Bush adds fuel to debate in Mass.

Within minutes of President Bush's endorsement yesterday of a federal constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, Massachusetts House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran called a press conference to say the president's position had vindicated and supported his own.

"My thoughts upon hearing the president's comments are that he seems to have captured almost precisely the pending compromise amendment that has been offered by Senate President [Robert E.] Travaglini and myself," Finneran said.

He wasn't alone in jumping on the president's words. Across the state, opponents of same sex marriage in Massachusetts praised Bush's position and used it as fuel for their efforts.

"It sends a strong signal that the president agrees that the only way to protect marriage from activist judges is through the amendment process," said Ronald A. Crews, spokesman for the Coalition for Marriage, which is leading the campaign for the state amendment. "It's just a good morale boost when the president of the United States agrees with what you're doing and says so."

Governor Mitt Romney, who supports an amendment on marriage and has used the issue to raise his national profile, held a press conference, reading a prepared statement to reporters.

"I agree with the president on the need for a federal marriage amendment that defines marriage as the union of a man and woman," Romney said. "Amending the US Constitution may be the best and most reliable way to prevent a patchwork of inconsistent marriage laws between states and to guard against overreaching by the judicial branch."

Though Romney ate dinner with Bush, jawed about politics, and slept at the White House on Monday, the night before the president's announcement, he said the subject of gay marriage never came up. Romney also spent Sunday night at the White House.

"We enjoyed dinner with the president last night at the White House, at his personal dinner table," Romney told reporters yesterday afternoon. "I'll tell you I never imagined in my life I'd get the chance to be in the White House with the president talking about family and personal matters and political matters, and have such a thrill. . . . We did not talk about gay marriage."

Romney said he first heard of Bush's comments yesterday morning, just after the president made them. The White House called the governor's office that morning to let them know Bush would be making the statement.

The president's long-expected announcement sparked only one regret among gay marriage opponents: that it hadn't come sooner, when it might have altered the deadlock in the State House. Two weeks ago, a constitutional convention to consider amendments banning same-sex marriage recessed after two highly-charged days of debate.

"We were hopeful that he would have made this statement earlier," Crews said. "I know there was some discussion, we were told, in the White House about the seriousness of amending the Constitution. I'm grateful for that leadership now."

The compromise amendment being hammered out by Finneran and Travaglini would both define marriage as "only the union of one man and one woman," and establish civil unions that would give gay and lesbian couples "entirely the same benefits, protections, rights, and responsibilities that are afforded to couples married under Massachusetts law."

In his statements yesterday, Bush asserted the need both to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples and to leave "state legislatures free to make their own choices defining legal arrangements other than marriage."

Massachusetts will resolve the matter of gay marriage long before Washington does. An amendment to the US Constitution, which requires approval by two-thirds of federal lawmakers, and by majorities in three-fourths of the states, could take years. If an amendment were to pass the state constitutional convention next month, it would need another approval next year, and then it would be put before the voters in 2006. Under the SJC ruling, gays and lesbians will be able to get marriage licenses starting May 17.

A federal constitutional amendment prohibiting state and federal governments from recognizing same-sex marriages would probably nullify those marriages, said Peter Enrich, professor of law at Northeastern University.

"The federal constitution clearly is, in its own laws, the supreme law of the land," he said.

Gay rights activists said Bush's comments came as no surprise and would not affect their efforts in Massachusetts.

"Our overall effort and strategy doesn't change,' said Seth Kilbourn, national field director for Human Rights Campaign, the Washington gay rights advocacy group that has poured volunteers and $300,000 into the Massachusetts battle over gay marriage. "The fact that the president did this will energize the gay and lesbian community and will help us prevail on this issue."

Travaglini said Bush's statements would not influence the state's overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature.

"This is a very intensely personal issue," he said. Bush's comments "are not going to sway anybody, in my opinion, either way."

Of Bush, who is up for reelection this year, Travaglini added: "I'm not sure he's going to be president in another year."

Raphael Lewis of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.