Following the 2014 ruling of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Bostic v. Schaefer, which found Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional and set precedent on every state in the circuit, one judge accepted marriage license applications from same-sex couples until the South Carolina Supreme Court, in response to a request by the Attorney General, ordered him to stop.
The South Carolina Senate passed the bill on a voice vote, and Governor David Beasley signed it into law.
On April 22, 2014, Judge Childs stayed proceedings in Bradacs until the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on the Virginia case of Bostic v. Schaefer, but she allowed briefing to continue.
[14] In other parts of the state, probate judges refused to accept marriage license applications pending a final decision in Bradacs.
[15] On October 15, 2014, citing Bostic, Condon and Bleckley, represented by Lambda Legal and SC Equality, filed suit in federal district court seeking the right to marry.
[21] On the morning of November 19, 2014, Judge Condon began to issue marriage licenses to those who had applied prior to the South Carolina Supreme Court's order.
[25] On December 16, the Fourth Circuit consolidated Bradacs and Condon as Bleckley v. Wilson and put proceedings on hold pending action by the U.S. Supreme Court on certiorari petitions.
[26] On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples have a fundamental right to marry under the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.
[27] On March 13, 2014, Cathy Swicegood filed for divorce from Polly Thompson in a state trial court, alleging that they were common-law married.
The lawsuit asked that a judge officially recognize Swicegood's union with Thompson and order that their joint property be equitably divided.
A family court dismissed Swicegood's action on May 7, 2014, ruling that a common-law marriage between two persons of the same sex was not legally possible according to state statutes.
[28] On November 10, 2021, the South Carolina Supreme Court, basing its reasoning on Obergefell, which held that state same-sex marriage bans are void ab initio, dispensed with briefing and vacated the provision of the Court of Appeals' opinion that same-sex couples could not form common-law marriages prior to November 2014.
However, because Swicegood did not hold herself out as married during the times she lived with Thompson, the Supreme Court upheld the finding that no common-law marriage existed.
[29] In January 2016, a group of five Republican lawmakers and one Democrat introduced the South Carolina Natural Marriage Defense Act to the General Assembly.
[36] While there are no records of same-sex marriages as understood from a Western perspective being performed in Native American cultures, there is evidence for identities and behaviours that may be placed on the LGBT spectrum.
Many of these cultures recognized two-spirit individuals who were born male but wore women's clothing and performed everyday household work and artistic handiwork which were regarded as belonging to the feminine sphere.
[39] Richland County, home to the state capital of Columbia, had issued 422 marriage licenses to same-sex couples by June 26, 2016, one year after the Obergefell decision.