As of February 9th, 2015, same-sex marriage is now legal in 37  out of the 50 states in the United States of America.  Members of the Lesbian-Gay Bisexual-Transgender Questioning/Queer and Ally(LGBTQA) community have been fighting for their rights since 1924. At this point in time only thirteen states still have same-sex marriage bans. The only question to ask is; what is going on in those thirteen states?

These states consist of Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.The reason behind this banning is their states laws and constitutional amendments do not allow it. Those opposed to the legalization of same sex marriage are aggressively campaigning for an amendment of the Constitution that would ban same-sex marriage permanently. If this amendment were to be passed, it would override all state laws allowing this type of marriage.

Anti-LGBTQA opinions have started to become less and less popular in recent years as more and more people support marriage equality. However, many high-ranking officials have still continued to make anti-gay sentiments publically, such as Oklahoma state lawmaker Sally Kern who once called homosexuality, “the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam.”

Although there are many campaigns against same-sex marriage, there are just as many campaigns for it. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the largest civil rights campaign working towards free rights for the LGBTQA community. The HRC holds a force of over 1.5 million supporters and members. They hold a vision of a world where all people are accepted and embraced for who they are. The Freedom to Marry Campaign is also working to allow same-sex marriage nationwide. This group works with national and state organizations and individual allies to build the population of supporters towards same-sex marriage. This campaign holds a strategy that they have been focusing on since the beginning which is to get a national victory on the Supreme Court of allowing same-sex marriage. On Tuesday April 28th, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments on whether same-sex marriage should be legal or not in the country as a whole.

The debate over the legality of same-sex marriage is facing the nation. This debate is taking a serious turn now that over half of the states have allowed it. What is your stance on same-sex marriage? Let us know in the comments below!