By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist

Maine voters on Tuesday once again showed quite clearly that Americans have a deep belief that marriage ought to be between a man and a woman.

That's the obvious and rather harsh conclusion from the vote to repeal Maine's gay-marriage law.

"The institution of marriage has been preserved in Maine and across the nation," Frank Schubert, chief organizer for the winning side, told The Associated Press.

Now, Maine joins 30 other states -- including Kansas and Missouri -- where states have outlawed gay marriages.

And if gay-marriage rights supporters can't win in Maine, what chance do they have to force a positive vote in, say, California?

Any hopes of spreading gay-marriage rights to other states effectively stalled -- and maybe stopped for a long, long time -- in Maine on Tuesday.