37 States Now Allow Same-Sex Marriage

As of late February, 37 states now have legalized gay marriage. Of those 37, 26 legalized it by court decision, eight (including New York) by a vote in the state legislature and three by popular vote.

States not yet allowing gay marriage are as follows: Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Nebraska.

The majority of the states now allowing gay marriage have legalized it within the last couple of years. There has been a tremendous movement around the country to approve equal rights for same sex couples, and it has caused quite a divide in states that have yet to legalize it. The process has been repeated over and over again in states legalizing same-sex marriage: a judge strikes down a ban, there are appeals, the decision is upheld and the marriages begin.

Some experts believe that all 50 states could have gay marriage legalized in their states as soon as the end of 2016. But if not that soon, it’s clear that the trend is going to be to continue to see legalizations. Not a single appeal protesting a decision to strike down a gay marriage ban has been successful. With federal judges across the nation consistently calling such bans unconstitutional, it would seem to be only a matter of time before it is legal across the entire United States, without the country ever having had to approve a constitutional amendment to make it so.

If you are a same-sex couple new to New York and would like to get married, consult a skilled Long Island family law attorney at Bryan L. Salamone & Associates.