Same-sex couples in Miami just got a step closer to obtaining the right to legally wed on Friday after a Miami-Dade County judge ruled that Florida's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.

Judge Sarah Zabel overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage in a ruling that applies to Miami-Dade County. She also ordered the Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts office to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

"Preventing couples from marrying solely on the basis of their sexual orientation serves no governmental interest," Zabel wrote in the order, according to Local 10 news. "It serves only to hurt, to discriminate, to deprive same-sex couples and their families of equal dignity, to label and treat them as second-class citizens, and to deem them unworthy of participation in one of our fundamental institutions of our society."

However, Judge Zabel's ruling won't go into effect because she issued an immediate stay pending the outcome of expected appeals.

The judge also made reference to the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned a ban on interracial marriage in her order, writing, "to deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the ... classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the state's citizens of liberty without due process of law."

Moving forward, the case will be heard at the Miami-based 3rd District Court of Appeal and then more than likely move up to the state's Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, the plaintiff's in the case applauded the judge's decision.

"It means so much for a court to recognize our family and say that we must be treated equally," said plaintiff Catherina Pareto, who is suing the state in order to marry her long term partner, according to the The Associated Press. "We love this state and want nothing more than to be treated as equal citizens who contribute to the community and help make Florida an even better place for everyone who lives here."

Likewise, Monroe County Judge Luis M. Garcia issued a similar decision in another part of Florida earlier this month.

In the judge's landmark decision, he ruled that Florida's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, reported the Huffington Post. However, the ruling, which applies to the Keys and all of Monroe County only, was put on hold when the state filed an appeal.

Judge Garcia wrote that other courts had also decided "to stay proceedings in similar challenges" while appeals run their course, reported Reuters. As a result, the same-sex marriage ban will remain in effect until appeal courts weigh in.