Effective in 30 days, same-sex couples in California can now be legally wed, overturning two state laws that limited marriages to opposite-sex couples. And it is quite a milestone, not only for gay couples but for the entire country as well. California has become the second state since Massachusetts to allow same-sex marriages.

It seems that America has shed another layer of conservatism and has taken another step closer towards homosexual acceptance and equality in all sense of the word. The 110,000 gay couples in California alone (according to a census), let their cries of jubilation be heard outside the San Francisco City Hall, the same place where just four years ago their pleas for holy matrimony were coldly denied.

The amendment might be a tactical move for the Republicans to bring in a “surge of votes” from the most densely populated state in the country. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a known republican, stated that “he respected the ruling and did not support a constitutional amendment to overturn it.” However, despite whether the decision of overturning the ban on same-sex marriages in 1977 was a political stunt or not it is still great news for homosexual couples from all over the country. This included daytime television show host Ellen Degeneres as she has recently announced her marriage to her partner Portia de Rossi.

An article in The New York Times digresses more on the issue, quoting a dozen other politicians who wants a piece of the credit and the limelight.