Suck it!

BOSTON - Massachusetts lawmakers blocked a proposed constitutional amendment Thursday that would have let voters decide whether to ban gay marriage in the only state that allows it.

The narrow vote was a victory for gay marriage advocates and a blow to efforts to reverse the historic court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the state. More than 8,500 gay couples have married in Massachusetts since it became legal in May 2004.

To get the proposed ban on the 2008 statewide ballot would have required 50 votes. It got 45, with 151 lawmakers opposed. There was no debate.

Opponents of gay marriage vowed to press on, but Thursday's defeat after more than three years of sometimes wrenching debate could prove insurmountable. Any effort to mount a new ballot question would take years at a time political support in Massachusetts is swinging firmly behind gay marriage.

Jean Chandler, 62, of Cambridge, came with fellow members of her Baptist church in an effort to rebuff the image that strict followers of the Bible are opposed to gay marriage.

"I think being gay is like being left-handed," Chandler said. "If we decided left-handed people couldn't marry, what kind of society would we be?"

Left-handed indeed. There are some Christians that get it.

The next step, of course, is to insist on federal recognition. We live in a federalist society, and the federal government will be forced to recognize the law in Massachusetts. There are over 1000 federal laws to benefit married couples, and now that Massachusetts treats everyone equally, so will the federal government.

I think the long term goal is to get a case similar to Loving vs. Virgina at the Supreme Court and shove equality down the throats of the rest of the country. We might need one or two sensible justices appointed to the court to assure the decision, but in the face of Loving and Lawrence vs. Texas even Scalia has seen the inevitable. He will be bound by precedent.