New York State Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage
The State of New York passed the Marriage Equality Act on this day, legalizing same-sex marriages in the state.
The cultural, political, and legal climate regarding same sex marriages changed dramatically by the 2010s, as more states legalized same-sex marriage and a number of federal district courts declared state prohibitions unconstitutional.
On June 26, 2013, the Supreme Court declared a major part of DOMA unconstitutional, in United States v. Windsor. The Obama administration did not defend the law in court. In the year following Windsor, a number of federal district courts declared state prohibitions on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional, and another major Supreme Court ruling on the issue seemed inevitable.
On June 26, 2015, in Obergefell v. Hudson, the Supreme Court declared that same-sex marriage was constitutional in the entire United States under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The New York law: “Marriage is a fundamental human right. Same-sex couples should have the same access as others to the protections, responsibilities, rights, obligations, and benefits of civil marriage.”
Read about the landmark 2015 Supreme Court case: Debbie Cenziper and Jim Obergefell, Love Wins: The Lovers and Lawyers Who Fought the Landmark Case for Marriage Equality (2016)
Learn more at a timeline on same-sex marriage: http://www.freedomtomarry.org/pages/history-and-timeline-of-marriage