Hours after the SCOTUS ruled on DOMA and Prop 8 on Wednesday, effectively making gay marriage legal in the state of California, San Francisco erupted into a giant, well-deserved party. The Supreme Court's ruling that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and that Judge Vaughn Walker's original ruling in Prop 8 stands inspired hordes of people, gay and straight, to celebrate in the Castro, ground zero for gay rights.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion on this one, which you can read in full here, and he was joined by Justices Scalia, Ginsberg, Breyer, and Kagan. When decision was revealed, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced to hundreds of people at the City Hall Rotunda, "Welcome to the people's house! This is a historic day for all of us ... We have struggled for many, many years. I want to thank all of you for sharing this moment. Gosh, it feels good to have love triumph over ignorance, equality triumph over discrimination."

Wednesday's ruling comes just in time. This weekend the annual San Francisco Gay Pride Parade takes the city by storm. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to show up this week to take part in the fabulous festivities.

Below, video of last night's action in the Castro.

Meanwhile, in New York City celebrations unfurled outside the Stonewall Inn, where riots in 1969 jumpstarted the gay rights movement.

A new day, a new ruling in California's discriminatory anti-gay law. "A federal appeals court Wednesday turned down a bid by two same-sex couples to allow gay marriages to resume in California while their legal case is pending," reports BCN (via KTVU). "A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief order turning down the couples' request that the panel lift a stay of a lower court ruling that allowed same-sex marriages." So, there you have it: no same-sex marriage. For now.

Geoff Kors, executive director of the group Equality California, responded to today's decision in the following news release, saying, "Today's ruling is a major setback for same-sex couples and their families who must continue living every day in legal limbo without the basic freedoms and protections guaranteed to them by our nation's Constitution. Every day same-sex couples are denied the freedom to marry, their families suffer significant harm."

To find out who in your neighborhood donated to marriage inequality in California, please visit EightMaps.org.

[Sacto Bee, KTVU]

Hey gay couples! You're in terrible danger. Fortunately, we can help. Well, not exactly -- SFist_Matt, to be specific, has taken a break from writing stern emails to Muni, and is now working on a really neat online video project to protect marriage equality.

Check out Stop8.org -- Matt's working on a series of 30-second documentary videos, explaining who California's gay spouses are, why the freedom to marry is so important to us all, and what everyone stands to lose if Prop 8 (the anti-marriage Constitutional amendment) passes in November. The Prop 8 people are going after gay marriage now -- they want is the power to control who can get married and who can't. Who knows what kind of "impure" unions they'll target next? This is an important showdown for all of us: gay, straight, and whatever.

If you're a gay couple and you'd like to help out, drop Matt a line at contact - at - stop8 - dot - org. He'd like to sit down and interview you for a half hour or so, This-American-Life-style.

And if you're not a gay couple, you can still be a part of it; create a 5-second video clip of yourself saying "I'm voting No On 8" and email it (in whatever format you like) to the same address, contact - at - stop8 - dot - org. Or take a photo of yourself with an "I'm Voting No On 8" sign and tag it noon8.

There's lots that you can do to help; so do something. Please. It's important.