Under the legislation, same-sex couples who live in the District and who have been married in other jurisdictions are granted such legal rights as joint filing of city tax returns and all private health care and pension benefits that are afforded heterosexual couples.

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Catania regarded the bill as a precursor to full marriage equality. That goal advanced in December 2009, when the Council passed a bill on December 15 legalizing same-sex marriage, which was signed into law by Mayor Adrian Fenty on December 18.

Like all D.C. legislation, the law was subject to review by Congress, which had the power to invalidate it within 30 working days. Despite the attempts of some Republican Congressmen to invalidate the law, the Democratic-controlled Congress refused to intervene.

Opponents of same-sex marriage also sued in federal court, alleging that the law should be subject to a referendum. Finally, on March 2, 2010, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts announced the Court's refusal to issue a stay of the legislation. Somewhat ominously, he pointed out that the law might be subject to repeal via the District's initiative process, though that question would have to work its way through the appellate process before reaching the Supreme Court.

On March 3, 2010, the District began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.]

Glbtq African Americans frequently experience racism in predominantly white glbtq communities and homophobia in heterosexual black society, but the multiple oppressions faced by black glbtq people are now being recognized.

"Domestic partnership" is the generic term for a variety of forms of legal and institutional recognition of same-sex couples that fall short of same-sex marriage.

Marches on Washington in support of the rights of glbtq people have been a significant part of the modern movement for equality.

McCarthyism, which attempted in the late 1940s and early 1950s to expunge Communists and fellow travelers from American public life, made homosexuals the chief scapegoats of the Cold War.

Both parades and marches have served to render the glbtq community visible; whereas marches typically attempt to effect political change, parades and pride events affirm identity and community.

First used to refer only to anal intercourse, sodomy was progressively defined by the Church Fathers, and many later lawmakers, to include all sexual acts that could not result in procreation.

Sodomy laws, which provided the legal basis for police harassment of sexual minorities, were conclusively overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 2003, after more than half a century of efforts at reform.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the photographs of Joan Elizabeth Biren, better known as JEB, defined and set the standard for lesbian feminist image making in the United States.

The Boy Scouts of America, formed to rehabilitate masculinity in the early twentieth century, has constantly seen itself as under attack or at least challenged by homosexuality or effeminacy, and its official policy excluding homosexuals has recently led to several legal and social challenges.

Lesbian poet and novelist Rita Mae Brown, best known for the highly successful Rubyfruit Jungle, resists neat categorization.

American activist and academic Charlotte Bunch is a key player in the movement for international human rights for women.

The Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC) worked to end discrimination and violence prompted by gender identification and stereotypes.

The largest glbtq political organization in the United States, the Human Rights Campaign has emerged as the leading national organization representing glbtq concerns.

One of the founding fathers of the American gay rights movement, Frank Kameny helped radicalize the homophile movement, preparing the way for the mass movement for equality initiated by the Stonewall Riots of 1969.

One of the earliest American gay movement organizations, the Mattachine Society was dedicated to the cultural and political liberation of homosexuals; but in the face of McCarthyism, it adopted conservative policies of accommodationism.

The oldest continuously operating national glbtq interest group, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has played a significant role in the development of the glbtq movement for equal rights.

Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), an American organization of some 460 affiliated chapters and 80,000 members, works to support glbtq people and their loved ones.