Gay Marriage by State Many states have chosen to enact new legislation to prevent any two people of the same sex from getting married. However, not all states are so eager to act, many states are simply taking no action on the issue. On an issue as controversial as this, many factors go into which states act in certain ways. In predominantly Christian states, gay marriage is usually prohibited by state law. State law is much easier to change than federal law. States are also granted the rights to create laws that are not designated and do not violate federal law. Therefore, we get a large variation from state to state, depending on public opinion, of what the current laws are. We will now discuss the current laws in the states to give an overview of what the country has to say as a whole on gay marriage. After Massachusetts decided that gay marriage was not forbidden in the state constitution, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Utah and even Oregon passed amendments to their constitutions making gay marriage forbidden within the state, and gay marriages out of the state not recognized. In Alaska, Nebraska and Nevada there were already bans on same-sex marriage on the books making any action unnecessary for those against gay marriage. In the United states, there are only 7 states that have active laws that promote same sex unions. In California, Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, New Jersey, and Connecticut, laws have been passed to allow gays to have civil unions. Massachusetts is the only state that grants gays the same rights as heterosexuals by deciding that gays were equally entitled to be married under state law. Works Cited