When Patrick Finnessy asked ten years ago at a lecture how many people knew someone who was gay, 25 percent of the audience raised their hands.

Now, 90 to 95 percent of people are able to say that they know someone who is gay, he said.

Many gay and lesbian couples were left with marriage licenses taken away when the California Supreme Court ruled Aug. 12 that San Francisco’s mayor Gavin Newsom overstepped his authority by issuing same-sex marriage licenses.

“The San Francisco mayor was simply going under the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law, and they left room for the constitutionality of the law to be challenged,” said Finnessy, the director of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender concerns at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Although many people were excited by the opportunity to have their relationships recognized, most likely feel set back. Finnessy said the setback is only temporary.

Elected public officials cannot pick and choose what is constitutional and what is not, PRISM office manager Sheryl Macas said.

“People are most likely waiting until after the election to see what’s going to happen,” she said. “If we have someone in office who is neutral or on our side, I could definitely see this happening at least on many state levels in the next eight years.”

Rev. Michael Black of Newman Catholic Student Center, said issuing gay marriage licenses could potentially be harmful to the institution of marriage

“There is a logical problem of where you would stop it if a man wants to marry his sister or if three men want to get married,” he said.

For some gay and lesbian couples, the fight to legalize gay marriage is not over.

“The first couple to be married had been together for 50 years,” Macas said. “A lot of people think that it’s just young kids and it’s trendy, but most of these couples had been together for a long time.”