Same-sex marriage in North Carolina

Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in North Carolina since October 10, 2014, when a U.S. District Court judge ruled in General Synod of the United Church of Christ v. Cooper that the state's denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples was unconstitutional. Governor Pat McCrory and Attorney General Roy Cooper had acknowledged that a recent ruling in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to hear an appeal in that case had established the unconstitutionality of North Carolina's ban on same-sex marriage. State legislators sought without success to intervene in lawsuits to defend the state's ban on same-sex marriage. On October 10, Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina ruled in General Synod of the United Church of Christ that the ban violated the U.S. Constitution, making North Carolina the 28th U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage. Polling suggests that a majority of North Carolina residents support the legal recognition of same-sex marriage.

North Carolina had previously denied marriage rights to same-sex couples by statute since 1996. A constitutional amendment that was approved in 2012 reinforced this by defining marriage between "a man and a woman" as the only valid "domestic legal union" in the state and denying recognition to any similar legal status, such as civil unions. The defunct amendment remains in the Constitution of North Carolina, and can only be repealed with another amendment that must be passed by both chambers of the General Assembly with a three-fifths vote and by voters in a referendum. On July 12, 2017, same-sex marriage was codified in state statutes regarding statutory construction.

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