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| US rebuff to gay marriage opponents | US rebuff to gay marriage opponents |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The US Supreme Court has rejected appeals against gay marriage in five states - Indiana, Utah, Oklahoma, Virginia and Wisconsin. | |
| The move increases the number of states where same-sex marriage is legal to 30, plus the District of Columbia. | |
| By rejecting the appeals, the court left intact lower-court rulings that had struck down bans in those states. | |
| Support for gay marriage in the US has gained momentum since the Supreme Court delivered two landmark rulings in 2013. | |
| Monday's ruling means that the nine justices of the court have stopped short from resolving the question of same-sex marriage nationwide. | |
| Same-sex couples in the five states named in the ruling can get married now, because the delay has been lifted. | |
| Couples in six other states - Colorado, Kansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Wyoming - will be able to get married soon. | |
| Last year, the Supreme Court struck down a federal law that denied benefits to legally married same-sex partners. | |
| That led to several victories across the US as gay-marriage bans were struck down in lower courts. | |
| Many expected the Supreme Court to use this session to, at some point, tackle the issue nationwide, rather than address it state-by-state. |