Same-sex marriage became legal across the entire United States on June 26, 2015, when the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples have a fundamental right to marry in all 50 states.

Quick Scoop

  • In the United States, nationwide marriage equality began on June 26, 2015, after the Obergefell v. Hodges decision struck down state bans on same-sex marriage.
  • Before that ruling, some states had already legalized same-sex marriage individually, starting with Massachusetts in 2004, while others still had constitutional or statutory bans in place.
  • The 2015 decision required every state to both issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, effectively standardizing marriage equality nationwide.

A Bit Of Background

  • The path to legalization followed years of litigation, state-level legislation, and ballot measures, with courts frequently citing the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment as the constitutional basis for recognizing same-sex marriage as a fundamental right.
  • Earlier milestones included Massachusetts becoming the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage in 2004 after the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health.

Many forum discussions still revisit June 2015 as a cultural turning point, especially around each anniversary, reflecting ongoing debates about LGBTQ+ rights, religious liberty, and the stability of the Court’s precedent.

TL;DR: Same-sex marriage became legal nationwide in the U.S. on June 26, 2015, after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.