Today's vote averts a divisive, defamatory and hugely expensive campaign that our national community would have had to wage between now and 2008 to preserve the freedom to marry in the one state where we have it. The repercussions -- in terms of saved energy and millions of dollars that can now be devoted to other pressing priorities -- cannot be overstated.

As a result of this victory, same-sex couples in Massachusetts and across the country can breathe a huge sigh of relief: the freedom to marry in Massachusetts is now resoundingly secure. Those who seek to turn back the clock on justice and equality have been handed a bruising defeat that will resonate throughout the country for generations to come. In future years, we will look back on today's vote as the beginning of a new era-a hard-won tipping point in the fierce battle to overcome discrimination against our families and to achieve a true measure of dignity and respect.

Pandemonium at State House as homosexual activists gloat and celebrate.

And today, we see Log Cabin once again echoing the attitudes of the gay left leadership. No sooner do I receive a press release from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) heralding the defeat of a measure which would have allowed a popular vote on a constitutional amendment barring gay marriage in the Bay State, overturning the state Supreme Judicial Court's 2003 Goodridge decision mandating that institution than I receive a similar release from Log Cabin, with a most disingenuous headline, praising the "Defeat of Marriage Ban in Massachusetts."

While it was the courts who first granted Massachusetts residents the same marriage rights regardless of sexual orientation, this is now a legislative ratification of that decision. And given the low bar necessary to place this on the ballot (50 votes out of 200), the decision was a decisive one.

Little by little, this country will realize that granting special rights to straight couples violates every tenet upon which this nation was founded.

The Marriage Amendment won its first legislative vote and was on track to win its second with a healthy margin. The unprecedented pressure by leaders on Beacon Hill - the rumors of patronage jobs by Governor Patrick and arm-twisting by House Speaker DiMasi - derailed the largest initiative petition drive by citizens in the Commonwealth's history and this is a brutal loss for citizen-centered democracy.