Gavin Newsom may not be the best boss (he had an affair with his campaign manager's WIFE!) and a bit of a lush (he's in out-patient alcohol treatment), but the San Francisco mayor will forever be a hero to the gay and lesbian community for givjng same-sex couples the right to be married in his city. He's like the anti-Mitt Romney. On Tuesday, Newsom received a hero's tribute from hundreds of same-sex couples and their supporters at a rally Monday to mark the three-year anniversary of the granting of marriage licenses to more than 4,000 gay and lesbian couples.The mayor smiled sheepishly as wave after wave of cheers and applause came from the crowd at City Hall and said: "It's rare in life that you could mean these words more: I really needed that."

The rally followed a news conference earlier in the day, at which Newsom told a throng of reporters gathered in his office that he is "more resolved than ever" on allowing same-sex couples to marry. "For me this is a long battle, but it is one that will be won inevitably," he said at the news conference. "It's only won through courage and constancy and works. You've got to continue to remind people what's at stake and not give up or deviate from your purpose."
The SF Gate newspaper wrote today that Newsom acknowledged "setbacks" in the fight for same-sex marriage as well. But he did not second-guess his decision to grant marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples -- an action the California Supreme Court ultimately ruled he did not have legal authority to take.
"There's never a wrong time to do something right," Newsom said, adding that there has been progress in countries around the world -- Canada, Spain and South Africa all have legalized same-sex marriage -- since 2004.
Couples married in 2004 applauded Newsom on Monday, and a plaintiff in the California case called Newsom a "hero." "It was a tremendous act of leadership. ... I truly felt my government was doing something for me," John Lewis said at Monday's news conference. He and his partner of 20 years, Stuart Gaffney, married at City Hall in 2004, are both plaintiffs case.
Newsom also took a few shots at President Bush -- whose 2004 State of the Union address inspired him to authorize issuing the marriage licenses, he said -- and at Vice President Dick Cheney, who recently refused to answer questions on CNN about his lesbian daughter, who is pregnant, calling the questions "out of line."
"I think it's unfortunate that the vice president does not want to talk about the pending birth of his granddaughter when he was at the forefront of advancing efforts that I would argue not only discriminate against his daughter," but also his granddaughter."