First comes love. Then comes marriage?

I do (kinda)
Patrick and Tony were among the 25 couples that participated in the Twin Cities Pride celebration's mass wedding. Same-sex marriage is not legal in Minnesota so the ceremony was purely ceremonial.
MPR Photo / Nikki Tundel

Earlier this month, the U.S. Senate rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. But that doesn't mean the issue is going to go away any time soon.

Beaming with Pride
An estimated 400,000 people attended the 2006 Twin Cities Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender Pride Celebration. For many Minnesotans, Pride is an opportunity to celebrate who they are without fear of discrimination.
MPR Photo / Nikki Tundel

Efforts to either legalize or ban same-sex marriage have energized political parties, divided communities, united activists and prompted questions about the future of our society.

According to the most recent poll from the Pew Research Center, 51 percent of Americans oppose making gay marriage legal. And that figure, of course, means the country is pretty much split on the issue.

Opponents of same-sex marriage consider themselves defenders of tradition. They believe marriage should be defined exclusively as the union of one man and one woman. They fear that legalizing gay marriage would erode the country's moral values.

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'Til death do us part
One of the Pride festival's biggest draws was the mass commitment ceremony. This couple joined in the "I do's."
MPR Photo / Nikki Tundel

Proponents of same-sex marriage say it's a violation of civil rights to prohibit gay Americans from being allowed to legally wed. They argue that traditional concepts of marriage have already undergone significant change and that same-sex marriage is just the latest evolution of the institution.

Regardless of your take on the issue, you'll find it hard to avoid hearing about it. The debate over same-sex marriage shows up everywhere from the statehouse to the coffeehouse. A day rarely goes by without it being mentioned in the news. And it's certainly a hot topic on many blogs and Web sites.

Purchasing power
Gay marriage is certainly a hot topic today. But the majority of people at the Pride celebration believe the issue is overshadowing many other important concerns.
MPR Photo / Nikki Tundel

One of the places you'd certainly expect the issue of gay marriage to pop up is at the Twin Cities Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender Pride Celebration -- or, as it's more commonly known, Pride. This year's weekend-long event welcomed more than 400,000 people, according to its organizers.

The annual Pride festival is held in Minneapolis' Loring Park. It's best described as what would happen if you mixed a political rally with Taste of Minnesota and threw in a little Woodstock for good measure.

It's a place where you can pick up a bag of mini-donuts right next to a tent offering on-the-spot syphilis tests. And merchants peddle everything from rainbow flags to rainbow dresses for your dog.

One of the big draws at the festival -- other than the beer tent -- is the mass commitment ceremony. This year, about 25 couples tied the knot at a group wedding. Of course, gay marriage is not legally recognized in Minnesota so the event is purely ceremonial.

To have and to hold
There's no forgetting that gay-marriage is a political issue. Instead of a blessing from a minister, the Pride wedding ceremony included speeches by everyone from Rep. Keith Ellison to Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak.
MPR Photo / Nikki Tundel

The Pride festival isn't the type of place you'd expect to find people who oppose gay marriage. Certainly, nearly everyone there was in favor of making same-sex marriage legal and made it clear that gay Minnesotans shouldn't be relegated to purely ceremonial wedding ceremonies.

Still, the majority of attendees were convinced that gay marriage is getting too much attention.

Reporter Nikki Tundel talked with lots of gay Minnesotans who wish coverage of the gay community would extend beyond the debate over gay marriage. And many believe there are other issues in the world that deserve some of the notice sex-same marriage is getting.