Lambda Legal

Status of Same-Sex Relationships Nationwide

As of May 29, 2008

Pending Lawsuits Seeking Marriage Equality for Same-Sex Couples

Iowa: Varnum v. Brien, Plaintiffs’ counsel - Lambda Legal

Connecticut: Kerrigan v. State of Connecticut, Plaintiffs’ counsel - GLAD

State(s) with Marriage Equality (2)

California

Massachusetts

States that Give the Benefits And Responsibilities of Marriage but with a Label of Inferiority Such as Civil Union (5)

Connecticut - Civil Union Law
New Hampshire - Civil Union Law
New Jersey - Civil Union Law
Oregon - Domestic Partnership Law
Vermont - Civil Union Law

States that Give Some or Many Protections with Statewide Domestic Partnership Laws (4)

Maine
Hawaii
Washington
District of Columbia

States that Give Limited Domestic Partnership Benefits to State Employees (not including states listed in prior categories that provide broader protections.)

Alaska
Illinois
Iowa
Montana
New York
Rhode Island
New Mexico

Additional resource:
Examples of States that Provide Benefits to Same-Sex Partners of State Employees

State(s) that Have Proactively Respected Out-of-State-Marriages of Same-Sex Couples:

New York

States with Constitutional Amendments Empowering Legislature to Ban Marriage (1)

Hawaii

Additional resource:
Text of State Constitutional Amendments Targeting Same-Sex Relationships

States with Constitutional Amendments Banning Marriage (26)

Additional resource: Read the laws themselves.
Text of State Constitutional Amendments Targeting Same-Sex Relationships

States that Otherwise Bar Marriage (by statute or otherwise) (48)

In addition to the state constitutional amendments, the District of Columbia and all states except California and Massachusetts have statutes or interpret their statutes to bar marriages of same-sex couples. This reflects that same-sex couples have never been able to marry anywhere in the United States until the Massachusetts high court ruling.

In 1996 after the United States Congress passed the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, many state legislatures followed suit and passed new statutes barring marriage for same-sex couples that only emphasized the discrimination that already existed in their states.

Likewise, in several other states like New York and Washington, which did not pass new discriminatory statutes to reinforce old ones, the high courts nonetheless issued opinions upholding the old law. In other states, like New Mexico, the Attorney General interpreted old state law to bar clerks from giving marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The effect is the same in all states but Massachusetts. At bottom, forty-eight states and the District of Columbia do not allow same-sex couples to marry and never have.