Even before the Massachusetts decision came down, Republicans were planning their response -- a constitutional amendment that would prohibit any state from recognizing gay marriage. In a memorandum distributed in July, Senate Republican leaders said that Republicans should strike quickly on the gay marriage issue. "When same-sex marriage is legalized in Massachusetts, thousands of homosexual couples from in and out of that Commonwealth will rush to marry," the memorandum said. "Any later attempts to 'react' to the growth of same-sex marriages will then be construed as an effort to deprive those homosexual couples of their legal status."

The memorandum predicted that homosexual activists would flock to Massachusetts to marry, then fan out across the country in order to bring lawsuits challenging other states' laws when those states refused to honor their marriages. Evan Wolfson, the leader of the Freedom to Marry project, discredited predictions of such concerted action. He said that, in the wake of the Massachusetts decision, gay couples will do what straight couples have done all along. "They will interact with other people who will have to ask themselves, 'Am I going to discriminate against this married couple of treat them as they are?'" Wolfson said. "Many businesses and many states will do the right thing. Others will discriminate, and married couples will see a patchwork of reactions. If they encounter discrimination, that will have to work itself out."

The Massachusetts ruling followed by just months a similar ruling by the highest court in Ontario, Canada. Indeed, the Massachusetts majority quoted the ruling in its own opinion. In the United States, the Massachusetts decision makes that state the first one to recognize gay marriage. Dean signed a civil union bill into law while serving as governor -- and then had to wear a bulletproof vest during campaign stops shortly after doing so. Courts in Hawaii and Alaska have held that those states cannot deny marriage rights to homosexuals, but state constitutional amendments subsequently reversed those rulings. A lawsuit similar to the Massachusetts case is now pending in New Jersey.

Wolfson hailed the Massachusetts decision as a major victory for gay couples. "It means that families, including couples with kids, will be able to take on the protections and responsibility of marriage and have the security and support that civil marriage means," he said.

On the right, the decision drew criticism from virtually every prominent Republican, including Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Sen. Rick Santorum, who said that "every civilization since the beginning of man has recognized the need to protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman."

For the Republicans, the good news from Massachusetts is that they've still got time to get started on their political response. The Massachusetts court said it would give the Legislature 180 days to respond to the ruling before it would order the first gay marriage licenses issued.

Conservative Christians say they will use that time to push hard for a federal constitutional amendment. Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition of America, said Tuesday that her group is working closely with Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado to build support for the anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment she has introduced in the House of Representatives. Combs said the amendment is necessary to prevent liberal courts from imposing upon Americans an institution that is "not biblical and not the way our founding fathers intended the courts to go."

Meanwhile, Sheldon said his Traditional Values Coalition is working closely with Republican staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee to craft a Senate version of the amendment. He said he hoped such an amendment would be introduced in the coming days -- likely by Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback or Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, both Republicans. Sheldon said the Massachusetts decision will force elected officials and candidates throughout the nation to have "come to Jesus" discussions about morality, and that his group and others would make sure that gay marriage is a "front-burner" issue in the 2004 presidential campaigns. "The horses are out of the stalls, and the race has begun," he said.

The question, though, is just how far George W. Bush will go to embrace the anti-gay message. The White House issued a brief statement by the president Tuesday in which he condemned the Massachusetts decision as violating "a sacred institution between a man and a woman." And while the statement indicated that Bush would work with "congressional leaders and others to do what is legally necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage," it stopped short of endorsing the only thing that Bush really can do -- work for passage of the constitutional amendment.

"You're going to see Bush torn in a couple of different directions on this thing," said a spokesman for one Democratic presidential candidate. "The Republicans are going to enjoy watching Democrats squirm on this. But by the same token, how does this fit into Bush's desire to come off as a centrist in the general election next year? It's hard to see him making a big deal about this, but you can see his surrogates doing the dirty work for him."

Democratic National Committee spokesman Tony Welch called on Bush to "tell the Republican Party that hate and vilification are off limits in this campaign," but he wasn't optimistic that Bush would listen. "Do we know they're going to use this? You bet," Welch said. "But we're going to point out every time what the Republican goal is, and that's to divide America."

Despite the political war to come, some gay-rights leaders expressed optimism Tuesday that an apocalypse can be averted. Wolfson said the Massachusetts decision will give Americans a chance to see that the world doesn't end when gay people marry. "The country will see that the sky doesn't fall when gay couples take on this commitment," Wolfson said. "People will say the sky is falling, but people with common sense will see that it really isn't."

Still, Wolfson said, that won't stop Republicans from attempting to make political gains from the issue. "If the right wing has anything to do with this, they'll try to make this an issue in the presidential race," he said. "The right wing is not just anti-marriage for gay people, they're against gay people period. If we were asking for oxygen, they'd be against it."

Salon senior writer Eric Boehlert contributed to this story.

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