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xix Preface to the Second Edition When the first edition of this book was published in 2010, residents of five states and the District of Columbia were legally allowed to marry someone of the same sex. Nearly all other states had some form of prohibition on same-sex marriage, either one or more laws or an amendment to the state constitu- tion banning the practice, and often, both forms of prohibition. Only five years later, that situation had completely changed. As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, same-sex marriage became legal in all 50 states and all territories (with the possible exception of American Samoa). Over the same period of time, public opinion in the United States had moved with equally remarkable speed. In 2010, about 4 out of 10 Americans (44 percent) approved of same- sex marriage, while that number had increased to 6 out of 10 (60 percent) in the month preceding the Supreme Court’s decision. In addition, about two dozen countries around the world and a number of local governmental entities had legal- ized same-sex marriages. (Precise numbers differ from locale to locale depending on a number of factors.) A number of com- mentators on social trends have written about this remarkable evolution of public opinion about same-sex marriage. It was time, obviously, to update the first edition of this book. This second edition focuses on the nature of changed views on same-sex marriage, while retaining the book’s original intent to lay out the history of the practice in human history and the arguments that lie on both sides of the debate over same- sex marriage. It also reminds readers that, while the legality of