Anti-Discrimination Laws

Weddings Redefined

Stories and advice from Bernadette Smith, visionary owner of 14 Stories, the nation's first firm specializing in creating legal LGBT weddings. Our weddings are unique, personal, beautiful and still, historical. We have offices in Boston and New York.

Anti-Discrimination Laws

Bernadette Coveney Smith - Friday, November 13, 2009

A lot of people were surprised today when I mentioned on Twitter that yes, it's legal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in most places.

In fact, there are only 13 states (plus DC) which explicitly ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation AND gender identity (gender identity is a lesson for another day). I hope you are lucky to live in the great states of:

Minnesota
Rhode Island
New Mexico
California
District of Columbia
Illinois
Maine
Hawaii
New Jersey
Washington
Iowa
Oregon
Vermont
Colorado

Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Nevada, Maryland, New York and Delaware are an additional 8 states that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation only.

That's a total of 21 states (plus DC) where it would be illegal to discriminate against a same-sex couple, meaning in 29 states, a wedding vendor could legally deny services to a same-sex couple. The PDF map of state laws is found here.

This is why screening vendors is so important! Where does your state stand?