Whats happening with gay marriage
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 enable 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 2025
Liechtenstein: On May 16, 2024, Liechtenstein's government passed a bill in favor of marriage equality. The law went into effect January 1, 2025.
1. Rights and benefits enjoyed by same-sex couples married overseas in Hong Kong
Government Departments (Immigration, Housing and Taxation)
The court has recently advanced much of the welfare rights of homosexual couples married overseas. The court has recognised that same-sex or civil partners should be granted spousal/dependent visas by immigration authorities and be entitled to apply for public rental housing, and financial/spousal benefits relating to employment and taxation assessment (including tax allowances or deductions in respect of the gay spouse). Same-sex marriage would be regarded as valid for the purposes of the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap. 112) .
Inheritance
The court has also ruled that definitions of “valid marriage” and “husband and wife” in the provisions of ordinance relating to probate inheritance and intestates’ estate, which remove same-sex couples legally married in foreign countries, are unlawful and unconstitutional, so same-sex spouse can claim as “surviving spouse” under the relevant ordinance.
Death Inquiries
There is now also no distinction between same-sex and opposite-sex spouses under the Coroners Ordinance (Cap. 504), rela
The New Gay Marriage Bill
This week, Roger Severino, Heritage’s Vice President of Domestic Policy and The Anderlik Fellow, breaks down the so called “Respect for Marriage Act.”
Michelle Cordero: From The Heritage Foundation, I'm Michelle Cordero, and this is Heritage Explains.
Cordero: This summer in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Congress introduced the Respect For Marriage Act.
Speaker 2: As abortion rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers continue to protest the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Residence is voting on a bill to protect marriage equality, out of dread the conservative high court could revisit other landmark decisions.
Speaker 3: It simply says each state will recognize the other state's marriages and not reject a person the right to marry based on race, gender, sexual orientation.
Cordero: The legislation passed the House with the back of 47 Republicans. It now moves to the Senate where it would need just 10 Republican votes to pass.
Cordero: Final passage would mean states are no longer allowed to define and remember marriage as a legal union between a gentleman and a woman. Instead, they
Some Republican lawmakers raise calls against male lover marriage SCOTUS ruling
Conservative legislators are increasingly speaking out against the Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 decision on same-sex marriage equality.
Idaho legislators began the trend in January when the state House and Senate passed a resolution calling on the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision -- which the court cannot do unless presented with a case on the issue. Some Republican lawmakers in at least four other states like Michigan, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota own followed suit with calls to the Supreme Court.
In North Dakota, the resolution passed the articulate House with a vote of 52-40 and is headed to the Senate. In South Dakota, the state’s Dwelling Judiciary Committee sent the proposal on the 41st Legislative Day –deferring the bill to the final day of a legislative session, when it will no longer be considered, and effectively killing the bill.
In Montana and Michigan, the bills possess yet to tackle legislative scrutiny.
Resolutions hold no legal command and are not binding law, but instead allow legislative bodies to articulate their collective opinions.
The resolutions in four other states ech
MAP Report: The National Patchwork of Marriage Laws Underneath Obergefell
Rebecca Farmer, Movement Advancement Project
rebecca@lgbtmap.org | 303-578-4600 ext 122
As the Respect for Marriage Act moves through Congress, MAP’s March 2022 report on the landscape of varying state marriage laws around the country is a resource. MAP researchers are available to acknowledge questions and our infographics are on hand for use.
MAP’s report, Underneath Obergefell, explores the patchwork of marriage laws around the country. The inform highlights the evidence that a majority of states still have existing laws on the books that would bar marriage for queer couples – even though those laws are currently unenforceable under the U.S. Supreme Court verdict in Obergefell.
If the U.S. Supreme Court were to revisit the Obergefell conclusion, the ability of same-sex couples to marry could again fall to the states, where a majority of states still have in place both bans in the statute and in articulate constitutions.
The policy landscape for mention marriage laws can be broken into four major categ