Little time is left until the Supreme Court decides if California, the nation's biggest state, will become the second state to allow same sex marriages. The first state was Massachusetts, after it legalized marriages between gay and lesbian residents in 2003.

There are more options about what would happen if the state decides for or against the ban.

If the court decides to uphold the ban against same-sex marriages, the couples could start declaring their love in front of a priest in 30 days, the time set for any Supreme Court decision to become final.

If the news is not going be a good one for gay and lesbian couples as the court will not remove the ban, Massachusetts will remain the single state to allow the marriages.

Geoffrey Kors, executive director of the gay rights group Equality California, said that whatever the court decides, the fact that this has made it to the Supreme Court “will have a huge impact around the nation” and “will set the tone,” as the Associated Press reported.

According to ABC News, there is another option in case that the court doesn’t remove the ban. To avoid judicial activism, the court could order the legislature or voters to start over and the effect would probably be to allow gay marriages.

California has already offered same-sex couples who are registered as domestic partners legal rights and responsibilities as married couples. They have the right to divorce and even to sue for child support.

San Francisco said that these rights aren’t enough, because “words matter” and, the fact that they can’t get married makes gays and lesbians to be looked as second-class citizens, reported ABC News.

San Francisco was also the city which brought this case before the California court, along with two dozen gay and lesbian couples, Equality California and another gay rights group in March 2004.

Looking at other nations we can see that gays and lesbians may marry in five countries: Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada and South Africa.