Today's signing of the marriage equality law in MN honors the courage of Jack Baker and James McConnell, who tried to marry there in 1970

From the NYTimes:

Jack Baker was a student at the University of Minnesota, where he was a well-known gay-rights activist, when he and his partner, James McConnell, showed up at the county clerk’s office to apply for a marriage license. The year was 1970. Minnesota law set out the logistics for obtaining a license and marrying in the state, but contained no explicit requirement that members of the couple be of the opposite sex. Nonetheless, and not surprisingly, the county clerk turned them down.