Same-sex marriage in Utah
The issuance of those licenses was halted during the period of January 6, 2014 until October 6, 2014, following the resolution of a lawsuit challenging the state's ban on same-sex marriage.
On October 6, the Supreme Court refused to hear the state's appeal, requiring Utah to license and recognize same-sex marriages.
[19] State Senator Jim Dabakis, chairman of the Utah Democratic Party, was one of the first to get married in Salt Lake City.
[25][26] Several continued to do so on December 23, the Monday following the ruling, including Box Elder, Carbon, Juab, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier and Utah counties.
I am working with my legal counsel and the acting Attorney General to determine the best course to defend traditional marriage within the borders of Utah.
"[33] Bishop John Wester of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City called the decision "an affront to an institution that is at once sacred and natural".
[40] On December 31, the state asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue a stay,[41] which it granted on January 6, pending a decision by the Tenth Circuit.
On January 10, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government would recognize the 1,360 same-sex marriages that had been performed in Utah prior to the stay.
[53] On October 6, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Utah's appeal without comment, allowing the Tenth Circuit to lift its stay.
In response, Governor Herbert and Attorney General Reyes announced that Utah would comply with the decision of the Supreme Court and swiftly advised state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages.
[58] In August, the Tenth Circuit granted the state's request for an additional month to file its appeal, setting October 22 as the deadline.
[59] After the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Kitchen, Utah officials asked the Tenth Circuit to dismiss its appeal in this case, ending its attempt to deny recognition to the December and January same-sex marriages.
[60] The order and permanent injunction was issued on November 24, 2014 by the United States District Court for Utah, Central Division.
The bill sought to make all mentions to marriage in Utah law gender-neutral, replacing all references to "husband and wife" with "spouses" or "married couple".
[63] A bill to update Utah's adoption laws by replacing "mother and father" with "parents" was introduced to the Senate on February 18, 2016, but it also failed to pass before March 10.
[65] On March 10, 2016, Senator Jim Dabakis successfully delayed a vote on a bill that sought to change the definition of joint tenants from "any legally married couple" to "husband and wife".
[67][68] All four Utah representatives in the U.S. House, Republicans Blake Moore, Chris Stewart, John Curtis and Burgess Owens, voted in favor of the Respect for Marriage Act in July 2022.
The Act would officially repeal DOMA and require the federal government to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages, codifying parts of both the Obergefell v. Hodges and Loving v. Virginia rulings.
A bill to legalize same-sex marriage was introduced to the Navajo Nation Council by Delegate Eugene Tso of Chinle in July 2022.
[74] 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.
Associated with prosperity and believed to have originated in the third world of the Holy People, the nádleehi directed the planting and the fieldwork, and generally functioned as head of a household.
[75][76] The Law and Order Code of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation does not expressly forbid same-sex marriages, but requires that the couple take each other as "husband and wife".
[77] The Ute people refer to two-spirit individuals who were born male but carried out women's work in the community as tuwasawich (pronounced [tuˈwasawitʃ]).
The Arizona-based religious legal action group Alliance Defense Fund sued the city, claiming that the order violated the Utah Constitution.
"[89] On May 11, 2006, Third District Judge Stephen L. Roth ruled in Norman v. Anderson that the domestic partner benefit plan did not violate state law.
Roth acknowledged the arguments in favor of providing more expansive benefit plans, noting that "as a practical matter single employees may have relationships outside of marriage, whether motivated by family feeling, emotional attachment or practical considerations, which draw on their resources to provide the necessaries of life, including health care".
[90][91] The Salt Lake City Council adopted an ordinance in 2008 that provides a mutual commitment registry to "unmarried domestic partners—gay or straight—and to other adults in financially dependent relationships, such as a person caring for an aging parent".
[93] According to the opinion poll conducted on the issue in September 2022 by Dan Jones & Associates for the Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics, 72% of Utah registered voters supported same-sex marriage.
