WASHINGTON (AP) — It was 2004 when Massachusetts became the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry.

And when President George W. Bush — in response — declared support for a constitutional amendment "to protect the institution of marriage."

Voters in 13 states changed their constitutions to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. In most of those states, the vote wasn't even close.

Eleven years later, the Supreme Court has now ruled that all those gay marriage bans must fall and same-sex couples have the same right to marry under the Constitution as everyone else.

Justice Anthony Kennedy's opinion builds on earlier opinions in favor of gay rights dating to 1996 — and on the legal fights starting with a case from Minnesota in 1972.