There is no doubt that things are improving in our world. More and more states are legalizing gay marriage and recognizing civil unions. According to polls, support for gay marriage is increasing across the country. Unfortunately, the news is not all good.

As of this writing, six states in the United States have legalized gay marriage via legislative or judicial actions. Same sex couples can currently marry in Iowa, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Vermont and Maine will allow gay and lesbian couples to marry as of September, 2009. Gay marriages will be performed after January 1, 2010 in New Hampshire. While New York and the District of Columbia will not allow gay couples to marry, they will recognize marriages from other states. Current legislation is pending in New York to allow same sex marriage.

New Jersey offers civil unions that include all state rights given to heterosexual married couples. A number of states, including Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Wisconsin, Washington and the District of Columbia offer civil unions or domestic partnerships that include some degree of rights and responsibilities.  These range from minimally guaranteeing hospital visitation privileges and some inheritance rights to more comprehensive unions requiring insurance protections, impacting tax laws and more.

Some forty states restrict marriage to a man and a woman. Some of these states do offer domestic partnerships or civil unions. Nineteen states ban any recognition of civil unions, partnerships or gay marriage. Federal law, under the Defense of Marriage Act, does not recognize gay marriages or civil unions; however, some federal employee benefits have been extended to gay partners.

What can we expect to change across the United States? While Obama promised an overturn of the Defense of Marriage Act, this is still to come. Massachusetts has challenged this law on the basis that it is discriminatory, relying on the defense that family law is typically a state matter. Other suits are being brought against the Defense of Marriage Act by private parties. It is expected that other states with legal gay marriage will join in the fight against DOMA.

See http://www.npr.org/news/specials/gaymarriage/map/ for an easy state by state breakdown of gay marriage laws.