LGBT Rights and State Courts
- 1992- Colorado became the first state to abolish offered civil-rights protection for homosexuals by amending its constitution
- 1998- Maine became the first state to repeal its existing gay-rights statutes
- 1999- Vermont Supreme Court grants the same rights and protections that married heterosexuals have to homosexual partners.
- 1999- Antisodomy laws of 32 states were repealed
- 1999- 11 states had laws to protect homosexuals from discrimination
- 2000- Vermont Supreme Court backed civil unions between homosexual couples
- 2003- Massachusetts Highest Court rules that homosexuals do have the right to marry according to the constitution.
- 2003- Antisodomy Laws in all states were overturned.
- May 2004- Massachusetts begins issuing licenses for same sex marriages
- 2006- New Jersey’s Supreme Court extends civil rights to homosexuals and allows civil unions
- 2008- California and Connecticut Supreme Courts abolished their states’ bans on same-sex marriages
- 2009 - Iowa Supreme Court unanimously legalized same-sex marriage in Varnum v. Brien
Read more about this topic: LGBT Movements In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words rights, state and/or courts:
“All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“... here hundreds sit and play Bingo; here the bright lights of Broadway burn through a sea haze; here Somebodies tumble over other Somebodies and over Nobodies as well.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The courts used to be, fair and square, the avengers of secular crimes; but nowadays they demand respect even for the criminal.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)