May 16, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1429

SAN FRANCISCO: The Supreme Court of California ruled on Wednesday to allow the same-sex marriages.

The court’s 4-3 decision stemmed from San Francisco’s highly publicised same-sex weddings of 2004.

Several US states have since passed constitutional amendments banning gay marriages and today 27 states have such amendments.

However, the state high court’s ruling was unlikely to end the debate over gay and lesbian matrimony in California.

A conservative group is already trying to amend the state Constitution to block same-sex marriage while the California State Legislature has twice passed bills to authorise gay marriage. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed both the bills.

Majority of the Californians are conservative and in 2000, 61 per cent of California voters approved a proposal which said that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognised in California.”