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Same-sex couple applies for first marriage license in Minnesota
A same-sex couple in Minnesota applies for a marriage license. They are denied and their case goes to the state Supreme Court. -
Maryland becomes first state to ban same-sex marriage
1973, Maryland became the first state to ban civil marriage between persons of the same sex, with the passage of legislation amending the family law statute. -
Court rulings in NY and CA define same-sex couples as families
In a 4-2 ruling, the Court of Appeals ordered a lower court to reconsider its decision permitting the eviction of a New York City man from a rent-controlled apartment he shared for a decade with his partner, who passed away. In doing so, the court expanded the definition of a “family” as it applies to New York’s rent-control laws. The decision marks the first time any top state court in the nation has recognized a gay couple to be the legal equivalent of a family. -
President Clinton signs the federal DOMA
President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) into law on September 21, 1996. The Act declared that no state shall be required to recognize a same-gender marriage performed in another state. DOMA also defined marriage as only between a man and a woman for purposes of Federal law. -
Vermont becomes the first state to pass a law granting the full benefits of marriage to same-sex couples
Vermont's Supreme Court ruled that lesbian and gay couples are entitled the same "common benefits and protections" which the law gives to married couples. The state House of Representatives voted 76 to 69 in favor of legislation creating civil unions with the same legal rights and obligations as marriage. -
Massachusetts becomes the first state to legalize same-sex marriage
A result of the ruling of the Supreme Judicial Court in "Goodrich versus the Dept. of Public Health", Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage. The court ruled 4 to 3 that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. The court said: "We declare that barring an individual from the protections, benefits, and obligations of civil marriage solely because that person would marry a person of the same sex violates the Massachusetts Constitution." -
Iowa Supreme Court overturns the state ban on same-sex marriage
The Iowa Supreme Court on April 3, 2009, unanimously overturned a 10-year-old outright ban on gay marriage in the state and allowed same-sex couples to marry. In Varnum v. Brien the court determined that denying a marriage licenses on the basis of sexual orientation violated the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution making Iowa the third U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage, after Massachusetts and Connecticut. -
Obama declares DOMA unconstitutional
Obama administration will no longer defend the constitutionality of a federal law banning recognition of same-sex marriage. Attorney General Eric Holder noted that the congressional debate during passage of the Defense of Marriage Act “contains numerous expressions reflecting moral disapproval of gays and lesbians and their intimate and family relationships - precisely the kind of stereotype-based thinking and animus the (Constitution’s) Equal Protection Clause is designed to guard against.” -
The Ninth Circuit finds Prop 8 unconstitutional.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled unconstitutional Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot measure that banned same sex marriage. “Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples,” Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote in the majority 2-1 opinion for the three-member panel. -
The U.S. Supreme Court makes same-sex marriages legal in all 50 states in Obergefell v. Hodges.
The U.S. Supreme Court held in a 5–4 decision that the Fourteenth Amendment requires all states to grant same-sex marriages and recognize same-sex marriages granted in other states. The Court overruled its prior decision in Baker v. Nelson, which the Sixth Circuit had invoked as precedent.