List of supporters of same-sex marriage in the United States

Supporters of same-[...] marriage in the United States are Americans that support extending the right to marry to same-[...] couples. The reform of marriage law has been the focus of many LGBT social movements. A number of politicians and political parties have expressed support and of the two main parties, the Democratic Party has the most supporters, but the cause has been championed by Libertarians, Greens, Socialists, and Communists.

Political parties

National

Of the two major political parties in the United States, the Republican and Democratic parties, platform positions on same-[...] marriage tend to be negative or ambiguous. The Republican Party, further to the right than the Democrats on most issues, wishes to block same-[...] marriage through a federal constitutional amendment. Failing that, it pledges support for state constitutional amendments, and if same-[...] marriage becomes legal in some states, advocates using the power of Congress to block the reciprocal recognition of same-[...] marriages from other states. The Democratic Party's national platform supports "equal responsibility, benefits, and protections" for same-[...] couples, which can be read as supporting either full marriage rights or civil unions.

Of the most significant third parties in the United States, the Communist, Socialist, and Green parties explicitly support the legalization of same-[...] marriage as part of a nondiscrimination agenda. The Libertarian Party also wish to lift the bans, but with the ultimate goal of marriage privatization. Notably absent from this list is the Constitution Party, which not only opposes "government... [authorizing or defining] marriage or family relations contrary to what God has instituted", but also advocates sodomy laws.

Affiliated National Party Organizations

State

  • California Democratic Party
  • Iowa Democratic Party
  • Massachusetts Democratic Party
  • Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
  • New Mexico Democratic Party
  • Vermont Progressive Party
  • Washington State Democratic Party
  • Wisconsin Democratic Party

Elected officials

Former Presidents

  • Bill Clinton (D-Arkansas)
Former Vice Presidents
  • Al Gore (D-Tennessee)
  • [...] Cheney (R-Wyoming)

Governors

  • David Paterson (D-New York)
  • John Baldacci (D-Maine)
  • Deval Patrick (D-Massachusetts)
  • John Lynch (D-New Hampshire)
Former Governors
  • Howard Dean (D-Vermont)
  • Jon Corzine (D-New Jersey)
  • Madeleine Kunin (D-Vermont)
  • Eliot Spitzer (D-New York)
  • Jerry Brown (D-California)
Lieutenant Governors
  • Tim Murray (D-Massachusetts)
Former Lieutenant Governors
  • Joy Corning (R-Iowa)
  • Sally Pederson (D-Iowa)

U.S. Senators

  • Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island)
  • Christopher Dodd (D-Connecticut)
  • Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont)
  • Chuck Schumer (D-New York)
  • Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York)
  • Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey)
  • Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)
  • Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin)
  • Ron Wyden (D-Oregon)
  • Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon)
  • Dianne Feinstein (D-California)
  • Barbara Boxer (D-California)
  • Al Franken (D-Minnesota)
  • Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
  • Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire)
Former Senators
  • Lincoln Chafee (R-Rhode Island)
  • Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts)

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

  • Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-California)
  • Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii)
  • Rob Andrews (D-New Jersey)
  • Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin)
  • Shelley Berkley (D-Nevada)
  • Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon)
  • Mike Capuano (D-Massachusetts)
  • Yvette Clarke (D-New York)
  • Steve Cohen (D-Tennessee)
  • Joe Courtney (D-Connecticut)
  • Joseph Crowley (D-New York)
  • Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota)
  • Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts)
  • John Garamendi (D-California)
  • Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona)
  • Jim Himes (D-Connecticut)
  • Rush Holt (D-New Jersey)
  • John Sarbanes (D-Maryland)
  • Patrick Kennedy (D-Rhode Island)
  • Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)
  • Barbara Lee (D-California)
  • John Lewis (D-Georgia)
  • Carolyn B. Maloney (D-New York)
  • Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts)
  • Jim Moran (D-Virginia)
  • Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut)
  • Jerrold Nadler (D-New York)
  • John Olver (D-Massachusetts)
  • Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey)
  • Ed Perlmutter (D-Colorado)
  • Chellie Pingree (D-Maine)
  • Jared Polis (D-Colorado)
  • Michael Quigley (D-Illinois)
  • Steve Rothman (D-New Jersey)
  • Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois)
  • Carol Shea-Porter (D-New Hampshire)
  • Jackie Speier (D-California)
  • Anthony Weiner (D-New York)
Former U.S. Representatives
  • Tom Campbell (R-California)
  • Harold Ford, Jr. (D-Tennessee)
  • Wayne Gilchrest (R-Maryland)
  • Joe Hoeffel (D-Pennsylvania)
  • Ellen Tauscher (D-California)

Mayors

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, representing the mayors of cities with populations larger than 30,000 resolved to support same-[...] marriage.

  • Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles)
  • Gavin Newsom (D-San Francisco)
  • Jerry Sanders (R-San Diego)
  • Richard M. Daley (D-Chicago)
  • Michael Bloomberg (I-New York)
  • Adrian Fenty (D-Washington D.C.)
  • Thomas Menino (D-Boston)
  • Michael Nutter (D-Philadelphia)
  • Sam Adams (D-Portland)
  • Cory Booker (D-Newark)
  • Ron Dellums (D-Oakland)
  • Annise Parker (D-Houston)
  • R.T. Rybak (D-Minneapolis)
  • John Hickenlooper (D-Denver)
  • Michael McGinn (D-Seattle)
Former mayors
  • Greg Nickels (D-Seattle)
  • Willie Brown (D-San Francisco)
  • Rocky Anderson (D-Salt Lake City)
  • Jan Laverty Jones (D-Las Vegas)
  • Shirley Franklin (D-Atlanta)
  • Ron Gonzales (D-San Jose)

Organizations and religious denominations

Organizations such as the National Organization for Women, the Human Rights Campaign, the AFL-CIO, the ACLU, the American Psychiatric Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the National Education Association, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, People for the American Way, Secular Coalition for America, GLAAD, Center for American Progress, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Freedom to Marry, Marriage Equality USA, Lambda Legal, Moveon.org, Drum Major Institute, Institute for Policy Studies, Americans for Democratic Action, Progressive Democrats of America, Campus Progress, Democracy for America, Progressive Majority, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League, and Amnesty International all support the legalization of same-[...] marriage.

Same-[...] marriage is supported by several religious denominations such as the Metropolitan Community Church, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church, Reconstructionist Judaism, Reform Judaism, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and liberal Quakers.

See also

  • Same-[...] marriage in the United States
  • Same-[...] marriage law in the United States by state
  • Opponents of same-[...] marriage in the United States

See Also

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