Source: The Boston Globe
On December 12, 2003 The Boston Globe reported, "The state Senate president and the House majority leader, responding to a Globe survey of Massachusetts legislators, say they would vote against a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage and civil unions. The poll, conducted during the week following the Supreme Judicial Court's historic decision Nov. 18 in favor of same-sex marriages, indicated that, of the 94 lawmakers who responded, opponents to the constitutional measure outnumbered backers by a 2-to-1 margin. However, the situation on Beacon Hill remains fluid, and the majority of lawmakers declined to make public a position on the proposed amendment. The court's ruling is setting off intense lobbying from both proponents and opponents, and those campaigns are expected to accelerate as the Feb. 11 constitutional convention nears. Some lawmakers are likening the debate to close battles over the death penalty in the 1990s, and say it may be among the most difficult votes of their careers. Those pushing for the constitutional amendment concede that the SJC ruling, while unclear to many, has nonetheless shifted the political debate from whether to recognize same-sex relationships to how they should be recognized."