Fridae

Halt the weddings now, or return to court in almost six weeks (on March 29) to explain why they should be considered legal - those were the options Judge James L. Warren gave San Francisco city officials on Tuesday, according to media reports.

Mayor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that the city would continue to marry gays and lesbians in an unprecedented challenge on California State laws that prohibit same-sex marriages.

In a separate hearing, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Ronald Quidachay declined to intervene and said on Tuesday morning he was not prepared to rule immediately and wanted to hear more arguments until Friday.

The Campaign for California Families (CCF) and Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund, a group formed to support Proposition 22, a ballot measure approved by California voters in 2000 that said only marriages between a man and woman are valid, have so far led the legal opposition to San Francisco's new marriage policy.

"If the mayor can't read the law, we're hoping a judge can read it for him," said Randy Thomasson, president of the CCF.

Newsom has however argued that the equal protection clause of the California Constitution makes denying marriage licenses to gay couples illegal.

The marriages have received tremendous attention in the media and across the US to Washington, D.C., where President George Bush said he was monitoring the situation as he considers whether to support a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

"I have consistently stated that I'll support law to protect marriage between a man and a woman," Bush said. "Obviously these events are influencing my decision."

Mayor Newsom responded to the President's statement by reiterating that California's constitution prohibits him from discriminating on basis of sexual orientation. In a statement, he urged President Bush to consider the individuals being married and invited him to meet the long time lesbian activists who were the first couple to be wed with the city's blessing last Thursday.

"I ask the President to meet Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin and discuss with them why they simply want the same rights as a couple of 51 years that my wife and I enjoy today," said Newsom.

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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger finally weighed in on the issue on Tuesday and urged the courts to stop the same-sex weddings immediately after the two judges declined to so.

"Californians spoke on the issue of same-sex marriage when they overwhelmingly approved California's law that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman," the recently elected governor said in a statement.

"I support that law and encourage San Francisco officials to obey that law. The courts should act quickly to resolve this matter."

Although 2,700 gay and lesbian couples had been married by Wednesday night, the technicalities of the recent marriages remained confusing, even to family law attorneys and veteran bureaucrats involved. Some attorneys interviewed said that they did not know whether marriage forms need to be recorded with the state to be considered valid.

State officials interviewed said that they won't officially record any of the marriage certificates that deviate from the standard state form. For gay and lesbian couples, city officials replaced "bride" and "groom" in the original form with "first applicant" and "second applicant" for same-sex couples.

California Health and Human Services Agency spokeswoman told the Associated Press that her agency hasn't yet received any of the altered marriage license forms from San Francisco although newly married couples have up to 90 days to do so.

While most quarters of the gay community are in favour of San Francisco's constitutional challenge, some have expressed concern that the city's move will backfire and harm efforts in Massachusetts to derail a proposed ban on same-sex marriages. Lawmakers will reconvene on March 11 to debate a constitutional amendment to ban the marriages after the state's Judicial Court ruled that Massachusetts' constitution currently permits gay marriages.

The issue will return to Judge Quidachay's courtroom Friday, where he is expected to again postpone a decision until the second challenge to city is heard on March 29 when the city is required to show that it is acting legally in allowing the marriages.