A federal judge in llinois has just declared that same-sex couples can begin marrying immediately in Cook County, which includes Chicago and the surrounding areas, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. 

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman said in a ruling filed this morning that there is no justifiable reason for same-sex couples to wait to begin marrying until the state's marriage equality law, passed last November, takes effect in June. 

"There is no reason to delay further when no opposition has been presented to this Court and committed gay and lesbian couples have already suffered from the denial of their fundamental right to marry," U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman said in her ruling, which appears to only apply to Cook County, according to local news sources.

In December, Coleman ruled that same-sex couples where one partner had a life-threatening illness could take advantage of the state's marriage equality law before it took effect in June, following aNovember court order from another federal judge that allowed Vernita Gray, 64, and Patricia Ewert, 65 to become the first same-sex couple to marry in Illinois. 

"What's important is that there's no reason to wait, and that waiting has consequences," Marc Solomon, national campaign director at Freedom to Marry, tells The Advocate. "That's why getting the issue resolved once and for all nationwide is so important — because the wait has real consequences in the lives of people every single day. For instance, not being able to see their kids get married, couples where someone passes away, and those both have really meaningful and personal consequences, as well as sometimes serious financial hardships. That's why the wait is difficult, and even as we talk so much about how quickly our movement is going, how quickly the cause is advancing, waiting another day, another week, or in this case, another several months, is definitely a burden."

This story is developing. Check back for additional details.