Surprise proposals, courthouse vows: Couples celebrate 10 years of same-sex marriage case
On 10 year anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark marriage equality decision, these couples celebrate 'normalcy.'
Michael Silverstein was staring at the sun-drenched rock walls of the Grand Canyon with his boyfriend, Jacob Price, when his phone buzzed with the news: in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court had just legalized same-sex marriage across the country.
Silverstein rushed to his car. He scooped up an engagement ring he was hiding in his suitcase, sprinted back to Price at the canyon’s edge and dropped to one knee.
That was June 26, 2015.
A decade later, Silverstein and Price are still happily engaged. They haven’t yet exchanged vows or planned a wedding. But for Silverstein, that’s what the court’s decision was “all about.”
“The ruling allowed us to get married, and at the same time we are choosing not to because that suits our family. To me, that’s the ultimate level of choice and freedom,” he said.
As the country marks 10 years of nationwide marriage equality, LGBTQ+ couples like Silverstein and Price told Paste BN they're celebrating how the once unthinkable is now unspectacular.
The Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision represented decades of work by LGBTQ+ activists. It came on the heels of major legislative and legal fights and overturned same-sex marriage bans in at least 13 states.
After the decision was announced, street parties erupted in some town squares; couples flooded courthouses to tie the knot; and national landmarks from the White House to the Empire State Building lit up in rainbow colors.
Silverstein is quick to point out that efforts for LGBTQ+ equality and safety in America are far from finished. But the anniversary of that day is a reminder of progress.
“Normalcy is what we always wanted,” Silverstein, a chef and former "MasterChef" finalist, said. “There’s something nice about being able to go to our favorite restaurant and just sit there and have a glass of wine. We are normal and to celebrate that is a real luxury.”
‘Gave us legitimacy’
By the time Ellen Depee and Angelia Ford pulled up to the courthouse in Dallas, on June 26, 2015, a crowd of people dressed in rainbow-colored clothing had gathered outside, and a rabbi was yelling “hitched at last, hitched at last,” through a megaphone.
Inside, the ornate red brick building was already teeming with people. Bystanders were walking through the halls, handing out single-stem roses and pieces of wedding cake to couples waiting in long, snaking lines.
When Depee, 48, and Ford, 54, arrived at about noon, the celebrations that greeted them were “almost hard to receive,” Depee said, because of the years of negative reactions they encountered to their relationship.
Just that morning, officials in nearby Denton County, where they lived, refused to let them marry. Depee and Ford decided instead to get their license in Dallas, then return home to have a small wedding ceremony in Denton that evening.
As they drove home, a friend called to say that word had gotten out, and a group of people had gathered in Denton’s town square to watch the ceremony. They made a decision right then, Depee said, to march up the county courthouse steps and take their vows for everyone to see.
“We were doing it so the city of Denton, the county of Denton, and the country could see we were proud of our marriage as a normal, regular, probably boring, couple,” Depee, a speech and language pathologist, said, laughing.
“We are Family,” by Sister Sledge began blasting, with bubbles and raindrops falling all around, as they pronounced “I do.”
The moment, they said, made them feel like they no longer had to hide their full identity.
“Our gay agenda is wake up, make some coffee, take the dogs out, and maybe contemplate a second cup,” Ford, a high school art teacher, said reflecting on their 10 years of marriage. “We are still the same people. That just gave us legitimacy. And having legitimacy is a big deal.”
The decision also gave same-sex couples rights previously reserved for married heterosexual couples, including filing joint taxes, access to their spouse’s health insurance and greater ease starting a family.
For Kristie Filipchuck and her wife Danielle, those advancements have made a world of difference. When Danielle Filipchuck gave birth to the couple's first child in August 2014, their marriage wasn't recognized in their home state of Ohio. That meant Filipchuck had to fill out hordes of additional paperwork to legally adopt her daughter.
The day the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, the two new parents marched to the Toledo, Ohio, courthouse, got married, had lunch with friends and then took a nap. They view the 10-year anniversary as a celebration of their family more than their relationship, Filipchuck said.
“Since then we had another kid, and being on that birth certificate and seeing how much changed, it was really eye-opening,” Kristie Filipchuck said. “It was like ‘Oh this is how straight couples did it. This is how easy it could've been.”
A decade’s worth of progress?
In the six months after the Supreme Court’s decision, the number of married same-sex couples in the United States jumped 7%, according to a November 2015 Gallup poll. In the 10 years since, the number of married same-sex couples has more than doubled, based on an analysis by the Williams Institute, a University of California Los Angeles research center on gender identity law.
Silverstein said the ruling was the first he could remember in his lifetime that indicated forward momentum in America toward greater acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community; it was a “signal that the tides were changing,” he said.
Looking back, though, he questioned whether he’d seen “10 years of progress since then.”
The Human Rights Campaign issued a “state of emergency” in 2023 after dozens of laws impacting LGBTQ+ people were enacted across the country, including bans on gender-affirming care, bathroom access and more.
A report published in 2025 by The Trevor Project and Movement Advancement Project found that 40% of LGBTQ+ young people have thought about moving because of what they called unfriendly LGBTQ+ politics and laws in their home state.
Depee and Ford said they would consider leaving their home state of Texas if the Supreme Court ever reversed its Obergefell decision, as some conservative officials have pushed.
At least one member of the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas, has suggested the court should "reconsider" its Obergefell ruling. Thomas made the comment in a 2022 concurring opinion to the court's landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade's federal abortion protections.
In early June, during its annual meeting in Dallas, the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, passed a resolution supporting a concerted effort to overturn the same-sex marriage ruling.
Depee said it’s difficult to recognize Obergefell without acknowledging the potential for it to be overturned. But, as they celebrate 10 years of their own marriage, they’re choosing to focus on the steps they’ve seen toward progress – particularly for younger generations.
“It gives me hope when I hear kids in my classroom openly talk about who they are and having that space to be who they are,” Ford, the art educator, said. “Not just in my room, but out in public.”
This file was updated to fix a spelling error.
Contributing: Claire Thornton, Marc Ramirez and Liam Adams