Introduction

• Library: Estate Planning for Same-Sex Couples (ABA) (2015 Ed.)

When I wrote the first edition of this book we were awaiting the decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health¹ from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. That 2004 decision made Massachusetts the first state in the country to recognize same-sex marriages.

When the ABA released the second edition of this book in 2012, six jurisdictions recognized marriage equality. This third edition follows hard on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.² Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the Court majority, stated that marriage is a fundamental right "inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, couples of the same-sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty."

The Obergefell decision finally resolves the marriage equality issue in the United States. From now on there is no "same-sex marriage" or "opposite-sex marriage"; there is only marriage. In advance of the decision, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said that America is ready for marriage equality. And who will disagree with RBG?

What seemed an impossible pipe dream at the turn of the century is now reality.

The Windsor decision paved the way and Justice Scalia, in his Windsor dissent, predicted this outcome. He stated the Windsor decision provided the roadmap for challenging all state laws prohibiting same-sex marriage. Once again, as with his dissent in Lawrence v. Texas, the justice was prescient in his predictions.

These are exciting times to be practicing law because marriage is just part of the equation. It is the beginning, not the end, of the legal struggle in which we seek full rights for the LGBT community.

LGBT people face discrimination in other areas including employment, housing, public accommodations, public benefits, and family law. Even...