"Personally, I saw marriage as a dumbing down of gay relationships. My dread is that soon you will have a complacent bloc of gay and lesbian soccer moms." When he moved in with David Warren, a 41-year-old software company project officer, he wrote up a set of vows that remains above their bed, seven years later. They promise "a confidant, playmate, partner in crime, biggest fan and protector." But they stop short of monogamy, which is something Mr. Andrew also says he does not believe in ... "Will queers now have to live with the heterosexual forms of guilt associated with something called cheating?" Many gays and lesbians who celebrate their new rights view such thinking as retrograde.

As a married father-of-four who until last year was earning a lucrative living as a head-hunter in the City, John Gonzalez is an unlikely crusader for lesbian rights. But the success of his latest business venture has earned him both a substantial profit and widespread praise from the lesbian community. Gonzalez is the founder of mannotincluded.com, the website that hit the news last week after the birth of the first baby in Britain to be conceived from sperm purchased on the internet.

The show is called Shaadi, or Marriage Online, and is broadcast on the GEO TV network. It sticks to a simple format, steering clear of setting up blind dates between the couples. Instead, the prospective bride or groom is invited to state their case before the millions who watch the show. The set may be designed to look as if a wedding is about to take place on it - but the pace is not adventurous. The show's presenters ask the participants about their likes and dislikes, family background and their reason for wanting to marry outside the family or clan. Then, if viewers like what they see, they are expected to contact the participants directly.

A tearful woman cuddled her toddler in an Islamic appeals court yesterday as lawyers pleaded that she be spared death by stoning for having sex outside marriage ... Judges ordered her buried up to her neck in sand and stoned. While appeals continue, courts have ordered Ms. Lawal's execution postponed until the child is weaned. The alleged father denied responsibility and was acquitted. Introduction of Islamic law, or sharia, has heightened Muslim-Christian tensions in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation. Religious, ethnic and political violence has claimed at least 10,000 lives since President Olusegun Obasanjo's 1999 election ended 15 years of repressive military juntas.

Same-sex couples in California will enjoy more rights than ever before and all domestic partners will receive most of the same legal benefits as married couples under a bill approved by the Senate on Thursday that Gov. Gray Davis has pledged to sign. Sponsored by Assembly member Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, the bill allows one partner to take custody of children if the other partner dies; gives them the right not to be forced to testify against each other in court; and gives them the same rights as married couples to transfer and share property. Goldberg's measure, which passed by a 23-14 vote, extends to the more than 22,000 registered same-sex couples nearly all of California's marriage-based entitlements. Only Vermont, which has legalized gay marriage known as ``civil unions,'' has more expansive rights for gay couples.

A FATHER'S Day camp in Mt Evelyn is set to bring separated fathers closer to their children. Upper Ferntree Gully father Brad Mander is the instigator and organiser of the weekend camp, which aims to help dads and their children have fun together and strengthen their long-term relationships ... Mr Mander said the camp was even more important in light of recent reports that separated men were vulnerable to depression and six times more likely to commit suicide than married men. "If guys can network and make some friends out of it by being able share their experiences and know they're not alone and use the weekend as a support mechanism, it will be great." Mr Mander said he had big hopes for the camp and wanted to attract sponsorship and government funding to run it nationally.

In 2002, the number of divorces granted in the UK increased by 1.9 per cent, from 157,000 in 2001 to 160,000. This is the highest number of divorces since 1997, but still 11 per cent less than the peak of 180,000 in 1993. In 1961 there were 27,000 divorces in Great Britain which had doubled by 1969 to 56,000. It then doubled again by 1972, to 125,000 in both Great Britain and the United Kingdom. This latter increase was partly a 'one-off' effect of the Divorce Reform Act 1969 in England and Wales, which came into effect in 1971.

With a 7-4 vote, the [California State] Senate Appropriations Committee passed a bill that grants same-sex domestic partners nearly all of the state rights associated with marriage. Already approved by the state Assembly, the bill is headed for debate by the full Senate. If passed, the measure will put California on par with Vermont regarding legal recognition of same-sex couples. More than 20,000 same-sex couples are registered as domestic partners in California.

"Premier Ernie Eves, who supported same-sex marriage last summer, now says he personally opposes gays and lesbians being allowed to wed. In a major change in position on the eve of a provincial election call, the Premier said yesterday his Anglican religion forbids him from endorsing same-sex unions.

