In early January 2013, gay and lesbian couples in Maine were able to marry legally.

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Maryland's Question 6 asked voters to vote "For" or "Against" the law that the legislature had passed and Governor O'Malley had signed authorizing marriage equality. The law was approved by the voters on November 6 by a 52-48 margin.

Same-sex marriages in Maryland became legal on January 1, 2013.

The success in Maryland, with its large cadre of African-American voters, suggests that there may have been a considerable shift in attitudes toward same-sex marriage on the part of African Americans. Question 6 benefited greatly from the endorsement of the NAACP, civil rights icons such as Julian Bond, and African-American clergy, as well as President Obama.

Washington state's Referendum 74 asked voters whether they approved or rejected the marriage equality legislation passed by the legislature earlier in the year. It was approved by a margin of 53-47.

As the returns came in on election night, state Senator Ed Murray, a primary sponsor of Washington's marriage equality legislation, said, "We celebrate tonight not the victory of one set of Washingtonians over another; instead, we celebrate the belief that all families should be treated fairly.

"We celebrate those who over the decades, despite scorn and discrimination, built this movement and made this day possible," he added.

Same-sex couples in Washington state began marrying legally on December 6, 2012.

In addition, Minnesota voters were faced with a proposed constitutional amendment that, if passed, would have limited marriage to opposite-sex couples: "only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota."

The amendment received only 47% of the vote and thus failed.

The election result did not authorize marriage equality in Minnesota but it means the state constitution does not prohibit the adoption of marriage equality.

Finally, in Iowa, Judge David Wiggins, who joined the unanimous decision by the Iowa Supreme Court in 2009 that mandated marriage equality in the state, survived an attempt to remove him from the bench.

Iowa voters, by a 54-46 margin, elected to retain him on the court, thus delivering a blow to anti-gay activists and signalling increased support for same-sex marriage in Iowa.

The results in these races indicate increased support for marriage equality, at least in so-called "blue" states. Voters rejected the tired arguments that had worked in previous elections: that children will be indoctrinated in public schools, that bigots would be persecuted and stifled, and that churches would be forced to sanctify gay marriages.

In rejecting such arguments, voters dealt a blow to the National Organization for Marriage and other anti-gay groups that have had no scruples about defaming gay people and lying about the effects of equal rights. At the very least, opponents of same-sex marriage will no longer be able to say that marriage equality has never won a popular vote.