It’s a sad day for homophobes everywhere.
A proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was defeated today by a joint session of the [Massachusetts] Legislature by a vote of 45 to 151, eliminating any chance of getting it on the ballot in November 2008. At least 50 votes were needed to advance the measure..
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Because fewer than 50 of the state's 200 lawmakers supported the amendment, it will not appear on the 2008 ballot, giving gay marriage advocates a major victory in their battle with social conservatives to keep same-sex marriage legal in Massachusetts.
(--the Boston Globe, via Pandagon)
And the bigots won't be able to make a run at stripping basic rights from people in Massachusetts until 2012, either. It's just unfair that they can't strip civil liberties from a class of people they personally disapprove of (or are trying frantically to pretend they are not part of. The intersection between the sets of right-wing fundamentalist preachers and pathetic closet cases is impressively large) for another five years.
Tch tch tch. How will the state of Massachusetts live with itself? Losing the respect of a bunch of hate-filled bigots must make everyone in the state so sad that they can hardly keep from falling down laughing in the middle of the street.