Poor parents love their children and want them to be happy and successful. The problem is, they don't always know how to make it happen. I've concluded that it may be easier to teach the parents some of the necessary "tricks" than to rescue children who've already fallen behind. Indeed, I believe it so strongly I've decided to invest time and personal resources to see how much meaningful difference can be accomplished in the small community that happens to be my Mississippi hometown. I'll let you know how it goes.

According to the 2002 Current Population Survey of the Census, 10 percent of all people over 50 are divorced, a significant increase from 1990 when 6 percent fell into the category. Some divorce attorneys and marriage counselors report a higher senior caseload as well.

A BOY whose mum was made pregnant with the wrong sperm in a shocking IVF clinic blunder said last night he always KNEW his �dad� was not his real father.

A 60-page manual produced by Holland`s leading LGBT rights group and released Friday tells gay groups around the world how to convince governments to permit same-sex marriage. The book was put together by COC, the gay civil rights organization that successfully lobbied The Netherlands to pass the world`s first same-sex marriage law.

"Marriage and motherhood are no longer obligations for women, but a status women can choose," said Bao, adding that she did not want anything, even a child, to disturb the harmony of her relationship.

EAGLE rejects the registered domestic partnership (i.e. civil registration) option because it knows that the gay and lesbian community are the more equal animals in Canada (under the "equality" section 15 of the Charter Of Rights). Their basic argument is that if gays are not admitted to the state-stamped legal definition of marriage, their dignity would be impaired. This position however immediately creates a conflict insoluble under Canadian constituion, which recognizes 'group' rights alongside individual rights. If the marriage definition were to change to include SSM, this would create a mirror indignity for all the Catholics and other traditional Christian Churches, the Jews, Moslems, Hindus, Sikhs and other religions, for the new definition clashes sharply with their cosmologies and traditions. The new measure would allow them 'traditional rites' in their temples. But if the principle of equality prevailed, then the new state definition of marriage not coinciding with their view, condescends to them.

So, in Canada the options are somewhat thinner. I would say there are realistically only three options:

1. Dejuridification -- the state manages all monogamous relationship as partnerships. The problem with this currently is the uncertain status of certain services like 'fertility' treatment which is provided to only to married heteros under national medicare, and the access to adoption by the couples.

2. Nationwide referendum -- the issue is deeply divisive in Canada. The liberal media manipulate the debate as a conflict between religious traditions and equal rights. To that end they excise views which cast it in different light or want to debate the reproduction and adoption rights as an inserapable marriage matter (EGALE forces these issues out, reasoning that once they won 'equal marriage' all else follows automatically). But as a bottom line the government lacks support for the measure. The latest polls show the majority is opposed to SSM. As things heat up (yesterday there was a clash between gays and pro-family group in B.C.) they will have to have popular mandate for this.

3. Constitutional ratification of SSM: this is what the government wants to do. Right now it looks there are no obstacles on that road but things may quickly change. The traditionalists will likely band together and request a Supreme Court injunction against the definition change, on grounds that I have described above. But we really have a problem with our Constitution amending process. The lower courts invoked section 15, into which 'sexual orientation' as grounds on which discrimination is prohibited, was added later by an Act of Parliament. The 'equal marriage' debates started in Canada in mid-nineties, fifteen years after the constitution was patriated. Unfortunately, unlike the US we do not have legal traditions which would force the Supreme Court to consider the 'original intent' of the framers. Worse still, our judiciary is a runaway horse which as a group enhusiastically underwrites SSM, and already allowed the decoupling of the reproduction/adoption issues. On the equality merits alone, the SSM is a virtual certainty in Canada.

Activists define polyamory as "responsible non-monogamy," or the potential for loving more than one person at a time. They say "polys" want honest, intimate, enduring love relationships. They just don't want relationships to be limited to two people.

[Most Americans] marry for love. Yet an enduring truth of our time is that marriage dissolves as often as it holds. So how is it that ordinary love ordinarily fails? If love is, as Wallace Stevens suggests, a dwelling ''in which being there together is enough,'' how does silence fall on a thousand evenings and the possibility of intimacy flicker and die? How do lovers become lonely?

Mr. Katauskas paused incredulously as if he had been asked whether he had shopped at Prada recently. "It's been difficult, it's been fun, it's been hell, it's been happy, it's been sad," he said. "But neither one of us have ever thought of leaving each other."