What states still ban gay marriage
At a convention for Southern Baptist church members in early June, delegates endorsed legislation calling for a ban on same-sex marriage and urged legislators to support them in this goal.
Although same-sex marriage is currently protected in all 50 states due to the ruling in Obergefell vs. Hodges in 2015, Justice Clarence Thomas has said he would appreciate to "reconsider" that judgment if a similar case were ever to before the court again.
He also said he would be open to reconsidering Lawrence vs. Texas which legalized gay sex, and Griswold vs. Connecticut which legalized access to contraception, as these cases were built on similar case regulation to Roe vs. Wade, which legalized the right to an abortion nationwide, was overturned in 2022.
Why It Matters
The Southern Baptist church is the U.S.' largest protestant denomination, and their endorsement of political causes has sway with GOP politicians, as they are a consistent Republican-voting base. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is one of the country's most powerful Southern Baptists.
This call to eliminate homosexual marriage comes amid an existing push from President Donald Trump's administration to remove transgender people
Marriage Equality Around the World
The Human Rights Campaign tracks developments in the legal recognition of same-sex marriage around the earth. Working through a worldwide network of HRC global alumni and partners, we lift up the voices of people, national and regional advocates and divide tools, resources, and lessons learned to empower movements for marriage equality.
Current State of Marriage Equality
There are currently 38 countries where same-sex marriage is legal: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the Merged Kingdom, the Combined States of America and Uruguay.
These countries have legalized marriage equality through both legislation and court decisions.
Countries that Legalized Marriage Equality in 2025
Liechtenstein: On May 16, 2024, Liechtenstein's government passed a bill in favor of marriage equality. The law went into effect January 1, 2025.
Same-sex marriage, which the U.S. Supreme Court in 2015 legalized nationwide in the case known as Obergefell v. Hodges, is facing resurgent hostility.
In the decade since the court’s decision, universal support for queer marriage has increased. Currently, about 70% ofAmericans approve of legally recognizing the marriages of gay couples, a 10-percentage-point bump from 2015.
Obergefell led to an increase in marriages among same-sex partners, with more than 700,000 same-sex couples currently married.
Despite this, Republican lawmakers in five states hold recently introduced symbolic bills calling on the Supreme Court to overturn its ruling in Obergefell.
And Republican lawmakers in two states have proposed legislation that creates a new category of marriage, called “covenant marriage,” that is reserved for one man and one woman.
As a professor of legal studies, I think such attacks on same-sex marriage depict a serious threat to the institution.
And others share my concern.
A 2024 poll of married homosexual couples found that 54% of respondents are worried that the Supreme Court might overturn Obergefell, with only 17% saying they did not anticipate such a challe
MAP Report: The National Patchwork of Marriage Laws Underneath Obergefell
Rebecca Farmer, Movement Advancement Project
rebecca@lgbtmap.org | 303-578-4600 ext 122
As the Respect for Marriage Act moves through Congress, MAP’s March 2022 report on the landscape of varying state marriage laws around the country is a resource. MAP researchers are available to acknowledge questions and our infographics are available for use.
MAP’s report, Underneath Obergefell, explores the patchwork of marriage laws around the country. The report highlights the proof that a majority of states still have existing laws on the books that would ban marriage for same-sex couples – even though those laws are currently unenforceable under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell.
If the U.S. Supreme Court were to revisit the Obergefell decision, the ability of same-sex couples to commit could again fall to the states, where a majority of states still have in place both bans in the rule and in state constitutions.
The policy landscape for state marriage laws can be broken into four major categ
States across U.S. still desperation to outdated gay marriage bans
Following years of failed attempts under Republican govern, Virginia’s newly empowered Democrats finally passed bills repealing two outdated state laws that prohibited same-sex marriage. Sen. Adam Ebbin, the first openly gay lawmaker in the state’s General Assembly, introduced the bill, which was one of four pro-LGBTQ measures passed in the state this month.
“This is really just bringing Virginia into the 21st century,” Ebbin told The Washington Post shortly after the bills’ channel. “Voters showed us they wanted equality on Nov. 5, and the Senate of Virginia has started to deliver on that.”
Despite the Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges making lgbtq+ marriage the law of the land, most states still have outdated laws on their books appreciate the ones Virginia just repealed.
Indiana is one of those states, though an attempt to remove its gay marriage ban was unsuccessful last month in the Republican-controlled state Legislature. In fact, GOP disagreement to its removal derailed legislation seeking to lift the legal age to marry in the express from 15 to 18. An amendment had been added to the age