Gay and Lesbian Relationships

New York State recognizes, but won’t perform, gay marriage

New York county squints at gay marriage: says “That can’t be right!”

State Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Gay Marriage Case Today

Rumor Mill: Historic Day For Gay Marriage in May?

Gay Marriage now legal in New York state...for at least a month

Monday: Phelps Camp VS. Gays and Gavin Newsom at City Hall

Tuesday: Gay Marriages Flood City Hall

Tourists Live It Up While Poor San Franciscans Take Stay-Cations

Prop 8 Fueling Vitriol at Folsom Street Fair

Prop 8 Ad Wars: The Counterattack

The Tragedy of Gavin Newsom & Chris Daly’s Shared Flaw

Last Night: Margaret Cho Assails Prop 8, Proposes to "Fingerfuck" Sense into Sarah Palin

Still No Gay Couples in No on 8 Ads?

Election Night Storylines

Gay Marriage: Next Stop, U.S. Supreme Court

SF 2008 Election Winners & Losers

"No on 8" activists: please, please, PLEASE, don't turn this into a holy war

Obama Supports 'Separate But Equal' Principle For Gays

Oh, the irony of it all: When it comes to his views on same-sex marriage, the first black man elected president in the U.S. uses the same principle employed in the past by whites to justify segregation in this country. Barack Obama opposes gay marriage, but he supports civil unions. Separate but ... More >>

State Supreme Court To Review Gay Marriage Ban

The Supreme Court of California just announced that it will consider the constitutional challenge to the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8, but it will not issue a stay, which means the state considers gay marriages illegal pending the outcome of the constitutional challenge. San Francisco, San Jos ... More >>

Theatre Rhinoceros Secedes from State of California

Say what?!! Theatre Rhinoceros (a.k.a. the "oldest queer theater in America") is so disappointed in the way California voted on Prop. 8 that its mainstage is seceding from the state. And you're all invited to the freebie secession party tomorrow night. Executive Director John Fisher writes: For thi ... More >>

Campaign for California Families' Efforts to Intervene in Prop 8 Litigation Denied

By Ashley Harrell The California Supreme Court's reentry into the Prop 8 war satisfied almost everybody. Yes on 8 and its supporters figure that the three new court cases, which challenge the legality of a same-sex marriage amendment to the state constitution, don't stand a chance. No on 8 and it s ... More >>

Do Gay Rights Have a Future Outside of California? Do We Care?

By Benjamin Wachs Although it’s easy to get lost in the fact that California voters recently decided to put discrimination in the state constitution, a little perspective is in order: gay couples in California still have (almost) full equality under the law, with provisions for civil unions, ado ... More >>

Will Gay Marriage Have to Wait for Democracy to Catch Up?

History's Answer: Yes By Peter Jamison Since Californians voted to enshrine discrimination against gay couples in their state constitution on Nov. 4, the varied strains of lamentation from San Francisco's chattering classes have risen to a choral swell. The success of Proposition 8, which banned s ... More >>

Jury Acquits Man Who Bit Partner's Forehead

On November 11, the San Francisco Police Department responded to a call from a gay man who said his partner had abused him. When police arrived and found Bejamin Schalit, 50, with crescent-shaped bite marks on his forehead, they arrested the partner, Jeremy Womack, 33, and the district att ... More >>

Marriage equality can be achieved by separating church and state

On November 11, the San Francisco Police Department responded to a call from a gay man who said his partner had abused him. When police arrived and found Bejamin Schalit, 50, with crescent-shaped bite marks on his forehead, they arrested the partner, Jeremy Womack, 33, and the district att ... More >>

The Gathering Storm: Lawyers, Loonies, Activists Ready for Prop. 8 Battle

Civic Center Plaza, 6:58 a.m. By 7 a.m., the anti-homosexual zealots were roaring, the police were telling the guy with the Sodomy-Will-Destroy-America message mounted on his Japanese-made truck to move along, and the gay and lesbian chorus with the pink-haired director (quite good!) were warming u ... More >>

Gay Mormons, Black Pentecostals, Jedi Drag Queens, Oh My! Demonstrators Descend on State Supreme Court for Prop. 8 Hearings

Peter JamisonMinister Chauncey Killens thinks gay marriage should be illegal."I don't know any white gay man who sat on the back of the bus." So spoke Chauncey Killens, a black Pentecostal minister from Salinas, as he stood on San Francisco's Civic Center mall yesterday. Like hundreds around him, ... More >>

Will Gay Mecca Relocate From San Francisco To Des Moines?

Disdain of San Franciscans' disdain of all things Midwestern has become nearly as clichéd as the original sin. And, yet, there's always a touch of schadenfreude anticipating city residents' chagrin whenever legitimately good news emanates from the Midwest indicating its denizens have out-progressiv ... More >>

Gay Iowan Transplants to California Ponder Today's Gay Marriage Ruling

They are a rare species, these gay Iowans who have moved out to the Golden State, the perfect journalistic formula to comment on today's news of the Iowa Supreme Court approving gay marriage while its California colleagues mull this same issue. But we put on our intrepid reporter cap and found two s ... More >>

Drama Season

Prop. 8 divides Mormon family during the holidays.

