When did the us make gay marriage legal

23 April 2013Last updated at 18:51
Helene Faasen, left, and Anne-Marie Thus tied the knot in the first legal gay marriage ceremony

Since the Netherlands became the first country to authorize same-sex marriage 12 years ago, many countries own followed suit.

France is the latest and supporters of gay marriage dream it will soon eliminate the final legal hurdles in Britain.

But where in the world can same-sex couples already receive married?

Just after midnight on 1 April 2001, four couples - Anne-Marie Thus and Helene Faasen, and three male couples - were married by the mayor of Amsterdam, Career Cohen, in the first legal gay marriage ceremony in the world.

"We are so ordinary, if you saw us on the street you'd just saunter right past us," said Ms Thus of the fuss over the televised City Hall ceremony.

"The only thing that's going to take some getting used to is calling her my spouse."

Denmark was the first country to present civil partnerships for lgbtq+ couples, in 1989, but it stopped short of allowing church weddings.

Countries including Norway, Sweden and Iceland followed suit in allowing partnerships offering many - but not all - of the rights and

Gay marriage declared legal across the US in historic supreme court ruling

Same-sex marriages are now legal across the entirety of the United States after a historic supreme court decision that declared attempts by conservative states to exclude them unconstitutional.

In what may prove the most significant civil rights case in a generation, five of the nine court justices determined that the right to marriage equality was enshrined under the matching protection clause of the 14th amendment.

Victory in the case – known as Obergefell v Hodges, after an Ohio man who sued the state to get his name listed on his late husband’s death certificate – capped years of campaigning by LGBT rights activists, high-powered attorneys and couples waiting decades for the justices to rule. It immediately led to scenes of jubilation from coast to coast, as campaigners, politicians and everyday people – gay, straight and in-between – hailed “a victory of love”.

The ruling, in which Justice Anthony Kennedy cast the deciding vote,means the number of states where gay marriage is legal will rise – albeit after some stalling – from 37 to 50.

“They ask for identical dignity in the eyes of the law,” Kennedy wrote in

Date Same Sex Marriage Legalized By State

All 50 states in the United States have legalized same-sex marriage. Below are the dates when each state did so. On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is a right guaranteed by the Constitution, thus making same-sex marriage legal in the 13 states that have not legalized same-sex marriage up to that point.

By Date
Rank
State Name
Date Similar Sex Marriage Legalized
1
MassachusettsMay 17, 2004
2
ConnecticutNovember 12, 2008
3
IowaApril 24, 2009
4
VermontSeptember 1, 2009
5
New HampshireJanuary 1, 2010
6
New YorkJuly 24, 2011
7
WashingtonDecember 9, 2012
8
MaineDecember 29, 2012
9
MarylandJanuary 1, 2013
10
CaliforniaJune 28, 2013
11
DelawareJuly 1, 2013
12-T
MinnesotaAugust 1, 2013
12-T
Rhode IslandAugust 1, 2013
14
New JerseyOctober 21, 2013
15
HawaiiDecember 2, 2013
16
New MexicoDecember 19, 2013
17
OregonMay 19, 2014
18
PennsylvaniaMay 20, 2014
19
IllinoisJune 1, 2014
20-T
IndianaOctober 6, 2014
20-T
OklahomaOctober 6, 2014

​Obergefell v. Hodges

Same-sex marriage has been controversial for decades, but tremendous progress was made across the United States as states individually began to lift bans to same-sex marriage.  Before the landmark case Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. ___ (2015) was decided, over 70% of states and the District of Columbia already commended same-sex marriage, and only 13 states had bans.  Fourteen same-sex couples and two men whose same-sex partners had since passed away, claimed Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee violated the Fourteenth Amendment by denying them the right to marry or possess their legal marriages performed in another state recognized. 

All district courts found in favor of the plaintiffs.  On appeal, the cases were consolidated, and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and held that the states' bans on same-sex marriage and refusal to admit legal same-sex marriages in other jurisdictions were not unconstitutional.  

Among several arguments, the respondents asserted that the petitioners were not looking for to create a new and nonexistent right to lgbtq+ marriage.  Justice Kenned

when did the us make gay marriage legal

When was same-sex marriage legalized in the US? A fast history of LGBTQ rights battles

There are 35 countries where same-sex marriage is legal. The most recent country to legalize same-sex marriage is Estonia, and its law went into effect Jan. 1 of this year, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

But LGBTQ+ rights are under assault in other political settings. The American Civil Liberties Union is currently hunting 300 anti-LGBTQ bills for the 2024 legislative session, many of them involving curriculum, pronouns and gender-affirming care. Last year, USA TODAY reported over 650 bills targeting the community were introduced in the first half of 2023.

When was same-sex marriage legalized in the US?

On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court made lgbtq+ marriage legal across the country with its ruling in the Obergefell v. Hodges case.

According to Supreme Court database Oyez, this case was brought up to the Supreme Court after groups of same-sex couples sued state agencies in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, challenging these states’ bans on lgbtq+ marriage.

Some of these states’ same-sex marriage bans were part of a national movement in response to President George W.