The media circus began at approximately 5:01 PM on Monday, the minute after the California Supreme Court's ruling took effect.

Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco who led the charge to persuade the high court to tear down the most fundamental institution behind the family, "married" lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon, 84, and her partner Del Martin, 87, in a special ceremony at City Hall. Lyon and Martin were the first same-sex couple "wed" under the court-mandated law.

Participants could hardly hold back the tears for Lyon and Martin, whom Newsom lauded as "pioneers" for homosexual "marriage." The Los Angeles Times reveals that the "newlyweds'" relationship began 50 years ago in this way: Martin revealed to Lyon, her friend and co-worker at the time, that she had lesbian tendencies. Then one night she made a move as they sat on a sofa.

"She put her arm around me and sort of made half a pass," Lyon said. "Then I made the other half back."

While the beginnings of Martin and Lyon's relationship may not have the ideal fall-in-love courtship story behind many a heterosexual couple that gets married, has children, and lives happily-ever-after (or at least tries to), that may just have to be the trade-off for redefining an institution as badly misunderstood as marriage in California.

The weeping went on elsewhere in the state as well - in Beverly Hills, longtime lesbian lovers Diane Olson and Robin Tyler were the first and only same-sex couple to obtain a license Monday, because they were the original plaintiffs in the suit to overturn California's marriage statutes.

Amidst the thunderous roar of the crowds gathered, Reform Rabbi Denise Eger told them: "I now pronounce you spouses for life!"

"This is my wife for real," a gushing Tyler, 66, told reporters after the ceremony as she hugged Olson.

"This is the last frontier," said gay Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who attended the wedding. "Women got the right to vote, black people got the right to vote, now gay people can get married."

That gay activists have reached the final frontier, however, is disputable, since activists for other sexual lifestyles, including polygamy, bestiality and incest are increasingly gathering the courage to express their desire to follow suit and "boldly go where no one has gone before." In the midst of the storm the Catholic Bishops of Los Angeles have reaffirmed their support for true marriage.

Cardinal Roger Mahony and seven of his bishops reaffirmed their opposition to same-sex marriage in a statement Monday and said the state had a duty to protect the family, which is built on the foundation of matrimony.

"The Church cannot approve of redefining marriage, which has a unique place in God's creation, joining a man and a woman in a committed relationship in order to nurture and support the new life for which marriage is intended. The meaning of marriage is deeply rooted in history and culture, and has been shaped considerably by Christian tradition. Its meaning is given, not constructed."

California's Catholic bishops had previously registered their opposition to same-sex "marriage," with Oakland bishop Allen Vigneron making the most impassioned defense of marriage.

"No government has the power to change the order which God has inscribed in our nature," Vigneron says in a letter which was meant to be read in every parish in the diocese. Vigneron has called for the overturning of same-sex "marriage."

The hierarchy of the Episcopal Church, however, will not follow the lead of the Catholic bishops, but instead will be working hard to continue to undermine marriage, and, in the process, to further the fragmentation of the already fragmented Anglican Communion.

The Episcopal Bishop of California, Marc Handley Andrus, told his clergy Monday to encourage homosexual couples to first get "married" in a civil ceremony and then head right over to the Episcopal Church for a blessing.

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