DENVER (AP) – With a national debate raging over gay marriage and a proposed constitutional amendment to ban it, about 2,000 people turned out for a rally to support gay couples’ desire to wed.

“The government has no business discussing the sanctity of anything,” said Merri Ann Widenhofer, as her partner, Paula Goodall, held their 9 month-old son Dexter. “That's for the church to decide.”

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper agreed. During his speech to the often loud, but focused crowd, the mayor said during such a trying time, the country needs to deal with issues that unite people, not divide them.

“The purpose of our Constitution is to protect the rights of citizens, not take rights away,” Hickenlooper said at the rally in front of the Denver City and County Building.

The mayor’s statement is one of the central issues circulating in the debate over gay marriage that was sparked by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s recent ruling that it is unconstitutional to deny marriage rights to gay couples.

The debate was heightened when San Francisco started issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.

Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., is sponsoring a proposal in Congress that would change the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as only between one man and one woman.

President Bush has stated he’s committed to doing whatever is necessary to support the sanctity of marriage, but has stopped short of saying he’d support Musgrave's amendment.

Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., was among the speakers who questioned how gay relationships would affect other people’s marriages.

“Allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, I’m pleased to say, will not impact the sanctity of my marriage,” DeGette said to the cheering crowd.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi says it cut its donations to the national church by 6 percent because of financial difficulties, not out of protest.

The diocese is short about $400,000 in investment income from last year, Bishop Duncan Gray III said. Individual churches’ pledge commitments to the diocese are down $284,000, Gray said.

Some of that may be silent resistance by church members to the appointment of Bishop V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay clergyman from New Hampshire, but the diocese’s executive committee “saw this primarily in financial terms,” Gray said.

“There were various reasons for individuals to make that decision,” Gray told The Associated Press. “Certainly, there were some who saw this as a symbol of protest.”

The national church has projected it will lose $3 million this year to members’ withholding money over Robinson’s consecration.

Church leaders say it won’t hurt operations, but the Mississippi diocese is already feeling the cuts.

Besides paring donations to Episcopal Church USA from 21 percent to 15 percent, services within the diocese have been trimmed, Gray said. Its budget had to be cut by $640,000 this year, which can be attributed to the anger of members who oppose gay clergy and same-sex unions.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Sharon Cheatom and Patricia Myers met 10 years ago in a shelter for battered women. First they were friends, then they were more.

On Valentine's Day, the women formally devoted themselves to one another during a marathon day of weddings, commitment ceremonies and vow renewals at a Kansas City church.

This year marked the fourth straight year the Unity Temple on the Plaza has organized the Valentine’s Day event. Two ministers and about 10 volunteers worked from morning to evening officiating ceremonies in two sanctuaries. The church provides an interpreter for Spanish-speaking couples.

Church officials estimated around 40 couples said their vows last year at the church and a similar number were expected to participate this year in the marital bonanza.

The Rev. Duke Tufty, the co-minister at Unity, said he looks forward to the wedding marathon each year.

“I've got to say in 15 years in the ministry, it’s the best idea I've ever had,” Tufty said. “It's my favorite day.

The ceremonies each lasted about 20 minutes and were free of charge. Attire ranged from overalls and jeans to gowns and tuxedos.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Couples will no longer be able to exchange wedding vows at one Kansas City Methodist church, which has decided to stop performing traditional marriage ceremonies because a church rule prohibits such services for gay and lesbians.

The last traditional wedding at the Trinity United Methodist Church in midtown Kansas City is scheduled for spring and will take place as planned.

Instead of traditional marriage ceremonies, the church will offer special worship celebrations for couples that do not include wedding vows, Rev. Sally Haynes, the church’s senior pastor, said. Couples will be free to recite their vows elsewhere.

Trinity’s policy, which was approved by 92 percent of the congregation in a vote, will allow the church to treat all its members equally and still remain a part of the United Methodist Church, Haynes said. About 30 to 40 percent of Trinity’s 275 members are gay or lesbian, Haynes said.

Bishop Ann B. Sherer, who presides over United Methodist churches in the Kansas City area, said she supported Trinity’s right to make worship decisions. Sherer also praised the church for ministering to underserved populations in the area.

“We want them to stay within the United Methodist Church and within the guidelines of our discipline. They have indicated that they will stay within those guidelines,” Sherer told said.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Republican lawmakers in New Hampshire, where same-sex marriage is already illegal, are pushing a proposal that would allow the state to disregard gay unions performed elsewhere.

The group of legislators points to neighboring Vermont and Massachusetts as reasons to pass the bill.

Vermont allows a domestic partnership arrangement called civil unions and Massachusetts’ highest court ruled in November it was unconstitutional to ban gay marriage. Gays will be able to get married in Massachusetts beginning May 17.

In New Hampshire, “We felt we were squeezed in the middle,” said state Rep. Robert Letourneau, one of the bill’s sponsors.

The bill would reinforce the state’s gay marriage ban and state that gay unions performed outside New Hampshire have no standing within the state. It would also make Vermont-style civil unions illegal in New Hampshire.

Albuquerque (AP) – Couples across New Mexico celebrated Cupid’s favorite holiday with matrimony.

In Albuquerque, three couples tied the knot and 16 more renewed their vows in front of 11,684 cheering fans at halftime of the University of New Mexico women’s basketball game Saturday at The Pit.

Up north, 31 couples from throughout the Archdiocese of Santa Fe returned to the Catholic church in a two-hour wedding ceremony at St. Francis Cathedral on Valentine’s Day.

Two Albuquerque women used the occasion to make a statement about the recent controversy surrounding gay marriage. Camille Chavez and Kim Kelly, who were partners for four years before breaking up, made an impromptu appearance on the court and exchanged their own vows during the ceremony.

“If two people love each other, they should be able to get married,” Chavez said. “And besides, what is this so-called sanctity of marriage if Britney Spears can get married, then get it annulled the next day?”

The group wedding in Santa Fe was part of the Catholic church’s effort to bring back lapsed Catholics or those who were barred from full participation. More than 500 couples answered Archbishop Michael Sheehan's call to “come home,” and 151 couples planned to take their vows this month, according to the archdiocese.

SEATTLE (AP) – Hundreds of supporters of gay and lesbian marriage crowded Westlake Park on Saturday, decrying talk of a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

“I hear a lot from the religious right and the Bush administration that marriage is a sacred institution. I’ll tell you what's sacred: the Constitution of the United States,” said Neil Vora of Seattle, a 41-year-old health care administrator.

He was holding a sign with a portrait of President Bush that read, “Keeping a queer eye on the stupid guy.”

After the Massachusetts state Supreme Court ruled that gays and lesbians are entitled to nothing less than marriage, President Bush reacted by saying a constitutional amendment barring gay marriages would be needed if judges keep permitting them.

Bush called marriage “a sacred institution between a man and a woman,” saying, “We must do what is legally necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage.”

Vora, who is gay, accused the president of using the gay marriage issue to divert attention away from more pressing concerns, like more than 2 million people who have lost their jobs in recent years and some 43 million Americans who don’t have health insurance.