Title: How legal tide turned on same-sex marriage in the US - BBC News
Headings: How legal tide turned on same-sex marriage in the US
How legal tide turned on same-sex marriage in the US
Same sex marriage is now legal in the entire US after a Supreme Court ruling striking down state marriage bans.
So how did we get to this point?
What did justices have to decide in this case?
How many states previously allowed same-sex unions?
What have been the key Supreme Court rulings?
What is next?

Content: How legal tide turned on same-sex marriage in the US - BBC News
How legal tide turned on same-sex marriage in the US
Published
26 June 2015
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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. So how did we get to this point? image copyright
Getty Images
image caption
One of the first couples to wed in Massachusetts
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? image copyright
AP
image caption
Jim Obergefell brought a lawsuit against the state of Ohio after the state refused to recognise his marriage to his late husband
The justices, who had previously stopped short of resolving the question of same-sex marriage nationally, had to consider whether or not states were constitutionally required to issue marriage licences and if states were required to recognise same-sex marriages performed elsewhere.