Is gay marriage protected by the constitution
What the Same Sex Marriage Bill Does and Doesn't Do
The U.S. Senate passed landmark legislation this week enshrining protections for same sex and interracial marriages in federal rule in a bipartisan vote that marked a dramatic turnaround on a once highly divisive issue.
The Senate behavior marks a major hurdle for the legislation, which President Biden has said he will autograph into law pending a vote in the House of Representatives.
Leonore F. Carpenter, a Rutgers Commandment School professor who has served as an LGBTQA rights attorney, explains what the Respect for Marriage Act accomplishes, and what is does not.
What exactly does the Respect for Marriage Act act to protect lgbtq+ marriage?
The Act does a few vital things.
First, it repeals the federal Defense of Marriage Do. That law was passed in 1996, and it prohibited the federal government from recognizing lgbtq+ marriages that had been validly entered into under a state’s law. It also gave the green light to states to decline to recognize gay marriages from other states.
Next, it prohibits states from refusing to notice same-sex marriages that are validly entered into in a different state. It’s also impo
Marriage Equality Around the Society
The Human Rights Campaign tracks developments in the legal recognition of same-sex marriage around the world. Working through a worldwide network of HRC global alumni and partners, we lift up the voices of community, national and regional advocates and divide tools, resources, and lessons learned to empower movements for marriage equality.
Current State of Marriage Equality
There are currently 38 countries where same-sex marriage is legal: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Uruguay.
These countries have legalized marriage equality through both legislation and court decisions.
Countries that Legalized Marriage Equality in 2025
Liechtenstein: On May 16, 2024, Liechtenstein's government passed a bill in favor of marriage equality. The law went into effe
The Court first considered the matter in the 1986 case of Bowers v Hardwick, a challenge to a Georgia law authorizing criminal penalties for persons found guilty of sodomy. Although the Georgia statute applied both to heterosexual and homosexual sodomy, the Supreme Court chose to consider only the constitutionality of applying the regulation to homosexual sodomy. (Michael Hardwick, who sought to enjoin enforcement of the Georgia law, had been charged with sodomy after a police officer discovered him in bed with another man. Charges were later dropped.) In Bowers, the Court ruled 5 to 4 that the The road to nationwide marriage equality was a distant one, spanning decades of United States history and culminating in victory in June 2015. Throughout the long clash for marriage equality, HRC was at the forefront. Volunteer with HRC From gathering supporters in small towns across the state to rallying in front of the Supreme Court of the United States, we gave our all to guarantee every person, regardless of whom they love, is established equally under the law. Efforts to legalize same-sex marriage began to pop up across the country in the 1990s, and with it challenges on the state and national levels. Civil unions for homosexual couples existed in many states but created a separate but equal accepted. At the federal level, couples were denied access to more than 1,100 federal rights and responsibilities associated with the institution, as well as those denied by their given state. The Defense of Marriage Act was signed into law in 1996 and defined marriage by the federal government as between a dude and woman, thereby allowing states to deny m
The Journey to Marriage Equality in the United States
A Growing Phone for Equality