SAN FRANCISCO – The lead plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned California’s same-sex marriage ban tied the knot at San Francisco City Hall on Friday, about an hour after an appeals court cleared the way for same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses for the first time in 4 1/2 years.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris presided at the wedding of Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, of Berkeley. The couple sued to overturn the state’s voter-approved gay marriage ban along with Jeff Katami and Paul Zarrillo, of Burbank, who planned to marry Friday evening at Los Angeles City Hall.

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Sandy Stier, left, and Kris Perry react outside the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday after the court cleared the way for the resumption of same-sex marriage in California. The Associated Press

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“They have waited and fought for this moment,” Harris said. “Today their wait is finally over.”

Harris declared Perry, 48, and Stier, 50, “spouses for life,” but during their vows, they took each other as “lawfully wedded wife.”

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had issued a brief order Friday dissolving a stay it imposed on gay marriages while the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8 worked its way through the courts.

Sponsors of California’s same-sex marriage ban said the appeals court’s decision was “disgraceful.”

Anthony Pugno, general counsel for a coalition of religious conservative groups, called the 9th Circuit’s order an “outrageous act” by judges and politicians determined to overturn Proposition 8.

He called the court’s decision an “abuse of power to manipulate the system and render the people voiceless.”

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