Eleven states ban marriage equality in a single day

On 2 November 2004, the United States elects its president. George W. Bush is running against John Kerry, and the country's attention is on Ohio. But in many places, another question is also on the ballot, one that directly affects millions of queer people: should the state constitution define marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman?

Eleven states vote on such measures that day – including Arkansas, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Utah. The result is unequivocal: every measure passes, with around two thirds in favour overall. In Mississippi, 86 per cent vote yes. Even in Oregon, where the queer movement had hoped for a rejection, 57 per cent support the ban. In eight of the eleven states, the new constitutional provisions go even further and also exclude civil unions.

The trigger was a ruling from Massachusetts: a year earlier, the state's highest court had paved the way for same-sex marriage. Since the spring of 2004, same-sex couples have been able to marry there. Conservative circles fear similar rulings in other states and try to prevent them through constitutional amendments. At the same time, the issue serves to get religious voters to the polls. Whether this mobilisation secured Bush's victory remains disputed.

Despite the setbacks, there are also successes that day. In Cincinnati, voters repeal a city provision that had prohibited protective laws for gay men and lesbians. In Dallas, Lupe Valdez, an openly lesbian Latina, is elected sheriff.

A good ten years later, the decisive turn comes. It also starts in the very states that had changed their constitutions that November day: lawsuits from Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky reach the Supreme Court in 2015. Its ruling opens marriage to same-sex couples throughout the United States. The best-known case bears the name of Jim Obergefell from Cincinnati.