Over at Reason's Hit & Run, Dave Weigel makes note of today's decision by the Massachusetts legislature to prevent a referendum on gay marriage. He cites me, writing in another publication, as having expressed support for such a referendum. Not quite. My qualms with the Massachusetts legislature--about which I wrote for TNR--concerned the means by which state legislators avoided their constitutional duty to vote on matters brought to them by initiative petition. In November, the state legislature avoided the issue by a procedural trick--it adjourned before a vote. This was ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Judicial Court, the same court that found gay marriage in the state constitution. As someone who cares about the democratic process, the illegitimate means employed to defend gay marriage was something that disturbed me, despite how much I agreed with the cause. What happened today, however, was not so shady. Anti-gay marriage advocates needed 50 votes in two successive sessions of the legislature to put the question of gay marriage on the ballot. In a January Constitutional Convention, they got 62 votes. Since that time, gay rights groups worked hard to lobby members they believed could be converted. Rather than scuttle the issue by avoiding an up-or-down vote on the matter, pro-gay marriage forces in the state legislature were able to convince 9 formerly pro-ballot initiative representatives to switch their votes. The referendum proposal was defeated 151 to 45. I still don't know what to think about the events in my home state. As I argued back in January, I think a referendum on gay marriage in Massachusetts would have passed. Not only would winning a vote on marriage provide a more legitimate basis for such a radical social change, but it would also put an end to the right-wing argument that gay marriage was foisted upon them by an activist court (which it was). Sure, it would have been risky, but that's what democracy is about. This is a victory for gay rights, no doubt, but it's still one that leaves me uneasy. --James Kirchick