Founded in 1999, MECA was the grassroots organization fighting to secure the legal recognition of same-sex marriage through education and outreach in California.

[2] Its mission statement is to secure the freedom and the right of same-sex couples to enter into legally recognized civil marriage, having all the federal and state benefits and responsibilities which that entails.

On February 14, 2000, at a protest in Beverly Hills, Marriage Equality California became one of the first marriage-equality organizations in the country to organize a "mass-marriage protest" at a city clerk's offices on Valentine's Day, a tradition that has continued every February and spread throughout the 58 counties of California and to New York City.

And court officials, in turn, graciously agreed to waive the marriage license fee, since we all knew they would reject our attempts to get married.

I remember it was a beautiful day, and a joyful one: We all smiled ear-to-ear knowing we were attempting something that was then impossible but which every one of us thought would eventually become possible.