Just 10 years ago, same-sex marriage was an oxymoron. No state permitted marriages between two people of the same sex, and most outright banned it.

Seven couples in Massachusetts began a lawsuit in 2001 to change that. They fought for more than two years until the state Supreme Court ruled that a ban on same-sex marriages was unconstitutional.

And in May of 2004, the state of then-Gov. Mitt Romney became the first to legally wed men to their husbands and women to their wives.

Ten years have passed, and the arguments against gay and lesbian matrimony have not changed, but they are becoming quieter.

The religiously charged rhetoric against it continues to be drowned out. Pope Francis began shifting his focus from gay marriages this summer, eventually calling the Catholic Church “obsessed” with the matter in September. Although many have claimed the marriages to be immoral behavior, the American family unit has not been lessened with the introduction of a new marital bond — the high divorce rate in this country is helping that along quite nicely all by itself.

Ten years ago, 40 states had constitutional or statutory bans on same-sex marriages, but on Wednesday, 16 states and Washington D.C., will both permit gay and straight marriages. On Wednesday, Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to sign to the marriage equality act passed by the Illinois state legislature on Nov. 5.

When Quinn signs the bill into law Wednesday, trailing Hawaii, the voices of the naysayers, the zealous critics in Illinois and elsewhere, may grow louder for a bit, but they will languish.

On Wednesday, nearly one-third of the states will legally allow this important and increasingly accepted and condoned practice.

While more than half of the country supports similar legislation, it’s been a longtime coming. Public opinion support only eclipsed the half-way marker a couple of years ago, and before then, it remained stagnant for several decades.

One of the greatest nationwide victories came this summer when the Supreme Court killed the heart of the Defense of Marriage Act, which since 1996 defined marriage as a union between only one man and one woman.

With it gone, we hope that states quickly follow suit, as New Jersey (whose Republican governor has stood directly opposed to marriage equality), Hawaii and soon Illinois.

With Quinn’s signature, with push from state Reps. Greg Harris and Naomi Jakobsson and others, with the narrow passage in a cautious House and with the approval of the Senate, Illinois will join the side of a struggle that won’t quit.

Illinois, we hope, will demonstrate to other states on the cusp of approving same-sex marriage that a man can marry a man and a woman can marry a woman without eroding society.

To many, approving this legislation is complex and fraught with legal and moral peril. But it’s not, and Illinois — along with Iowa, Maine, Washington D.C. and the other 13 states — will continue to lead the country toward one of its governing principles: equality.