After the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in February 2004 that gay couples must be given the right to marry, Republican political strategists (led by Karl Rove, the evil genius responsible for sabotaging Bush rival John McCain in the 2000 Republican primaries) launched a whispering campaign unfairly suggesting that Democratic nominee John Kerry supported gay marriage. Though Massachusetts was home both to John Kerry's family and to the 2004 Democratic convention, Kerry, while supporting "equal rights and the right of people to have civil unions," explicitly declined to support gay marriage. "If Republicans want to turn this into some sort of wedge issue and distort my position," he declared, "I will fight back very clearly."

Ironically, Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, who wrote the controversial decision in Massachusetts, was named to her position not by John Kerry but by Paul Cellucci -- a Republican governor who, during the 2004 presidential election race, served as George W. Bush's ambassador to Canada.