Gay marriage upheld in only state where legal

By Jason Szep

BOSTON (Reuters) - Gay marriage in Massachusetts withstood a challenge on Thursday when lawmakers beat back a four-year effort by social conservatives to ban same-sex unions in the only U.S. state where they are legal.

With 1,000 protesters from both sides of the debate rallying outside the gold-domed statehouse, the Democratic-controlled legislature voted 151-45 to block the amendment that would have allowed voters to decide whether to ban same-sex marriage in a 2008 ballot.

"We're very disappointed," said Kristian Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a conservative Christian organization that led a petition drive to reverse a historic 2003 state court ruling legalizing gay marriage.

Even if the change to the state's constitution had passed, opinion polls show voters in the traditionally liberal state likely would have preserved the status quo in the 2008 ballot, said Boston University communications professor Tobe Berkovitz.

"But I don't think that the pro-gay marriage side wanted to take a chance on that," he said. "That's why the stakes were so high in the legislature."

The vote in the 200-seat house, five short of the 50 needed to advance the amendment, was a victory for Gov. Deval Patrick, who won a November election by a landslide to become the state's first Democratic governor in 16 years.

Patrick had lobbied hard to defeat the proposal that was championed by his Republican predecessor, Mitt Romney, ahead of Romney's presidential campaign.

"People really struggled over this as a matter of principle," Patrick told reporters.