Hardly a day passes now without a remark on some news channel or a blog on the state of gay marriage — with opposing sides framing it either a step towards equality for all or a huge blow to the institution of marriage. The country is visibly divided, with a liberal-democratic president Bill Clinton signing the Defense of Marriage Act affirming the institution of marriage as between a man and a woman, while one of the oldest states in the union and the birthplace of Samuel Adams and the Boston Tea Party extended marriage licenses to gays.

On this day, May 17, in 2004, following the ruling of the state supreme court in the case of Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health, Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay marriage.

The case was first brought up on April 11, 2001 by the  Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) again the Massachusetts Department of Health in Superior Court on behalf of seven same-sex MA couples who were denied marriage licenses in March and April of that year. GLAD called the consigning of gay couples to “civil unions,” as the was the practice at the time, made them “separate but equal.” Four of the seven judges of the highest court in the state agreed.