Marriage

 Neil Diamond and Katie McNeil were married Saturday, the "Sweet Caroline" singer announced Sunday on Twitter, the same place he told the world of their engagement back in September. "Katie and I got married last night, we wish you all could've been there," the singer-songwriter told his more than 300,000 followers. "It was magical! Love, Neil. " The couple - he's 71, she's 42 - tied the knot in L.A. in front of friends and family, his rep told People. It's McNeil's first wedding, and the third for Diamond, who was previously married to high school sweetheart Jayne Posner, then to Marcia Murphey.

SAN JOSE -- Hours after President Obama's campaign launched a new video touting his record on gay rights, a group of Silicon Valley campaign supporters cheered him on for publicly embracing same-sex marriage. Obama asked those who attended the campaign fundraiser - which cost $35,800 per person --  to help him win another term to cement the progress he has made.  “The strides that we've made over the last 3 1/2 years have been extraordinary,” Obama said. “But we've still got a long way to go.  “We may not even finish it in five years,” he said, “but I certainly need another five years to lock in what we're trying to accomplish.” The day's events showed new faith on the part of the campaign that Obama's public affirmation of gay marriage this month could work for him, or at least would not hurt his reelection chances.

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.

Re "Gay marriage clause added to defense bill," May 19 Conservatives recently pushed legislation through the House that would prohibit same-sex marriages from being performed at military chapels. This prohibition would even apply to chapels that are located in states where same-sex marriage is otherwise recognized. In 2009, conservatives overturned regulations that banned firearms in national parks. The logic was that people should be permitted to carry firearms in national parks located in states where it is otherwise legal to carry them.

After years of battling false claims and viral emails alleging that he is a Muslim, President Obama hasn't gotten far among Republican voters in Alabama and Mississippi - about half still believe he is Muslim and about 1 in 4 believes his parents' interracial marriage should have been illegal, a new poll shows. The automated survey by Public Policy Polling, conducted over the weekend in advance of Tuesday's GOP primaries in both states, showed Republicans Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich locked in a three-way battle for votes.

Krickitt Carpenter perches on her living room couch viewing the wedding videotape and frowns when she sees the bride and groom exchanging vows. "It makes me miss her more and more, the girl in the picture," she says. "I wish I knew what she was thinking--she's just gotten married." For Krickitt, the radiant bride and happy groom in the video are just familiar-looking strangers, shadows of people she once knew. But the people on the videotape are Krickitt and her husband, Kim.

SAN ANSELMO, Calif. — Days after President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage, the Presbyterian Church's Northern California governing body refused to rebuke a retired minister for marrying gays and lesbians when it was legal in California. The Presbytery of the Redwoods, which governs churches from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border, voted 74 to 18 Tuesday to reject the church's official denunciation and instead support the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr, who had been found guilty by an ecclesiastical court of violating the Presbyterian Constitution and her ordination vows for marrying 16 same-sex couples.

Philosophers have argued for centuries over whether it is ever justifiable to break the law in the service of a higher cause. The question acquired a new complexity with the advent of societies such as the United States, in which laws were enacted by elected representatives and not decreed by a monarch or dictator. Few today would criticize civil rights activists, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., for participating in or condoning the violation of laws that perpetuated white supremacy -- with the understanding that they would face punishment for their actions.

As of 2010, according to a recent report from the Pew Research Center, married couples had fallen to barely 51% of U.S. households, with a full 5% drop in new marriages between 2009 and 2010 alone. The data for 2011 aren't in yet, but if that decline continued last year, less than half of American adults are in a legal marriage now. Is marriage going the way of the electric typewriter and the VHS tape? Not exactly. The decline of marriage seems especially dramatic in comparison to the way things were 50 years ago. In 1960, almost half of 18- to 24-year-olds and 82% of 25- to 34-year-olds were married.

Johnny Carson and Alexis Maas, a woman he met on a beach two years ago, were married in a secret ceremony June 20, the comedian's fourth marriage, a spokesman for Carson said today in Los Angeles. The 61-year-old host of television's "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," and Maas, a former employee of a stock brokerage firm, were married in a quiet ceremony at Carson's Malibu beach home, Carson's spokesman Jim Mahoney said. Mahoney said Maas is "about 35."

