Originally published at National Catholic Register
California and Colorado voted to repeal amendments that defined marriage as between a man and a woman, while Hawaii is on track to repeal its traditional definition of marriage, though it has not yet been called.
The state constitutions of California, Colorado, and Hawaii defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman, but the results of these measures on the 2024 election ballots are set to remove this traditional definition.
The removal of the long-standing language on marriage is largely symbolic since the U.S. Supreme Court already legalized same-sex marriage in all U.S. jurisdictions in its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision. Nonetheless, in 2020, Nevada became the first state to repeal its constitutional provision defining marriage as between a man and a woman. California, Colorado, and Hawaii joined the ranks this year, removing the definition.
Colorado
In a roughly 63% to 36% vote, Colorado removed language from its constitution that recognized marriage as “only a union of one man and one woman.”
The Colorado bishops made a statement opposing the “Protecting the Freedom to Marry” or Amendment J earlier this year, saying that it was “imperative” for faithful Catholics to oppose the amendment as well as a pro-abortion amendment that would enshrine abortion as a
