1972-1973: ERA and DOMA

In 1972, the citizens of Washington State adopt the Equal Rights Amendment, ERA, to their state constitution.

The ERA says simply,

Equality of rights and responsibility under the law shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex.

This amendment, and ones like it in other states, will play an important role later in the cases of same-sex couples.

The next year, the Kentucky Court Of Appeals rules against a couple in Jones v. Hallahan, but on the good side, the American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its list of disorders.

DOMA

And here we have a new concept: DOMA, ostensibly called a “defense” of marriage act but more appropriately called a denial of marriage act. The state legislature in Maryland passes a law that specifically, for the first time, says that same-sex couples cannot marry. The Maryland legislators see all this activity going on in the courts of other states – Minnesota, Washington, Kentucky – and decide that they need to make it clear in state law that only opposite-sex couples can marry.

Timeline key: progress (green), no progress (red), pending court cases (purple),
events that are neutral, not directly related, or with both positive and negative effects (black)