Anniversary party for SF gay weddings

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom hosted an event on Saturday at City Hall to mark the anniversary of the same-sex marriages performed there last year:

“Happy anniversary,” Mayor Gavin Newsom said to the cheering audience. Unquestionably the star of the party that one celebrant compared to a “family reunion,” the mayor was repeatedly drowned out by wild applause during the defiant speech he delivered from the rotunda staircase.

“This door is open and nothing the president of the United States can do will ever shut this door,” said Newsom, who made the weddings possible when he issued a directive one year ago to grant marriage licenses to gay couples.

“It’s no longer acceptable for politicians to come to you every election cycle and to ask for your money and to ask for your support and then say it’s too much, too soon — ” here, a thunderous roar rendered his words inaudible, but a few moments later he raised his voice to say: “Civil unions are not good enough. Civil unions are not marriage. Marriage is marriage.”

» Article and issue coverage at SFGate.

[Addendum: On last night’s re-run of Law & Order (“Gov Love“) the exclusion of testimony from a key witness hinged on the defense’s claim of spousal privilege within a same-sex marriage performed in New Paltz, N.Y.; the prosecution responded by asking the state’s highest court to invalidate those marriages.]