That's the number of gay couples who have married in Massachusetts so far. As the New York Times editorial board noted yesterday, the very existence of gay married couples significantly changes the debate. More than twelve thousand gay people have married and, in the words of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, not only "did the crops not wither," but "the Red Sox won the World Series and the Patriots took the Super Bowl." Now denying marriage rights involves breaking existing unions and denying already held rights. I have to imagine that there's some number of children involved in these relationships. I've long thought that many Republicans in power don't actually care whether gay people get married or not. And let's not forget the good number of anti-gay marriage Democrats, like John Kerry. What will be interesting to see is how many of them will starting behaving as if, much to their chagrin, what's done is done and let's move on. How many of them will stand on the wrong side of this debate if it becomes increasingly unwinnable? 6,600 presumably happy couples -- and more and more each day -- may do wonders to change hearts and minds. And votes.