According to several polls released in 2013, a majority of Americans support same-sex marriage. Responses to Gallup’s survey on the matter suggested that most Americans would actually support a nationwide ruling in favour of same-sex marriage.
However, although the United States repealed DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act), a law that restricted benefits for married same-sex couples across the country, it’s unlikely that a law in favour of same-sex marriage would ever be instated. Instead, same-sex marriage is being decided on a state by state basis.
Some states have been forced to bring same-sex marriage into law due to court rulings that laws against same-sex marriages are unconstitutional, while rulings in other states have been left to public vote, meaning that the rights of same-sex citizens are often dictated by local bias, intolerance and political leanings. Though, a majority of states in the country do now allow same-sex marriages to take place and now we have an updated map showing marriage equality across the U.S.
The full list of states that allow for same-sex marriage are as follows: Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
And, it’s not a state but the District of Columbia (Washington D.C) also allows for same-sex marriage. Overall it means that over 70% of American citizens reside in places where same-sex marriage can take place.
Not that there aren’t still ways to go though, as that map shows. In Missouri, the ban on same-sex marriages was repealed but Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster appealed. He didn’t request a stay and so while St. Louis, St. Louis County, and Jackson County are providing same-sex marriage licenses, other counties are awaiting the outcome of the appeal.
![gay-marriage-map-02](https://kitschmix.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/gay-marriage-map-02.jpg)
In Texas meanwhile, it looks incredibly likely that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will repeal the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. In retaliation, a bill has been introduced by Rep. Cecil Bell (R) that sees that government employees in the state “may not recognize, grant, or enforce a same-sex marriage license” and they risk losing their salary, pension and benefits if they do so.
So, other than a few politicians souring things, it looks very likely that we’ll be posting about same-sex marriage coming to other states in the U.S very soon indeed.