By Robyn Ochs
Because we’ve been making so much progress so quickly, here is a summary of the past few months’ victories:
In the UK, the Queen has given her Royal Assent to same-sex marriage in England and Wales.
Delaware enacts the Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Act.
And … oh YES! … the US Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the “Defense of Marriage Act” and Proposition 8 in California, which means that the Federal Government is no longer prohibited from recognizing same-sex marriages and same-sex couples can now marry in California.
For those who are having trouble keeping track, marriage equality is now the law of the land in 12 states: CA, CT, DE, IA, MA, MD, ME, MN, NH, NY, RI, VT, WA, plus Washington, DC. Because several of these states have large populations, this means that almost one third of Americans now live in places that have marriage equality.
On the gender identity front, the Delaware Legislature passed the Gender Identity Non-Discrimination Act in June, making Delaware the 17th US state to protect transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals from discrimination under the law.