Gay marriage camps gather near City Hall
David Siders, Stockton Record
February 15, 2005

STOCKTON -- Advocates of marriage rights for gay couples sang about love on Valentine's Day on a rainy sidewalk outside City Hall; opponents, meanwhile, assembled on the steps above them and held a news conference urging politicians to "keep your hands off marriage."

Gays and lesbians across the state on Monday flooded marriage bureaus with applications for marriage licenses. At the San Joaquin County Courthouse, they were told such unions were illegal, said Dawn Stevenson and Stormie Filpula, a Stockton couple who tried.

"We just want people to know that we are being treated unfairly," said LeJames Melton of Stockton, who stood with Stevenson, Filpula and a small crowd of supporters of same-sex marriage rights at City Hall.

Seven parking meters away from them stood a handful of residents opposed to gay marriage. Stephanie Pleasance of Stockton said she opposes gay marriage because of her faith in God, and because she believes children should have a mother and a father.

Pleasance and her daughter, Hannah, 4, mingled briefly Monday with the proponents of gay marriage rights. Her daughter received a "We all deserve the freedom to marry" sticker and wore it on her cheek.

"It's not the sticker that counts," Pleasance said.

She and other opponents of gay marriage listened to Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, who held the news conference to oppose state legislation that would lift California's ban on same-sex marriage.

Thomasson said letting gay couples marry would disrespect the votes of a majority of Californians who oppose gay marriage.

"This is more than outrageous," he said. "This is scandalous."

The news conference was part of a weeklong tour in which Campaign for Children and Families is to campaign across the state against gay marriage rights. It stopped in Modesto, Sacramento and Stockton on Monday.