Senate passes landmark Respect for Marriage Act in bipartisan vote
The vote was 61-36, with a number of Republican senators choosing not to vote.
Watch CBS News
The vote was 61-36, with a number of Republican senators choosing not to vote.
Both sides in the gay marriage debate agree on one thing: It's time for the Supreme Court to settle the matter.
Salt Lake City's mayor led one of the state's first gay marriage ceremony.
Wedding season is about to kick into high-gear after two Supreme Court rulings on Wednesday.
Few in the crowd on Wednesday have fought longer for gay rights than Ellen Pontac and Shelly Bailes. On the west steps of the Capitol, they joined hundreds celebrating two landmark Supreme Court rulings.
Wendy Montgomery and her family greeted Wednesday's news that the Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act and said would not rule on Proposition 8 with a smile.
We won't find out today if same-sex marriages will be allowed again in California.
In the second of back-to-back gay marriage cases, the Supreme Court turned Wednesday to a constitutional challenge to the law that prevents legally married gay Americans from collecting federal benefits generally available to straight married couples.
The Supreme Court waded Tuesday into the fight over same-sex marriage at a time when public opinion is shifting rapidly in favor of permitting gay and lesbian couples to wed, but 40 states don't allow it.
The Supreme Court will release audio recordings of next week's arguments in two gay marriage cases just a few hours after they conclude.
Accountants and tax attorneys anticipating the demise of the Defense of Marriage Act are already encouraging same-sex couples to seek prospective tax refunds, back retirement payments and other spousal subsidies they may have been denied.
A federal judge in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that the U.S. government cannot deny health benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee by relying on the 1996 law that bars government recognition of same-sex unions.
In a major policy reversal, the Obama administration said Wednesday it will no longer defend the constitutionality of a federal law banning recognition of same-sex marriage.
