US: The White House yesterday faced widespread defiance of its plan to win over the religious right by banning same-sex marriage, with gay and lesbian weddings taking place in Oregon and New York state, and signs of division in Republican ranks.
The Christian right had little more than a week to savour its victory - President George Bush's decision to change the constitution to bar same-sex couples from matrimony - before encountering grassroots rebellion.
"What we are seeing is an amazing confluence of events, an incredible move forward with what the mayors are doing to recognise and perform same-sex weddings," said Ms Barbara Menard, political director of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organisation.
However, Mr Bush's endorsement appears to have galvanised the Republican right, as well as gay activists. While mayors in Oregon and New York state this week began sanctioning same-sex marriage, in Washington DC, the Senate majority leader, Mr Bill Frist, promised his own brand of activism.
On Wednesday he warned that heterosexual marriage was in dire peril. "Same-sex marriage is likely to spread through all 50 states in the coming years," he said. "We are going to act." But events may be spinning beyond control. In Portland, Oregon, officials continued to marry same-sex couples yesterday.
Meanwhile, the mayor of New Paltz, New York, risked a jail term for conducting wedding ceremonies for 25 same-sex couples.
"It's anarchy," said Mr Rick Forcier of the Washington state chapter of the Christian Coalition. "We seem to have lost the rule of law. It's very frightening when every community decides what laws they will obey." However, gay rights activists argue that the White House's embrace of a pet cause of the religious right has blown up in Mr Bush's face.
- (Guardian)