The Netherlands was the first country in the world to permit same-sex marriages after the Dutch parliament voted for legalization in 2000. The mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, wedded the first four same-sex couples at midnight on April 1, 2001 when the legislation came into effect. The new law also allowed same-sex couples to adopt children.

The Netherlands' neighbor, Belgium, followed the Dutch lead and legalized same-sex marriage two years later. The law gave same-sex partners many of the rights of their heterosexual counterparts. But unlike the Dutch, the Belgians did not initially allow same-sex couples to adopt children. The Belgian parliament passed a bill granting them that right three years later.

Argentina became the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriages when its Senate voted 33 to 27 in favor of it in July 2010. Argentina thereby became the tenth country in the world to permit gay and lesbian marriages. The South American country was not the only one to do so in 2010. Earlier in the year, Portugal and Iceland also passed same-sex marriage legislation.

Denmark's parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of legalization in June 2012. The small Scandinavian country had made headlines before when it was the first country in the world to recognize civil partnerships for gay and lesbian couples in 1989. Same-sex couples had also enjoyed the right to adopt children since 2009.

New Zealand became the 15th country worldwide and the first Asia-Pacific country to allow gay and lesbian marriages in 2013. The first couples were married on August 19. Lynley Bendall (left) and Ally Wanik (right) were among them when they exchanged vows on board an Air New Zealand flight from Queenstown to Auckland. France legalized same-sex marriage the same year.

Ireland made headlines in May 2015 when it became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage through a referendum. Thousands of people celebrated in the streets of Dublin as the results came in showing almost two-thirds of voters opting for the measure.

The White House was alight in the colors of the rainbow flag on June 26, 2015. Earlier, the US Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that the constitution guaranteed marriage equality, a verdict that paved the way for same-sex couples to be married across the country. The decision came 12 years after the Supreme Court ruled that laws criminalizing gay sex were unconstitutional.

Germany became the fifteenth European country to legalize gay and lesbian marriages in June 30, 2017. The bill passed by 393 to 226 in the Bundestag, with four abstentions. German Chancellor Angela Merkel voted against the bill, but paved the way for its passage when she said her party would be allowed to vote freely on the measure only days before the vote took place.

Following a postal survey which showed the majority of Australians were in favor of same-sex marriage, the country's parliament passed a law to legalize it in December 2017. As couples in Australia have to give authorities one month's notice of their nuptials, many of the first weddings took place just after midnight on January 9, 2018 - including that of Craig Burns and Luke Sullivan, pictured.

In May 2019, the island state became the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. The government survived an attempt by conservative opposition to water down the bill. Gay couples are able to offically register their marriage from May 24 onwards. President Tsai Ing-wen called it "a big step towards true equality."

The Andean state's top court ruled 5-4 to allow two gay couples to marry in June. The decision followed a ruling from the Inter-American Court on Human Rights affirming that countries should allow same-sex couples the right to marry.

Elton John, right, and his longtime partner David Furnish embrace after their first wedding, a civil partnership ceremony in Windsor, England, in 2005. But in 2014, the couple - who have two sons - tied the knot for a second time following the legalization of same-sex marriage in Britain, which accorded them full marriage rights. "For this legislation to come through is joyous," said Sir Elton.

When Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster gave birth to two sons in 1998 and 2001, her partner was producer Cydney Bernard, the co-parent of her children. After that relationship ended, the very private Foster finally came out in 2013 and a year later tied the knot with actress and photographer Alexandra Hedison, former partner of Ellen DeGeneres.

While singer and actor Ricky Martin had not publicly revealed his sexuality until 2010, he is now engaged to Jwan Yosef, a Syrian-Swedish painter of Kurdish origin. Martin, whose family still lives in Puerto Rico, is planning a big international wedding in his home country - same-sex marriage has been legal in Puerto Rico since 2015 as it's a territory of the United States.

After coming out in 1997, the American comedian Ellen DeGeneres was shunned by the television industry until her award-winning talk show "Ellen" began in 2003. A year later, she began a relationship with Australian actress Portia de Rossi, and in 2008 the couple married in Los Angeles - which was possible after the California Supreme Court overturned the state's bans on same-sex marriage.

For five years the American actor Neil Patrick Harris and actor-chef David Burtka kept their engagement secret. But when same-sex marriage was recognized in New York in 2011, they tweeted their looming marriage joyfully to the world. Already the parents of twins Gideon and Harper, the actors married in Italy in 2014, after more than 10 years together - and wore tuxedos designed by Tom Ford.

Samira Wiley, star of "Orange Is the New Black," and Lauren Morelli, a writer and producer of the same hit TV series set in a female prison, were married in March after getting engaged a year earlier. Wiley announced the engagement on Instagram, where she showed off her ring - more recently, she posted an image on the social media site that read: The Future is Queer.

Fashion guru Michael Kors and longtime partner and colleague Lance LePere tied the knot in New York in 2011 at a private ceremony on a Southampton beach in the Hamptons. "To marry someone as wonderful and special to me as Lance barefoot on a glorious beach is more than I could have dreamed of," Kors said. It all became possible after New York legalized same-sex marriage that year.

"Sex and the City" star Cynthia Nixon and fiancee Christine Marinoni, an education activist, were engaged at a New York rally demanding same-sex marriage rights in 2009. After these rights were granted two years later - the year Marinoni gave birth to their son - the couple were married in New York in 2012.

Lance Bass, former singer in boy band 'N Sync, and partner Michael Turchin became the first same-sex couple to get married live on American TV. The "Lance Loves Michael: The Lance Bass Wedding" special aired in 2015, two years after the couple were engaged.

The well-known German TV presenter and television journalist Anne Will had already been with the communications expert Miriam Meckel for many years before making the relationship public in 2007. Since August 2016, the two have lived in a registered civil partnership, but with the impending change of law in Germany they could soon consummate their union with marriage.