In one of the most anticipated decisions in the United States, the country’s Supreme Court yesterday ruled in favour of gay marriages.

It ruled 5-4 in favor of legalising gay marriage across all the states in the American federation.

The battle over whether gay people should be given the right to marry had raged on with, conservatives maintaining that marriage should strictly be between a man and a woman. However, the cultural landscape of America has experienced vast changes with polls before the Supreme Court’s ruling showing a majority support for gay marriage among Americans. A recent Washington Post-ABC poll showed a record 61 percent of Americans say they support same-sex marriage. The acceptance is driven by higher margins among the young.

In the majority opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Court said: “The court now holds that same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry. No longer may this liberty be denied to them.”

The case before the court was known as Obergefell v Hodges, after James Obergefell, who wanted his name on his terminally ill husband’s death certificate. But he was denied that right by the state of Ohio, which banned gay marriage.

Justice Kennedy added: “...marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these (gay) men and woman to say they disrespect the idea of marriage.

“Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilisation’s oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law.The Constitution grants them that right."

US president Barack Obama had called on the court to affirm the equal treatment of gay Americans in all facets of American life.

“In a world in which gay and lesbian couples live openly as our neighbors, they raise their children side by side with the rest of us, they contribute fully as members of the community . . . it is simply untenable — untenable — to suggest that they can be denied the right of equal participation in an institution of marriage, or that they can be required to wait until the majority decides that it is ready to treat gay and lesbian people as equals,” he said.

The Supreme Court repudiated the idea that “the right to marry is less meaningful for those who do not or cannot have children. An ability, desire, or promise to procreate is not and has not been a prerequisite for a valid marriage in any State,” it said.

Opponents of gay marriage have been left dismayed by the court’s decision.

The ruling came following some confusion about the legality of gay marriage in America, with some states recognising it and others refusing to do so.

Many all over the world have kept an eye on gay rights debates in America, a country where several culture-related battles (including those relating to race and other civil rights matters) with potential international ramifications have been waged and decided by the apex court of the country.

•Photo shows Justice Anthony Kennedy of the US Supreme Court.