Same sex marriage is now legal in the entire US after a Supreme Court ruling striking down state marriage bans.
The ruling means all US states must grant marriage licences to gay and lesbian couples and recognise marriages that have taken place in other states.
In 1996, the US Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that prohibited federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
In 2003, Massachusetts judges ruled the state constitution allowed gay marriage, and marriage licences followed shortly after that. In the following years, a handful of states passed gay marriage bans while others began working towards allowing same-sex unions - either by court order or legislation.
One high-profile ban occurred by referendum in California in 2008 after courts had previously allowed same-sex marriage.
This continued across the US until the Supreme Court heard a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013.
What did justices have to decide in this case?
The justices, who had previously have stopped short of resolving the question of same-sex marriage nationally, had to consider whether or not states are constitutionally required to issue marriage licences and if states are required to recognise same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.
How many states previously allowed same-sex unions?
Before the ruling, thirty-six states were issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples, as well as Washington DC, which sets its own marriage laws but is not legally a state.
source:bbc.co.uk
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