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(St. Louis, Missouri) Dozens of same-sex couples
went to courthouses and city halls across Missouri today seeking marriage
licenses in a peaceful protest marking the first anniversary of the state's
constitutional ban on gay nuptials.
Throughout the state the couples were told that
because of Amendment 2, which defines marriage in Missouri as only between a man
and a woman, they could not receive marriage licenses.
Still organizers said the protest was a success.
Erick Semenske, the leader of the St. Louis protest, said that it "put a
face" on the people affected by the amendment.
Semenske and his partner Tim Coleman were among
those turned away at the St. Louis courthouse. Semenske and Coleman were told
that they could register as domestic partners but, the couple said that reduces
them to second class citizens.
"We're committed couples, Semenske told the
Post-Dispatch just prior to the event.
"We want the same recognition that
heterosexual couples enjoy. We don't want to devalue marriage, we want to
enhance it."
A number of organizations across the state
sponsored the protests, but the St Louis chapter of Log Cabin Republicans
was not among them.
It said that the protest could hurt gays.
"This is an unproductive and negative tactic
that does nothing more than drive hate and resentment among Missourians toward
the gay and lesbian community," chapter President Charles Stadtlander told
the paper.
Stadtlander said it would have been more
productive to focus on getting civil unions legalized.
PROMO, the state's largest LGBT rights group and
a supporter of today's demonstration, said it was working to get a civil unions
bill introduced in the legislature and to thwart attempts to bar same-sex
couples from adopting children or acting as foster parents.
Last August 4, Missouri became the first state to
pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the wake of the first
same-sex weddings in Massachusetts. (story)
In November, 11 more states passed gay marriage bans.
In July, a judge ruled that an unwritten rule
used by the state to ban gays from becoming foster parents was unconstitutional.
(story)
Since then some conservative lawmakers have threatened to bring in a bill to
formalize the rule.
©365Gay.com 2005
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