Like a Lunch Counter Sit-In - Taking a cue from San Francisco, four same-sex couples went to the courthouse in Fredericksburg for marriage licenses yesterday. The WaPo's coverage resounds with echoes of civil rights era marches and protests. One wonders if Equality Virginia sanctioned such a radical action. (Massachusetts by contrast is set this weekend to begin training town clerks to issue same-sex licenses.) Dyana Mason's only reported remark was "We're told, nothing will ever change here in Virginia, that you're crazy to try and do something like this."

Well, maybe. Consider Hanna Rosin's Style frontpiece on Rep. Barney Frank in Tuesday's Post. The Massachusetts congressman, a veteran of civil rights marches in the South, has been outspoken in his reluctance to support direct action on gay marriage. The article considers whether Frank simply wants to keep things safe for his beloved Democratic Party (and especially John Kerry) -- since they are viewed as "vulnerable" on this social issue. Frank protests that he really does care about the cause; he just thinks feel-good public spectacles are not good strategy.

Maybe he's got something there, but the sixty-three year old party operative admits that he's always been too pessimistic about the prospects for gay rights. (To Frank's credit, however, he did make an emotional personal statement at this week's Senate hearing on the FMA.) I think gays across the political spectrum have gotten a real charge out of finally going on the offensive, and the speed of change -- civil unions are now a moderate position nationally? -- has caught even our leaders flat footed.

To end on a humorous note: I was amused by the last quote from the Post article in which a gay couple asserts "Believe me, if you saw us in the grocery store, you'd know we were married." Reminds me of a favorite t-shirt slogan: "Two men, one cart, fresh pasta -- you figure it out!"