The New Civil Rights Movement gives a great recap of the first weddings:

Forty-five minutes past the stroke of midnight today, six couples became Hawaii’s first same-sex couples to marry.

The couples are Donna Gedge and Monica Montgomery (35 years), Paul Perry and Gary Bradley (11 years), Saralyn and Isajah Morales (four years), Shaun Campbell and Tony Singh (five years), Richard J. Rosehill and Shawna P. Okami (32 years) and Keola Akana and Ethan Wung (six years). They share a total of 93 years together, an average of over 15 years per couple.

The state’s legislature just approved marriage equality legislation and Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie is expected to sign it into law. Gay and lesbian couples will be able to get married in the state starting December 2.

This is the third state in two months—and sixth state this year—to recognize the freedom to marry for all. Last week, the Illinois Legislature approved marriage equality legislation. Starting last month, gay and lesbian couples are able to get married in New Jersey. The State Supreme Court ruled that “Same-sex couples who cannot marry are not treated equally under the law today. The harm to them is real, not abstract or speculative.”

The vote puts an end to a long and twisting path for marriage equality in the Aloha State. In the 1990s, Hawaii could have been the first state that recognized the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples. During a lengthy court case, voters in 1998 passed a constitutional amendment that gave the authority to define marriage to the legislature, which passed a ban that year.

With today’s vote, however, the Hawaii Legislature has demonstrated that all couples should have the freedom to marry.

Anti-gay comments overshadow the Super Bowl, but they can’t stop progress in Arizona, Hawaii, and Rhode Island. We have new legislation and strong polling to carry marriage forward from coast to coast. Plus, amicus briefs in the Prop 8 case.

Last week a member of the San Francisco 49ers drew fire for openly rejecting the possibility of having gay teammates. Team management distanced themselves form his remarks. But others players followed that up by claiming that they hadn’t made an It Gets Better video that they actually had. Meanwhile, a player on the rival Baltimore Ravens has been an outspoken supporter of the freedom to marry. Brendon Ayanbadejo said he’ll reach out to the 49ers and to the public on the issue of marriage.

Meanwhile in Arizona, State Senator Steve Gallardo has introduced two marriage equality bills. One would repeal the existing constitutional ban on marriage, and the other would repeal the state’s statutory ban. This may seem like a long shot, but the polling is actually pretty encouraging. A Public Policy Polling survey from a year ago showed a near-tie, with 44% supporting marriage equality and 45% against.

A political action committee in Michigan is collecting signatures to put marriage equality on the ballot. Marriage Michigan PAC wants to gather 300,000 signatures and raise $10 million for a 2014 vote. But Equality Michigan is skeptical about the effort. They’ve been laying the groundwork for a ballot measure in 2016. Polling in Michigan has steadily improved, but it’s still close.A November survey showing 56% support.

We also have new polling data from Hawaii, with support now at 55% to 37% opposed. Legislators may vote on marriage equality bills in the coming months. There’s also a lawsuit in progress over the state’s marriage ban.

Numbers are even stronger in Rhode Island, where 57% support marriage to 36% opposed. A marriage bill passed the House last month but it’s slowed down in the Senate.

And there’s new data from Pennsylvania, where we have a plurality of support. Forty-seven percent favor marriage, with 43% opposed. That’s a slow but steady improvement over the last decade in the state. The Pennsylvania Democratic Party added marriage equality to the official party platform last year, and several pro-equality legislators won their elections in November. Pennsylvania may become a state to watch in the next year for renewed efforts to pass a marriage bill.

There’s been progress in Wyoming, where a domestic partnership bill advanced further than any such measure ever has before. Although the bill ultimately failed in a House vote, it was the first time that any pro-LGBT legislation made it that far in the state legislature.

And finally this week, various groups have filed amicus briefs in support of Prop 8 with the US Supreme Court. The next milestone will be briefs from the plaintiffs on February 21st, briefs in support of the plaintiffs a week after that, and then oral argument on March 26th.

We’ll have more news on the Prop 8 case, as well as developments from the states, in the coming weeks. Subscribe on YouTube, @AFER on Twitter, and at Facebook.com/AmericanEqualRights for the latest. You can also pledge your support at AFER.org and sign up for breaking email alerts.

Big news coming this week from Rhode Island, where we may see the year’s first hearing on marriage equality. New lawmakers in Illinois and Colorado express eagerness to pass marriage and civil unions bills. Two lawsuits join forces in Hawaii and Nevada, plus one unlikely country that saw support for marriage double over the last decade.

Hawaii was once regarded as a beacon of hope for marriage equality. In the 1990’s it could have been the first state that recognized the right to marry for gay and lesbian couples. A lengthy court case and constitutional amendment later, Hawaii currently has a civil union law, which went into effect in 2011.

Voters in 1998 did not ban marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Rather, they gave the authority to the legislature, which passed a ban that year.

The Hawaii legislature now has the authority to allow gay and lesbian couples the freedom to marry in the state.

The State House of Representatives is composed of 44 Democrats and 7 Republicans. The State Senate has 24 Democrats and 1 Republican.

Governor Neil Abercrombie is generally supportive. He received a 100% voting record from HRC during his time in Congress, and in response to a lawsuit by two lesbians seeking the freedom to marry, he said:

“Under current law, a heterosexual couple can choose to enter into a marriage or a civil union.  A same-sex couple, however, may only elect a civil union.  My obligation as Governor is to support equality under law.  This is inequality, and I will not defend it.”

Here’s a brief timeline of events as they unfolded:

• 1993: In Baehr v. Miike (originally Baehr v. Lewin), the Hawaii State Supreme Court rules that denying marriage to same-sex couples constituted discrimination based on sex in violation of the constitutional right to equal protection. It remanded the case back to trial court.
• 1996: Judge Kevin K.S. Chang rules that the state’s failure to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry violates the state’s constitution. He stays his opinion pending appeal to the Hawai’i State Supreme Court. In reaction, the United States enacts the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, preventing the federal government from recognizing the legal marriages of gay and lesbian couples and giving power to individual states to decide whether they will or not for the purposes of state law.
• 1998: Voters approve a state constitutional amendment granting the Hawai’i Legislature the power to define marriage. The Legislature then passes a law limiting preventing gay and lesbian couples the ability to marry in the state.
• 1999: The Hawai’i State Supreme Court reverses Chang’s ruling in light of the constitutional amendment.
• 2011: A bill creating civil unions for both straight and gay couples passes the State Senate 19-6 and the State House of Representatives 31-19. The bill is signed into law by Governor Neil Abercrombie and takes effect on January 1, 2012.
• 2012: A federal District Court judge rejects a claim by two lesbians that Hawaii’s failure to provide for same-sex marriage violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of due process and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment.  The case is on appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.