The Defense of Marriage Act has been ruled unconstitutional, so now marriage rights (like being able to apply for housing assistance for low-income families or family visiting rights for relatives in hospital or prison) are now available to homoloveual couples as well. There's a whole load of rights and benefits with marriage, search it up for the complete list if you want.
There's still a way to go since gay couples still can't actually get married in many states, but now at least they'll be recognized as couples.
Oh yeah, and gay marriage in California should be back in the next 4 weeks or so.