As hundreds of jubilant gay couples became newlyweds in New York over the weekend, their well-wishers included many far-flung gays wistfully aware that their own states may never willingly allow same-sex marriage.
In a few of those states -- California, Oregon and Colorado, for example -- activists hold out hope of repealing the bans. That outcome seems improbable, though, in many heartland and Southern states, and gay-rights leaders there are looking at more modest short-term goals.
They'll soon get a boost from a leading national gay-rights group, the Human Rights Campaign.
It plans to launch a bus tour, starting Aug. 12 in Salt Lake City and ending Oct. 30 in Orlando, Fla., which will carry it through 11 states that ban gay marriage.
Stops along the way are planned in Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama -- all with no statewide recognition of same-sex relationships and no state nondiscrimination laws protecting gays.
"We're going into the belly of the beast," said Fred Sainz, the Human Rights Campaign's vice president for communications.
Activists on the tour will host forums and workshops, offering advice on how gay communities can empower themselves politically even on conservative turf, notably through local ordinances and initiatives.
The tour will start from the Salt Lake City Pride Center, which provides advocacy and support services for gays across Utah.
Two years ago, Salt Lake became the first city in the state to offer housing and employment protections for gays and lesbians; it also has a "mutual commitment registry" that offers some local recognition to same-sex couples. Both measures exemplify goals that activists believe could be achievable in many communities in conservative states.
"We recognize that same-sex marriage may not be right around the corner," said the Pride Center's spokeswoman, Marina Gomberg. "But we see different areas where we can change our state and have changed our state."
As for the news out of New York, Gomberg said, "It's a boost of energy for me. A success in New York feels like a success here, because as a nation we're making progress toward equality and acceptance."
As a prelude to the bus tour, the Human Rights Campaign conducted a national survey on Americans' attitudes on gay-rights issues.
The lead pollster, Anna Greenberg, of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, said she was struck by the finding that acceptance of gays was virtually as high in the South as in other regions, even though Southern legislatures oppose gay rights.
"The elected officials tend to be more conservative than voters," she said. "But what I think you'll see is a diminishing of this issue as a wedge in electoral politics ... It becomes something you don't talk about."
Recently released census data shows the number of same-sex couple households is surging across the country, including in the conservative states on the bus tour route. In Georgia, for example, the number of same-sex households increased from 19,288 in 2000 to 29,844 in 2010.
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