After decades of queer activists toiling in the civil rights kitchen, the table was ready to be set for marriage equality in the US ten years ago this week, when the Obama Administration decided to change course in its handling of marriage equality litigation. Our flashback from February 2011 includes Jon Daviddson of Lambda Legal explaining the implications of the revised Justice Department standard, Mary Bonauto of Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders recounting the stories of some of the plaintiffs involved, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney answering questions about the big announcement, Obama Campaign LGBT policy advisor Professor Tobias Wolff providing analysis of the move, and plaintiff Edie Windsor reacting to the decision. Just 15 months later, then-Vice President Joe Biden gave President Obama a shove into endorsing marriage equality.

And in NewsWrap: The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights finds Jamaica’s anti-gay male sex laws in violation of LGBTQ constitutional rights, two Russian lesbian mothers denied asylum in Finland are vindicated by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, ILGA-Europe’s 10th Annual Review gives dire warnings, the Equality Act gets a new vote in the House but faces difficulty in the Senate, and 2020 reports tally shocking Brazilian transgender murders and skimpy reporting in the U.S. on anti-trans violence, and more international LGBTQ news reported this week by Melanie Keller and Michael Taylor Gray (produced by Brian DeShazor).