Two things from this week’s The Stranger.

One, a call for caution:

Consider this possibility: A relentless push for gay marriage over the next eight months provokes a backlash from blue-collar, culturally conservative voters in key swing states like Ohio, many of whom might otherwise vote Democratic. The upshot: George Bush is reelected, resulting in a far-right Supreme Court–three or more new justices could be appointed over the next four years. That could ensure a judgment there that will set back the cause of equal rights for gays and lesbians for a generation.

Two, how the openly-gay Dan Savage got a perfectly legal marriage license:

So I asked if Amy and I could have one–even though I’m gay and live with my boyfriend, and Amy’s a lesbian and lives with her girlfriend. We emphasized to the clerk and her manager that Amy and I don’t live together, we don’t love each other, we don’t plan to have kids together, and we’re going to go on living and sleeping with our same-sex partners after we get married. So could we still get a marriage license?

“Sure,” the license-department manager said, “If you’ve got $54, you can have a marriage license.”