S.F. to ask state's top court to hold off on ruling
City wants trial to decide if law is biased against gay couples
Harriet Chiang, Chronicle Legal Affairs Writer Friday, March 5, 2004
San Francisco officials will urge the California Supreme Court today to back off the same-sex wedding controversy for now and let the two sides go to trial to resolve whether state law illegally discriminates against gay and lesbian couples by denying them the right to marry.

A preview of the briefs they will file shows that San Francisco city officials will ask the state's top court to allow the steady stream of same- sex marriages at City Hall to continue, insisting that Mayor Gavin Newsom and city officials are acting legally in issuing the licenses.


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Same-sex marriage momentum stuns both its backers and foes
Carolyn Lochhead, Chronicle Washington Bureau Friday, March 5, 2004
Same-sex marriage -- considered so radical that mainstream gay rights leaders feared its emergence in an election year -- has gained a level of visibility that even its most ardent proponents did not imagine just two months ago.
Whether intentional or not, President Bush's pledge in his State of the Union address in late January to defend traditional marriage touched off a reaction that began in San Francisco and now is rippling across the country.


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Pro-gay to play big on airwaves
By Elisabeth J. Beardsley
Friday, March 5, 2004
Pro-gay marriage forces are launching a massive public relations blitz - saturating the airwaves with a TV ad aimed at putting a human face on the same-sex marriage debate. The ad will air all next week, during the run-up to Thursday's reconvening of the Constitutional Convention that deadlocked three weeks ago without reaching consensus on a gay marriage ban.


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Gay marriage ban faces House vote
Statehouse amendment passes initial test
By Scott Rothschild, Journal-World
Friday, March 5, 2004
Topeka — A politically explosive constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages in Kansas faces an uncertain fate today. The proposed amendment cleared the Kansas House on an unrecorded voice vote Thursday, but with less support than some had expected in the Republican-dominated chamber. The amendment can't leave the House for Senate consideration unless it gains 84 votes in final action set for today.


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Transgender Group Readies for Lobby Days
By Jone Devlin
National Transgender Advocacy Coalition (NTAC) Chair and Houston transgender activist Vanessa Edwards Foster is getting ready to hit Washington D.C. in April, as part of the groups 2004 "Lobby Days", and she would love nothing more than to have a huge Houston contingent go with her. But while lobbying Congress can be exciting, Edwards Foster warns, it can also be difficult. "We've always been open game in Texas but now we are on the national level," she said.