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SAN FRANCISCO - In a bold political and legal challenge to California law, city authorities officiated at the marriage of a lesbian couple Thursday and said they will issue more gay marriage licenses. Meanwhile in Massachusetts, legislative leaders met Thursday to try to find words that would ban gay marriage but legalize civil unions, expressing optimism as they reconvened their constitutional convention. The act of civil disobedience in San Francisco was coordinated by Mayor Gavin Newsom and top city officials and was intended to beat a conservative group to the punch. The group, Campaign for California Families, had planned to go to court on Friday to get an injunction preventing the city from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. Longtime lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon, 79, and Del Martin, 83, were hurriedly issued a license and were married just before noon by City Assessor Mabel Teng in a closed-door civil ceremony at City Hall, mayor's spokesman Peter Ragone said. The two have been a couple for 51 years. Ragone said that beginning at noon, officials would begin issuing marriage licenses to any gay couples applying for one. One lesbian couple had already lined up outside City Hall, one of the women wearing a white wedding dress. Lyon and Martin said after the brief ceremony that they were going home to rest and did not plan anything to celebrate. The couple seemed proud of what they had done. "Why shouldn't we" be able to marry? Lyon asked. Thursday's marriage runs counter to a ballot measure California voters approved in 2000 that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. No state legally sanctions gay marriage, though Massachusetts could become the first this spring. The Massachusetts high court has ruled that gays are entitled under the state constitution to marry. State lawmakers later passed a domestic partner law that, when it goes into effect in 2005, will offer the most generous protections to gays outside Vermont. Mayor Newsom was not present for the wedding Thursday. The two official witnesses were Kate Kendell, director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and former city official Roberta Achtenberg. The Campaign for California Families did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In Massachusetts, leaders said they hoped to finally reach an agreement after two other versions of a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage were narrowly defeated during the much-anticipated convention's opening day Wednesday. "Things break down in this building by the minute, but it's going to be interesting," said Senate Minority Leader Brian Lees, a Republican. "I'm cautiously optimistic." Massachusetts was thrust into the epicenter of the contentious social political, religious and legal debate over gay marriages in November when the state's Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that it was unconstitutional to ban gay couples from marrying, a decision that was reaffirmed last week. "We're talking about a wide, wide variety of options and potential amendments," said House Speaker Thomas Finneran, an ardent opponent of gay marriage. "Nobody's in a position, really, to insist on anything other than good faith efforts on all sides. We're open to all sorts of ideas." Any constitutional amendment would have to get 101 votes in the constitutional convention — which is a joint session of the state House and Senate. It would have to get 101 votes again in the 2005-06 legislative session, and would then need the approval of voters in November 2006. link

Go them!