Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Alaska since October 12, 2014, with an interruption from October 15 to 17 while state officials sought without success to delay the implementation of a federal court ruling. The U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska held on October 12 in Hamby v. Parnell that Alaska's statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage violated the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution. On October 15, state officials obtained a two-day stay from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which the U.S. Supreme Court refused to extend on October 17. Although Alaska is one of a few states which enforces a three-day waiting period between requesting a marriage license and conducting a marriage ceremony, at least three same-sex couples had the waiting period waived immediately after the district court's ruling. They married in Utqiagvik and Ketchikan on October 13 and were the first same-sex couples to marry in Alaska.

Alaska had previously denied marriage rights to same-sex couples by statute since 1996 and in its State Constitution since 2004. Polling suggests that a majority of Alaskans support the legal recognition of same-sex marriage, with a 2024 Public Religion Research Institute poll showing that 70% of respondents supported same-sex marriage.

Legal history Restrictions After the Hawaii Supreme Court seemed poised to legalize same-sex marriage in Hawaii in Baehr v. Miike in 1993, Representative Norm Rokeberg introduced legislation (House Bill 227) to the Alaska House of Representatives in March 1995 to add language restricting marriage to "the union of one man and one woman" in state statutes. The bill passed the House in February 1996. In March 1996, Senator Lynda Green introduced Senate Bill 30 to the Alaska Senate, which restricted marriage to "a civil contract between one man and one woman" and forbade the recognition of same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. It passed the Senate and the House shortly thereafter. Governor Tony Knowles did not veto the bill, but allowed it to become law without his signature on May 6, 1996. A bill to codify same-sex marriage in state statutes was introduced to the Alaska Legislature in February 2016. It would have replaced all references to "husband and wife" across state statutes with the gender-neutral term "spouses". Representative Andy Josephson said that Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, was "not reflected in state laws". The bill died without a vote. A similar bill was also unsuccessful in 2017.AK HB15 | 2017-2018 | 30th Legislature

In 1998, the Alaska Legislature passed Ballot Measure 2, a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, which was approved in a popular referendum on November 3, 1998. The amendment passed with 68% in favor and 32% opposed. The Alaska Civil Liberties Union attempted to prevent the referendum from proceeding, but in August 1998 the Alaska Superior Court held that the proposed referendum and accompanying ballot description were legally permissible. Representative Josephson filed a bill to repeal the ban in January 2023, which if approved would have been presented to voters in November 2024. Citing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, in June 2022, Josephson said, "The Supreme Court for the first time in history, has removed civil rights. And we would be foolish to just watch them do it and not intervene to protect the civil liberties of our own citizens." The bill failed to pass before the end of the legislative session.

Lawsuits

Brause v. Alaska In August 1994, Jay Brause and Gene Dugan, a same-sex couple from Anchorage, filed an application for a marriage license, which was denied by the Alaska Office of Vital Statistics. They filed suit in the Alaska Superior Court, arguing that their rights to privacy and equal protection—both of which are referenced in the Alaska Constitution—were violated by the office's refusal to allow them to marry. Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski ruled in February 1998 that "marriage, i.e., the recognition of one's choice of a life partner, is a fundamental right" and that "the state must...have a compelling interest that supports its decision to refuse to recognize the exercise of this fundamental right by those who choose same-sex partners rather than opposite-sex partners." Although the decision favored a right to same-sex marriage, it did not legalize the practice in the state or abolish Alaska's statutory ban on same-sex marriage. Rather, Judge Michalski directed the parties to set further hearings to determine whether a compelling state interest could be shown for Alaska's ban on same-sex marriage.Brause v. Alaska – Text of the Superior Court's ruling Following the passage of Measure 2 in November 1998, the Alaska Supreme Court invalidated Brause and Dugan's claims, overturned the Superior Court's ruling in Brause, and dismissed the suit.Alaska Supreme Court – Decisions 1999 – Bess v. Ulmer

Brause and Dugan were married in Alaska 21 years later, on September 19, 2015, after the state's same-sex marriage ban was struck down in federal district court. Their wedding was held at the Pioneer School House in Anchorage. The couple married in Portland, Oregon in 2004 after Multnomah County began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but the marriage was later annulled by the Oregon Supreme Court. They also held marriage ceremonies in South Africa in 2006 and in Yukon in 2007.

Schmidt and Schuh v. Alaska On April 25, 2014, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the state must provide property tax exemptions to same-sex couples just as to married opposite-sex couples. The decision said: "For purposes of analyzing the effects of the exemption program, we hold that committed same-sex domestic partners who would enter into marriages recognized in Alaska if they could are similarly situated to those opposite-sex couples who, by marrying, have entered into domestic partnerships formally recognized in Alaska". On July 25, it ruled that denying survivor benefits to a deceased person's same-sex partner violated the survivor's right to equal protection.

