Barbara and Robin Levine-Ritterman gained nearly all the rights of married couples three years ago when they entered into a civil union, but even as they were applying for it the bond had a second-class feel.

"We didn't do it with pride or joy," Barbara Levine-Ritterman said of getting the civil-union license. "It felt gritty to be in a separate line."

Yesterday, they were among the first same-sex couples in Connecticut to receive a license not for some equivalent of marriage, but for the real thing. About 100 people cheered them as they stepped out of New Haven City Hall.

"It's thrilling today," said Barbara Levine-Ritterman, who with her partner had sued for the right to marry. "We are all in one line for one form. Love is love, and the state recognizes it."

Same-sex couples in Connecticut exchanged vows amid cheers and tears of joy, though the milestone did not ease the sting of a major loss for gay-marriage supporters last week. Gay activists planned protests across the country over the vote that took away their right to marry in California.

Outside West Hartford's town hall, Jody Mock and Elizabeth Kerrigan waved their marriage license high to the cheers of about 150 people. The couple led the lawsuit that that overturned the state law.

"We feel very fortunate to live in the state of Connecticut, where marriage equality is valued, and hopefully other states will also do what is fair," Kerrigan said.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 on Oct. 10 that same-sex couples have the right to wed rather than accept a 2005 civil union law designed to give them the same rights as married couples. A lower-court judge entered a final order permitting same-sex marriage yesterday morning. Massachusetts is the only other state that allows gay marriages.

Gay-marriage advocates said they were planning nationwide demonstrations this weekend in more than 175 cities and outside the U.S. Capitol. A Seattle blogger was trying to organize simultaneous protests outside statehouses and city halls in every state Saturday.

In New York City, several hundred protesters planned to march later yesterday on the Mormon Temple on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The church had encouraged its members to support the California ban.