The US Supreme Court Wednesday handed a major victory to gay rights advocates by recognising that married gay men and women are eligible for federal benefits, and paving the way for same-sex marriage in California.
The court fell short of a landmark ruling that endorsed a fundamental right for gay people to marry.
The two cases, both decided on 5-4 votes, concerned the constitutionality of a key part of a federal law, the Defence of Ma-rriage Act, that denied benefits to same-sex married couples and a California state law enacted in 2008, called Proposition 8, that ban-ned gay marriage. Gay marriage advocates celebrated with loud che-ers outside the Washin-gton D.C. courthouse.