Hamby v. Parnell On May 12, 2014, five same-sex couples filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, challenging the state's same-sex marriage ban. The suit named Governor Sean Parnell as the primary defendant. The state's brief, filed on June 19, said that the questions the plaintiffs raised were political, not legal. It said that under the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution "Alaska has the right as a sovereign state to define and regulate marriage" and "Alaska voters had a fundamental right to decide the important public policy issue of whether to alter the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman." District Court Judge Timothy Burgess heard oral arguments on October 10. On October 12, less than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review similar cases from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Latta v. Otter and Sevcik v. Sandoval, Judge Burgess ruled for the plaintiffs and declared Alaska's statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. He issued an injunction effective immediately. He wrote:

The same day, Governor Parnell announced that he would appeal the ruling and "defend our constitution". The head of the state Bureau of Vital Statistics commented: "The license application begins the three-day waiting period before the license can be issued. All marriages in Alaska must have the marriage license issued before the ceremony is performed. We expect our office will be busy tomorrow [October 13] but we will make every effort to help customers as quickly as possible." In Utqiagvik, Magistrate Mary Treiber waived the state's three-day waiting period and married Kristine Hilderbrand and Sarah Ellis on October 13. They were the first same-sex couple to marry in Alaska. Another couple, Kelly Cahoon and Bernice Oyagak, were married in the same town later that day. A couple in Ketchikan, Chad Valadez and Jay Hochberg, also had the waiting period waived and were issued a license that day.

On October 13, the state asked the district court to issue a stay pending appeal, which was denied. On October 15, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the state's request for an indefinite stay, granting instead a temporary stay until October 17 to allow Alaska to attempt to obtain a longer stay from the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied a stay and same-sex couples resumed obtaining marriage licenses following the dissolution of the Ninth Circuit's temporary stay on October 17. On October 22, the appellants asked the Ninth Circuit for an initial hearing en banc. This request was denied on November 18, when no circuit judge called for a vote on the motion within the time period set by circuit rules. On December 4, Attorney General Craig W. Richards was reported to be reviewing the case. Governor Bill Walker, who took office on December 1, said in a statement that he opposed spending on litigation with little chance of success. On February 9, 2015, the state asked the Ninth Circuit to stay proceedings pending action by the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges. The court did so on February 27. Following the ruling in Obergefell legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide in the United States on June 26, 2015, the Ninth Circuit accepted a joint notice to dismiss the appeal on July 1, filed by the state and the plaintiffs.

Smith v. Dunleavy et al In 2019, Denali Nicole Smith filed suit in federal district court, alleging that the state was unlawfully enforcing statutes barring the recognition of same-sex marriages. Attorneys for Smith said she had been denied application for a state oil-wealth fund check, the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD), because of her same-sex marriage. The lawsuit named Governor Mike Dunleavy and Attorney General Kevin Clarkson as defendants. In response, Governor Dunleavy said that "despite recent media reports to the contrary, neither the State of Alaska nor the Department of Revenue have a policy of denying PFDs based on same-sex marital status. The State's policy is that the unconstitutional statute currently on the books is not enforced, and if an individual is eligible under all the lawful criteria, he or she will receive a PFD." Attorney General Clarkson similarly stated that Smith should be eligible for a PFD, and the Department of Law opened an investigation into the case. Nicole Smith settled with the state, and the case was dismissed with prejudice by Judge H. Russel Holland on April 15, 2021.

Alaska Native tribal entities The Indian Civil Rights Act, also known as Public Law 90–284, primarily aims to protect the rights of Native Americans but also reinforces the principle of tribal self-governance. While it does not grant sovereignty, the Act affirms the authority of tribes to govern their own legal affairs. Consequently, many tribes have enacted their own marriage and family laws. As a result, the Hamby ruling and the Supreme Court's Obergefell ruling did not automatically apply to tribal jurisdictions. The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska became the first tribal government in Alaska to legalize same-sex marriage, when its governing board voted unanimously in February 2015 to legalize same-sex marriage on their sovereign lands. Council President Richard Peterson said, "If showing that we care about all of our tribal citizens equally can send a message where they feel included and belong and loved, and if that helps them to not want to turn toward suicide and other (harmful) things because the feel forsaken, then that's what we should do." Its Tribal Code reads: "Marriage is a civil and relational contract between two consenting persons".