GAY RIGHTS ACTIVISTS WEIGH TACTICS OF MARRIAGE PUSH: From the Washington Post

The California Supreme Court ruled yesterday that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was wrong, legally, when he directed city employees to issue marriage licenses to thousands of same-sex couples. But some gay rights activists still believe he was right, politically.

"We saw for weeks on end in California -- and then New Mexico and New York and Oregon -- these parades of real people getting married," said Jon W. Davidson, senior counsel at the gay rights group Lambda Legal. "Even though it's been struck down, it served its broader political purpose: It made concrete and human what was a fairly abstract political discussion before."

Other supporters of the same cause disagreed. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who opposed Newsom's approach from the beginning, called it a "strategic mistake" for the mayor to take the law into his own hands. "As a result nobody is married, you get negative headlines and you set people up. There were a lot of people who genuinely thought they were married. I thought it was wrong to lead them on that way," Frank said.

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posted by Eve at 3:14 PM VOTE

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