BC seen rejecting 2 gay men for post
By Alex Beam, Globe Staff, 4/8/2004
three-year effort to hire a professor for a prestigious endowed chair at Boston College has again ended in failure, this time amid charges that the Rev. William Leahy, BC's president, rejected the leading candidates because they are gay.


Mark Doty, a poet who lives in New York City and Provincetown, was the English department's top choice for the Rattigan Professorship, but he said that department members told him that his selection "had been undercut" by Leahy and that the chair would not be filled."The final candidates were gay men, and I was told that this was an issue," Doty said. "The process has imploded."


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City Council backs changes to marriage
By Heather MacDonald, OAKLAND -- The Oakland City Council jumped into the fray over same-sex marriage Tuesday, calling on Congress to reject President Bush's demand for a constitutional amendment banning gay unions. The council also urged the state Legislature to pass Assembly Bill 1967, which would change California law to permit "gender-neutral" marriage. And in separate actions taken in closed session, the City Council directed the City Attorney's Office to file friend-of-the-court briefs supporting San Francisco in the court battles over that city's decision to allow same-sex couples to wed. "I only wish this council had it in its ability to do what San Francisco did," said Councilmember Danny Wan (Grand Lake-Chinatown), the council's only gay member.


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Group seeks to ban gay marriage
By TIM MARTIN
Associated Press Writer
LANSING -- A citizens group wants to put the same-sex marriage issue before Michigan voters in November.
A group calling itself Citizens for the Protection of Marriage began circulating petitions this week in an effort to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman in the state constitution.


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In South, issue of gay marriage exposes hate and fear
By Dahleen Glanton
In New Orleans, fundamentalist Christians tried to ban the annual Southern Decadence festival, or "gay Mardi Gras," an event that draws thousands of homosexuals. A conservative Christian lobbying group has vowed to end the popular Gay Days at Disney World in Florida, equating the annual gathering to "a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan." Across the South, churches are holding rallies and preachers are denouncing homosexuality from the pulpit.


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Group seeks to unseat Democrats over gay marriage vote
BY MICHAEL KRIEGER
Pioneer Press
Even though state Senate elections are two years away, New Brighton resident Jeff Davis is already marshalling funds to unseat lawmakers who voted against the gay- marriage amendment. Davis, a 44-year-old consultant-turned-activist, supports a proposed constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and woman. Gay marriage is already illegal in the state, but this proposal, if approved by voters, would put the ban in the constitution.


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Rogue billboards cause a stir

Asheville: A flap over a series of signs that condemn homosexuality is the talk of a town that's home to gay people and conservative Christians alike.


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County rejects same-sex health benefits
Some commissioners worried that allowing the measure would open the door to same-sex marriages, which several oppose.
By BILL VARIAN, TAMPA - To Hillsborough Commissioner Ronda Storms, extending health benefits to same-sex partners may work fine in the city. But things are different in the county, she said. Storms on Wednesday led a narrow majority of the commission to reject the idea of extending health benefits to the domestic partners of county employees. The vote was 4-3. "Hillsborough County has not historically been supportive in this regard," Storms said afterward. "The institution of marriage has stood the test of time. I'm going to do my part to strengthen it, not weaken it."


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Poll shows state against defining marriage
(Hartford-WTNH) _ A new UConn poll shows Connecticut residents oppose the idea of defining marriage as only between a man and a woman. The same poll shows overwhelming support for civil unions. Some say this new poll shows the state moving closer toward accepting gay marriage.



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The dam breaks: Emotions flood campus over gay marriage issue
By Mike Young
There was a virtual cornucopia of emotions felt on campus last Wednesday.
Love, hate and ambivalence all wove in and out of the crowds that formed on the free-speech area east of Marriott Library.
Two separate groups of College Republicans and the Lesbian Gay Student Union converged on the free speech plaza to protest and demonstrate regarding the issue of gay marriage.


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Antigay bigots confronted by hundreds in New Paltz
"This united everybody"
By Dan Keefe
NEW PALTZ, N.Y.-- On April 4, supporters of gay marriage made it clear that bigotry is not welcome here. Antigay bigot Fred Phelps targeted this town 75 miles north of New York City, after Green Party Mayor Jason West defied state law to issue same-sex marriage licenses last month.

Hundreds of activists from neighboring towns, New York City and Connecticut joined students and community members for a full day of protest and political discussion. "This was a uniting experience for everybody," said Dale, a member of New Paltz Equality Initiative. "This had the opposite effect of what Phelps had hoped."


"It’s not just people wanting to get married who are behind this movement," said West. "The fundamental issue is one of respect and equality--just like the students in the South, Black and white, who demanded respect and equality for Black Americans.