In the past three years, Canada has witnessed landmark court rulings in Ontario, BC and Quebec making it legal for gay men and lesbian women to marry. Legislation in the Netherlands and Belgium have also extended marriage to same-sex couples. Legal challenges before the US courts in Hawaii, Vermont, Massachusetts, Oregon and California have had the same goal in mind. The same-sex marriage phenomenon is characterised on the one hand by intense personal joys and on the other by long-standing activism and historic legal reasoning.