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Last month, I pointed to a gay marriage map created by NPR to illustrate the status of the same-sex marriage fight in states across the country. I characterized the map, I believe, as a “bummer”—-nearly the whole nation was painted blue, marking states that hold to the Defense of Marriage Act.
Yesterday, a reader pointed out a map that is a little more interesting (via Wikipedia)—-and not just because new states are constantly being added to the coalition. In addition to marking the states where same-sex marriages (purple) and civil unions (navy) are legal, this map also shows states that respect foreign same-sex marriages (light blue) and states with civil unions that grant some (but not all) marriage rights to same-sex couples (green). The map also differentiates between states with statutes banning same-sex marriage (yellow), states with constitutional bans on same-sex marriage (orange), and states with constitutional bans on same sex marriage and “other kinds of same-sex unions” (red).
This map doesn’t necessarily paint a more promising picture. But it does show that many, many states in the union hold compromise positions on gay marriage that are more nuanced than a blanket ban—-and could lead the way to future alliances.