The Pennsylvania House of Representatives derailed State Sen. Michael Brubaker’s proposed constitutional ban on marriage equality yesterday.

Opposition in the Democratically-controlled House forced Brubaker to let the bill rest indefinitely, meaning it won’t likely be acted upon in the current legislative session. Brubaker did, however, vow to continue his fight for the bill, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Rep. Babette Josephs, who represents the gay district in Philadelphia, was instrumental in the bill’s demise, since she serves as chair of the House State Government Committee, where the bill was headed. Josephs spoke at a rally against the amendment on Monday where she called the legislation “discriminatory, disgraceful, morally wrong and unnecessary.”

The paper reports:

The bill would have amended the constitution to define a legal marriage in Pennsylvania as a union only of one man and one woman. Pennsylvania already has a law doing that, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, but some religious groups and social conservatives want to put the one man-one woman definition into the constitution, to make it stronger and prevent “liberal judges” from allowing gays or lesbians to try to get married or to join in “civil unions,” as they can in several other states.

Mr. Brubaker, a freshman senator, “has worked hard and diligently on this very difficult issue,” said Sen. Michael Waugh, R-York, a co-sponsor of the bill. “He has brought it along and contributed to its progress, but I support the move to table. It’s the most prudent action under the circumstances.”

The chances that Senate Bill 1250 might have passed the Senate were good, since it’s controlled by Republicans 29 to 21. The measure just passed the Senate Appropriations Committee 18-8 on Monday, and had also passed in the Judiciary Committee.