to same-sex couples, and thus would have been in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The bill died without any legislative action. A similar bill was introduced and subsequently defeated in Tennessee that same year. On February 15, 2018, six Republican lawmakers introduced the Marriage and Constitution Restoration Act to the General Assembly. The bill died without any legislative action on May 10, 2018, when the Assembly adjourned sine die. Had the bill been approved, it would have defined marriage as a "union between a man and a woman", declared all same-sex marriages "parody marriages" and prohibited the state from recognizing such "parody marriages". The bill would have thus been in violation of Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court ruling which found that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, as well as the U.S. Constitution, which the lawmakers took an oath to uphold. During an October 2022 gubernatorial debate, Governor Henry McMaster said that he would enforce a same-sex marriage ban in South Carolina if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, despite the majority of South Carolinians supporting same-sex marriage. Native American nations The federal court ruling does not apply to the Catawba Nation, which has jurisdiction over the marriages and divorces of tribal members, though members may still request a marriage license from their county clerk. It is unclear if same-sex marriage is legal on their reservation as tribal officials have not publicly commented on the issue. It is possible that the Catawba people traditionally allowed for marriages between two biological males through a two-spirit status, but a lot of traditional knowledge was lost in the aftermath of colonization, and so it is unknown if such two-spirit individuals were historically allowed to marry. Two-spirit people, known in Catawba as (), were born male but wore women's clothing and performed everyday household work and artistic handiwork which were regarded as belonging to the feminine sphere. Demographics and marriage statistics Data from the 2000 U.S. census showed that 7,609 same-sex couples were living in South Carolina. By 2005, this had increased to 10,563 couples, likely attributed to same-sex couples' growing willingness to disclose their partnerships on government surveys. Same-sex couples lived in all counties of the state and constituted 1.1% of coupled households and 0.6% of all households in the state. Most couples lived in Charleston, Greenville and Richland counties, but the counties with the