When gay and lesbian couples started getting married in California this week, one set of voices was quiet among the choruses of "Here Come the Brides" — those of the conservative activists who put a same-sex marriage ban on the November ballot.
Instead of appearing in front of the television cameras that recorded joyful couples applying [...]

Serenaded by a gay men’s chorus, showered with rose petals and toasted with champagne, hundreds of tearful same-sex couples got married across the state Tuesday in what some are calling California’s new Summer of Love.
Wearing everything from T-shirts to tuxedos and lavish gowns, they rushed down to county clerks’ offices to obtain marriage licenses and [...]

California’s economy is poised for a multi-million-dollar windfall as same-sex marriages get underway here Monday, with the tourist sector eyeing a bonanza as gays and lesbians flock to the state to tie the knot.
Analysts say that a mini-industry will sprout up as California prepares to become the only US state that will allow gays and [...]

Romantic human-robot relationships are no longer the stuff of science fiction — researchers expect them to become reality within four decades.
And they do not mean simply, mechanical sex.
"I am talking about loving relationships about 40 years from now," David Levy, author of the book "Love + sex with robots", told AFP at an international conference [...]