State Sen. Paul Koering, a first-term Republican from the Brainerd area who until recently had voted with conservatives seeking a constitutional ballot question banning same-sex marriage, revealed to the Star Tribune Wednesday that he is gay and has known it since he was a teenager. He is believed to the first openly gay Republican elected official in Minnesota, and his announcement could affect the tone of the stormy legislative debate over gay marriage. However, Koering, 40, a businessman and former dairy farmer from Fort Ripley, said his "coming out" does not change his position that the state's voters should be...