S.F. Mayor Speaks Out for Same-Sex Marriage

Mayor Gavin Newsom, striking the same defiant tone that led him to sanction same-sex marriages a year ago, urged gay couples on Saturday “to hold our elected officials accountable” for supporting gay marriage as a condition of receiving their community’s support.

“It is no longer acceptable for politicians to come to you every election cycle and ask for money and then say, ‘It’s too much, too soon,’ ” Newsom told about 3,000 gay and lesbian supporters during a ceremony that marked the anniversary of last year’s “Winter of Love,” the four-week period when his administration granted marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The licenses were later voided by the California Supreme Court, which ruled that Newsom had overstepped his authority.

His “too much, too soon” remark appeared to be aimed at Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who said Newsom’s decision to let gay couples marry played a role in President Bush’s victory, saying the gay marriage issue “has been too much, too fast, too soon.”

Newsom has been blamed for feeding a conservative rush to the polls in November, when 11 states passed anti-gay marriage amendments.

A Superior Court judge in San Francisco is expected to rule any day in a pair of lawsuits filed by the city and same-sex couples that seek to overturn California’s one man-one woman marriage laws.

On Feb. 4, a trial judge in Manhattan ruled in a similar case that New York’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.

Also Saturday, about a dozen couples exchanged symbolic marriage vows at the Metropolitan Community Church in West Hollywood.

Councilman Jeffrey Prang asked the couples to face each other, hold hands and say “I do” after he read vows stressing love and commitment.

“Having chosen this partner,” he said, “do you commit yourselves to each other freely, and gladly, for the sake of a richer and deeper life together?”

After Prang read three more vows, the couples received blessings from a rabbi and a minister. Prang offered the couples what he called a “civic blessing.”

The event was designed to make a political statement in support of legalizing same-sex marriage and as an opportunity for couples to reaffirm their relationships, said John Cleary, president of Stonewall Young Democrats, a gay rights group.

“It’s really about celebrating universal values of honor, love and fidelity,” Cleary said.