The US Supreme Court has struck down all remaining state barriers against marriage equality, enabling it throughout the United States- an historic victory for the US LGBT community. The White House has been lit up in rainbow colours to mark the historic day In a 5-4 decision, the Court handed down the verdict in Obergefell versus Hodges, in which fourteen couples from Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee, the remaining US states which had not previously struck down legislative and judicial barriers to marriage equality had contested their state prohibitions on constitutional grounds. US President Barack Obama, Democrat Presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton and House of Representatives Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi all applauded the decision and welcomed the advent of marriage equality across the United States. The happy event began two years ago in Ohio, where a gay couple from that state filed a court case against the Governor of Ohio,Obergefell versus Kasich. It mutated intoObergefell v Wymsylo,when the State Health Minister became the appellant, and was joined by a lesbian couple trying to obtain recognition of their names on a birth certificate, Henry v Wymsylo, later further becomingHenry v Himes. Much to the displeasure of Ohio's Republican state administration, the courts ruled in favour of marriage equality across the board, leading to a roadblock in the form of Obergefell versus Himes as the Sixth Circuit ruled that the prior Ninth Circuit court decisions had been "wrong" and that marriage equality prohibitions were "not" unconstitutional. In November 2014, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear the case on appeal. This then led to the US Supreme Court hearing arguments for and against marriage equality consolidated with cases from the three other states that were still obstructing marriage equality in April 2015. On June 26, 2015, the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of the plaintiffs. Strikingly, the court decided along ideological lines. Significantly, all three of the female US Supreme Court justices- Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg- voted for equality, as did Justices Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer. Predictably, all of the Reagan and Bush right-wing justices- Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and John Roberts- voted against equality. Kennedy wrote the opinion for the majority. Same-sex marriage prohibitions were ruled to violate the Fourteenth Amendment, which grants citizenship to everyone born within the United States subject to its jurisdiction and protecting their civil and political liberties. However, in Louisiana, fundamentalist Republican Governor Bobby Jindal and his Attorney-General Buddy Caldwell, are still blocking marriage equality in that Deep Southern state. Other naysayers predictably included Westboro Baptist Church, Republican presidential aspirant and former Arkansas Republican Governor Mike Huckabee, the aforementioned Bobby Jindal, former Pennsylvania Republican Congressperson Rick Santorum, Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry, and US Christian Right activists Alveda King, Bryan Fischer andPeter LaBarbera tweeted in impotent fury. FoxNews commentators looked sour and dyspeptic. Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio tempered their negative remarks relative to their rival Republican contenders. Regardless of homophobic rancor from Republican Party extremists and the US Christian Right, the response from LGBT individuals and their straight allies outside the court was ecstatic. It also means that four US celebrity allies, including Sarah Silverman and Lena Durham, can now tie the knot themselves, having vowed to wait until the US Supreme Court ruled for equality for all. Hillary Duff joined her voice to our other celebrity straight allies, in celebration. No hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorist attacks, civil war or any other crackpot calamities ensued due to the decision, whatever the more eccentric fundamentalist opponents of marriage equality had claimed. With this Supreme Court decision, the United States becomes the twenty-second nation to recognise marriage equality. Recommended: Wikipedia/Same-sex marriage in the United States: http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same- sex_marriage_in_the_United_ States Craig Young - 27th June 2015