The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law passed by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on September 21,1996. It banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage by limiting the definition of marriage to the union of one man and one woman,and it further allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states.
The availability of legally recognized same-sex marriage in the United States expanded from one state (Massachusetts) in 2004 to all fifty states in 2015 through various court rulings,state legislation,and direct popular votes. States each have separate marriage laws,which must adhere to rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States that recognize marriage as a fundamental right guaranteed by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,as first established in the 1967 landmark civil rights case of Loving v. Virginia.
Many laws in the history of the United States have addressed marriage and the rights of married people. Common themes addressed by these laws include polygamy,interracial marriage,divorce,and same-sex marriage.
Deborah Louise Cook is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit,based in Akron,Ohio. She served as a justice of the Ohio Supreme Court from 1995 to 2003.
Jeffrey Stuart Sutton is an American lawyer and jurist serving as the Chief United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Martin Leach-Cross Feldman was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Henry Franklin Floyd is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Susan J. Dlott is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Louisiana since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26,2015. The court held that the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples is unconstitutional,invalidating Louisiana's ban on same-sex marriage. The ruling clarified conflicting court rulings on whether state officials are obligated to license same-sex marriages. Governor Bobby Jindal confirmed on June 28 that Louisiana would comply with the ruling once the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed its decision in a Louisiana case,which the Fifth Circuit did on July 1. Jindal then said the state would not comply with the ruling until the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana reversed its judgment,which it did on July 2. All parishes now issue marriage licenses in accordance with federal law.
Lesbian,gay,bisexual,and transgender (LGBT) persons in the U.S. state of Ohio have most of the rights non-LGBT residents have. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Ohio,and same-sex marriage has been legally recognized since June 2015 as a result of Obergefell v. Hodges. Ohio statutes do not address discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity;however,the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County established that employment discrimination against LGBT people is illegal in 2020. In addition,a number of Ohio cities have passed anti-discrimination ordinances providing protections in housing and public accommodations. Conversion therapy is also banned in a number of cities. In December 2020,a federal judge invalidated a law banning sex changes on an individual's birth certificate within Ohio.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Ohio since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges,a landmark decision in which the court struck down the state's statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage on June 26,2015. The case was named after plaintiff Jim Obergefell,who sued the state of Ohio after officials refused to recognize his marriage on the death certificate of his husband. Same-sex marriages were performed in Ohio beginning shortly after the Supreme Court released its ruling,as local officials implemented the order.
This article addresses the history of gay men in the United States. Unless otherwise noted,the members of same-sex male couples discussed here are not known to be gay,but they are mentioned as part of discussing the practice of male homosexuality—that is,same-sex male sexual and romantic behavior.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26,2015. Previously,the U.S. state of Texas had banned same-sex marriage both by statute and in its State Constitution. On February 26,2014,Judge Orlando Luis Garcia of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas found that Texas's ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. On April 22,2014,a state court came to the same conclusion. Both cases were appealed. The district court's decision was appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals,but before that court could issue a ruling,the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all same-sex marriage bans in the United States in Obergefell on June 26,2015. Within a few months of the court ruling,all counties had started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples,except for Irion County,which announced in 2020 that it would begin issuing licenses to same-sex couples,making it the last county in the United States to comply.
The lead cases on same-sex marriage in Kentucky are Bourke v. Beshear,and its companion case Love v. Beshear. In Bourke,a U.S. district court found that the Equal Protection Clause requires Kentucky to recognize valid same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. In Love,the same court found that this same clause renders Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Both decisions were stayed and consolidated upon appeal to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals,which heard oral arguments in both cases on August 6,2014. On November 6,the Sixth Circuit upheld Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriage.
Obergefell v. Hodges,576 U.S. 644 (2015),is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. The 5–4 ruling requires all fifty states,the District of Columbia,and the Insular Areas to perform and recognize the marriages of same-sex couples on the same terms and conditions as the marriages of opposite-sex couples,with all the accompanying rights and responsibilities. Prior to Obergefell,same-sex marriage had already been established by statute,court ruling,or voter initiative in thirty-six states,the District of Columbia,and Guam.
In the United States,the history of same-sex marriage dates from the early 1940s,when the first lawsuits seeking legal recognition of same-sex relationships brought the question of civil marriage rights and benefits for same-sex couples to public attention though they proved unsuccessful. However marriage wasn't a request for the LGBTQ movement until the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington (1987). The subject became increasingly prominent in U.S. politics following the 1993 Hawaii Supreme Court decision in Baehr v. Miike that suggested the possibility that the state's prohibition might be unconstitutional. That decision was met by actions at both the federal and state level to restrict marriage to male-female couples,notably the enactment at the federal level of the Defense of Marriage Act.
On April 28,2015,the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments for Obergefell v. Hodges (Ohio),which was consolidated with three other same-sex marriage cases from the other states in the Sixth Circuit:Tanco v. Haslam (Tennessee),DeBoer v. Snyder (Michigan),Bourke v. Beshear (Kentucky). On June 26,2015 the Supreme Court reversed the Sixth Circuit's decision,paving the way for same-sex marriage to become legal in those states,and setting a precedent for the entire nation. All four states complied with the ruling the same day it was issued before the mandate was actually issued. Every state in the circuit had a district court ruling against their states' ban,but they were eventually stayed pending appeal. The Sixth Circuit consists of Kentucky,Michigan,Ohio,and Tennessee. On August 6,2014,the Sixth Circuit heard oral arguments for same-sex marriage cases from each state within the circuit. On November 6,2014,the Sixth Circuit in a split 2-1 decision,upheld the states' same-sex marriage bans,reversing the district courts' rulings that struck them down. The Sixth Circuit was the first and only circuit court since the landmark ruling United States v. Windsor to uphold the constitutionality of states' same-sex marriage bans which caused a circuit split.
Alphonse A. Gerhardstein is a civil rights attorney in Ohio who has been litigating since 1976. While he is best known nationally as lead counsel for James Obergefell in the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision Obergefell v. Hodges,he has been an advocate on behalf of prisoners,victims of police misconduct and women seeking reproductive freedom throughout his career,in addition to LGBTQ causes like same-sex marriage. He has recovered millions of dollars and secured substantial reforms for victims of official misconduct. He is also the founder of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center,a nonprofit agency that advocates and litigates for criminal justice reform.
James Obergefell is an American civil rights activist who was the lead plaintiff in the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges,which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States. Obergefell had sued the state of Ohio in 2013,due to that state's lack of legal recognition of Obergefell's marriage to his husband,John Arthur. Obergefell was the Democratic nominee for the 89th legislative district of the Ohio House of Representatives in the 2022 elections.
