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Gay rights advocates victorious
by Steven T. Dennis and Thomas Dennison
Staff Writers
March 10, 2004
ANNAPOLIS — Gay rights advocates successfully beat back attempts to tighten the state's ban on same-sex marriages and have high hopes of enacting a domestic partners registry that they hope will be a steppingstone to full marriage rights.

The House of Delegates voted 82-52 on Tuesday against a proposal to enact a "Defense of Marriage Act" that would have expressly prohibited the state from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states.


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NewsHour essayist Richard Rodriguez offers some thoughts about gay marriage.
 In the current noisy debate over homosexual marriage, who has bothered to notice that homosexuals are already forming families-- which is the point of marriage-- and that homosexuals are taking their place within the American family


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Zach Brandon: Clarity needed on benefits
By Zach Brandon
March 9, 2004
Last Tuesday night, Madison's City Council passed a resolution condemning the proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage being pursued at the federal and state levels. This resolution, sponsored by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and 12 council members, passed 11-2 with five abstentions. I was one of the latter.


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Straight community should clean up its act



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Committee To Consider Gay Marriage Amendment
Mar 9, 2004 8:48 am US/Central
St. Paul (AP)

A legislative panel will consider a proposed amendment to the state constitution today that would limit marriage in Minnesota to unions between one man and one woman.


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Gays vow legal fight for visa-snag couple
Dennis Chong

Gay rights activists in Hong Kong are seeking to challenge longstanding immigration policy by requesting a Hong Kong court to recognise the legal status of a same-sex union performed in Canada.