Landmark ruling on gay marriage

The ruling is likely to thrust the explosive gay-marriage issue even more to the forefront in next year's election. "It could very well be that the ultimate decider in the election is something like the Ten Commandments or gay civil marriages," says Mr. Zogby.

In fact, some Republicans are already heralding the decision as a political victory. "The fact that this is the headline in the news is something you can't pay enough for if you're Bush," says one senior Republican Senate aide. "It raises the profile of a controversial social issue that Republicans believe will work to their advantage, particularly against a certain former governor of Vermont. This is turf the Republicans feel comfortable playing on."

Family-values groups are similarly optimistic. "This will hopefully serve as a wakeup call," says Bill Murray of the Family Research Council in Washington. "There are quite a few elected officials who said they were waiting to see how the Massachusetts court decides" before they acted on the proposed amendment to the US Constitution to ban gay marriage. "Because they have now ruled, I think we're going to see action."

For all the symbolic and legal importance of the Massachusetts decision, it just reflects one state's views. And a marriage license there may not mean much for Massachusetts couples who move to, say, Alabama, or who try to file federal taxes as a married couple. The federal Defense of Marriage Act prohibits the legal recognition of same-sex couples on a national level, and 37 states have passed their own acts barring recognition of gay marriage.

"In some sense, it will be the same as the Vermont civil unions in that you'll only be sure of your status in the state of Massachusetts," says E.J. Graff, author of "What is Marriage for? The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution." "There's not going to be any test of recognition until someone has a crisis."

But, she stresses, the fact that it is marriage still has significance. "Parents can say to their children, we're married. Not that we're 'civil-unionized,' and now I have to explain to you what that means," says David Buckel of the Marriage Project at Lambda Legal. "Folks will be able to see that the world does not crumble..."

In many ways, the Massachusetts decision picks up momentum that began less than five months ago with a US Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay sex. "This is a major moment in American history," says David Garrow, a legal historian at Emory University. "This is the sexual and gay rights equivalent of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act all rolled into one."

• Staff writers Linda Feldmann and Liz Marlantes contributed to this report.

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