Suddenly, some in L.A. are looking north with envy
Activists chart cautious route on marriage licenses
James Sterngold, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, March 11, 2004
Los Angeles -- To the extent that San Francisco registers at all for many Angelenos, it is often regarded as a pleasant backwater, best for those content to putter along in life's slow lane. But at least some here are suddenly nursing an unfamiliar emotion toward their neighbor to the north.


~

Gay Marriage Debate Now Embroiling Jews
CBST’s Kleinbaum calling on rabbis to perform marriages without a license.
James D. Besser - Washington Correspondent
Using the powerful symbolism of the civil rights movement, Jewish gay rights advocates are launching a campaign to enlist rabbis in the fight against a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

And they don’t just want political support. These advocates are asking rabbis to take a risky stand by “solemnizing gay marriages without a marriage license.”

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, spiritual leader at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in Manhattan, the nation’s largest gay and lesbian synagogue, told The Jewish Week that such actions would be “the equivalent of sitting down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter,” referring to the protests that sparked the civil rights movement in the 1950s.



~

Photo: Supporting same-sex marriage


~

Waiting for Hatch
Senator Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican, has been toying with the idea of introducing an alternative to the Federal Marriage Amendment. Instead of banning same-sex marriage altogether, his amendment would leave that question, and questions about quasi-marital benefits for same-sex couples, to state legislatures.