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A federal judge on Monday ordered Ohio authorities to recognize the marriages of same-sex couples performed in other states, the latest court victory for gay rights supporters.Judge Timothy Black ruled that refusing to recognize gay marriage is a violation of constitutional rights and "unenforceable in all circumstances.""The record before this court ... is staggeringly devoid of any legitimate justification for the state's ongoing arbitrary discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation," Black wrote.Gay rights advocates consider it a step in the direction of full marriage equality.Those who believe in the one man, one woman definition of marriage see the ruling as a leap off the moral cliff."I believe that the world is moving further into darkness," protest leader Vince Walsh said as he lead a three-person protest outside Federal Court.The order does not force Ohio to allow gay marriages to be performed in the state.Watch latest report / Read the ruling The state plans to appeal Black's ruling, arguing that Ohio has a sovereign right to ban gay marriage, which voters did overwhelmingly in 2004.There is a temporary stay to the effectiveness of the decision as lawyers on both sides prepare to file briefs about whether the stay should remain in place while an appeal is made to the Sixth Circuit Court."You know, what we're trying to achieve here is full marriage equality," Cincinnati's first openly-gay elected council member Chris Seelbach said.Seelback and other supporters understand it'll take time for the ruling to wind its way through the appeals process.However, Black said he is inclined to stay his ruling pending appeal, except for a portion that applies to the four gay couples who filed the February lawsuit that led to the court case. That would mean the state would immediately have to recognize their marriages and list both spouses as parents on their children's birth certificates.If Black declines to stay his broader ruling, that would allow gay couples in Ohio to obtain the same benefits as any other married couple in the state, including property rights and the right to make some medical decisions for their partner.Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine told The Associated Press last week that he believes marriage is between a man and woman, and that Ohio voters decided the same in 2004 when they passed the statewide gay marriage ban."My job as attorney general is to defend statutes and defend Ohio's constitutional provisions," he said Wednesday. "This was voted on by voters so my job is to do that."DeWine declined to speculate what the outcome of the state's appeal will be or the future of gay marriage rights as a whole."Every state is having a lively debate over this and I think that's a proper thing to do," he said. "I think it's pretty obvious that all these issues are going to be resolved by the 6th Circuit and some cases are going to get to the Supreme Court. They're going to have a decision in the United States Supreme Court and we're all going to have to accept that."Attorneys representing the four same-sex couples who filed the lawsuit that triggered Black's ruling argued that it amounts to state-approved discrimination and likened it to when interracial marriage was illegal in the United States.Michael Premo, campaign manager for Why Marriage Matters Ohio, explained what his organization is doing in the interim."In the meantime, we continue our work on public education; talking with people who don't agree with us on marriage equality and helping them change their minds," Premo said.Walsh, who said he lives in western Hamilton County, acknowledges there have been gains by gay rights activists in recent years. But he sees a battle of Biblical proportion, a nation in moral decline."This judge signing this today opens the door for our tax dollars, we're going to have to pay for benefits of something we don't believe in,” Walsh said.On the steps of City Hall, Mayor Cranley and half of Cincinnati's city council praised the ruling as an equal rights issue and an economic one."Increasingly Fortune 500 companies and others are very progressive on these issues,” Cranley said.Citizens for Community Values issued a statement calling Black's decision "... another example of homosexual activists using sympathetic judges and the courts as a blunt instrument to force a redefinition of marriage and family on the people of Ohio."Gay marriage is legal in 17 states and Washington, D.C. Federal judges recently have struck down gay marriage bans in Michigan, Utah, Texas, Oklahoma and Virginia, though stays have been issued pending appeals.Similar to Ohio's ruling, judges in Kentucky and Tennessee have ordered state officials to recognize out-of-state gay marriages. The Kentucky decision has been stayed pending appeal, while Tennessee's ruling applies to only three couples.Al Gerhardstein, the Cincinnati civil rights attorney who has filed three gay marriage lawsuits in Ohio since June, said several gay couples who want to win the right to marry in Ohio have contacted him. He's considering filing a new lawsuit on their behalf aimed at striking down Ohio's gay marriage ban entirely."The ultimate goal is full marriage equality," Gerhardstein said.