2009 has been a year of dynamic change in the ongoing debate over same-sex marriage. As 2008 drew to a close, same-sex couples could legally marry only in Massachusetts and Connecticut and over 18,000 same-sex couples who had legally married in California before the state constitution was amended to ban same-sex marriage awaited a ruling from the California Supreme Court on the continued validity of their marriages. Now, only eight months later, same-sex marriage has been legalized in four more states and the outcome of the uncertain legal status of same-sex marriage in California has been determined.
