While preparing to give a talk at my synagogue on the current legal status of same-sex marriage in the United States to mark the beginning of Gay Pride Month 2012 and the forthcoming first anniversary of the enactment of the New York Marriage Equality Law, I decided to put together a chronology of same-sex marriage legal developments in the United States over the past five months of 2012. I was amazed at how much has happened in this relatively brief period of time, culminating, of course, in the May 31 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, holding that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)violates the 5th Amendment of the Constitution by denying equal protection of the law to same-sex couples who marry under state law. Section 3 of DOMA, which was enacted in 1996, provides that for all purposes of federal law,
