10 years after legalization, PA Rep says it’s time to modernize laws to reflect same-sex marriages

While same-sex marriages have been legal nationwide for 10 years, Pennsylvania laws still contain outdated wording that only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman. Lawmakers want to change that.

In June 2015, in the landmark case of Obergefell v. Hodges, the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, striking down all state bans on it and legalizing it in all 50 states. 

Now, almost 10 years later, local lawmakers want to update Pennsylvania’s laws to reflect that change.

There are still many states, including the commonwealth, that retain outdated and unconstitutional sections of law that prohibit marriage equality. State Rep. Malcom Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia) said he plans to introduce a bill that will update Pennsylvania’s current marriage laws by repealing the section that only recognizes marriage as between a man and woman.

“Marriage equality has been enshrined as a right by our state and federal government, and this section of law no longer represents the modern definition and view of marriage,” Kenyatta said in a memo. “It is a disservice to all our fellow Pennsylvanians in loving, same-sex marriages to continue to allow this obsolete section of law to exist.”

Pennsylvania originally legalized same-sex marriages in May 2014, when a US federal district court ruled that the state’s 1996 statutory ban on recognizing same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Pennsylvania had previously prohibited the recognition of same-sex marriage by statute since 1996, but had never added such a ban to its state constitution. 

Pennsylvania was the 18th state in the nation, and the last in the northeastern US, to legalize same-sex marriage. 

“Marriage is a sacred and ancient institution that was only recently extended to same-sex couples across the country,” Kenyatta said.

There were about 1.3 million same-sex couple households nationwide as of 2022.