[00:02.92]coasts have pushed the issue of marriage between

[00:06.12]two people of the same sex into American headlines.

[00:09.83]Authorities in San Francisco have officially married

[00:12.92]hundreds of gay and lesbian couples since Thursday.

[00:11.92]At the same time,

[00:13.22]lawmakers in Massachusetts failed to agree on an amendment to the

[00:17.40]state constitution that would have defined marriage exclusively

[00:21.28]as a union between a man and a woman.

[00:23.59]Drivers honking their support added to the party atmosphere in

[00:31.58]front of San Francisco's City Hall - where for the past few days,

[00:35.50]hundreds of same-sex couples have waited in line for hours to take

[00:39.97]their marriage vows and get official papers recognizing their union.

[00:44.07]City mayor Gavin Newsom launched a campaign

[00:46.66]Thursday to recognize gay and lesbian marriages,

[00:46.72]as a direct challenge to California state laws that ban such same-sex marriage.

[00:51.29]Mayor Newsom ordered City Hall to remain open during the weekend and a

[00:55.75]national holiday Monday to cope with the

[00:58.13]unprecedented crush of marriage applicants.

[01:00.72]The Alliance Defense Fund on Friday filed a lawsuit to

[01:04.61]try to stop the gay marriages in San Francisco.

[01:07.52]A California superior court judge has scheduled a

[01:10.22]hearing on the first working day after the holiday,

[01:12.82]on Tuesday. Meanwhile, across the country,

[01:16.13]Massachusetts lawmakers rejected an amendment to the

[01:19.08]state constitution that would have defined marriage

[01:22.07]as strictly a union between a man and a woman.

[01:24.98]State lawmakers will take up the issue again next month.

[01:27.00]The highest Massachusetts court last year

[01:29.55]struck down a ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional,

[01:33.44]and gave the state's lawmakers until May to fix the problem.

[01:37.04]On the CBS program Face the Nation,

[01:39.52]television and radio commentator James Dobson

[01:42.84]spoke out against what he called efforts to undermine

[01:46.54]traditional heterosexual marriage around the country.

[01:49.86]Mr. Dobson especially blasted the San Francisco mayor,

[01:53.56]saying the official is going against

[01:55.44]the wishes of the majority of Californians who

[01:57.74]voted against same-sex marriage in a 2000 referendum.

[02:01.92]"What happened in California in the last few days

[02:05.12]has been an absolute outrage," he said.

[02:07.60]"I mean, the people of California passed a

[02:10.63]constitutional amendment indicating that

[02:14.41]marriage was between one man and one woman,

[02:16.71]by a 61 to 39 percent majority.

[02:19.92]And now this mayor comes along and just abrogates the law,

[02:24.02]and it is no longer rule of law."

[02:26.97]Meanwhile, on Fox News Sunday,

[02:29.28]Democratic Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, who is homosexual,

[02:33.78]said legally recognizing gay marriages would not threaten heterosexual marriages.

[02:39.14]Congressman Frank added that same-sex couples would welcome

[02:42.63]the chance to be officially married in some states,

[02:45.66]even if their union is not recognized by all 50 U.S. states. "

[02:50.01]We had a situation in this country - we all now deplore it

[02:52.39]where inter-racial marriages were allowed

[02:54.37]in some states and not recognized in other states.

[02:56.56]We have had situations where states have had differential

[02:58.87]rules on the age at which you could marry," he said.

[03:00.56]Both houses of Congress are expected to

[03:02.65]discuss a proposed constitutional amendment

[03:05.56]banning gay marriages throughout the United States.

[03:08.37]A bill on that issue has already been introduced

[03:10.78]in the House of Representatives.

[03:12.37]Senate majority leader Bill Frist last

[03:14.46]week said the Senate will take it up soon.