He's No Menace

Gay marriage has been very, very good to Dennis Herrera.

Will black neighborhoods in S.F. support the gay marriage ban — again?

Gay marriage has been very, very good to Dennis Herrera.

The Gay Divorcees

Gay marriage is new. Gay divorce isn't.

Wake-Up Call

How to tell someone, politely, that you were sleeping when he phoned

Imperfect Unions

A new documentary sells gay marriage as the only answer to discrimination

I Now Pronounce You Incorporated: A Novel Approach to Same-Sex Marriage

I now declare this corporation merged...​Melding legal principles does not always follow the "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!" "You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!" path. But humor us, here. In San Francisco, the plaintiffs have made their case in an attempt to overturn Proposi ... More >>

The Week in Gay: New Trend in 2010 -- Same-Sex Bedpans!

Uppity Fag has his eye on the one on the bottom left...​Late yesterday afternoon President Barack Obama signed a mandate that extends hospital visitation rights to same-sex couples in hospitals throughout the country. Whatever. While some may hail this as a victory for gay rights, the bot ... More >>

Marriage Rights Can't Rely on Fickle Politicians' Whims

Some day his prince will come. But will a political consensus? ​Over the past few days, columnists Jonathan Rauch and Jonathan Capehart have been wringing their hands over what Judge Vaughn Walker might do to Proposition 8. They are convinced that Walker will either start an "inferno" or cause ... More >>

Prop. 8 Ruling: Judge Vaughn Walker's Most Scathing Language

MlinksvaJudge Vaughn Walker's greatest hits...​READ PROP. 8 ANALYSIS HEREA collection of Judge Vaughn Walker's most pointed statements from today's ruling: During closing arguments, proponents again focused on the contention that "responsible procreation is really at the heart of society's interes ... More >>

Gay Couples to Stage City Hall Sit-In to Celebrate Valentine's Day

Love hurts​For many San Francisco gay couples, Valentine's Day is just a bitter reminder of what they don't have -- marriage certificates. So expect a huge turnout at San Francisco City Hall for the hallmark holiday today; gay couples across the nation will celebrate their love with a little civil ... More >>

Facebook Recognizes Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships

Facebook welcomes you ​Here is something to "Like" on Facebook.Facebook has created a new relationship status option that allows same-sex couples to declare they are "in a domestic partnership" or "in a civil union."Up until now, Facebook limited the relationship status options including single, i ... More >>

Obama's Stance On DOMA Could Benefit Binational Gay Couples

​Political calculations are aflutter in response to the Obama administration's claim that it would no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act, the law that limits marriage between a man and a woman. Here's one more: What does this mean for gay immigrants who are married?As we explored in a 2010 ... More >>

Gay Binational Couples Fighting Deportations On Obama's New DOMA Stance

​Gay couples are already using President Obama's new stance against the Defense of Marriage Act as a weapon to fight deportations of their foreign spouses. The couples hope that the administration's declaration last week that the law that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman is uncon ... More >>

Kamala Harris Wants Federal Appeals Court To Allow Gay Marriages Now

Harris: Let the people marry​Supporters of same-sex marriage just got a powerful ally: California Attorney General Kamala Harris. The newly minted AG is urging the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to allow gay couples to marry while it considers a federal appeal over the constitutionality of Propositi ... More >>

Gay Binational Couples to File Lawsuit Challenging DOMA

Gay couples are ready to rumble for equality in immigration law. ​Consider it the next major court battle against the Defense of Marriage Act: Gay Americans will file the first lawsuit to challenge DOMA on the grounds that it bars them from sponsoring a gay foreign spouse for a visa like straight ... More >>

Gay Couples Can't Get Married ... Still

Nope​There will be no white weddings for gay couples -- at least not yet. A San Francisco federal court ruled today that same-sex marriages would not be allowed while courts decide whether Proposition 8 -- the state's ban on gay marriage -- is constitutional or not. It's another blow for same-sex ... More >>

Supreme Court: S.F. Politicians Free to Denounce Catholic Church

Heresy: The business of S.F. government?​The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a lawsuit brought by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, essentially settling the question of whether the supervisors were out of line when they passed ... More >>

Immigration Judge Delays Deportation for Alex Benshimol, S.F. Gay Man Married to American

Alex Benshimol, left, can stay in the country with his husband Alex Gentry.​In another victory for same-sex couples, a San Francisco immigration judge ignored the Defense of Marriage Act today when she delayed the deportation proceedings against a gay Venezuelan man who is married to an American c ... More >>

San Francisco Gay Binational Couple to Appeal DOMA Visa Denial

Anthony Makk, left, with husband Bradford Wells in happier times.​Anthony John Makk -- the gay Australian national fighting separation from his San Francisco spouse after his marriage visa petition was denied last week -- is not giving up yet. Makk will now appeal the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrat ... More >>

Prop. 8 Appeals Court Ruling: Inside the Dissenting Opinion

​Same-sex marriage advocates rejoiced today as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's 2010 decision that Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot initiative banning gay marriage, is unconstitutional.The decision is almost certainly destine ... More >>