Department for discrimination, and in 1994 overturned its hiring policy. Mica England vs State of Texas, City of Dallas, and Police Chief Mack Vines. This had a statewide effect on state government employment. The Mica England Lawsuit also overturned the Homosexual Conduct Law in 34 counties in the First District Court of Appeal and the Third District Court of Appeal. A late appeal by the Dallas city Attorney at the State Supreme Court level prevented the Supreme Court from ruling for the whole state of Texas. Otherwise, the 21.06 statute would have been overturned statewide. The Mica England case is referred to and is used for discovery in current discrimination lawsuits. In the 1990s, Kentucky, Nevada, Tennessee, Montana, Rhode Island. In 2003, the Supreme Court decriminalized homosexuality in Lawrence v. Texas, overturning laws in Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. "Don't ask, don't tell" and DOMA The long-standing prohibition of gays serving openly in the United States military was reinforced under "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT), a 1993 Congressional policy that allowed for homosexual people to serve in the military provided that they did not disclose their sexual orientation. The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) of 1996 barred the federal government from recognizing same-sex couples in any legal manner. 21st century The tipping point of activism in favor of same-sex marriage came in 2008 when the California State Supreme Court ruled that the previous proposition which barred the legalization of same-sex marriage in California was unconstitutional under the United States Constitution. Over 18,000 couples then obtained legal licenses from May until November of the same year, when another statewide proposition reinstated the ban on same-sex marriage. This was received by nationwide protests against the ban and several legal battles which were projected to end up in the Supreme Court of the United States. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, attention was also paid to the rise of suicides and the lack of self-esteem by LGBT children and teenagers due to homophobic bullying. The "It Gets Better Project", founded and promoted by Dan Savage, was launched to counter the phenomenon, and various initiatives were taken by both activists and politicians to impose better conditions for LGBT students in public schools. On June 12, 2016, 49 people, mostly of Latino descent, were shot and killed by Omar Mateen during Latin