Same-sex marriage in the United States
The movement to give marriage rights and benefits to homosexual couples in the United States began in the 1970s. It grew in United States politics around 1993 when the Supreme Court of Hawaii declared the prohibition in that state to be unconstitutional. It was not until around the 21st century that public support for same-sex marriage began growing. On May 9, 2012, Barack Obama was the first President to declare public support for the legalization of same-sex marriage. On June 26, 2015 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional (see United States v. Windsor). That section prevented the federal government from recognizing marriages other than marriages between one man and one woman.