Mr. Bacon and Ms. Douglas are not married. Their 3-month-old twin boys were conceived using high-tech reproductive techniques and a surrogate mother. Both parents are determined to be involved in their infants' care, down to changing their diapers. And they own homes on both coasts, and have been waging their custody battle in California and New York.

While in years past, these would have been titillating details for the supermarket tabloids, today each of these situations is becoming more common in family courts across the country.

The decade-long marriage was the longest for Limbaugh, who once said he had little time for love because "I'm too much in love with myself."

In 1977, he married Roxy Maxine McNeely, a sales secretary at a Kansas City, Mo., radio station. The marriage lasted about 18 months. In 1983, he married Michelle Sixta, a Kansas City Royals stadium usherette, at the Stadium Club. Their marriage lasted about five years.

Limbaugh's divorces haven't stopped him from dispensing marital advice. "If you want a successful marriage, let your husband do what he wants to do," he once said.

A judge yesterday dismissed criminal charges against a small-town mayor for marrying gay couples, saying the state did not show it has a legitimate interest in banning same-sex weddings. New Paltz Town Court Justice Jonathan Katz also ruled that prosecutors did not prove that the law New Paltz Mayor Jason West was charged with violating was constitutional.

Suicide among American youngsters and teens fell about 25 percent in the last decade, reflecting a dramatic dropoff in gun suicides, the government said Thursday.
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CDC researchers did not immediately know why the overall rate dropped, but a specialist in adolescent medicine said new safety measures for keeping guns out of children's hands and greater acceptance of gays may have played important roles.

Organizers hope the two-day Alabama Conference on Fatherhood will launch a statewide effort to reduce the number of families without fathers. The conference, which begins Friday in Birmingham, seeks to draw attention to issues facing Alabama's children, including child abuse, literacy and teen pregnancy. "What we plan to do at this conference is lay the foundation for a fatherhood movement in the state of Alabama," said Clyde Williams, pastor of First CME church in Montgomery and co-chair of the event. "We're calling this conference a call to fatherhood and hope to make Alabama a father-friendly state."

In 1968, when I was directing the research and evaluation of a proposed preschool TV show that was to become Sesame Street, we made a major effort to develop a values orientation. We decided that the values that we presented on mass media for preschoolers should be supported by a strong parental consensus. After all, it is not the job of TV to usurp or to denigrate parental values. Certainly, the TV channel should respect that there is a range of views out there. It is arrogant of the ABC to be so disingenuous as to feign surprise at the reaction to the two mums on Play School.Sesame Street decided to show children of different backgrounds playing together. It also decided to show preschoolers that it was OK to make mistakes when you are learning. Think Big Bird. But these kinds of decisions were based on the views of parents and not just the whim of the writers or producers ... It is wrong for the ABC to raise controversial issues on TV for tots without having a sound basis for expecting parental agreement. All those years ago we also decided that we must remember that many preschoolers watch TV without adult supervision. If we present values that may be disturbing, real life and relevant or not, then we must ask how the child might react. TV is not a one-on-one therapy session. Sexual identification is one of the many confusing tasks of childhood. Raising issues on TV for preschool children without thought to the lone viewer's reactions is a disgraceful decision. Not every child watches Play School with a parent to explain the variations dear to the ABC producers. Play School has made a political as well as a values statement.

May I suggest another reason for ostentatious weddings? Many of today's couples live together before they are married. Thus the thrills of yesteryear's weddings are gone. No longer is there the fun of decorating the love nest. Why get excited about the honeymoon destination when they've traveled all over already? Who cares about their first dance, first toast, first anything -- they've been there, done that. So to create a sense of excitement, today's couples have to beef up the wedding day with fancy cakes, elaborate favors and over-the-top gowns to get guests fired up for a wedding that has nothing to do with beginning a life together, but is more like a salute to themselves with the added bonus of gifts.

So, what is it that determines gender identity? It's a difficult question. Scientists simply do not know what creates the internal sense of being male or female. What's increasingly clear is that gender identity does not necessarily follow from genes, upbringing, or anatomy, even in people with ordinary genitals. That growing recognition, some doctors say, has prompted a new humility about making those decisions on a child's behalf.

IF YOU LOOK closely at the Los Angeles County official seal -- preferably through a magnifying glass -- you will see, among other things, a tiny image of a cross. But not for long. Last week the county Board of Supervisors voted to remove it under threat of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU claimed that the cross, meant to symbolize the churches and Catholic missions that are such a large part of the county's history, represented "an impermissible endorsement of Christianity by the county government" and thus violated the constitutional prohibition on the establishment of religion. The seal, adopted in 1957, will be changed at huge public expense. While I am disturbed by recent attempts to turn "secularism" -- the principle that religious beliefs should not be imposed on public policy -- into a dirty word, this is precisely the kind of thing that gives secularism a bad name.

How children fare after their parents divorce is one of the nation's most emotionally charged family issues. The latest research finds that in retrospect -- 20 years later -- most of the now-adult children have adapted to their parents' divorce and function successfully, and 79 percent feel their parents' decision to split was a good one. The findings sit well with some noted researchers, but others are not applauding.

Look, this is like saying, "How do you spread love?" [Or] "Mr. President, what are you relying upon? Are you relying upon government or do you want to rely upon people?" I think, yes, I mean I think people need to understand that if DOMA -- the Defense of Marriage Act -- was to crater that people could take a marriage license from one state and use it in another state and all of a sudden you now have de facto [gay] marriage. And my judgment is the American people don't want that. But I don't think they quite understand that which is happening in Massachusetts. . . . It can affect their life. I've explained that several times on camera. It's going to require a lot more than a single voice explaining the issue is the best way to put it.

It's essential that those who articulate the position that defends traditional marriage as the only definition of marriage do so in a compassionate way. I like to quote [from the Bible's book of] Matthew, that you know, I'm not going to try to take a speck out of your eye when I've got a log in my own. You know what I'm saying. And therefore, this dialogue needs to be a dialogue worthy of a nation and worthy of a debate over a constitutional amendment. And it's a very important discussion. And it's one that should not be politicized. It should be debated in a very profound way. Politicized means, put it in a context of a real process which to me will change the debate from where it needs to be. You don't want people making up their mind whether or not this benefits a candidate or not. You want people making up their mind on this issue about whether it benefits America -- in the long term for America, I think is the best way to put it.

The Internet conversations, by putting the emphasis on a love interest's personality and mind rather than on his or her looks, are very much in tune with Muslim culture, Abdelgawad added.

"It's not about falling in love; it's about meeting someone who is compatible and has the same goals in life and then getting married," he said. "Love grows, if you have things in common and you have the same goals in life. The whole concept of falling in love and the romantic whirlwind, it's a Western concept and it's a concept that doesn't necessarily exist in the Muslim world."
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Looking ahead to marriage, several of the girls said they planned to rely on their families rather than the Internet to find a husband.

"So many people think it's an arranged marriage because parents have so much to do with it," said Afra Khan, 16, a sophomore at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County. "But it's not. . . . It's much more of two families coming together."