Brady McCombs and Nicholas Riccardi Posts

A federal appeals court's finding that Utah's same-sex marriage ban is unconstitutional marks the most important ruling for the gay marriage movement since last summer's landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down part of a federal anti-gay marriage law. Gay rights activists have won 16 lower court cases over the past year. After Wednesday's ruling, expectations are higher than ever that the Supreme Court eventually will decide gays can marry in every state. Here are some key things to know about the issue.

Hours after federal judges struck down bans on same-sex marriage in Utah and Oklahoma, activist Evan Wolfson and his colleagues reached out to gay rights groups in the deeply conservative states with both congratulations and a reminder: Court wins alone won't be enough. Wolfson knows the perils of judges forcing social changes on a population that isn't ready for them — he filed the first successful gay marriage lawsuit in the 1990s in Hawaii, and the backlash against that case convinced him to focus on the political process rather than litigation alone.