DHAKA: New Jersey`s first-ever same-sex marriages were celebrated Monday with cheers and laughter as a flurry of excited, beaming couples married minutes after midnight.

Republican Governor Chris Christie, who had appealed against the judicial decision to allow the weddings, later that morning dropped his fight to get it overturned.

"Exhilarated, ecstatic and what was my other e? Excited," Marsha Shapiro told TV network CBS, dressed to the nines alongside new spouse Louise Walpin in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

The couple have been together more than 20 years, raised four children and have one grandchild with another on the way.

The weddings began at one minute after midnight (0501 GMT) on the first day that a judge allowed the unions to take place.

Despite the governor`s personal opposition, several of the states other elected representatives were only too happy to officiate at the midnight unions.

Gay rights activists said overnight the fight goes on. "The struggle continues," said Joseph Panessiei who married partner Orville Bell overnight.

"We are married and happy to be so, but that`s not legal in all states in the United States. And there are a lot of people who still, even in the states where it`s legal, don`t believe its correct or proper," he said.

Source: BBC
BDST: 1010 HRS, OCT 22, 2013
GR/BSK