Same-sex marriage in the Northern Mariana Islands was legalized by the United States Supreme Court's landmark ruling finding it unconstitutional to restrict same-sex marriage rights in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015. On June 29, 2015, Governor Eloy Inos hailed the decision as "historic" in a statement and said he would work with the Attorney General and local officials in the Northern Mariana Islands to bring the U.S. territory into compliance. Attorney General Edward Manibusan issued a memo on June 30 confirming that the territory is bound by the court decision, calling its statutes defining marriage between a man and a woman "illegal and unenforceable", and updating its marriage application to provide for same-sex couples.
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Recognition of same-sex relationships
There is no prohibition on same-sex marriage in the law of the territory, nor do the statutes specify the sex of the parties to a marriage between citizens of the Northern Mariana Islands. Other provisions assume the parties to a marriage are not of the same sex. With respect to a marriage involving one or more non-citizens, the statutes say: "The male at the time of contracting the marriage be at least 18 years of age and the female at least 16 years of age..." Statutes concerning divorce assume that the partners to a marriage are man and wife.
In December 2004, the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives voted 15-0 with 1 abstention in favor of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The constitutional amendment, however, failed to pass the Senate.
Decisions of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that found same-sex marriage bans in Nevada and Idaho unconstitutional were binding precedent on federal courts in the Northern Marianas before Obergefell v. Hodges. However, between October 2014 when the precedent came into effect, and June when the Supreme Court struck down all bans, no same-sex couple had filed suit in the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands to force the issue.
Marriage statistics
Saipan Mayor David Apatang conducted the first same-sex marriage in the territory on July 22, 2015, saying it was his "legal obligation" to perform the union. He said he was following the June 30 memorandum issued by the Attorney General. An updated version of the Northern Mariana Islands' marriage form provided by the Attorney General's office was used for the couple. By late August 2015, Apatang had performed three same-sex marriages.
As of December 13, 2016, 25 same-sex couples have wed in Saipan. Of these, 12 married in 2015. Most couples were from China. There were also couples from South Korea and the Philippines.
14 same-sex marriages were performed in Saipan between January 1 and March 15, 2017.