Yesterday, Gary King — New Mexico’s Attorney General — issued an opinion asserting that the state should recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. Supporters of marriage cheered the decision, but conceded that it would not likely change state law, given Governor Susanna Martinez’s opposition to same-sex marriage. But today, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting that King’s opinion may actually galvanize opponents to push through a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman:

But Sen. William Sharer, R-Farmington, said Wednesday that King’s opinion has galvanized opponents of same-sex marriage and could help his efforts to get a measure through the 2011 session making such marriages illegal. “People are energized,” said Sharer, who repeatedly, over the past decade, has pushed legislation defining marriage as between a man and a woman. The lawmaker said he had planned to reintroduce the so-called Defense of Marriage Act even before King’s office issued the opinion.

He plans to propose both a bill changing state law and an amendment to the state Constitution in the legislative session that begins Jan. 18. They would say the only marriages valid in New Mexico are the unions of one man and one woman. “I think we would have no obligation to recognize marriage not in accordance with that. … I think the public policy would be very clear at that point,” Sharer said.

Conservative lawmakers have offered at least six different anti-gay marriage initiatives between 2003 and 2010. In 2007, for instance, Republicans introduced a constitutional amendment to define marriage and in 2005 offered a bill that specifically banned same-sex marriages in the state. There are currently 34 Democrats and 36 Republicans in the New Mexico House and 27 Democrats and 15 Republicans in the Senate.

On Tuesday, Martinez told a local newspaper that she was reviewing “whether to keep benefits for domestic partners of state workers,” which had been granted though executive order by Former Governor Bill Richardson in 2003. “Any determination on domestic partner benefits for state workers would come at a later date,” Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell told the New Mexican in an e-mail on Tuesday.

During a press briefing this afternoon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates reiterated his pledge to begin repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell “as quickly but as responsibly as possible,” describing implementation as a three-step process that involves changing regulations, prepare training materials, and training the servicemembers. Gates revealed that he tasked Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Clifford Stanley to accelerate the first two phases of implementation and said the Pentagon was approaching the task with the philosophy of, it’s better to end the policy “sooner rather than later”:

GATES: We’re trying to get the first two phases of that process done as quickly as possible within a matter of very few weeks so that we can then move on to what is the real challenge, which is providing training to 2.2 million people and we will do this as expeditiously as we can, but to use a term the Chairman has used, there is just a certain element of physics associated with the number of people involved with this process. But we are moving it — and I have asked Undersecretary Stanley to accelerate the first two phases of this process as much as he possibly can so that we can get on with the training process.

Watch it:

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen stressed that repeal will not go into effect until 60 days after it is certified by himself, Gates, and President Obama. “Now is not the time to come out, if you will, we’ll get through this, we’ll do it deliberately, we certainly are focused on this and we won’t dolly,” he added.

Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, told the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson yesterday that the Pentagon has “already established a policy to allow gays to serve openly in the military when a California federal court in October issued an injunction that temporarily enjoined enforcement of the law.” “Although they haven’t acknowledged this in public, the replacement regulations have already been written, and so the Pentagon could easily repeal the ban today if there was the political will,” Belkin said. He also acknowledged, however, that the Service Chiefs could slow-down the implementation process.

During Congressional hearings about the Pentagon’s report on repeal in early December, Gates pledged, “until the Service Chiefs are comfortable that the risks to unit cohesion and combat effectiveness of a change have been addressed to their satisfaction and to my satisfaction, I would not sign the certification.”