U.S. Supreme Court holds that marriage equality is a constitutional right.  Marriage is now available to 1 million same-sex couples in the United States.

 

The United States Supreme Court opened marriage to an estimated 1 million same-sex couples nationwide.

 

"As all parties agree, many same-sex couples provide loving and nurturing homes to their children, whether biological or adopted. And hundreds of thousands of children are presently being raised by such couples," the Supreme Court noted in its historic opinion, citing Williams Institute Blachford-Cooper Distinguished Scholar and Research Director Gary Gates. "Most States have allowed gays and lesbians to adopt, either as individuals or as couples, and many adopted and foster children have same-sex parents. This provides powerful confirmation from the law itself that gays and lesbians can create loving, supportive families."

 

The number of married same-sex couples in the United States has tripled since 2013, to an estimated 390,000 couples.

 

An estimated 122,000 same-sex couples are raising 210,000 children under age 18, of whom 58,000 are adopted or foster children. Same-sex couples are nearly three times as likely as their different-sex counterparts to be raising an adopted or foster child. Married same-sex couples are five times more likely to have these children than their different-sex counterparts. Married same-sex couples are more economically secure than unmarried.

 

The decision legalizes marriage equality in the last 13 states that previously banned it – Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.

 

Compared to all same-sex couples in the United States, those in the 13 states are more likely to have children, earn less, and are more likely to be racial or ethnic minorities, according to Williams Institute analyses.