Twenty years ago today, the first same-sex couples married legally in the United States, in Massachusetts.

In commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of the Goodridge v. Massachusetts Department of Public Health decision that led to those marriages, I went up to Maine and spent a day with Mary Bonauto, the lawyer behind that case, for a profile of her and her work.

I thought I’d share a bit of that profile here, Mary’s comments about attending her first wedding on May 17, 2004:

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"I'm embarrassed to say this, but once I sat down, I just burst into tears — even before the thing started," Bonauto says. "I think I had just been so pent up about finally getting to this point."

"The wedding was beautiful. Then for the first time I hear, 'By the power vested in me by the commonwealth of Massachusetts I now pronounce you legally married,'" she says, smiling. "That was excellent."

"And then I went to as many weddings as I could."

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I didn’t know then how quickly marriage would be back at the U.S. Supreme Court, but it didn’t surprise me that Mary was involved. In fact, she ended up successfully arguing Obergefell v. Hodges in front of the justices in 2015 — both a lifetime and a minute ago.

Happy anniversary, Massachusetts marriage equality.

Here’s my full BuzzFeed News profile of Mary from 2013: buzzfeednews.com/article/chrisgeidner/h…