Full U.S. marriage equality likely just months away
Marriage equality made a significant leap forward across the U.S. yesterday, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that same-sex marriage could proceed in the notoriously conservative state of Alabama.
Reuters reports that the ruling sends the “strongest signal yet” that justices will likely rule in June that no state can restrict marriage to heterosexual couples.
With gay marriage now legal in 37 of America’s 50 states, the decision to allow same-sex couples in Alabama to marry was blocked by only two of the nine Supreme Court justices making the ruling.
Human Rights Campaign’s legal director Sarah Warbelow said the justices’ action on Alabama “has telegraphed there is virtually zero risk that they will issue an anti-equality ruling this summer.”
The group also told same-sex couples in the 13 states where gay marriage is still banned to “start your wedding plans now.”
The map below shows just how far same-sex marriage progress has come in the 11 years since Massachusetts became the first state to allow it in 2004. The blue states denote that same-sex marriage is legal, the red that same-sex marriage is banned and the orange that same-sex marriage bans are overturned with the decision delayed indefinitely.
Picture source: Wikipedia
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