State Rep. Alice K. Wolf, who proposed the 1992 Cambridge ordinance as a city councilor, has authored a bill to replace the 1955 law and allow state workers domestic partnership benefits and municipalities the option of such benefits.

The bill passed the state senate last November, but has since stalled in the House Ways and Means Committee.

"We've been trying at least to protect the people who've had benefits in Cambridge for the past eight years, but we couldn't get [the bill] passed in the last session," Wolf said.

"Unless we can pull some rabbits out of our hats during this informal session and get it passed, we'll have to keep fighting," she said.

Wolf's bill would allow municipalities to reinstate the programs that the ACLJ's litigation has overturned, according to partisans on both sides of the issue.

"A new bill would definitely take care of the state law conflict," McCarthy said. "It would close down a lot of the avenues we have to fight gay marriage."

The ACLJ has waged a city to city battle against domestic partnerships over the past two years, with their first victory against Boston last July. After the Cambridge ruling, Northampton and Brookline voluntarily ended their benefits in response to requests from the ACLJ to comply with the state law.

McCarthy has already drafted a suit against Springfield's domestic partnerships program.