Marriage is a cherished bond between two people, but it is also a legal arrangement that guarantees certain rights and privileges related to taxation, inheritance, health insurance, child custody, and more. Until the late 20th century, this special legal status had been denied to same-sex couples. Marriage was largely understood, in the courts and in society, as a union between a man and a woman.
The emergence of the Gay Rights Movement in the 1960s led to increasing visibility of LGBTQ+ people and calls to end government policies that discriminated against gay people. By the 1990s, access to marriage for same-sex couples emerged as a central issue for activists and legal organizations fighting for equality. They argued that it is immoral and illegal to deny the status of marriage to same-sex couples; why should any American lack access to the legal rights and protections of marriage because of their sexual orientation? Other Americans passionately held that marriage was a venerated tradition, ordained by God, that had been understood for millennia as a sacred bond between a man and a woman.
The marriage equality issue was often propelled into the political spotlight by legal challenges and court decisions, as several state courts ruled that laws limiting marriage to straight couples violated constitutional guarantees to equal protection under the law. Such decisions led to anxieties and confusion for some Americans. Must same-sex marriages performed in one state be recognized in another state? Would other state supreme courts draw similar conclusions and require same-sex marriage? Fearful of judicial decisions that would guarantee marriage equality, politicians across the country pushed to amend their state constitutions to explicitly define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Between the 1990s and the 2010s, several dozen states passed laws or constitutional amendments banning marriage for same-sex couples.
But by the 2010s, public opinion had shifted considerably. In 1996, just 27 percent of Americans polled by Gallup supported legalization of same-sex marriage. By May 2015, that number had risen to 60%. And in 2015, the Supreme Court forever changed the legal landscape with Obergefell v. Hodges, a landmark case that ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples (Brenan 2024). In a decision penned by Anthony Kennedy, the Court held that the plaintiffs, 14 same-sex couples and two men whose partners had passed, had been “excluded from one of civilization’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right.” After decades of social, political, and legal debate—in which Americans grappled with weighty questions of state versus federal power, the role of the judiciary versus the legislature, and the rights of minorities in a democracy—same-sex marriage was legal across the United States
1970s LGBTQ Rights Advocates Make the Case for Marriage Equality (1974)
Two Reverends Give Competing Views of Christianity and Marriage (1994)
Hawaii Court Decision Puts Marriage Equality in the National Spotlight (1996)
Same-Sex Couples Sue for Marriage Equality in Massachusetts (2003)
Massachusetts Ruling Shakes Up Marriage Equality Debate (2004)
Dueling Advocates Make Mainstream Appeals on Marriage Equality (2004)
Same-Sex Couples Sue for Marriage Rights in New Jersey (2004)
Political Mobilization Against Marriage Equality in the 2004 Election (2004)
Two Lawyers Make the Legal Case for Marriage Equality (2010)
President Obama Comes Out in Favor of Marriage Equality (2012)
