National Freedom to Marry Day

National Freedom to Marry Day is a non-official United States holiday held annually on February 12 to promote same-sex marriage. The holiday was founded in 1999 by Lambda Legal, a gay rights advocacy law firm based out of Washington, DC.

The most notable National Freedom to Marry Day was February 12, 2004 when, following a directive from San Francisco, California mayor Gavin Newsom to his county clerk, the City and County of San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. On February 10, Newsom had asked the clerk's office to make the changes on the "forms and documents used to apply for and issue marriage licenses…in order to provide [them] on a non –discriminatory basis."