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States

Click on a state or choose one from our drop-down menu to find the latest developments, state organizations, and action alerts on a local level.

Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

 

While two states (Massachusetts and California) uphold the freedom to marry for same-sex couples, there are four states — Massachusetts, California, Rhode Island, and New York — that officially pledge non-discrimination against marriages between same-sex couples.

An anti-marriage initiative which qualified for the November 2008 ballot is proposing to take away equality and fairness in California and write marriage discrimination into the state constitution. Learn how to protect marriage in California.

• Because New Mexico’s laws do not prohibit marriage between same-sex couples, there is no impediment to New Mexico same-sex couples marrying in Massachusetts or California and having their marriage honored in New Mexico.  While Massachusett’s government directed that licenses could be given to New Mexico couples, the New Mexico state government has not taken action to ensure they will be honored.

Various states now offer broad protections short of marriage including civil unions in Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New Hampshire and broad domestic partnerships in California and Oregon. Smaller packages of protections for same-sex couples are available in Maine, Hawaii, Washington, and the District of Columbia. All of these states continue to work toward marriage.

In 2007, a record number of marriage equality bills (11) were introduced, and courts in states such as Iowa and Connecticut continued to hear cases brought by couples challenging their unfair exclusion from marriage.

On the other side, many American states have passed discriminatory anti-gay statutes or constitutional amendments banning recognition of relationships between two women or two men. Some of these laws and amendments are currently under legal challenge. More will be challenged in the months and years to come, as legally married or civilly united couples face disease, disaster, divorce, or death within those other states, and expect to have their legal bond respected.

 

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WHERE YOU CAN GO TO GET INVOLVED OR LEARN MORE:

Equality Federation
Equality Federation is the national alliance of state-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy organizations.  The Federation works to achieve equality for lgbt people in every state and territory by building strong and sustainable statewide organizations in a state-based movement.