BOSTON -- Attorney General Tom Reilly made it clear Friday that the Legislature, and not the State Supreme Court, should have decided the issue of gay marriage in Massachusetts.

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Reilly Sounds Off On Gay Marriage

NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that Reilly also said he would uphold the ruling when it becomes law in six months, but his comments opened a new front in the battle over gay marriage.

"What I want to avoid here, and what I'm hoping we can avoid, is the divisiveness and the rancor and the anger that can be stirred up here," Reilly said.

In attempting to avoid divisiveness, Reilly did anger supporters of gay marriage. The attorney general's concerns over the Supreme Judicial Court's four to three split decision legalizing gay marriage in the commonwealth and his dismay that the high court was involved at all are especially divisive stances as far as gay marriage supporters are concerned..

"Decisions like this should be made by the Legislature, not a court. And certainly not by a four to three decision of the court," Reilly said. "You know you need to have a full discussion. You need to have an open debate and those debates take place in the Legislature."

"The irony about his supposed concern about the split is that some of the most important civil rights decisions made by courts in the history of this country were splits," Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus spokeswoman Arline Isaacson said.

"Our president sits in the White House because of a 5 to 4 decision from the United State Supreme Court. Roe vs. Wade was a 5 to 4 decision. It really doesn't matter. What matters is what the court had to say," GLAD spokesman Gary Buseck said.

But apart from the clear ordering of benefits and protections of marriage to same sex couples, Reilly said that the rest of the court's opinion is not clear. He added that we all need to step back and let the Legislature do its work.

"I agree with the court that people should be treated fairly," Reilly said.

"Not one reporter was able to get him to say that he supports gay and lesbian civil marriage. That's pretty telling," Isaacson said.

Gay marriage supporters said they think what the attorney general had to say was irrelevant because the court has issued its order. They added they will continue to try and educate people on the matter.