I’ve been writing and speaking on LGBTQ+ rights as they intersect with estate planning and otherwise since the inception of my firm. (It’s related to my lawyer origin story.) In fact, serendipity had our firm launch on the day Illinois passed the Civil Union Act, on June 1, 2011.
Then, in 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for marriage equality in Obergefell v. Hodges. Still, that ruling was a plurality, which means it could be readily overturned if the Court agrees to hear another marriage equality case, that is founded on a different and novel legal argument.
Perhaps reading the tea leaves or understanding the direction of the Court, in 2022, former President Biden, signed into law the Respect for Marriage Act. The law undergirded interracial marriage, repealed the infamous DOMA, and required states with mini-DOMAs to respect same-sex marriages if the couple was married in a jurisdiction that provided same-sex marriages. So, same-sex marriage is safe, right?
DOMA was signed into law in 1996 by former President Bill Clinton.
The law defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Technically, same-sex marriage is safe, but the benefits that accompany marriage are still governed by state and federal law and the doctrines supporting states’ rights are more popular now and the Supreme Court has a different composition than it did in 2015.
The results: second-parent adoptions for same-sex couples are being sought more now than ever in addition to amended estate plans that protect LGBTQ+ couples regardless of their domicile; and any other protections that can be provided by law.
It is unfathomable the reverse course that LGBTQ+ rights are confronting, but the Stonewall Generation doesn’t forget.
So, Welcome to Pride 2025.
