Any day now a federal court in Califor-nia is expected to decide whether the state's ban on gay marriages is in keeping with America's constitution. But activists on either side of the gay-rights divide do not have time to hold their breath. They are too busy arguing about other things: a ruling from a court in Massachusetts that last week threw out parts of the federal law banning gay marriage; the decision of Hawaii's governor, a few days earlier, to veto a bill that would have given gay couples access to "civil unions" just shy of marriage; and the armed forces' review of its ban on openly gay soldiers, which has just entered a new and controversial phase. The "culture wars" between socially liberal and conservative Americans rumble on.
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