Massachusetts has fundamentalists and religious conservatives as well (many are Democrats). The judicial victory for gay marriage was followed by a good deal of positive press and legislative support (even though the inital polling said 54% favored an amendment to ban same sex marriage). On May 17th, the firmament did not tremble and people realized that it really is no big deal. It was impossible to ignore the joy of those same-sex couples who got married and all of their friends/families (it is also impossible to ignore the economic boost to the wedding-industrial complex).
Today around 50% support gay marriage, 25% civil union, 10% say either marriage or civil union is OK, and only about 15% are against. Our governer and other outsiders were widely unsuccessful in trying to use the issue against incumbent supporters.
The point is that things change and well-placed action changes it. I think this is what most "anti-gay Christians" truly fear. The only thing they have is the inherent conservative reation to not change things (my joke about conservative in Massachusetts have to support gay marriage now that it is law--"you cannot change the way things are"--has a point).
Jim
Quoting DSR <debburz at yahoo.com>:
> Bingo, though I wasn't just talking about Texas. We have to be
> aware, nationally, of our ongoing strategies and work accordingly,
> integrating what we can and selectively charging in one place while
> pausing somewhere else. What plays to a receptive audience in
> Massachusetts may get you comparing notes with Matthew Shepherd in
> the afterlife somewhere else. Brian Dauth filing a lawsuit re gay
> marriage in New York where Spitzer and company are maleable is one
> thing; lesbians in Oklahoma filing suit in a state, which is
> remarkably like Texas and where the ground for gay marriage is about
> as breakable as the rock hard ground of the Dust Bowl days is quite
> another. If Massachusetts and New York can carry the baton in one
> race, that's progress; but if the same action in another state throws
> us backwards, it makes more sense to pursue another track, perhaps
> employment discrimination. Strategy means picking your battles, and
> picking your battles well. It does not mean giving up.