In what Margaret Whitlam would have called the “hoo-hah” of our federal election, “gay marriage” as an issue flickered in and out of view. Where does the matter stand, now that the dignity of democracy has, up to a point, spoken? Answer: “Very much where it stood before.” It seemed for a time that a definitive step might follow from the Labor side, and that legislation enacting gay marriage would follow hard upon a Rudd victory. I actually heard him promise that something would ensue within his first hundred days in office; what exactly that something was remained obscure;…