Students Rally for Same-Sex Marriages

About 100 teenagers -- armed with ear-splitting screams and hand-lettered signs -- rallied Saturday in Westwood in support of marriage for same-sex couples.

“It’s important for everyone to be able to live the way they want to,” said Kate Heller, 16, a student at Winward School in West Los Angeles.

Two teens from Winward’s new Gay-Straight Alliance, Sarah Freed, 17, and Joe Goldman, 14, organized the Federal Building rally, which drew students, gay and straight, from high schools across Orange, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, along with parents, teachers and a fluffy white poodle.

John Duran, mayor of West Hollywood, where three of five council members are gay, listened to the cacophony of cheering youths and honking car horns and smiled in amazement.

“They are part of changing America,” he said.

Polls show that young people are far more likely than their elders to be in favor of legalizing gay marriage. A 2001 study of high school seniors found that 66% favored allowing same-sex couples to marry.

On Saturday, 16-year-old Stephanie Gross compared the push for gay marriage to the struggle against segregation.

“It’s part of something a lot bigger than any of us,” she said as she helped make posters with phrases such as “Love Is Marriage.”

Earlier this month, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, a move that state’s Supreme Court authorized in November. Closer to home, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in February -- and stopped March 11 when the California Supreme Court halted the practice. California’s highest court has begun hearing arguments about whether Newsom had the authority to permit the marriages.

President Bush, meanwhile, has called for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. In 2000, California voters approved Proposition 22, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

A recent Los Angeles Times poll showed that slightly fewer than one-third of Californians believe same-sex couples should be allowed to marry -- a greater percentage than the national average but less than a majority.

Many students at the rally said they think it is only a matter of time before gay marriage is viewed as no more controversial than interracial weddings.

Meanwhile, many said they are pushing for greater acceptance in their high schools.

Angela Allmendinger, 16, a pupil at Mission Viejo High, said she and several others are forming a gay-straight alliance, in part to support gay students who face intolerance. “There’s discrimination all the time, and we’re sick of it,” she said.

In another Orange County community, the Westminster School District’s trustees flirted with losing millions in state funds rather than endorse a state policy of allowing students and teachers to define their gender when making a discrimination complaint.

But other students said many on their campuses are accepting of their classmates’ sexual orientations. China Sajadian, 17, of Crescenta Valley High in Glendale, said her Gay-Straight Alliance has about 20 members, most of them straight girls who want to support students who are gay. Nina Pedrad, 15, said her club at University High in Irvine has about 30 members and that being in the group is respected.