Lawmakers continue push to overturn Michigan's same-sex marriage ban

LANSING, Mich. (FOX 2) - Lawmakers in Michigan continue to push to change an amendment banning same-sex marriage in the state's constitution.

In 2004, Michigan voters approved the addition of language to the state constitution stating that "the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose." 

The backstory:

Same-sex marriage is legal nationwide, and has been since the Supreme Court's 2015 ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges. However, if that case were ever to be overturned, same-sex couples would no longer be allowed to marry in Michigan.

"If the future Supreme Court undoes that 2015 ruling, we would snap back to that language that overnight would make it so that no new marriages, no new same-sex marriages, would be able to be issued in the state of Michigan," Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Bloomfield) said. "For the last 11 years, same-sex marriage has been lawful in Michigan, yet all throughout that language still exists in our Constitution."

Moss is leading the charge to get the same-sex marriage ban repealed by introducing a resolution that would allow voters to decide on the issue.

"Our Constitution says, in order to change the Constitution or to put this on the ballot for voters to change the Constitution, you need ⅔ of the Senate and ⅔ of the House to vote in favor of it," Moss said. "We would need our Republican colleagues to join us so that we could get to a ⅔ mark in order to put this on the ballot."

Moss used Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion, as a reason for the push to codify the right in Michigan. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, the procedure became illegal in states with bans.

"We're living in a post-Roe v. Wade world where our rights are not set in stone, and it could be a future court that could repeal what a previous court decided," he said. So, we're not going to wait and see if we end up in a crisis that the future Supreme Court may overturn Obergefell, and then we are back to that language in our Constitution in Michigan banning same-sex marriage. "

What's next:

If the resolution gets the support it needs in both the House and Senate, it will appear on ballots in the fall.

Testimony in support of the resolution was heard by the Committee on Civil Rights, Judiciary, and Public Safety on Thursday, but it did not get voted out of the committee.

"We will look for a future meeting to keep this process moving and see if we can get it on our November ballot," Moss said.

The senator also noted that a 2025 nationwide Gallup poll found that 68% of people support same-sex marriage, signaling that voters may overturn the ban.

"I don't think it (the ban) even aligns with where most Michigan voters are," Moss said.

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