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Nearly one year after gay couples began marrying in Connecticut, Maine voters overturned that state's same-sex marriage law.

The vote on Tuesday followed an intense, emotional and expensive battle that attracted national attention.

"If we can win in Maine, we can win anywhere,'' said Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, which spent nearly $1.8 million fighting same-sex marriage in Maine. (Supporters spent even more.)

"For the first time in history, the voters of a state have overturned the legislative enactment of same-sex marriage. New York, New Jersey and other states considering redefining marriage will now have to confront this blunt fact: The voters in a deep New England state have now joined 30 other states in directly affirming marriage as the union of one man and one woman,'' said Brown, the former head of the Family Institute of Connecticut.  

Gay rights activists had hoped Maine would become the first state in the nation to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote, as opposed to a court order, as in Connecticut, or by legislative fiat.

In fact, same-sex marriage has lost every time it has appeared on a ballot.

In a 4-3 decision delivered on Oct. 10, 2008, the state Supreme Court ushered in a new era in the state when it ruled that same-sex couples have a right to marry.

Nearly one year later, state Sen. Andrew McDonald said it's a milestone worth celebrating. "Connecticut can mark this anniversary secure in the knowledge that all of us have been enriched by eliminating discriminatory aspects of our law,'' the Stamford Democrat said in a phone interview this afternoon.

"In many respects, the most remarkable aspect of the anniversary is that it is such a non-issue for the vast majority of Connecticut citizens. They're not threatened by marriage equality,'' McDonald added.

But Peter Wolfgang of the Family Institute of Connecticut sees the events of the past year differently. The court case, Kerrigan et al v. the Commissioner of Public Health, helped spark a wave of religious intolerance at the state Capitol, he said.

Remember Brian Brown? The Oxford-educated Californian who used to run the Family Institute of Connecticut was a familiar figure at the Capitol during debates over same-sex marriage earlier this decade.

Brown has since moved on to a larger stage as executive director of the National Organization for Marriage. Now, a story about him in the Washington Post is generating quite a buzz.  

The lengthy and well-written profile by reporter Monica Hesse ran on the Aug. 28 Style cover. In it, Hesse cast Brown as likeable, intelligent and "pleasantly, ruthlessly sane."

The story angered gay rights activists, who believe it was biased against their cause. In emails and on blogs, they slammed Hesse as a bigot with an anti-gay marriage agenda. In fact, Hesse favors marriage rights for same-sex couples. The controversy is laid-out in this piece by Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander. It makes for an interesting read.