TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Three gay couples dropped their lawsuits challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act, saying they don’t want to risk having a conservative U.S. Supreme Court set legal precedent by rejecting their cases.

The suits were brought by gay couples married in Massachusetts and Canada who wanted Florida to recognize their marriages. Florida law only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman, and the Defense of Marriage Act allows states to disregard same-sex marriages performed in other states and foreign countries.

Ellis Rubin, the couples’ attorney, said key in the decision was the Supreme Court’s recent refusal to hear a challenge to the Florida law that bans gays and lesbians from adopting children.

“That ruling strongly suggests that our case would not be favorably received,” Rubin said.

Two of the lawsuits were dismissed by a federal judge in Tampa the previous week. The third case, filed in Miami, had not been heard. If the dismissals had been appealed, the conservative 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta would have heard the case. Its ruling could have been appealed to the Supreme Court.

“It was a very difficult decision, but it was made in the best interest of my clients,” Rubin said. “I felt that if we go to an appeal to the 11th Circuit, chances were very slim of us prevailing there and that would establish precedent for other judicial circuits.”

U.S. District Judge James Moody’s dismissal of the two lawsuits does not set precedent for other jurisdictions.

The lawsuits had been opposed by the U.S. Justice Department and conservative groups, who would have appealed if the gay couples would have prevailed in the lower courts.

Colorado’s Focus on the Family and Orlando’s Liberty Counsel, two groups opposed to the suits, did not immediately return calls for comment. The Justice Department did not have an immediate response, either.

Robin Tyler, executive director of the Equality Campaign, the gay rights group that helped bring the lawsuits, said she doesn’t consider the decision to drop the suits a setback for her cause.

“It’s a loss when people don’t stand up and fight for their rights,” she said.

Tyler said her group’s attention will now be focused on changing individual state laws to allow marriage between same-sex couples and other legal challenges in less conservative districts. The group is also battling efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriages.

“You pick your battles, but you continue fighting,” Tyler said. “We understand it’s a matter of time… Love always wins.”

The Rev. Nancy Wilson, one of the participants in the lawsuits, said she agreed with the decision. She was seeking to have her Massachusetts marriage to Paula Schoenwether recognized by Florida.

Wilson, a minister in the Metropolitan Community Church, a nationwide church for GLBT Christians, said she will continue to fight Florida’s same-sex marriage ban in other ways.

“Strategy is important,” she said. “We know this issue will come before the Supreme Court one day and I believe when it does we will be victorious.”