But Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 said the court overstepped its bounds, calling the decision “outrageous and outlandlish.”

“They’ve just taken the phrase of equal protection that has no legal connection to marriage and used it as an excuse to impose their own beliefs on the rest of us,” he said.

In March, the Massachusetts State Legislature began debate on an amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage. Harvard students, including members of the BGLTSA and Harvard College Democrats, rallied outside the State House in opposition.

On March 11, the legislature voted in favor of an amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples but establishing civil unions for same-sex couples.

After clearing another vote later in the month, the amendment must now receive the support of a newly-elected legislature in the 2005-2006 session before it is put to a statewide referendum.

Several Cambridge representatives, including Barrios, have been especially vocal in their opposition to the amendment.

“Don’t believe those who tell you that just defining marriage between a man and a woman will not hurt your gay and lesbian friends, your family members, your neighbors and your colleagues, because it will,” Barrios told the legislature on Feb. 12.

State Representative Timothy J. Toomey, who also serves as a city councillor, voted against the proposed amendment and said he hopes it will not pass in the legislature again.

“Hopefully between now and next year people’s attitudes will shift and be more accepting of everybody having the equal rights to marriage,” he said.

Meanwhile, on the national level, both candidates for president have voiced their opposition to same-sex marriage.

Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., has said he supports civil unions but is against gay marriage and disagrees with the SJC’s ruling.

And President Bush announced on Feb. 24 that he would support a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex couples from marrying.

Despite the challenges on the horizon, supporters of same-sex marriage said they remain optimistic that the SJC ruling will not be overridden.

Murphy said in an interview earlier this month that he believed “the world has shifted irrevocably” after the court’s decision, because any measure to ban gay marriage would involve rescinding a right that same-sex couples now have.

“What’s happened now even just a few weeks later is that this is really just now a routine bureaucratic procedure,” he said.