page_title: History of lesbianism in the United States
section_title: 2013
hierarchical_section_title: History of lesbianism in the United States / 2000–2020 / Civil unions and same sex marriage / 2013
caption_attribution_description: English: Marriage Equality USA - Seattle Rally
context_page_description: Unless otherwise noted, the members of same-sex female couples discussed here are not known to be lesbian, but they are mentioned as part of discussing the practice of lesbianism—that is, same-sex female sexual and romantic behavior.
context_section_description: In 2013, in the case Hollingsworth v. Perry, which was brought by a same-sex female couple (Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier) and a same-sex male couple, the Supreme Court said the private sponsors of Proposition 8 did not have legal standing to appeal after the ballot measure was struck down by a federal judge in San Francisco, which made same-sex marriage legal again in California. Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier were married shortly afterward, making them the first same-sex couple to be married in California since Proposition 8 was overturned. Also in 2013, Delaware legalized same-sex marriage and state senator Karen Carter Peterson and her partner Vikki Bandy became the first same-sex couple to be married in Delaware. Also in 2013, same-sex marriage was legalized in Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Utah, and by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in the state of Washington, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, and the Santa Ysabel Tribe. However, several weeks after same-sex marriage was legalized in Utah a stay stopped it. Also in 2013, Hawaii and Illinois legalized same-sex marriage, and Vernita Gray and Patricia Ewert became the first same-sex couple to marry in Illinois. U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin had ordered the Cook County clerk to issue an expedited marriage license to Gray and Ewert before the state's same-sex marriage law took effect in June 2014, because Gray was terminally ill; slightly later that same year, it was declared that all same-sex couples in Illinois where one partner had a terminal illness could marry immediately.
caption: A couple with their children at marriage equality rally, Seattle, WA (2013)
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