The potential gay marriage ban ammendment in Massachusetts was defeated today!  For those not familiar, Massachusetts is the only state in the United States that affords glbt couples equal marriage rights under the law, and has done so since 2004, when the MA Supreme Court ruled that not doing so would be a violation of the state's constitution.  Since then, the religious right and other crazies have been trying to push an ammendment to the state consitution banning gay marriage (thereby superceding the power of the Supreme Court).  Said ammendment needed a signature petittion (which they completed in 2005) and approval by at least 50 votes in the state legislature in 2 consecutive years (they got the first approval in December 2006), and then finally would have come up to a popular vote in 2008. 

This vote today basically kills this ammendment cold, and guarantees that couples in Massachussetts continue to enjoy equal rights under the law.  This actually hits quite close to home, as my husband and I got married in 2004 (btw the sky hasn't fallen, marriage is still just as un-sanctemonius as ever, MA hasn't devolved into total anarchy).  Big thanks has to go to the newly elected governor of MA, Deval Patrick, without whose help this victory would likely not have happened.  Yay!

Here's the rest of the story from Towleroad: 

UPDATE: By a vote of 151-45, the proposed amendment banning gay marriage has been defeated in the Massachusetts Legislature!

Earlier:

Here's the scene outside the Massachusetts statehouse as activists on both sides of the gay marriage debate await a vote by the constitutional convention scheduled to convene at 1 pm.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and others have been furiously lobbying lawmakers in an effort to get them to vote against allowing a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage on...