To And Fro On Same-Sex Marriage

President Bush says legalizing gay marriage would redefine the most fundamental institution of civilization and that a constitutional amendment is needed to protect it.

A few activist judges and local officials have taken it on themselves to change the meaning of marriage, Mr. Bush said Saturday in his weekly radio address.

Leading the chorus of support for an amendment, Mr. Bush said, "If courts create their own arbitrary definition of marriage as a mere legal contract, and cut marriage off from its cultural, religious and natural roots, then the meaning of marriage is lost and the institution is weakened."

His remarks follow the opening of Senate debate Friday on a constitutional amendment effectively banning gay marriage.

Reflecting the election-year sensitivity of the issue, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Republicans are using the constitutional amendment as a bulletin board for campaign sloganeering.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, accused Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry of holding inconsistent positions.

Kerry and running mate Sen. John Edwards oppose gay marriage, but support civil unions.

"This is the grand flip-flop, one of the grandest of all times," he said. "A person's head starts to spin trying to undo the logical mess."

Mr. Bush singled out Massachusetts' Supreme Judicial Court, which called marriage an evolving paradigm. "That sends a message to the next generation that marriage has no enduring meaning, and that ages of moral teaching and human experience have nothing to teach us about this institution," he said.

The president urged the House and Senate to send to the states for ratification an amendment that defines marriage in the United States as a union of a man and woman as husband and wife.

Senate Democrats signaled they will not throw barriers in front of the resolution, paving the way for a vote on the amendment as early as next Wednesday.

A constitutional amendment should never be undertaken lightly, Mr. Bush said, "yet to defend marriage, our nation has no other choice."

The vote puts some Democrats and Republicans in a difficult position. One senator acknowledged the political risk in trying to walk a line supporting both traditional marriage and gay rights.

"I intend to be your champion on many issues in the future, if you want me," Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., said in remarks directed at gay and lesbian voters. Smith is a leader in efforts to make attacks against homosexuals a federal hate crime.

MoveOn.org, a liberal political organization, released a television advertisement to coincide with next week's debate that says Bush called for the amendment as a diversion from more pressing problems.

"He's using the politics of hate to distract us from the real issues," said the group's executive director, Peter Schurman. "He wants to move America backwards by enshrining discrimination in the U.S. Constitution."

A coalition of conservative organizations supporting the amendment delivered more than 1 million signatures on petitions, a visible stack of boxes showing voters in support of the marriage amendment, and promised to deliver more.

"Americans from Arkansas to Utah see the urgency of this issue," said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. "Now we are just waiting for the Capitol to catch up."

The Senate debate came as Oregon on Friday became the second state to register same-sex marriage licenses after a state appeals court upheld a lower court order directing officials to record more than 3,000 marriage licenses issued to gay couples in Multnomah County.

Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers had asked the appeals court to order a hold on registering the licenses while a lawsuit challenging the licenses is pending.

Myers on Friday downplayed the importance of registration, saying it was an administrative act that would not authenticate the 3,022 marriage licenses issued by Multnomah County earlier this year, because the Oregon Supreme Court has not ruled on the issue.

The lower court in April also ordered Multnomah County - which includes the city of Portland - not to issue any more licenses to same-sex couples until there could be a binding response to the issue from either legislators or the state Supreme Court.

Massachusetts earlier this year became the first state to recognize gay marriage after the state Supreme Court ruled a ban unconstitutional, sparking a debate the prompted Bush to call for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Vermont recognizes civil unions, and California, New Jersey and Hawaii have domestic partnership laws that provide certain legal rights to gay relationships.

Meanwhile, same-sex couples across New Jersey were excited about registering their relationships with municipal officials Saturday on the first day allowed under New Jersey's new domestic partnership law.

Among those headed to a statewide celebration Saturday in Maplewood - with paperwork in tow - were Joan Hervey, 49, and Linda Geczi, 45, who have lived together for two years.

"Participating in something that historic on the first day is huge," said Hervey. "For Linda and I, it's a very personal thing. For New Jersey and for gay people in New Jersey, it's a big step, a big milestone toward full relationship equality."

The domestic partnership law, passed in January, grants some legal rights to registered couples, including the ability to make medical decisions for each other.

It allows partners to have some joint rights in filing state taxes, to be exempt from state inheritance taxes in the case of a partner's death and to extend the benefits given to state employees to cover domestic partners.

The law also covers unmarried heterosexual couples ages 62 and older. It does not legalize gay marriage and offers far fewer rights than those given to heterosexual married couples.

Couples must bring government-issued identification and show proof of shared financial assets to a municipal registrar's office. There is no waiting period.

"While we recognize this is not a marriage and does not come near to providing the protections of marriage, it's a step," said the Rev. Bob Kriesat, who planned to be at the Maplewood celebration with Edward Mather, his partner of 35 years.

Maplewood was one of several municipalities with large gay populations that planned to open offices this weekend; most other towns didn't plan to start registering couples until Monday.

The South Orange clerk's office opened at 12:01 a.m. Saturday to register couples.

In the tiny village of New Paltz, New York, north of New York City, another 17 same-sex couples planed to wed Saturday, joined by a heterosexual couple to show support.

New Paltz has become a focal point in efforts to legalize same-sex marriages in New York. Mayor Jason West presided over the first same-sex marriages in the state in February. Since
then, dozens of couples exchanged marriage vows at public ceremonies.

The state Health Department has told municipal clerks not to give same-sex couples marriage licenses, saying it is illegal under state law. Court cases are pending over the constitutionality of
that order.

None of the couples at Saturday's ceremonies will have licenses, according to the wedding's host, the New Paltz Equality Initiative.