when did gay marriage became legal

Same-sex marriage became legal across the entire United States on June 26, 2015, when the Supreme Court decided the case Obergefell v. Hodges and struck down state bans.

Quick Scoop: Core Dates

• Nationwide legalization in the US: June 26, 2015 (Obergefell v. Hodges), requiring all states to license and recognize same-sex marriages.

• First US state to legalize same-sex marriage: Massachusetts, after a state court ruling, with marriages beginning in 2004.

• Before 2015, legalization spread state by state through court decisions, legislation, and voter initiatives, leading to a majority of states allowing same-sex marriage even before the national ruling.

Brief History Snapshot

• In 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) blocked federal recognition of same-sex marriages even where states allowed them.

• Over the 2000s and early 2010s, court rulings and changing public opinion steadily expanded state-level marriage rights to same-sex couples.

Global Context

• The US is one of many countries that legalized same-sex marriage in the 2000s–2010s, as part of a broader international shift toward legal recognition of LGBTQ+ relationships.

• Public support for same-sex marriage in the US has continued to rise since nationwide legalization, with solid majorities favoring it in recent opinion polls.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.