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Marriage Equality Turns 11: South Carolina Won It Early

Eleven Years of Marriage Equality — and the Fight to Keep It in South Carolina

Blue-green poster reads June 26 Marriage Equality Anniversary: Eleven Years of Marriage, with SC Equality logo.

Eleven years ago today — June 26, 2015 — the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that the freedom to marry is a fundamental right for same-sex couples in all fifty states. It was one of the defining civil rights victories of our lifetime. But here in South Carolina, the story started earlier. And it isn't finished.


Marriage equality South Carolina, Obergefell anniversary, Condon v. Haley, H.5501, SC Equality


South Carolina didn't wait

More than seven months before Obergefell, same-sex couples began marrying in this state. On November 12, 2014, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel struck down South Carolina's ban on same-sex marriage in Condon v. Haley — a case brought by SC Equality and Lambda Legal. Couples began marrying here on November 20, 2014. South Carolina was equal before the rest of the country caught up.

We didn't watch history happen. We helped make it happen here.


The long road we walked

That win didn't come easily, and it didn't come fast. South Carolina passed a statutory ban on same-sex marriage in 1996. In 2006, voters wrote that ban into the state constitution as Amendment 1. For nearly two decades, LGBTQ+ South Carolinians were told by their own state that their relationships did not count under the law. It took years of organizing, coalition-building, and a federal lawsuit to change that — and SC Equality was in that fight from the start.

Details of SCEQ History

The win has held

Marriage equality remains the law of the land. This past November, the Supreme Court declined to take up a petition asking it to overturn Obergefell — the first such request since 2015 — and no justice dissented. The federal Respect for Marriage Act, passed in 2022, requires that existing marriages continue to be recognized. The foundation is solid. We intend to keep it that way.


But the work is not done

The campaign to undo this progress is real, and it is organized. In 2025, advocates tracked at least nine states that introduced legislation or passed resolutions urging the Supreme Court to reverse marriage equality. South Carolina is one of them. This spring, twelve members of the South Carolina House filed H.5501, a resolution calling on the Court to overturn Obergefell and return marriage law to the states.


And South Carolina's old ban — the 1996 statute and the 2006 constitutional amendment — was never repealed. It sits dormant on the books. If Obergefell were ever reversed, that law could be revived.


National support is softening, too. Public approval of the freedom to marry has slipped from a high of 71% to 65% in recent polling. Progress is not self-sustaining. Rights that are not defended can be taken back.


Why SC Equality is here


For 24 years — since 2002 — we have been South Carolina's longest-standing LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. We organize people in all 46 counties. We track every bill. We show up at the State House. We helped win marriage equality in this state, and we will not give back a single inch of the ground our community has earned.


The eleventh anniversary of Obergefell is worth celebrating. It is also a reminder that the freedom to marry, like every right, is only as secure as the people willing to defend it.

If you believe marriage equality should be permanent in South Carolina, stand with us.


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Equal means everyone.

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