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<p>IN THE Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's dueling opinions on same-sex marriage, each side places the burden of proof on the other. The majority in the Goodridge decision insists there is "no rational reason" for defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The minority chides the majority for its "blind faith" that there are no potential dangers to so radical a change. Both sides lack evidence on the real-world effects of same-sex marriage. Yet evidence is in. Marriage is dying in Scandinavia, which has had marriage-like same-sex registered partnerships for over a decade.</p>

America has been swept up in the homosexual "marriage" juggernaut over the past three weeks. One pro-family leader says authorities in California need to get off the mark and enforce the law because crimes are occurring -- and nothing is being done to stop it from continuing. People across America are wondering where the defiance of God's law and natural law will lead. A Massachusetts judge orders that state's lawmakers to enact legislation legalizing homosexual "marriage." The mayor of San Francisco defies state law and begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Then mayors in New York and Oregon jump...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Attorneys for the city of San Francisco are ready to take their fight over gay marriage all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Arguing that municipal authorities are “independently responsible” to uphold the U.S. Constitution, city attorneys Friday increased the chance that the nation’s highest court would be needed to decide the legality of San Francisco’s same-sex marriages. In documents filed with the California Supreme Court, the city’s attorneys said that nothing in the state constitution requires local officials to obey laws they believe infringe on the civil rights of their citizens. The filing was a...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's Supreme Court declined on Friday to make an immediate decision on the state's request to halt same sex marriages in San Francisco that have intensified a national debate on gay rights. As homosexual marriages continued in San Francisco, a gay New York couple sued for the right to marry legally there. San Francisco, long a center of the gay rights movement, ignited a passionate debate three weeks ago by opening City Hall for same-sex marriages. Lower California courts have allowed the ceremonies to continue even though state law defines marriage as between a man and...

I've taken some heat for describing the actions of San Francicso Mayor Gavin Newsom and others forcing gay marriage on the public against its will and against the law as a "coup." I stand by the description; in fact, I seem to have understated the true scope of the courts' role in undermining the normal, traditional understanding of the family via same-sex rulings over the past few years. In short, the coup has been underway for nearly a decade, and is succeeding largely by staying under the public's radar. Mayor Newsom may have done us all a favor by unwittingly...

I watched Gavin Newsom, outlaw-in-chief of San Francisco, on "Larry King Live" last week. With his slicked-back hair and silk tie, the 36-year-old mayor is the perfect model for the Radical Left's Extreme Makeover.Out: Drug-addled, draft card-burning, Molotov cocktail-tossing, campus protesters of the 1960s.In: Merlot-sipping, gay marriage license-peddling, cocktail party-throwing, pretty boys in elected office.Mayor Newsom looks a little like Ben Affleck and talks a lot like Bill Clinton. He's got a trophy wife with three names (former lingerie model Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom) and a five-point government plan for everything from renewable energy ("Expedite implementation of San Francisco's solar energy...

Lawlessness and civil disobedience Posted: March 3, 20041:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com The radical nature of the ongoing confrontation over homosexual marriage is obscured by the subject matter. Gay couples are common in large, urban areas, so their public affection hardly causes a ripple in many parts of America, but other parts of the country are scandalized. The debate over homosexuality in general, and gay marriage in particular, is also difficult to separate from the debate over religion in public life. There is such intense anger on both sides of the issue that debates flare suddenly into shouting matches. The issue...

EDITOR'S NOTE: The ongoing controversy over same-sex marriages, sparked by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a Catholic, has forced many of the 65 million members of America's single largest denomination to wrestle with their beliefs. PNS editor Mary Jo McConahay says the Church, which has lost the battle on contraception, now is trying to hold firm on gay marriage. SAN FRANCISCO: For the country's 65 million Catholics, President Bush's call for a constitutional ban against gay marriage throws a troubling new public spotlight on personal beliefs. But here in San Francisco, the fire seems hotter. This the epicenter of the...

Cities Urge Alameda County to Allow Same-Sex Marriage By FRED LEE Contributing Writer Tuesday, March 2, 2004 State Assemblymember Mark Leno presides over the marriage of Jano Oscherwitz (left) and Irene Yarrow in San Francisco City Hall Friday. They are breaking glass, a Jewish marriage rite. Less than a month after San Francisco’s city hall was flooded with gay couples looking to officially tie the knot, the cities of Berkeley and Oakland are pushing Alameda County to follow suit and declare same-sex marriages legal in their county as well. When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom declared same-sex marriage legal...

