8 Top Prospects for Expanding Marriage Equality

Washington and Maryland residents can start applying for marriage licenses on Thursday (though they'll have to wait before it's official), which inspired us to imagine where equality might spread next, not counting the cases already pending Supreme Court review.

BY Julie Bolcer

November 20 2012 7:26 PM ET

Hawaii: A win in Hawaii would be hugely symbolic, being the place where a preliminary state Supreme Court decision allowing for the possibility of same-sex marriage in 1993 sparked Congress to respond three years later with the Defense of Marriage Act. Voters later amended the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, but a federal lawsuit challenging the ban has recently been appealed to the Ninth Circuit. Governor Neil Abercrombie has refused to defend the ban. Hawaii currently has a civil unions law.