Nearly 200 homosexual couples-some in drag, others in traditional wedding garb-last Monday held hands before an only-happy-to-oblige-you Willie Brown, the new mayor of San Francisco. Twenty couples at a time walked the aisle to Mr. Brown and said, among other things: "We pledge, while in this union, to be responsible for each other and to be committed to a relationship of loyalty and mutual caring."

Tyler, Texas--Texas district Judge Louis Gohmert, a deacon at his local Southern Baptist church, says if you're gonna have HIV-infected sex in his district, you're gonna have to get permission first. The judge insists he is only trying to protect the public by demanding that an HIV-positive probationer get written consent from future partners before having sex with them; but homosexual-rights groups and the attorney for the HIV-infected ex-con say they'll fight the judge's tell-and-kiss decree.

Today has been a bad day, and a nurse's aide isn't helping matters as she loudly orders Laurie to "sit up" in her wheelchair. Laurie is a quadriplegic; she can't sit up by herself. But she's not deaf and she's not stupid. As the aide tries to reposition Laurie, she tells Laurie's friend, Julie Grimstad, that maybe Laurie is just upset about her move; her room is being changed because Laurie's north Texas nursing home is remodeling. Laurie's eyes flash side to side, her way of saying to anyone willing to pay attention-"No, no, it's not the move."

WASHINGTON—By 10:35 p.m. the sound equipment was in the truck and the stage itself was being broken down. The lawn of the National Mall, facing the Capitol, was pristine again. Only a few stragglers in "True Love Waits" T-shirts served to show that hours before 20,000 teens filled the lawn along with a display of more than 200,000 signed pledge cards. Exactly 150 of those youths and 10 adults even met with President Bill Clinton earlier that day-a meeting most found "disappointing," according to a youth leader.