Marriage Equality USA, is a volunteer driven, national non-profit organization whose mission is to secure legally recognized civil marriage equality for all, at the federal and state level, without regard to gender identity or sexual orientation. Marriage Equality, Inc. began as an idea in 1996 with a handful of activists who believed that same-sex couples should have the freedom and the right to civil marriage, and who were angry that the federal government wanted to pass a law barring LGBT people from this right. Marriage Equality New York was founded on 12 February 1998, on National Freedom to Marry Day. The New York organization became so successful that activists in Los Angeles, Oakland, and San Francisco, California, responding to that state's 2000 anti-marriage referendum (Proposition 22, the Knight Initiative), began Marriage Equality California (MECA). In 2001 Marriage Equality USA® (MEUSA™) was founded. In August of 2009 Marriage Equality USA® became a registered 501(c)(3). In June 2011 the New York Marriage Equality Act was passed and on 15 December 2011 Marriage Equality USA® and Marriage Equality New York announced their intention to consolidate. In the Spring of 2012 Marriage Equality New York (MENY) became a chapter of Marriage Equality USA.