How has the ERA been related to discrimination based on sexual orientation and the issue of same-sex marriage?
Opponents claim that the ERA would require government to permit same-sex marriage, but the U.S. Supreme Court has never defined discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation as a form of sex-based discrimination. The Defense of Marriage Act currently prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and denies federal benefits to spouses in such marriages. Even without an ERA, a lawsuit was filed in March 2009 to have that law overturned on equal protection grounds. At the state level, where most laws dealing with marriage are passed and adjudicated, the legal status of same-sex marriage is not correlated with whether or not a state has an equal rights amendment. Recent developments indicate that state laws and court decisions are evolving toward acceptance of the principle of equal marriage rights without regard to sexual orientation. Some states with ERAs have maintained the legal definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman. In 2006, the Washing
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