Massachusetts is the only state in the union where gay marriage is legal.

One would think such an uncommon law should reflect the will the will of the people there.

Maybe. But the powers that be in the Statehouse aren’t going to risk it.

On Thursday, Massachusetts lawmakers voted to block a proposed constitutional amendment giving voters the right to decide whether to ban gay marriage in the state.

The proposal needed 50 votes to make it onto the ballot. Only 45 voted for it., with 151 voting it down.

Gay marriage was declared legal by a 2003 state Supreme Court decision. Since 2004, more than 8,500 gay couple have been married in Massachusetts.

And since then opponents have been trying to get the issue before the voters.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney, now running for the Republican presidential nomination, strongly supports the right of the voters to decide the issue, as does former Boston mayor and former U.S. Ambassador Raymond Flynn

And some 170,000 Massachusetts residents had signed a petition calling for the amendment.

Odd that a state that prides itself on being the cradle of American democracy, a state that was a key battlefield in our war for independence, is now so afraid of its own voters that it goes to great lengths to ensure they have no voice in such a controversial, divisive issue.

One wonders what the founders would make of that.