Marriage equality past present and future: How the 'phobes have fallen

Looking back on the fight to preserve marriage equality in Massachusetts, it is astounding to remember that when lawmakers were first debating a marriage amendment in 2004 nearly all of the state's political heavyweights were aligned against the LGBT community. The governor, the Senate president, the House speaker, the state's Catholic bishops and Boston's Black Ministerial Alliance teamed up with multimillion dollar Christian right organizations from out of state to try to prevent Massachusetts from allowing same-sex couples to marry, but the LGBT community and its allies overcame all opposition. The icing on the cake is that, five years later, most of the generals leading the charge against equality no longer have the clout they once did in the Bay State.

Tom Finneran: The former House speaker was known for many years as the most powerful person on Beacon Hill, and he led the charge in the legislature in 2004 to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. What a difference five years make. In early 2007 Finneran pled guilty to obstruction of justice for falsely testifying in a lawsuit related to a redistricting plan. The guilty plea cost him his nearly $500,000-a-year job as president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, a post he took after leaving the House in 2004. Last March the state Board of Bar Overseers recommended he be disbarred. These days Finneran has been relegated to hosting a talk show on WRKO radio, chatting about the people who actually still matter on Beacon Hill.

Mitt Romney: The former governor used his strident opposition to same-sex marriage to reframe himself as a social conservative in preparation for his failed campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. As far as his national ambitions go, his gambit worked; Romney has emerged as one of leading national figures in the Republican Party and is seen as one of the frontrunners for the 2012 presidential nomination. But Romney's dramatic shift to the right on social issues, along with his repeated Bay State-bashing on his regular forays out of state, hurt him at home. In 2006 the Republicans lost control of the governor's office to the Democrats for the first time in 16 years, and under Romney's tenure the party lost seats in the legislature, despite Romney's efforts to promote a "reform team" of candidates. The state GOP's top-ranking senator, Richard Tisei (Wakefield) called Romney "a disaster we're all still trying to recover from" in an interview with this newspaper. This month there are reports that Romney is selling his Belmont abode to relocate to New Hampshire. The national GOP might want to check out Romney's party-building record at home before they anoint him their new standard bearer.

Tom Reilly: Back in Tom Reilly's days as Massachusetts attorney general, when he seemed to be working around the clock to throw up every conceivable barrier to allowing same-sex couples to marry, he was seen as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for governor and the choice of the party establishment. How the mighty have fallen. During the Goodridge suit Reilly's office defended the status quo and filed a legal brief that questioned the fitness of gay parents. After the Supreme Judicial Court's decision came down Reilly argued that it left room for civil unions. Reilly defended the largely forgotten 1913 law that Romney unearthed to prevent out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in Massachusetts, and he certified an initiative petition to amend the constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Once he began campaigning in earnest for the gubernatorial nomination he made a lukewarm effort to support marriage equality, but he was edged out by a virtual unknown candidate named Deval Patrick who championed the cause of marriage equality. These days Patrick is enjoying the corner office and Reilly has largely disappeared from Massachusetts politics.

Robert Travaglini: The former Senate president was never an overt foe on LGBT rights, but he wasn't much of a friend, either. In 2004 and 2005 Travaglini seemed determined to push through a compromise on the issue of marriage equality, passing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage but giving same-sex couples civil unions as a consolation prize. His plan met with opposition from both sides and went down in flames in 2005. In January 2007 he blocked efforts by LGBT advocates to kill another marriage amendment procedurally by calling for an immediate vote at the start of that month's constitutional convention. A couple months later he left the Senate to open a lobbying firm, and has remained out of the spotlight ever since.

Phil Travis: From 2004 through 2006 Rehoboth Rep. Phil Travis (D) was the lead water-carrier for the anti-gay activists of the Massachusetts Family Institute and their allies, filing their marriage amendment in 2004 and steadfastly opposing efforts to water it down through amendments. He announced his decision to retire in late 2005, telling the Boston Globe that he felt the state was becoming too liberal and saying, ''I just think that we're losing our moral compass." In 2006 he was succeeded by Steve D'Amico, a staunch supporter of marriage equality, and Travis has faded from Bay State politics.

Ron Crews: For years Crews, the president of the local Focus on the Family offshoot Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI), was the face of the organized opposition to marriage equality. During the 2004 constitutional conventions he stood shoulder to shoulder with local conservative politicos and national religious right heavyweights like Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, but the legislature rejected his marriage amendment in favor of Travaglini's compromise. Later that year the Georgia native left MFI and made an ill-fated bid to unseat Congressman James McGovern, garnering only about 30 percent of the vote. Shortly after he left the Bay State, and currently serves as executive director of Grace Church International, a worldwide network of evangelical churches headquartered in North Carolina.