Gay nuptials kept; Marriage amendment fails 151-45.

Byline: John J. Monahan

BOSTON - Drawing roars of approval and screams of victory from gay marriage supporters, the Legislature yesterday rejected a constitutional amendment that would have let voters decide gay marriage, as it failed to get the required 25 percent support to go to the 2008 ballot.

The amendment that aimed to limit marriage to unions between a man and a woman, failed on a vote of 151-45,

as opponents of the amendment persuaded nine lawmakers to shift their positions from an earlier vote in January, to kill the measure as lawmakers met in a Constitutional Convention.

Gay marriage advocates, including Gov. Deval L. Patrick, House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, D-Boston, and Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, all said they expect the vote to put to rest three years of controversy and legal and political challenges that began when the state's Supreme Judicial Court ruled that same-sex marriages were legal in Massachusetts.

While gay marriage supporters celebrated, Kristian M. Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute that helped sponsor the constitutional amendment drive, said it would now be at least 2012 before a new constitutional amendment drive could result in a ballot measure.

"We are feeling very betrayed by nine of the legislators," Mr. Mineau said of the vote. "This radical change of votes almost overnight smells of incentives above and beyond" what is allowed by state law, he said, suggesting that jobs and other favors may have been promised to get enough legislators to vote against the amendment.

"It's a setback. But the point is the Legislature may have spoken, but the people still have not been allowed to speak on the definition of marriage," Mr. Mineau said. "The Legislature has decided once again that they know better."

The vote comes after an intense lobbying effort by gay marriage supporters to reverse an initial vote on the amendment taken by the joint Legislature on Jan. 2. At that time lawmakers voted 134-62

on the amendment, giving the ballot measure more than the required 25 percent legislative support it needed to advance to a second vote.

While some votes changed because a number of gay marriage opponents were replaced in the new session, nine lawmakers, including state Rep. Paul J. Kujawski, D-Webster, who voted in January to let voters decide the issue, voted yesterday

not to advance the question. One other opponent, state Rep. Anthony J. Verga, D-Gloucester, was injured in a fall...