SSM MOMENTUM STUNS BOTH BACKERS AND FOES: From the San Francisco Chronicle

Same-sex marriage -- considered so radical that mainstream gay rights leaders feared its emergence in an election year -- has gained a level of visibility that even its most ardent proponents did not imagine just two months ago.

Whether intentional or not, President Bush's pledge in his State of the Union address in late January to defend traditional marriage touched off a reaction that began in San Francisco and now is rippling across the country. These marriage licenses -- whether acts of civil disobedience or interpretations of law by local officials -- are fueling countless television images that put a mainstream face on lesbian and gay couples. They are laying the groundwork for legal challenges to marriage laws across the nation. And they are infusing gay and lesbian rights with the consciousness of a major civil rights movement. ...

Few expected things to move as fast as they have, or to spread so far. Just four years ago, Vermont was embroiled in a fierce debate over whether to permit civil unions, a parallel institution short of marriage that many considered radical. Today, Bush's position is that civil unions are acceptable if that is what a state wants. ...

Opponents of same-sex marriage contend it was the November ruling by the Massachusetts high court that triggered the current storm. In fact, the debate began with June's U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence vs. Texas, which struck down state sodomy laws and, for the first time, ruled that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to private sexual relationships.

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posted by Eve at 3:02 PM VOTE

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