On Monday, gay rights activists secured a 13-straight legal victory when a federal judge had thrown out the same-sex marriage ban in Oregon. The Associated Press noted that state officials earlier expressed that they have no intention to defend the voter-approved state ban and stated that they are ready to carry out same-sex marriages in the state once the ban has been struck down by the judge.
According to US District Judge Michael McShane, the current ban in Oregon discriminates gay couples, and subsequently issued an order for the state to comply with the decision.
McShane wrote, "I believe that if we can look for a moment past gender and sexuality, we can see in these plaintiffs nothing more or less than our own families. Families who we would expect our constitution to protect, if not exalt, in equal measure."
Fox News said that McShane is among the judges in seven other states who have struck down state marriage bans despite appeals are being done on some of them.
The legal challenge on the Oregon's gay marriage ban was courtesy of four gay and lesbian couples, who have argued that the state laws on marriage have excluded them from a fundamental right to marriage and have discriminated them under the US Constitution.
AP said that as of the moment, 17 states and the District of Colombia now legally allows marriage of gay and lesbian couples. Before Oregon, the states of New Mexico and Hawaii have recently made the same-sex unions legal.
As for opponents of gay marriage in Oregon, McShane has already denied their chance to defend the state law, The judge denied a request by the National Organization for Marriage to uphold the law on behalf of its members in the state. Moreover, a 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Monday also denied the group's request for an emergency stay on McShane's decision, Fox News said.