Kevin Shelley, the secretary of state and the busiest guy in California when the polls close Tuesday evening, took time last week to speak to the Los Angeles League of Women Voters at its launch of a get-out-the-youth-vote drive. Under-30s are more inclined to go along with the idea of civil unions and same-sex marriages than their elders — with the possible exception of a certain waitress in Banning. Shelley and his campaign manager, Eric Jaye, both heterosexually married men, were in Banning, conferring at a coffee shop, when the waitress chattily asked where they were from. "San Francisco," they...

W hen San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced earlier this month that he would issue same-sex marriage licenses, I thought it was going to be a symbolic gesture following Massachusetts' decision to legalize such unions. It turned out to be nothing but political theater undertaken in the name of civil rights. The whole thing seems to be a scam: With the state of California refusing to legitimize the more than 3,200 ``marriages'' granted - at $100 a license - the city of San Francisco is at least $320,000 richer. As Newsweek noted, ``Newsom could have issued his challenge through the...

When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom defied state law by allowing same-sex marriage licenses, a New York Times profile reported him sporting "a wide grin," "describing his motives as pure and principled," and cited his "business acumen, money, good looks and friends in the right places." But when Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore also defied the law -- by installing a Ten Commandments display in his public building -- a Times profile said that "civil liberties groups accused Justice Moore of turning a courthouse into a church," while allowing that he had also become "an Alabama folk hero." On the...

Pick Your Poison By Adam Graham California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has done nothing to stop San Francisco from performing illegal same sex marriages and by some news accounts, Lockyer is even complicit in the ceremonies. The contrast between him and Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor who supported the display of the Ten Commandments but still fought to have Judge Roy Moore removed is telling. It paints a picture of two parties playing by two separate sets of rules. Judicial Tyranny of the Left Conservatives believe in the rule of law. And for many conservatives this means the rule of...

Every once in a while, I know I have entered the Land of Oz. Witness the controversy over homosexual “marriage.” Last week San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom called the comments by the president of the United States regarding the illegal assault on marriage in San Francisco “disgraceful.” Rosie O’Donnell even called his statement “hateful”! What? The mayor breaks the law — the president says that is wrong — and it is the president who is disgraceful? What universe is that from? Whether it is L. Frank Baum or George Orwell, we have certainly entered a land created in the mind...

<p>Anna Greggains said she remembers filling out an absentee ballot in last year's mayoral election, and records from the San Francisco Department of Elections show that her husband, Arthur, did the same -- which would be unremarkable, except that Mr. Greggains died in May at the age of 83.</p>

Conservatives Launch Effort to Recall California Attorney General (CNSNews.com) - Foes of same-sex "marriage"are launching an effort to recall California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. U.S. Senate candidate Howard Kaloogian - who previously served as chairman of the Recall Gray Davis Committee - said that he will serve Lockyer with a "Notice of Intent to Recall" on Monday. "Californians deserve to have an attorney general who will fight to uphold their laws and respect the will of the people," Kaloogian said in a press release. "Based on his history on this issue and his tepid response so far to the...

<p>While it may appear spontaneous, Mayor Gavin Newsom's leap onto the national stage has been a controlled performance from the get-go -- complete with story line, image control and attention to detail aimed far beyond the San Francisco audience.</p> <p>From the minute Newsom lifted the curtain with his call for gay marriage licenses, to his cross-continental debate with President Bush, Team Newsom has done its best to manage the image coming out of City Hall.</p>

<p>It says something interesting about contemporary culture (or at least about the news media) that many in the news media are disturbed by a film that faithfully depicts the Gospel accounts of the trial and crucificixion of Jesus Christ, but not when the mayor of San Francisco -- in defiance of state law and the recently expressed will of more than 60 percent of California's voters -- issues marriage licenses to same-sex couples.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - In yet another setback to conservatives opposed to same-sex marriage, the California Supreme Court declined a request to immediately stop San Francisco from marrying gay couples and to nullify the weddings already performed. Attorney General Bill Lockyer asked the justices Friday to intervene in the debate while they consider the legality of the marriages. More than 3,400 couples have tied the knot since San Francisco began issuing marriage licenses two weeks ago under the directive of Mayor Gavin Newsom. Lockyer told the justices it was a matter for the courts, not the mayor, to decide....

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- It started with a pair of women who had been partners in life, love and lesbian politics for more than half a century. It crescendoed when a world-famous celebrity dashed in and out of town for her own skip-the-frills wedding. But in the two weeks between the quietly arranged marriage of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, and the high-profile nuptials of Rosie O'Donnell and Kelli Carpenter, more than 3,400 other same-sex couples jumped at the chance to get their unions officially sanctioned in San Francisco. The brides and grooms have been young and old, white-collar and...