In 2015, Obergefell v. Hodges held that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. Obergefell provides a date in which same-sex married couples residing in states that had not previously allowed same-sex marriage may now use as an applicable official date of marriage. Post-Obergefell, all states must grant same-sex marriages and recognize same-sex marriages granted in other states.

For many couples across the United States, the Obergefell decision was a victory for marriage equality. What may have been suspected, but no one knew definitively at the time, was exactly how much of an emotional benefit legalizing same sex marriage would have on our nation’s youth. In fact, since the Obergefell decision, research conducted by Julia Raifman, a post-doctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, has come to light showing a significant decrease in teen suicide attempts in the U.S. post Obergefell, with the biggest impact amongst gay, lesbian and bisexual kids. This is noteworthy because according to the Trevor Project, an organization that works to prevent suicide among LGBT youth, “Suicide is the 10th-leading cause of death in the U.S. and the second for people aged 10 to 24, with queer teens statistically are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide as their straight peers.”

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