"I think that Missouri values have spoken," said Hartzler, a spokeswoman for the Coalition to Protect Marriage in Missouri. "This is a message of the heart, and here in the Heartland, we value marriage."

Early returns showed the ban winning by a ratio of more than 2-to-1. Missouri's vote on the amendment has attracted nationwide interest from people on both sides of the issue. The state is the first to vote on the matter this election season, with seven set to follow suit by November.

State constitutions have become the battleground of the gay marriage debate, after an anti-gay marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution failed in the Senate last month. Hartzler said Missouri -- which has a reputation as a bellwether state [em dash] had sent a message with its vote.

The wide margin may be especially noteworthy given that the Democrats outnumbered the Republicans at the polls Tuesday, as a result of the hotly contested Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Opponents of the gay marriageban said they were discouraged by the results but proud of their campaign.

"We stepped up to the challenge and organized ourselves," said Doug Gray, who headed an anti-amendment campaign for the Constitution Defense League. "We moved this debate forward."

Opponents of the amendment had hoped that a blitz of television ads in the days before the primary would change public opinion.

The campaign was fueled by nearly $400,000 in donations, most of it gathered through house parties in St. Louis and Kansas City. Supporters of the gay marriage ban raised little for their cause -- less than $10,000 -- relying instead on dozens of church congregations to carry the message via newsletters and announcements from the pulpit.

But values appeared to beat dollars at the ballot box.The success of the gay marriage ban may have been tied to the failed amendment to approve a casino in Rockaway Beach. There, too, voters rejected a well-funded advertising campaign. At the polls, many voters like St. Louis firefighter Steve Pappageorge said they turned out specifically to make a statement against both gay marriage and gambling.

"I guess I'm a little old-fashioned on that kind of thing," said Pappageorge., who voted for the gay marriage ban.

Amendment opponents like Gray said he believed Missourians would have defeated the ban if the advertising campaign had more time. The television spots emphasized that Missouri already had a law banning same-sex marriage. Some voters said they looked at the ballot and didn't see a need for the marriage ban.

"They have the right to be as miserable as the rest of us married people," said Brian Diehl, of Robertsville, who has been married 43 years and has five children. "My wife's going to be unhappy with me saying that."

Four other states -- Alaska, Hawaii, Nebraska and Nevada -- have passed constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.

Now that voters have added such a ban to Missouri's Constitution, leaders from national gay rights organizations say they have their work cut out for them fighting similar ballot initiatives this fall.

"I think we'll definitely have an uphill battle," said Seth Kilbourn, national field coordinator for Human Rights Watch, which spent $60,000 attempting to defeat the Missouri amendment. "But I do think we'll have more time in other states to educate voters and talk about what the amendments are really about."

Florence Shinkle and Michelle Munz contributed to this report.

Reporter Matthew Franck
E-mail: mfranck@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 573-635-6178