Today, Pennsylvania Governor, Tom Corbett, said he does not plan to appeal yesterday’s ruling making the ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. The Governor admitted that he believed an appeal would be very unlikely to succeed and thus did not want to extend resources to do so. Therefore, unless the higher court steps in to reconsider this issue, gay and lesbian couples no longer face any legal hurdles to marry in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania is the last state in the northeast to legalize same-sex marriage. With the addition of Pennsylvania as the 19th state to do so, now approximately 44% of Americans live in states where same-sex marriage is legal.

As Judge John Jones said in his decision, these laws should be thrown “into the ash heap of history” and called for our society to move forward toward marriage equality in this country, as he held the ban unconstitutional. Governor Corbett’s plan to not appeal shows that Pennsylvania law is ready to do just that.