Courts allowing gay marriage may help opponents' cause
By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer
Sunday, June 11, 2006

After being rebuffed in the U.S. Senate, some opponents of gay marriage think losing a court case might help their case to ban same-sex unions across the country.

High courts in New Jersey, New York and Washington state are deliberating cases in which gay and lesbian couples argue their state constitutions give them the right to marry. Similar lawsuits are working their way through the court systems in California, Connecticut, Iowa and Maryland.

"If any of those courts mandate genderless marriage, you're going to have folks on the other side saying, 'This makes the marriage issue serious business,"' said Monte Stewart, president of the Marriage Law Foundation, an Orem, Utah-based group that opposes gay marriage. the rest