States

Six states (CT, IA, MA, NH, NY, and VT) plus the DC have the freedom to marry for gay couples. In 2012, the legislatures in MD, NJ, and WA passed freedom to marry bills that have not yet taken effect; in NJ, work is underway to override the governor's veto, while in MD and WA, ballot-measures to block the freedom to marry must be defeated on the November ballot. In addition, MD, NM, and Rhode Island explicitly respect out-of-state marriages of same-sex couples, nine states have broad domestic partnership or civil union (CA, DE, HI, IL, NV, NJ, OR, RI, WA), and four have more limited domestic partnership (CO, ME, MD, WI). Before 1997 and the battles over the freedom to marry, there was no state-level relationship recognition at all.

Various states now offer broad protections short of marriage, including civil union in IL, NJ, HI, and DE and broad domestic partnership in OR, WA, NV, and CA. Smaller packages of protections for same-sex couples are available in MD, ME, CO, and WI.

With these advances, over 14% of the US population lives in a state that either has the freedom to marry for gay couples or honors out-of-state marriages of gay couples. Over 35% live in a state with either marriage or a broad legal status such as civil union/domestic partnership. Also, more than 42% of the US population (over 130 million Americans) live in a state which provides some form of protections for gay couples.