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Federal judge opens same-sex marriage in Cook County, Ill.

CHICAGO, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- A federal judge ruled same-sex couples in Illinois' Cook County don't have to wait until June to get marriage licenses.

Just hours after U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman made the ruling Friday, same-sex couples rushed to the county clerk's office to apply for marriage licenses, the Chicago Tribune reported.

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By 7 p.m. Friday, 46 couples showed up to get a marriage license.

"I was just skipping all the way here. I don't know why," said Mona Noriega, chairwoman of the city's Commission on Human Relations, who showed up at the office with her bride-to-be Evette Cardona. "I have loved her, she has been the love of my life."

Coleman's ruling only applies to Cook County. In her decision, she wrote "there is no reason to delay further when no opposition has been presented to this court and committed gay and lesbian couples have already suffered from the denial of their fundamental right to marry."

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