Some Massachusetts residents are demanding the public be allowed to vote on the issue.

BOSTON (AP) – Opponents of gay marriage gathered at three rallies across Massachusetts Sunday to push for a state constitutional ban and demand the public be allowed to vote on the issue.

Laurie Letourneau, of Mass Voices for Traditional Marriage, which organized the rallies, said she hoped to persuade lawmakers to stand up to the state’s high court, which ruled in November that it was unconstitutional to deny marriage rights to gay couples.

“What we’re talking about is judicial tyranny,” Letourneau said.

About 1,000 people attended the rally in Worcester to support a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman, organizers said. More than 300 people gathered at a rally in Fall River, according to police. In Springfield, Letourneau estimated the crowd at 400 to 450 people. Springfield police said 40 to 50 counter-protesters gathered outside.

The amendment proposal is on the agenda for a joint Senate-House constitutional convention next month. If the amendment passes this year and next it goes before the voters in 2006.

Meanwhile, aides to Gov. Mitt Romney and House Speaker Thomas Finneran have been discussing details of a bill to offer a “rational basis” for keeping marriage as a heterosexual institution. Some conservative legal scholars have said that if the Supreme Judicial Court were offered a clear, rational basis for keeping marriage a heterosexual institution, it might reverse itself.

“It’s an interesting idea, one that deserves consideration,” said Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom. “We have been involved with conversations with a number of people inside and outside the Legislature. … We’ve met with representatives from the Speaker’s office. We’re still at the stage of exploring options.”

Mark Mason, chairman of the Same Sex Marriage Task Force of the Massachusetts Bar Association, said he didn’t think such a bill would pass muster in the Legislature or be in accordance with the SJC ruling.

“The Legislature has chosen not to pass a DoMA (Defense of Marriage Act) for the past several years. I don’t believe that a last-ditch effort is going to change that,” he said. “There is no rational basis that the court has found to exclude same gender couples not just from the rights, benefits, protections and responsibilities of marriage, but marriage itself.”

The Senate has drafted a bill that would provide same-sex couples some benefits and protections of marriages, but stops short of calling it marriage.

The Senate has asked the SJC if the law meets the standards of its ruling.

AP-ES-01-25-04 1840EST