These are the incredibly moving words that made gay marriage legal in the US

The long battle to make same-sex marriage legal across the US has finally been won in a historic Supreme Court decision on Friday.

The justices voted 5-4 in favour of repealing the bans on gay marriage which still exist in 15 states.

Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy read out the court's decision to a room waiting with baited breath. His closing statement was a beautiful tribute to the power of love:

No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrates, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death. It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to finds its fulfillment for themselves. Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The constitution grants them that right. The judgement of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed.

It is so ordered.

POTUS seems pretty happy about the decision, joining in as #LoveWins started trending on Twitter:

Please excuse us. We're getting washed away with feels.

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