“As soon as the injunction was initiated I called the city manager and he acted immediately,” said Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Triplett.

“The state of Michigan has no rational basis for banning these rights,” Triplett said. “The two primary rationales offered were to save cost and promote marriage. And Judge Lawson, in his order, soundly rejected both of those.”

Equally supportive of the ruling was East Lansing Mayor Diane Goddeeris, who said the city has wanted to offer such legal rights for some time.

“It’s very clear to people now that individuals who are in a domestic partnership should have the same rights as others,” Goddeeris said. “We have always been supportive as a community of people’s sexual preferences.

“We have really held ourselves as a model other communities should follow.”

Meanwhile, MSU continues to offer an equivalent to domestic partner benefits. The college wasn’t affected by the original ban in 2011. Under Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration, universities were exempt from that ban.

But MSU still opposed the measure, with President Lou Anna K. Simon stating in a press release when it first happened, “Like the many companies that likewise went on the record opposing it, I believe such restrictions would be harmful to our organization and indeed to the broader interests of the people of Michigan.

“MSU’s compensation and benefit programs are designed to recruit and retain highly qualified and talented faculty and staff, people for whom we compete against other employers across the country,” Simon continued.

Deanna Hurlbert, assistant director at MSU’s LBGT Resource Center said the next step forward for equality is marriage.

“I would like to see an ongoing affirmation of families,” Hurlbert said. “Which is hugely beneficial for children as well as for primary couples as family to one another.

“Something that affords formal, legal and equitable acknowledgement of families is needed,” she continued. “Anything else is going to leave the state of Michigan on the wrong side of history.”