couples to receive some, but not all, of the protections afforded by marriage.
November 2004 – Anti-gay forces in eleven states, allegedly marshaled by Karl Rove, push through constitutional amendments to deny same-sex couples the freedom to marry.
November 2006 – Anti-gay activists continue their anti-marriage, anti-family agenda by passing constitutional amendments denying same-sex couples the freedom to marry in seven more states.
November 2008 – Anti-gay forces push through Proposition 8, an anti-gay constitutional amendment that strips away same-sex couples’ freedom to marry and restricts marriage to different-sex couples.
April 2009 – The Iowa Supreme Court hands down a unanimous decision in favor of the freedom to marry in Varnum v. Brien, a case brought by Lambda Legal.
August 2010 – The U.S. District Court of Northern California declares that Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution’s due process and equal protection clauses.
May 2012 – President Barack Obama becomes the first sitting president in the United States to publicly announce support for the freedom to marry.
October 2014 – Currently 31 states have legalized same-sex marriage, while 19 states have constitutional bans preventing same-sex marriage. Wyoming has a statutory ban on same-sex marriage.
Information courtesy of freedomtomarry.org.
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