Gays in N.J. watch, wait as same-sex marriage debate develops
March 7, 2004, 2:51 PM EST
ASBURY PARK, N.J. -- Joe D'Andrea sees the debate over gay marriage as embodying a larger issue: civil rights.
"It's all about equality," he said.

D'Andrea, a 50-year-old Web site publisher, is among a number of New Jersey gays and lesbians watching the debate unfold, propelled in part by mayors in San Francisco and Westchester County, N.Y., who have officiated at services for gay couples.


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The marriage brokers
Multnomah County's path to same-sex marriage was a quiet one, well-mapped, out of public view
03/07/04
DAVID AUSTIN, TOM HALLMAN JR. and SCOTT LEARN
She remembers the telephone messages starting in early January. A trickle -- two or three a day -- grew steadily until Roey Thorpe found at least 10 waiting each morning. She punched them up on her speaker phone, and listened at her desk. She says the pressure on her organization -- Basic Rights Oregon -- from same-sex couples grew each day. Polite requests for her group to push for same-sex marriage gave way to criticism and, finally, to outright anger. But Thorpe, the 41-year-old lesbian who headed the group, was cautious. And practical. She wore a diamond engagement ring and had pictures of her partner scattered about her office. But the way to achieve same-sex marriage, she figured, was not with the loud protest.


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This article makes me wonder if there is any hope for America at all

It's been a while since anyone called homosexuality a mental disorder, so I guess we were about due. In a poorly written piece, Doug Wrenn has decided to explore that and other aspects of the drivel that both fundamentalist Christians and right wing extremists love to spout.