Charted: We're gayer than ever
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Same-sex marriages in Iowa and across the U.S. have increased since the Supreme Court's 2015 decision legalizing them nationwide.
State of play: Iowa was the third state in the U.S. to legalize gay marriage in 2009.
By the numbers: In 2008, just under 2,000 same-sex couples in Iowa who lived in the same household were married.
- By 2022, that more than doubled to over 5,000 married same-sex households.
Zoom out: There were about 1.3 million same-sex couple households nationwide as of 2022, per the latest American Community Survey (ACS) data, compared to about 565,000 in 2008.
- About 41% of current same-sex couples got married between 2015 and 2019, a new Census Bureau report finds.
Reality check: While Obergefell v. Hodges protected the right to marry at the federal level, lawmakers in many states are still seeking to curtail LGBTQ+ Americans' rights, including in Iowa.
- The Supreme Court, meanwhile, ruled last year that businesses can refuse service to same-sex couples on religious objection grounds.