MassEquality is a Boston-based organization that seeks to promote LGBT rights in the U.S. Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It supported the implementation of Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's 2003 decision that legalized same-sex marriage, and opposed efforts to adopt an amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution seeking to limit the impact of or annul the ruling. The coalition was formed in the late 1990s in response to the first attempts in the Massachusetts state legislature to pass a "defense of marriage act" that would have prohibited the recognition of same-sex marriage. MassEquality was formally incorporated in late 2001 as a 501(c)4 advocacy organization, though it operated without staff until after the Goodridge decision. The organization is a member of the Equality Federation. Constitutional amendment advocacy The Goodridge ruling reignited attempts to amend the Massachusetts Constitution to ban civil recognition of same-sex marriage. In late 2003, the coalition of organizations that formed the Steering Committee for MassEquality hired its first staffer, Campaign Coordinator Marty Rouse. Rouse, an experienced political operative who had helped members of the Vermont legislature recover form election losses they suffered as a consequence of supporting civil union legislation, quickly implemented a campaign to marshal the coalition's resources and build a field operation to bolster the LGBT movement's legislative lobbying. In the wake of the Goodridge ruling, legislative debate on a "defense of marriage" amendment in Massachusetts was intense. The debate, conducted in a joint session of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate, a Constitutional Convention that spanned four days over nearly two months, was carried live on C-SPAN. During that time, MassEquality identified and mobilized supporters of same-sex marriage in an attempt to defeat the proposed constitutional amendment. On March 29, 2004, the Massachusetts legislature passed by a five-vote margin a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage and provide civil unions for same-sex couples. This amendment, called the Travaglini-Lees amendment, needed to win a majority of the votes in a second constitutional convention before being put to a popular vote. It was defeated in a joint session of the legislature on September 29, 2005, by a vote of 39-157, due largely to increased public support for same-sex marriage in Massachusetts and to victories by several legislative candidates supportive of same-sex marriage backed by MassEquality. Opponents of same-sex marriage then launched a new initiative to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex