Brief filed with high court seeks to halt gay marriage licenses
09:45 AM PST on Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Associated Press
SALEM -- A Portland man seeking to stop Multnomah County from continuing to issue same-sex marriage licenses filed a brief with the state Supreme Court seeking a court order. Bruce Broussard, 65, one of six Republican candidates for U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden's seat and the host of a cable-access public affairs show, told the court he should have the legal standing in the case. The court asked lawyers for Broussard and Multnomah County last week to submit written arguments about whether Broussard can be a legal participant in the case.


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Clerk Bags Plans To Issue More Same-Sex Marriage Licenses
By Richard Benke
The Associated Press
       BERNALILLO   —   Fearing legal action, the Sandoval County clerk made a quick about-face Tuesday and canceled her plans to issue more same-sex marriage licenses. "It's not going to happen," Clerk Victoria Dunlap told about 60 people waiting when the county offices opened. Dunlap said she'd heard that Attorney General Patricia Madrid would seek a restraining order if Dunlap went ahead and issued licenses.


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City Council supports gay marriage
Resolution passed last week speaks against proposed amendments to U.S. Constitution
By Alexis Orenstein
The Philadelphia City Council passed a resolution Thursday in opposition to President George W. Bush's proposed amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as a union exclusively between a man and a woman.


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Council to mull same-sex rights
By Dan Schwind
Assistant City Editor
March 23, 2004
DTH/Jessica Russell
Chapel Hill Town Council member Mark Kleinschmidt presented petitions to expand homosexuals' civil rights at a meeting Monday. The debate over same-sex marriage moved closer to home Monday as Chapel Hill Town Council member Mark Kleinschmidt presented three petitions to the council designed to expand homosexual civil rights. Of the three petitions, the one likely to garner the most attention asks local lawmakers to sponsor a yet-to-be drafted state bill repealing the Defense of Marriage Act.
Kleinschmidt said such an action would open the door for more equal treatment of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community. While same-sex couples still would be unable to be married in Chapel Hill under state law, a repeal of the DOMA would allow the town to recognize legal marriages performed elsewhere in the country and provide those couples with the same benefits accorded to married couples.