The meeting, sponsored by a collection of state and national gay and lesbian organizations, was designed to highlight issues facing gay couples across the country and in South Carolina.

And more than once, during the hour-long presentation, parallels were drawn between former laws barring interracial marriages and current laws barring gay marriages.

"That it is unnatural and against God's will, that is what we are told," said Hector Vargas, regional director of Lambda Legal, a firm that focuses on gay and lesbian issues. "Those are the same arguments we heard for years regarding race. And it is what we are hearing now when it comes to same-sex marriages."

Wednesday's meeting was just one of several events planned around Columbia this week, each meant to bring attention to the gay marriage issue, a hot-button topic in South Carolina of late.

Tuesday, more than 30 state representatives held a press conference to promote legislation that would shore up loopholes in the state's gay marriage ban, established in 1996. The bills, sponsored by state Reps. Gloria Haskins, R-Greenville and Marty Coates, R-Florence, would deny benefits to gay couples married outside the state.

The legislation came in response to a recent court ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court, granting gay marriages all of the rights and responsibilities of traditional marriages.

But on Wednesday, Vargas and others highlighted the fact that despite all of the publicity, little has changed. Only Massachusetts has legitimized gay marriages. And even that is in danger as the state considers changing the constitution to make the court's ruling obsolete before it is enacted.

"This will be a long process," Vargas said. "The Massachusetts ruling was a step, one we hope stands. But there is a lot more to do."

In 1996, the General Accounting Office listed 1,049 rights, benefits and responsibilities that come with marriage, all of which are still denied same-sex couples in America, Vargas said.

These include:

-- Access to employer-provided health and retirement benefits.

-- Access to a partner's coverage under Medicare and Social Security death benefits.

-- Ability to visit or make medical decisions for an ill or incapacitated partner.

According to Samuel Slater, legislative director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, most of these problems are not addressed by civil union legislation, such as the one in Vermont.

"As the Massachusetts court ruled, a civil union is not equal to a marriage," he said.

South Carolina is one of 38 states to ban gay marriages. It is one of 17 considering strengthening the ban by denying benefits.

There are about 7,600 same-sex couples living in South Carolina, more than 1,200 in the Lowcountry.

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