At 12:01 a.m. this morning, Washington State started issuing same-sex couples marriage licenses for the first time and couples celebrated with certificates in hand. The state has a 3-day waiting period, so couples can’t get their certificates signed until Sunday at the earliest but it didn’t stop couples from lining up hours before.

The law was passed by legislators during the November elections when 54 percent of voters expressed their approval of Referendum 74 legalizing same-sex marriage. Washington is now one of nine states that have legalized gay marriage — Maine and Maryland approved same-sex marriage last month as well. Six other states — New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont — and the District of Columbia had already enacted laws or issued court rulings that permit same-sex marriage

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