United States

On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the freedom to marry, allowing same-sex couples to marry nationwide. The decision came after 37 states and the District of Columbia passed their own freedom to marry laws. The fight for marriage in the United States dates to the 1970s, with the first state - Massachusetts - embracing the freedom to marry on May 17, 2004. In June 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, a law passed by President Bill Clinton in 1996 to prohibit the federal government from respecting legal marriages between same-sex couples.