Still Running Off at the Keyboard

A year and a half after a Supreme Judicial Court decision allowed same-sex weddings to begin in Massachusetts, the state Legislature voted overwhelming yesterday to reject a proposed constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage and allowed civil unions.


The amendment, which passed by a slim margin during an initial vote last year, was rejected by a resounding vote of 157 to 39 yesterday after less than two hours of debate by the House and Senate, which met jointly in Constitutional Convention.


If the question had been approved, it would have gone to voters in November 2006.
The vote was cheered by more than 100 gay marriage supporters who packed the House gallery, and several hundred people who watched on closed circuit TV in the Statehouse’s Great Hall.


“I think there’s great momentum for this cause right now to make sure that these people are treated equally,” House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, who voted against the amendment, said outside the chamber.


“I think the people of Massachusetts are accepting this because they’ve seen the world hasn’t changed, the sky hasn’t fallen, and it hasn’t belittled any of their relationships or their marriage themselves,” said DiMasi, whose comments were nearly drowned out by a rally of gay marriage supporters down the hall.


The battle over same-sex marriage in Massachusetts is still far from over.


A number of legislators who oppose gay marriage changed their vote to no on the civil union compromise, in order to clear the way for a new initiative petition that would come before the Legislature next year. The question would bar gay marriage with no constitutional guarantee of civil unions.

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