This document provides a timeline of key events in the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States from 1969 to 2011. It begins with the Stonewall Riots in 1969, seen as the start of the gay rights movement. In the following decades, several states and jurisdictions either allowed or banned same-sex marriage through legislation and court rulings, with the debate growing more prominent over time as advocacy increased and more places legalized same-sex unions or marriage.