Timeline: How issue evolved in state, nation

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1998 : Legislature enacts the Defense of Marriage Act.

March 2001: Seven gay couples apply for marriage licenses in Massachusetts. All are denied; they file a lawsuit.

Feb. 4, 2004: Massachusetts Supreme Court rules the state Legislature may not offer civil unions instead of marriage for same-sex couples; licenses must be issued starting in May.

Feb. 12: San Francisco authorities grant marriage licenses to gay couples in defiance of a measure approved by voters in 2000.

Feb. 17: California Superior Court judge refuses to halt weddings but urges officials to stop them.

Feb. 19: San Francisco sues the state over its prohibition of same-sex marriages.

Feb. 20 : Sandoval County, N.M., briefly issues marriage licenses to gay couples before state attorney general calls them invalid.

Feb. 24: President Bush calls for a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

March 2: Mayor of New Paltz, N.Y., is charged with 19 misdemeanor counts after marrying same-sex couples who did not have licenses, in violation of state law.

March 3: Hundreds of gay couples exchange vows in Oregon, hours after Multnomah County officials say the practice is legal.
 
March 8: Six same-sex couples file suit in Seattle after King County refuses to grant them marriage licenses. Two couples later join the lawsuit. Mayor Greg Nickels, in a symbolic gesture, issues executive order requiring the city to recognize same-sex marriages among municipal workers.

March 29: Massachusetts Legislature approves a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and establishing civil unions for same-sex couples.

April 1: The American Civil Liberties Union sues Washington state on behalf of 11 same-sex couples over a state law that prohibits them from marrying and doesn't recognize their marriages performed elsewhere.

April 12: Seattle City Council unanimously approves legislation to give gays and lesbians on the city's payroll, married in other states, the same benefits that opposite-sex married couples receive, even though the city employees already get domestic-partner benefits.

April 20: A judge orders Multnomah County to stop issuing gay-marriage licenses.

May 14: The Supreme Court refuses to block the nation's first state-sanctioned gay marriages from taking place May 17.

May 17: Same-sex couples begin exchanging marriage vows in Massachusetts, marking the first time a state has granted them the right to marry.

July 14: The U.S. Senate blocks a proposed constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriages.

July 26: Oregon will join at least eight other states putting a same-sex marriage ban on fall ballots, the state elections office announces.

Yesterday: King County Superior Court Judge William Downing, in considering the March 8 lawsuit, rules same-sex marriage is legal in Washington. The decision is stayed until the state Supreme Court reviews the case.

— Compiled from Seattle Times staff and news services