The British Columbia Court of Appeal lifted a ban on same-sex marriages Tuesday, giving couples in the province the right to marry immediately.

The decision alters a ruling that would have made same-sex marriages legal, but not until July 2004.

The court had already agreed that the definition of marriage should be the union of "two persons" rather than of "one man and one woman."

B.C. now joins Ontario in making same-sex marriages legal.

United Church minister Tim Stevenson performed the province's first legal same-sex marriage shortly after the ruling. He says the couple "ran" to get their licence as soon as they heard the news.

Stevenson, a former provincial cabinet minister and the first openly gay person ordained in a mainstream Christian denomination, says he's proud to be a Canadian and a British Columbian.

"We are a country that accepts people and tolerates all kinds of people who are engaged in diversity," said Stevenson.