Much of our focus on LGBTQ rights centers at the federal level because those decisions impact the entire United States, but there are many ongoing battles in a multitude of states that concern LGBTQ equality.

The first that’s gotten a bit of press lately is the attempt by South Carolina legislators to introduce a bill defining any marriage not between one man and one woman as a “parody” marriage, based on shaky language equating nonheterosexual marriage with secular humanism. By linking same-sex marriage with a religion, the language of this bill concludes that treating same-sex marriage as equal is actually promoting a religion, which violates the establishment clause of the Constitution’s First Amendment.