Gay people getting married
Marriage Equality Around the World
The Human Rights Campaign tracks developments in the legal recognition of same-sex marriage around the world. Working through a worldwide network of HRC global alumni and partners, we lift up the voices of community, national and regional advocates and share tools, resources, and lessons learned to allow 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 United Kingdom, the United States of America and Uruguay.
These countries have legalized marriage equality through both legislation and court decisions.
Countries that Legalized Marriage Equality in
Liechtenstein: On May 16, , Liechtenstein's gove
One in 10 LGBT Americans Married to Same-Sex Spouse
Story Highlights
- % of LGBT adults in the U.S. are married to a homosexual spouse
- Number of same-sex marriages have increased since
- Opposite-sex marriages, partnerships more usual among bisexual adults
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- About one in 10 LGBT adults in the U.S. (%) are married to a lgbtq+ spouse, with a slightly smaller proportion (%) living with a same-sex home partner. Half of LGBT adults have never been married, while % are married to an opposite-sex spouse and % are either divorced or separated.
Overall, less than 1% of U.S. adults are married to a same-sex spouse. The greatest percentage of Americans, %, are married to an opposite-sex spouse.
| U.S. adults | LGBT adults | |
|---|---|---|
| % | % | |
| Married to opposite-sex spouse | ||
| Married to same-sex spouse | ||
| Living with opposite-sex domestic partner | ||
| Living with same-sex domestic partner | ||
| Single/Never married | ||
| Separated | ||
| Divorced | ||
| Widowed | ||
| No opinion |
These results are based on aggregated statistics from Gallup surveys, enc
Viewpoint: How has marriage changed life for gay people?
Writer and activist Peter McGraith married his loved one David in the first ceremony conducted under the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act covering most of the UK. Here, he asks what effect it's had on queer and lesbian couples - and on marriage itself.
Do we care if marriage equality contributes to the demise of gay culture, self and community?
I do.
We should think about what might be lost, as good as gained, if a new generation of gay men and lesbians were to rush into marriages without firstly having experienced that blast of emancipation that follows on from the realisation that you are that thing that some people loathe or pity and you feel utterly thrilled with it.
This experience of asserting a positive identity, outside of mainstream sexual morality, makes us doubt what we've been taught about gender, social hierarchies, religion, the family and the impropriety of sex. And perhaps it encourages us to have mature, rational and straightforward relationships.
Over 50% of gay men's relationships are sexua
Gay couples rush to marry and have children before Trump inauguration
But some gay couples say they fear that after it overturned Roe v. Wade in , unraveling half a century of legal precedent, the Supreme Court will rescind their right to marry next.
Those concerns were stoked in when Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito issued blistering rebukes of Obergefell and signaled that they would be start to reversing it. Thomas again expressed an interest in overturning Obergefell in his concurring perspective in the decision to overturn Roe.
Mary Bonauto, who argued on behalf of same-sex couples in Obergefell and now serves as the civil rights project director at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD, dismissed the idea that the same-sex marriage ruling will be overturned.
“I grasp that there are things about these times that introduce a lot of uncertainty in people’s lives. I understand that,” she added. “But right now, and certainly for the foreseeable future, marriage equality is not one of the things that would change.”
While fear among some same-sex attracted and lesbian couples i