In a landmark decision, a judge in the gay-friendly American city of San Francisco struck down as unconstitutional a California state law that bans same-sex marriage.
The ruling is the first on the constitutionality of the disputed law that led San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to launch a rogue wave of gay marriages in which around 4,000 same-sex couples were wed last year.
Those unions were later nullified by the California Supreme Court, but the debate, which featured heavily in November's US presidential election, never went away.
Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer ruled that state laws limiting marriage to between a man and a woman violated the constitutional right to equality to which gay and lesbian citizens are entitled.
"This court concludes that California's traditional limit of marriage to a union between a man and a woman is not a sufficient rational basis to justify" banning same-sex marriage, Kramer wrote in the ruling, which gay-marriage opponents are expected to appeal.
"Simply put, same sex marriage cannot be prohibited solely because California has always done so before," the judge said ruling on the case brought by Newsom and 12-same sex couples.
