The successful efforts to amend 11 state constitutions to ban same-sex marriage has energized both sides of the highly contentious issue.
Defenders of traditional marriage say voters' resounding support for state measures that limit marriage to a union between a man and a woman proves that a federal marriage amendment is inevitable.
Advocates of gay and lesbian marriage sounded equally determined Wednesday as they vowed to move ahead with efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut -- and very likely within the next year, California.
With five new Republican senators elected Tuesday, opponents of same-sex marriage maintain, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution could be introduced and conceivably passed as soon as the next congressional session.
"We are very encouraged," said Carrie Gordon Earll, spokeswoman for Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, Colo. "Basically, what the people said [Tuesday] was: 'Don't mess with marriage.' "
But Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in New York, said the vote was only Round One of a very long fight. "This is not going to shut down the debate in any way. The debate and the fight will go on."
The 11 states that passed constitutional amendments Tuesday joined seven others that earlier adopted measures to define marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution.
The votes Tuesday against same-sex marriage were clear and conclusive.
In Mississippi, the amendment won 86% support; Arkansas, Georgia Kentucky and Oklahoma all polled at least 75% support for their amendments, and North Dakota came close to that figure. In Montana and Utah, at least two-thirds of voters supported the amendment; in Ohio, the figure was 62%, and in Michigan, 59%.
The vote was closest in Oregon, where 57% approved the ban. Most of the opposition in Oregon came from Multnomah County, where Portland is located, and where this year more than 3,000 gay and lesbian couples were married before a judge halted the practice.
Sean Cahill, policy institute director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said Wednesday that same-sex marriage supporters raised and spent close to $2.8 million to fight the amendment in Oregon. He said his organization dispatched 12 staff members to work against the Oregon amendment, and recruited 70 volunteers from within the state.