WASHINGTON -- Almost two weeks after President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage, polls provide some measure of the impact - zero. Gallup's tracking poll average for May 1-7 - the period that ended with Vice President Joe Biden's statement that he supported same-sex marriage -- showed Mitt Romney ahead of Obama by three points - 47%-44%. And the tracking poll average over the past seven days? Romney ahead of Obama by three points - 47%-44%. In between, neither candidate's standing in the poll changed in any significant way . (Some Democrats believe Gallup's poll underestimates the size of the minority vote, but whatever may be the poll's flaws, they wouldn't change the before and after comparison.)

Reacting to Eric J. Segall's Op-Ed article on Tuesday warning of a gay rights backlash if theU.S. Supreme Court overturns Proposition 8, reader Sara Wan of Malibu wrote: "It is wrong to suggest that pushing for civil liberties should be left to Congress and not include the judicial system. As long as discrimination is legal, it is harder to fight it. "Segall's analogy to past laws banning interracial marriage is incorrect. While there was not a specific push to legalize interracial marriage, the 1967 Supreme Court decision was the direct result of the civil rights movement.

WASHINGTON - Wading into the gay marriage debate, the Republican-led House tacked a provision banning same-sex marriages at military chapels onto a sweeping defense bill that is now headed to the Senate. Despite the high-octane public discussion over gay marriage that has intensified since President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriages, the issue has been one that Capitol Hill has largely sought to avoid. But the GOP majority led Congress into the issue by adding the same-sex marriage prohibitions to the defense bill.

Vice President Joe Biden said he and President Obama are "in the same place" on same-sex marriage, just more than a week after his comments on the issue forced the president to hasten his public declaration of support. In an interview with CBS affiliate WTRF during a stop in southeast Ohio on Thursday, Biden reiterated Obama's position that it would be up to each state to "determine for themselves how they're going to treat the issue of marriage. " At the same time, he said everyone is "entitled to the same exact rights.

The Grove shopping center became the unlikely battleground in the debate over gay marriage after it banned boxer Manny Pacquiao from the mall in response to an interview he gave in Los Angeles. The ban led to a day of dueling statements, denunciations and backtracking. Some news organizations erroneously quoted the boxing champion as saying gay men should "be put to death. " That prompted the management of the Grove to issue a terse statement Tuesday evening that Pacquiao was persona non grata at the L.A. shopping center despite a scheduled television interview with Extra, which regularly films at the popular outdoor mall next to the Original Farmer's Market at Third Street and Fairfax Avenue.

SAN ANSELMO, Calif. — Days after President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage, the Presbyterian Church's Northern California governing body refused to rebuke a retired minister for marrying gays and lesbians when it was legal in California. The Presbytery of the Redwoods, which governs churches from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border, voted 74 to 18 Tuesday to reject the church's official denunciation and instead support the Rev. Jane Adams Spahr, who had been found guilty by an ecclesiastical court of violating the Presbyterian Constitution and her ordination vows for marrying 16 same-sex couples.

Charles Barnes, the 92-year-old Glendale man who was barred from seeing his 84-year-old sweetheart, has won the right to visit her at will. Barnes had eloped with Constance Driscoll and brought her to his home in Glendale. He was cited for contempt for violating court orders that she not be moved from a residential care facility in Northern California.

Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - Sen. Rand Paul, who said he wasn't sure President Obama's views on marriage "could get any gayer," was rebuked by an influential evangelical leader Sunday. Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, appearing onCBS' "Face the Nation," strongly disagreed with the Kentucky Republican's choice of words. "I don't think this is something we should joke about," Perkins said. "We are talking about individuals who feel very strongly one way or the other, and I think we should be civil, respectful, allowing all sides to have the debate....

WASHINGTON -- It's been one week since President Obama, prodded into action by Vice President Joe Biden's remarks on a Sunday talk show, granted Robin Roberts of ABC News an interview in which he revealed his personal policy shift on gay marriage. Whether or not Obama's decision, and the way it was handled politically, will make a difference on election day is still anyone's guess - and may always be. Parsing reactions by millions of individual voters, particularly on an issue that ranks far below other concerns for most Americans, obviously involves a measure of guesswork.

Beatrix Molnar, 33, fell in love with Jason Whipple, 39, after dating him for just a few weeks. “He came over to my place and sharpened my knives for me,” she said. “It was such a small, sweet gesture that really resonated and stuck with me.” The couple met online in 2010, but realized they lived less than two miles from each other in Long Beach. “His old apartment is visible from my drive to work in downtown and I remember thinking I'd be really bummed if this didn't work out and I'd have to see his place on my drive to work every day,” Molnar said.