 As a New York state senator in 2011, Zeldin voted against the Marriage Equality Act, which legalized same-sex marriage in the state.In June 2015, after the United States Supreme Court ruled in "Obergefell v. Hodges" that state-level bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional, Zeldin would not comment about his view of same-sex marriage, but indicated that he believed the issue should have been decided at the state level.A month later he signed on as a co-sponsor of the First Amendment Defense Act, a bill whose supporters said was designed to protect Americans who used their religious beliefs to deny services to same sex couples or unmarried pregnant women.