The words “I do” simultaneously rang out across the state of Michigan shortly after it was announced at 8 a.m. on Saturday, March 22nd that same-sex marriage was legal in the state.

Shortly after, a federal appeals court granted the state’s request to suspend a ruling making Michigan’s gay-marriage ban unconstitutional. A day earlier, U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman declared the Michigan Marriage Act unconstitutional.

The emergency stay is a temporary halt on a judicial proceeding through the order of a court. However, despite the stay, Michigan became the 18th state in the United States to legalize gay marriage, according to USA Today.

Glenna Dejong and Marsha Casper were the very first gay couple to be legally married in the state of Michigan.

“We’re just one of a long line of states who are realizing that gay people have rights too, the same rights as heterosexuals,” DeJong said, according Mlive.com.

Due to the stay, it is currently unknown whether or not those that were married prior to the stay will be acknowledged as married by the state of Michigan.

Junior Taylor Hutson, an avid supporter of LGBT rights, notes that Michigan has always had large gay communities and said this action was  long overdue.

“There are large gay communities in Michigan, such as Ferndale, that deserve to express their relationships to their fullest potential,” said Hutson. “I was just really happy because I feel like they got what they deserved: equal rights!”

Abigail Youngerman, a Brit Lit and American History teacher at Mercy, believes that the stay will go to the Supreme Court on appeal.

“The recent trend across the U.S. tells me that, after a fight, it will probably be lifted and the rights of people to love and marry whom they choose will be vindicated,” she said. “I hope I am right.”