... 2004 (5 years ago today), Massachusetts became the 1st state in the United States to legalize same-sex marriage. The New York Times' story began:
Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples streamed into city halls from Boston to the Berkshires on Monday as Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex marriages.
Weddings were held on a hill overlooking a park, in churches and synagogues, in the shoebox quarters of justices of the peace, and on a Christmas tree farm with peacocks, pigs, turkeys and Icelandic sheep nearby.
States today permitting such marriages are Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa, and Maine -- making the issue a likely grilling-point for the next Supreme Court nominee, as the Washington Post reports in today's paper:
[I]n the two weeks since Justice David H. Souter announced his retirement, Maine also legalized same-sex marriage, becoming the fifth state to do so; the New Hampshire legislature sent a marriage-equality bill to the governor; the New York State Assembly approved gay-marriage legislation; and the District of Columbia voted to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
California, as we've posted, has gone there and, for now at least, back again.
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