(Boston, Massachusetts) Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley on Monday approved the wording of a ballot measure that would reinstate a law used to bar out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in the Bay State.

Coakley went out of her way to say she does not necessarily support the reinstatement measure.

MassResistance filed the paperwork last week with Coakley’s office.

Same-sex couples have been free to marry in Massachusetts since 2004, but only if they were residents of the state. 

Then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R) dusted off a 1913 law, that said marriage licenses could not be issued to couples whose weddings would not be recognized in the home states, and threatened to charge local clerks if they issued marriage licenses to out-of-state same-sex couples.

The old law was originally passed when interracial marriage was legal in Massachusetts but not in most other parts of the country.

When the US Supreme Court overturned state bans on interracial marriage the Massachusetts law fell into disuse.

Last month current Gov. Deval Patrick (D) signed legislation repealing the law.

MassResistance spokesperson Brian Camenker accused lawmakers and Patrick of bowing to the will of the “gay lobby” by approving the repeal of the 1913 law.

The repeal effort is considered unlikely to succeed.  Patrick has a high approval rating and polls indicated most Massachusetts voters are comfortable with same-sex marriage.

An attempt to put a measure on the ballot to ban same-sex marriage altogether in the state failed to win support in the legislature last year.