More than 100 people braved chilly winds to gather at the state Capitol on Saturday to protest California's passing of a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage.

But while a California initiative sparked the rally in Santa Fe, the protest was a foreshadowing of an issue that almost certainly will be a heated one in the upcoming session of the state Legislature.

"We need to storm the Capitol," said Patti Bushee, Santa Fe's only openly gay city councilor, urging those at the rally to show up at the Legislature — which begins a 60-day session Jan. 20.

Bushee said it's not likely that New Mexico will allow gay marriage in the near future. But she said people should lobby for a bill to give the same rights and responsibilities of marriage to any couple living together.

"This needs to be a priority," Bushee said. She recalled how the first effort to establish domestic partnerships in New Mexico was in 1991. "We always get sold out in the end," Bushee said. Turning to a friend nearby, she said, "Remember when we got sold out for a gas tax?"

Early this year, the state House of Representatives by a two-vote margin passed a domestic-partnership bill, which was supported by Gov. Bill Richardson. However, the bill died in a Senate committee.

Some at the rally expressed hope that a similar bill would have a better chance in this year's Legislature because of Democratic Party gains in the election. Three Republicans in the Senate were defeated in the general election as well as three Republicans in the House (although one of the House Republicans who lost was Rep. Justine Fox Young of Albuquerque, who bucked most of her party by voting for the domestic-partners bill this year.

However, even with three fewer Republicans in the Senate, that chamber remains socially conservative. In 2005, a bill that would prohibit gay marriage by defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman passed the state Senate by a vote of 25 to 12. The bill died in the House.

Because it is a 60-day session, lawmakers can introduce bills pertaining to virtually any issue in the 2009 Legislature. Therefore, it's just as likely that gay-marriage opponents will introduce "defense of marriage" acts, even though such legislation isn't likely to pass.

The Santa Fe protest was one of nearly 100 similar events planned in cities around the country.

Protesters held rainbow flags and signs with messages such as "Our Rights, Your Rights, Human Rights," "Separation of Church and Hate," and "My Wife, My Life, My Choice."

Saturday's rally included a surprise celebrity speaker. Mink Stole, who is best known for her roles in the films of director John Waters, told the crowd that Proposition 8 and other such measures violate human rights. She jokingly suggested that nobody with an IQ lower than 95 be allowed to marry. Stole, who lives in Baltimore, was in the state for a showing of Waters' classic cult movie Pink Flamingos in Albuquerque on Saturday night.

New Mexico resident Gary Dontzig, a writer and producer of Murphy Brown, a popular television sitcom in the late 1980s and '90s, told how his partner, with whom he'd lived for more than 30 years, died in 2002. "It was a marriage without a judge to validate it," he said.

When Dontzig told the Santa Fe funeral home that his partner wished to be cremated, he was told that decision would have to come from a "family member."

"Thirty-four years together, and I was being told I wasn't a family member," he said. A sister from Denver was called to approve the cremation, he said. But a few days later, the sister informed him she would be bringing a truck to his house "to take what was theirs."

Said Dontzig, "Like the funeral director, she'd learned what her culture and church had taught her."

Early in the rally, the proceedings were interrupted by the family of the late state Sen. Emilio Naranjo, whose body was brought to lie in state in the Rotunda of the Roundhouse. As the casket was being wheeled along the walkway between Old Santa Fe Trail and the Capitol, the speakers stopped and those who attended stood silent. Later, funeral director Matthew Rivera personally thanked several people at the rally for being respectful.

Contact Steve Terrell at 986-3037 or sterrell@sfnewmexican.com.