Gay rights advocates across the country are still celebrating the new nationwide right to same-sex marriage. The marriage equality effort has made gains in a fraction of the time it took other social movements. Our Washington bureau reporter Geoff Bennett has more on the legal crusader who is largely credited for the victory.

The landmark Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage in all 50 states vindicated Evan Wolfson’s decades-long quest.

“I always believed we were going to win," said Evan Wolfson, Founder of Freedom to Marry. "But I really was ready for it now. And I was glad that it was now.”

Wolfson is the architect of the modern-day marriage equality movement. It was an effort that, for Wolfson, started in 1983 with this 77-page Harvard Law School dissertation. It details how same-sex couples could win the legal right to marry.

For 30 years, the document guided Wolfson and his allies as they waged hard-fought battles in courts and legislatures, and in hearts and minds.

“The Freedom to Marry strategy over these many years has been to not just to focus on the work we need to do in courts but to focus on creating the climate of political support and public engagement that would allow the litigation to succeed,” said Wolfson.

Wolfson launched the campaign, Freedom to Marry, in 2003, at a time when polls showed same-sex marriage carried little support among the American public.

In fact, there was no legal gay marriage in the U.S. until 2004, when Massachusetts first permitted it.

By the 2008 presidential election, all of the major candidates were publicly opposed to gay marriage.

But President Obama endorsed it four years later.

“I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” said Obama.

Starting in 2013, legal wins started piling up: 28 states legalized gay marriage.

The pace of change may seem swift, but Wolfson takes the long view.

“It's been a long, hard struggle with lots of injustice and lots of ups and downs," said Wolfson. "And many people didn't live to see it.”

He said the next priority is winning anti-discrimination protections for LGBT Americans.

"We want good lives—not just good laws," said Wolfson.

Evan Wolfson said his advocacy group, Freedom to Mary, will shut down soon now that the group has achieved its goal.