Hark back to civil-rights era
03/06/04
"It was exasperating -- if not entirely surprising --" to read your March 3 editorial denouncing Multnomah County's decision to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The folks who hate gay marriage will hate it just as much if one does it nicely, begging at their feet for their support. The anti-gay crowd is not up in arms over the mannerisms of the action, they're opposed to the substance of it.

The Oregonian's editorial board might want to reflect for a little on how the "responsible" papers of the day were preaching similar warnings about not alienating people to those staging boycotts, sit-ins and freedom rides in the South during the struggle for black civil rights, as well as just where we might be today had those civil-rights activists foolishly decided to follow such advice.


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Chafee questions need for gay marriage ban
JIM BARON , Journal Register News Service 03/06/2004
With federal budget deficits approaching hundreds of billions of dollars, with a war in Iraq that even Pentagon officials admit will be a "long, hard slog," and with fresh problems just a short distance off the Florida coast in Haiti, U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee wonders "why in the world are we diverting our attention to keeping people from getting married?


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Gay Marriage? How Straight
By BOB MORRIS
Published: March 7, 2004
"It's very hard to speak freely right now," said Judith Butler, a gender theorist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "But many gay people are uncomfortable with all this, because they feel their sense of an alternative movement is dying. Sexual politics was supposed to be about finding alternatives to marriage."


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County denies 20 gay marriages
Same-sex couples try to wed during rally
By Xochitl Peña
Palm Springs
The Desert Sun
March 6th, 2004
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INDIO -- It was a busy morning at the Riverside County Clerk’s Office, Friday. In the span of about half an hour, 20 same-sex couples marched into the county office and attempted to get married. One by one, they were rejected. A "denied" stamp on the back of all their applications serve as reminders of why they are fighting and rallying for equal rights.


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Activists and revellers mingle
06/03/2004 13:54  - (SA)  
Sydney - A man wearing a skirt and Saddam Hussein mask and carrying a pink bag emblazoned with the words "I support gay marriage" was among thousands of people who took to the streets of Sydney on Saturday night for the city's annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
The annual street parade was launched in 1978 as a gay rights protest, but has since transformed itself into a vibrant parade celebrating all aspects of gay culture.


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Two women who say they donned "little invisible coats" during much of their 22-year relationship delighted in their public wedding Wednesday


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Mayor: I would if only I could
That’s his thought on presiding over gay weddings. He won’t, however, go against state law.


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BATTLE OVER SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Justices don't act immediately on S.F. case
Harriet Chiang, Chronicle Legal Affairs Writer
Saturday, March 6, 2004
Opposing sides in San Francisco's same-sex marriage controversy made their final pitches to the California Supreme Court on Friday as they anxiously awaited word on whether the state's top court will step in and decide the fate of gay and lesbian weddings. In briefs filed with the court, San Francisco city attorneys asked the justices to refrain from taking any action now and allow two lawsuits pending in Superior Court over San Francisco's parade of same-sex nuptials to go to trial and wind its way through the legal system


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Alderman's daughter sees good in her arrest
March 6, 2004
BY STEVE PATTERSON Staff Reporter
This was the moment. The moment Thursday that allowed Deborah Mell to break chains, to boldly shout and do it without hesitation. An opening to Washington Street was there; gays and lesbians were sitting on the pavement; the crowd was chanting; cars were honking. And then it happened. Mell, the 35-year-old lesbian daughter of Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) and sister-in-law to Gov. Blagojevich, ran toward the street. Barreling head-first into a police officer trying to block activists, Mell was quickly in cuffs.