Tuesday’s election results showed that 52 percent of Maryland voters bought the “fairness” argument those proponents of the state’s same-sex marriage law used.

That was the percentage who voted for Question 6, the referendum that allowed the same-sex marriage law the Maryland legislature passed earlier this year to stand. Opponents of the law managed to get enough signatures on a petition to take the matter to referendum, but during the campaign it was hard to find a pro-Question 6 ad that didn’t have the “f” word — “fairness” — in it.