It’s been just over a decade since Massachusetts made same-sex marriage a reality — and in that time, the issue has gone from politically charged to a political no-brainer. But now, Massachusetts candidates are finding there’s a lot more to the politics of sexual orientation than marriage equality.

To get a sense of just how much the politics of same-sex marriage have shifted, flash back to a decade ago, when then-Gov. Mitt Romney was an eager opponent.

"The children of America deserve to have a mother and a father," Romney said at the time.

Today, Charlie Baker hopes to become the next Republican governor of Massachusetts. But his take on gay marriage is a bit different.

As Baker ramped up his courtship of voters this spring, he released a video touting his relationship with his brother Alex — who’s gay and married.

"Butch and I will have been legally married for 10 years," Alex Baker says in the ad. "And the fact that 10 years has passed since that happened, and Massachusetts hasn’t fallen apart, the institution of marriage in Massachusetts isn’t crumbling … "

That’s not the only sign that in Massachusetts, the politics of sexual orientation have shifted dramatically.

Democrat Maura Healey, who’s running for attorney general, campaigned in Somerville this week. She’s one of three openly gay candidates in major races this fall, along with Democratic lieutenant governor hopeful Steve Kerrigan and Republican Richard Tisei, who’s running for Congress. Yet that’s barely raised any eyebrows among the media or the general public. Healey says that disinterest is cause for celebration.

"Look, I think that’s great," Healey said. "I think it’s a sign of progress. I think it says something about Massachusetts, the fact that nobody’s made this a big deal. As I go around the state, talking to people, getting into communities, listening to people, talking to voters, it just hasn’t come up."

Like Healey, Steve Kerrigan welcomes the fact that his sexuality hasn’t been an issue, and cites the end of his Democratic Convention Speech as a “eureka” moment.

"At the end of our convention, when my speech was over, my partner joined me on stage, and we embraced like every other couple did," he said. "And what happened after that was astounding — which was that nothing happened. No one seemed to care."

But if all that suggests that sexual orientation no longer packs a political punch, Sue O’Connell, co-publisher of the LGBT newspaper Bay Windows, says: Think again.

"I don’t think there's any doubt about the honesty and the full heart that Charlie Baker has for his brother and for the gay community," O'Connell said. "He is definitely a pro-marriage-equality candidate."

She says that despite Baker’s stance on gay marriage, he’s still viewed warily in parts of the LGBT community.

"It still smarts within in the community that Charlie Baker in his last go-round, in his candidacy for governor, stood and used the term 'bathroom bill' when referring to the transgender rights bill," she said.

Then there’s Baker’s Democratic opponent, Martha Coakley – who fought the federal “Defense of Marriage” act as attorney general. That made her an LGBT hero — but not to everyone.

"There’s a subset of gay men who are over the age of 50 who remember her role in the Fells Acres case of the 1980s, in the Bernard Baran case of the 1980s, where men were targeted and accused of raping children mostly because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time — or they were openly gay," O'Connell said.

As for those three “out” candidates, O’Connell says each one makes a different political point.

"What Maura Healey was able to do is, all of the grassroots work and hammering work she did on LGBT civil rights issues, she was able to amass an army of lesbians who were there in the primary for her," she said. "Richard Tisei is a fascinating candidate. I can name 200 openly gay men who would like to vote Republican, and will definitely be there for Richard Tisei."

But if anyone represents the future of gay politics, O’Connell says, it’s probably Steve Kerrigan.

"Steve Kerrigan’s a very good candidate," she said. "And the fact that he’s gay is right under the fact that he wears ties. It’s a non-issue."

That's something that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago.