Same-sex marriages have doubled in the decade since the Supreme Court made the union legal across the country.
This week marks 10 years since the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that state bans on same-sex marriages violated the Constitution.
The ruling stemmed from a case titled Obergefell v. Hodges. Plaintiff Jim Obergefell of Cincinnati, Ohio, had been in a relationship with John Arthur for almost two decades when Arthur was diagnosed with ALS in 2011, The Associated Press reported.
It was another Supreme Court decision from 2013, that repealed a law denying federal recognition of same-sex marriages, which allowed Obergefell and Arthur to get married in Maryland.
But because of the laws in the couple’s home state, their marriage would not be listed on Arthur’s death certificate. Arthur died months into their legal battle challenging Ohio’s refusal to recognize same-sex marriages on death certificates.
The Supreme Court ruled on June 26, 2015, that the right to marry is “inherent in the liberty of the person” and therefore protected by the Constitution.
Now, there are between 820,000 and 930,000 same-sex marriages across the U.S., The Washington Post reported. In 2014, there were 390,000 same-sex marriages around the country in states where the union was legal.
The Post analyzed data from Gallup, the Pew Center and the Williams Institute at UCLA Law.
A majority of Americans support same-sex marriage. A Gallup poll from May found that 68 percent of people believe same-sex marriages should be recognized by the law as valid, while just 29 percent believe they should not.
Still, 32 states still have laws that would ban same-sex marriages if not for the Obergefell ruling, Axios reported, citing the independent think tank Movement Advancement Project. About 60 percent of LGBTQ adults live in states with some type of marriage equality ban.
There is also a growing number of voices advocating for the overturning of Obergefell, with Republican lawmakers in several states introducing measures to urge the Supreme Court to end same-sex marriage.
Obergefell told NBC News in a recent interview: “Ten years later, I certainly wasn’t expecting to be talking about the threats to marriage equality, the potential for Obergefell to be overturned.”
“Marriage is a right, and it shouldn’t depend on where you live,” he argued, adding that he remains hopeful in the fight for marriage equality.
“My husband, John, was a very optimistic person, and he certainly had an impact on me,” Obergefell said. “I have to be confident that we will prevail.”
