WASHINGTON—Gays and lesbians in Massachusetts have won the right to marry after the highest court in that state decided to follow the lead of the Ontario Court of Appeal in coming to grips with "evolving" cultural standards.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court delivered a long-awaited ruling yesterday, a split decision that sent reverberations across the country and made it virtually certain that gay rights will become an issue in next year's presidential election.

..."We face a problem similar to one that recently confronted the Court of Appeal for Ontario, the highest court of that Canadian province, when it considered the constitutionality of the same-sex marriage ban under Canada's Federal Constitution, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms," it wrote.

"In holding that the limitation of civil marriage to opposite-sex couples violated the Charter, the Court of Appeal refined the common-law meaning of marriage," it said.

"We concur with this remedy."