Word: newsom
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VOIDED. Nearly 4,000 SAME-SEX MARRIAGES sanctioned in San Francisco last February and March; by the California Supreme Court; in San Francisco. The court ruled unanimously that Mayor Gavin Newsom overstepped his authority by issuing licenses to gay and lesbian couples in violation of a 1977 state law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman...
...Thorpe, everything was going as planned until Feb. 12. On that day, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, who in 1955 founded the nation's first major lesbian group, exchanged vows at San Francisco city hall. Mayor Gavin Newsom, who had taken office the previous month, had ordered officials to license same-sex marriages; eventually thousands of gays showed up. Even though Newsom was acting in defiance of a California "defense of marriage" law defining marriage as one man, one woman--a law that doesn't exist in Oregon--the marriages he engineered became huge news...
...mayor's mind was made up. Gay activists came to city hall every year as part of a protest movement called Freedom to Marry. Newsom timed his directive so that this year they would not be turned away. During the long Presidents' Day weekend, Newsom even officiated at some weddings, including those of his chief of staff and his policy director. Meanwhile, impromptu parties convened on the city hall steps. Each couple that emerged waving a certificate was saluted by a mariachi band and a tap-dance troupe. Cookies, cake and roses were passed around. "This is our generation...
Conservatives begged to differ. A religious group called Repent America staged a sit-in at city hall last Friday. "Gavin Newsom is a renegade, and the word equality is being misused to rob all the sacred things of their uniqueness," said Randy Thomasson, founder of the Campaign for California Families. "What's next? Legalized heroin? Prostitution? Polygamy? Incest?" Thomasson's was one of two groups that asked for a temporary restraining order to halt the marriage spree. On Friday a local judge refused the request...
...Newsom's daring actions may end up being merely symbolic. Sacramento officials say they won't accept the licenses on bureaucratic grounds. But that doesn't put a dent in the happiness of those newlyweds under the rotunda. And Newsom? "My reward at the end of the day is that I can live with myself," he says. "I did my job and had a conscience. That's more powerful than being mayor...