In commemoration of October being Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & Queer (LGBTQ) History Month, Marriage Equality USA (MEUSA) will be posting a new story here every Wednesday chronicling the evolution of marriage equality in the United States.

In the first post of the series, we take a look at the founding and progression of MEUSA from its inception in 1996. The organization began as a passion for a small group of New York-based grassroots volunteers (then Marriage Equality New York) in reaction to the passage of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). MEUSA has since grown to be one of the leading organizations of the movement - sharing marriage equality stories and coordinating public education campaigns, as well as bringing real-life stories into living rooms, public spaces, courthouses and legislatures, among others. View MEUSA's newly published History here.

With almost 20 years of education and advocacy work under our belts, MEUSA has been a pioneer for a lot of the work we now take for granted in working towards civil marriage equality every day. This has included public education workshops (1999), requesting marriage licenses (2000), coordinated education of public officials (2003) and a comprehensive online resource center (2011). View a complete list of over 15 MEUSA Pioneering Highlights here.