OLYMPIA, Washington (AP) – The Washington Supreme Court disappointed gay-marriage advocates yesterday, supporting a ban on same-sex unions and leaving Massachusetts as the only US state granting full marriage rights to gays and lesbians.

The 5-4 ruling, which left any action on the state’s 1998 Defence of Marriage Act to the state Legislature, also surprised gay-marriage opponents who had expected to lose the court case in liberal-leaning Washington state.

It was the latest in a series of significant court rulings against gay marriage. New York’s high court dealt gay couples a similar blow earlier this month when it ruled that a state law limiting marriage to between a man and a woman was constitutional.

Disappointment in yesterday’s decision was perhaps greatest in Seattle, home of the state’s most visible gay community and the source of one of the original lawsuits seeking marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples.

“There aren’t words to describe how hurt people in the gay and lesbian community are. There’s a lot of tears and a lot of anger right now. Emotion is raw,” said state Democratic Rep Ed Murray of Seattle, the senior of four openly gay state lawmakers.

The state Supreme Court overruled two lower courts that had found the state’s 1998 Defence of Marriage Act, which limits marriage to opposite-sex couples, violated the state constitution.

However, three majority justices invited the state Legislature to take another look at the gay marriage ban’s effect on same-sex couples.

“Given the clear hardship faced by same-sex couples evidenced in this lawsuit, the Legislature may want to re-examine the impact of the marriage laws on all citizens of this state,” wrote Justice Barbara Madsen, with Justice Charles Johnson and Chief Justice Gerry Alexander concurring.

The two other justices in the majority, James Johnson and Richard Sanders, more actively opposed gay marriage, saying the Legislature had “a compelling governmental interest in preserving the institution of marriage, as well as the healthy families and children it promotes”, Johnson wrote.

Leaders in the state House and Senate and Governor Chris Gregoire – all Democrats – did not commit to any course of action.

“The Supreme Court has ruled and we must accept their decision whether we agree with it or not,” Gregoire said.

The four-justice minority harshly criticised the ruling.

Nineteen gay and lesbian couples seeking to marry had challenged the constitutionality of Washington’s Defence of Marriage Act. Judges in King and Thurston counties overturned it in 2004, citing the state constitution’s “privileges and immunities” section.