This radical social experiment can be exported to the opposite 49 states". He stated its repeal would "open the floodgates for Massachusetts to grow to be the Mecca for similar-sex marriage. Reilly took the position that 38 states expressly denied recognition to similar-sex marriages and that residents of other states might receive licenses. In December 1996, considering the potential for Hawaii legalizing identical-intercourse marriage, Weld stated that Massachusetts would acknowledge the validity of similar-sex dolls for women marriages licensed there. Ronald Crews of the Massachusetts Family Institute blamed Finneran's misreading of his personal caucus for the failure of his personal proposed language, a defeat in the convention's opening moments from which Crews found it not possible to get better.