A federal judge has overturned Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage, the latest in a series of legal decisions favoring marital rights for gay and lesbian couples.

In a 41-page opinion filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk, Judge Arenda Wright Allen ruled that the 2006 amendment to the state's constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage violates equal protection and due process guarantees of the U.S. Constitution.

Barring a reversal on appeal, the ruling will make Virginia the 18th state to grant married same-sex couples the same rights and protections afforded to opposite-sex couples under state laws, including those governing income taxes and employment benefits such as health care and retirement plans.

“The goal and the result of this legislation is to deprive Virginia's gay and lesbian citizens of the opportunity and right to choose to celebrate, in marriage, a loving, rewarding, monogamous relationship with a partner to whom they are committed for life,” Judge Allen wrote. ”Such relationships are created through the exercise of sacred, personal choices — choices, like the choices made by every other citizen, that must be free from unwarranted government interference.”

In January, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring withdrew the state's defense of the marriage ban that was brought on behalf of Janet Rainey, Virginia's registrar of vital records, and two circuit court clerks named in a July 2013 lawsuit brought by two same-sex couples denied marriage licenses.

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Mr. Herring's withdrawal left Michele McQuigg, the circuit court clerk in Virginia's Prince William County, as the marriage ban's sole defender in the lawsuit.

Judge Allen rejected Ms. McQuigg's arguments in support of limiting the state's recognition of marriage to heterosexual couples, including the assertion that opposite-sex couples are inherently better suited to care for children than gay and lesbian couples.

“The 'for-the-children' rationale rests upon an unconstitutional, hurtful and unfounded presumption that same-sex couples cannot be good parents,” Judge Allen said in her ruling. “Same-sex couples can be just as responsible for a child's existence as the countless couples across the nation who choose, or are compelled to rely upon, enhanced or alternative reproduction methods for procreation.”

Judge Allen is the third federal judge to strike down a state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in the past two months, following similar rulings in Utah and Oklahoma. However, implementation of all three rulings has been postponed pending appeals.