Gay Marriage Wins one in Massachusetts

Support for an anti-gay marriage amendment targeted for the 2006 ballot appears to have dissolved within the Massachusetts legislature.

The amendment, a compromise that would ban same-sex marriage but approve civil unions, passed last year, just shortly after the State Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal, 105-92. It must pass a second vote to get on next year's ballot but it looks like that's not going to happen. In a recent phone survey 104 lawmakers indicated that they would vote against the proposal this time around while only 19 indicated support.

The turnaround is the result of several factors. On the negative side are the conservatives who favor a more extreme amendment that would ban same-sex marriage without legalizing civil unions. On the plus side are new legislators that promised not to vote for the amendment and, the most important group of all, those that have come to the realization that after a year of legal same-sex marriage, the world hasn't come to an end, God hasn't boiled Boston Harbor and the institution of heterosexual marriage hasn't collapsed.

Many lawmakers that voted for the amendment last year said that after more than a year of watching gay couples marry, they see no need to rescind the right. Maybe this idea of two votes a year apart makes a lot of sense.

As far as the conservatatives and their more radical amendment, the earliest that can get on the ballot would be 2008. I know the people of Massachusetts, they're fair minded folks and after four years of same-sex marriage they're not about to vote for an amendment to ban it. I doubt it will even ever get on the ballot.