The State Senate voted to repeal the 95-year-old law Tuesday with no objections. The repeal is expected to pass the House later this week, and Gov. Deval Patrick, whose 18-year-old daughter recently came out backed by the support of her parents, has said he stands behind the repeal.  

The repeal comes four years after Massachusetts because the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, according to The New York Times. Same-sex marriage advocates suggested the timing was planning to coincide with changing political and economic trends.  

According to the Times article, state officials say they expect repealing the law will bring a multimillion-dollar benefit to the state in weddings and tourism alone, particular from New Yorkers.  

A study commissioned by the State of Massachusetts said that repealing the law would result in 32,000 people traveling to the state to get married over the next three years, adding an estimated $111 million to the economy.  

“We now have this added pressure, given what’s happened in California, that we really think that it is a good thing that we be prepared to receive the economic benefit,” State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, a Democrat who sponsored the repeal bill, said Tuesday after the vote, according to The Associated Press.  

Same-sex rights advocates point to the recent Supreme Court decision in California and New York Gov. David Paterson’s decision to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states for giving them the necessary fuel to overturn this law.  

“We were collectively thinking about planning to wait until after the November elections because we were concerned that the far right, the Karl Rove types of people, would once again try to use this issue as a wedge issue in the campaign,” Marc Solomon, campaign director for MassEquality, told The New York Times. “Once the California decision happened and out-of-state couples could go to California, there was no reason not to move forthwith.”