Where Can We Marry? The U.S. Legal Landscape

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When it comes to marriage laws, the U.S. is all over the map – although if current voting trends promoting the Christian right's "moral values" agenda continue, perhaps not for long.

• Massachusetts allows in-state gay and lesbian couples to marry. In September – one year and 6,000 same-sex marriages after enactment – the Legislature soundly rejected a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriages.

• Vermont and Connecticut allow civil unions for same-sex couples.

• In California, the Legislature passed a measure in September permitting same-sex marriages; last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made good on his promise to veto it. The bill would have reversed an existing ban, which is under a legal challenge pending in a state appeals court.

• All but a handful of states (New York, New Mexico, New Jersey, Maryland, and the District of Columbia) have adopted statutes banning the recognition of same-sex marriage.

• Eighteen states have constitutional bans on same-sex marriage: Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah.

• In Nebraska, a federal judge struck down the ban on same-sex marriages in May, on grounds that it denies gay and lesbian couples fundamental constitutional rights. The state is appealing.

• Five states have proposed ban amendments awaiting popular votes: Texas (Nov. 8), Alabama, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Tennessee (2006).

• Two states have proposed constitutional amendments awaiting second legislative votes: Indiana (2006), and Virginia (2007).