Two New York ministers to be arraigned on charges of marrying gay couples
New Paltz, New York-AP -- Two ministers from New Paltz, New York, will be arraigned today on misdemeanor charges for marrying same-sex couples.Reverends Kay Greenleaf and Dawn Sangrey -- both of the Unitarian Universalist Church -- say they will plead not guilty and are ready to take the case to court.


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Continuing gay weddings focus of activist group
By Jesse J. Smith , Freeman staff 03/22/2004
NEW PALTZ - The court-imposed end of Mayor Jason West's historic experiment with same-sex marriage ceremonies March 5 marked the birth of a new activist group dedicated to continuing gay weddings in the village.
Since March 6, 63 gay couples have been married by Unitarian Universalist ministers at Saturday ceremonies organized by the New Paltz Equality Initiative. The group plans to continue the weekly ceremonies indefinitely, and already has 1,000 couples on a waiting list for nuptials.


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Minister vows to continue same-sex ceremoniesBy J. Clyde Wills
Special Correspondent
March 22, 2004
It was for another thing for which New Paltz -- When the Rev. Marion Visel of Westport visited the quiet hamlet of New Paltz, N.Y., last Saturday, it wasn't for the little town's natural setting, its cultural offerings or university


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Activism comes out
When lobbying, members of the state's largest gay rights group, Equality Florida, believe in personal contact and "making a legislator look you in the eye."


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Vigil a quiet protest against amendment
Organizers said they were trying to draw attention to the restriction of rights, not to gay marriage.
By Dawn Fallik
Inquirer Staff Writer
Singing songs of neighborly love and honoring minutes of silence, about 80 people from several Philadelphia churches and synagogues gathered before the National Constitution Center yesterday, to protest a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marriages.
But vigil organizers didn't want to discuss gay marriage. Instead, the goal of the vigil was to protest adding an amendment that would restrict rights instead of extend them.


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March to support same-sex marriage
By Nick Perry
Seattle Times Eastside bureau
Hundreds of religious leaders and their followers are expected to join a march tomorrow in support of same-sex marriage. More than 100 leaders from many faiths — including Christian, Jewish and Muslim — have signed a statement supporting gay marriage that will be read at 10:45 a.m. at the Plymouth Congregational Church at Sixth Avenue and University Street in downtown Seattle.


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When the news is personal
Dick Rogers Monday, March 22, 2004
WHEN SAN FRANCISCO Mayor Gavin Newsom invited same-sex couples to City Hall to exchange marriage vows, Chronicle photographer Liz Mangelsdorf and reporter Rachel Gordon took him up on the offer. That made them just like thousands of other couples -- including Chronicle staffers -- who institutionalized their commitment in a way never before possible. But unlike the other newlyweds, Mangelsdorf and Gordon had another connection to the same-sex issue -- they covered it as part of their beats. For the paper, that created a dilemma: Should they continue to cover the story, or should they stand aside on the theory that they cannot be both participants and observers in a story that has reverberated from here to the White House and back, that has deeply divided public opinion, that has prompted calls for constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage?