ATLANTA – The percentage of births to unmarried women in the United States has been rising sharply, but it’s way behind northern European countries, a new U.S. report on births shows.

Iceland is the leader with 6 in 10 births occurring among unmarried women. About half of all births in Sweden and Norway are to unwed moms, while in the U.S., it’s about 40 percent.

France, Denmark and the United Kingdom also have higher percentages than the United States, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. and at least 13 other industrialized nations have seen significant jumps in the proportion of unmarried births since 1980, said Stephanie Ventura of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Rates have doubled and even tripled in these countries, according to the CDC report released Wednesday.

“Basically we’re seeing the same patterns,” Ventura said, noting the trend has accelerated in the last five years.

Experts are not certain what’s causing the trend but say there seems to be greater social acceptance of having children outside of marriage.

“The values surrounding family formation are changing and women are more independent than they used to be. And young people don’t feel they have to live under the same social rules that their parents once did,” said Carl Haub, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau in Washington, D.C.

But there are differences in how unmarried pregnancies are viewed in different countries.

In the United States, unmarried mothers are more likely to be on their own and traditionally they are more likely to be poor and uneducated, experts said.

In northern Europe, men and women more often live together in unmarried, long-term, stable relationships, Haub said.

Because of declining birth rates in some European countries, people tend to be more focused on whether the baby is born healthy instead of whether the mother is married, Haub said.

The CDC previously has reported on the percentage of U.S. births to unmarried mothers. The new report gathers previously released information from other countries to make an international comparison.

The report shows trends from 1980 to the most recent years available – 2007 for the United States and most of the other countries, but 2006 for six nations.

Japan had the lowest percentage of unmarried births, with 2 percent in 2007, up from 1 percent in 1980.

Increases were much more dramatic in the other countries, with Italy rising from 4 percent to 21 percent, Ireland from 5 percent to 33 percent, Canada from 13 to 30 percent, and the United Kingdom from 12 percent to 44 percent.

The nonprofit group tells The Associated Press the gift from J. Ronald Terwilliger will help it build 60,000 homes worldwide. It’s the largest individual contribution in Habitat’s history.

Terwilliger, an Atlanta-based developer, says he hopes it will offer the world’s neediest more access to decent, affordable homes.

He says he also wanted to “inspire others to make the commitment to support affordable housing.”

The gift is one of the largest in recent years to a group devoted to social services, according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. A center official called it “remarkable.”

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ON THE WEB

Habitat for Humanity International : www.habitat.org

The minority population increased 2.3 percent to 104.6 million from mid-2007 to July 1, 2008, or just over one-third of the total population, the Census Bureau reported.

Hispanics had the highest growth rate – 3.2 percent – during the 12 months.

Although immigration has slowed, higher birth rates among Hispanics make them the fastest growing group. Births, rather than immigration, accounted for about two-thirds of the 1.47 million increase in the Hispanic population in 2008, according to Kenneth Johnson, demographer at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute. In addition, Hispanics are younger, on average, than the overall population. Births among Hispanics outpaced deaths by nearly 10 to one.

Forty-seven percent of children under 5 are minorities, as are 43 percent of young people under age 20.

“It’s a cumulative effect of immigration,” says Jeffrey Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center. “We’ve built up a population of Hispanics, and increasingly they’re native born.”

As the median age among non-Hispanic whites increases – it’s 41.1 compared with 27.7 for Hispanics – so will the racial and ethnic generation gap, demographers say.

“A lot of these Boomers are going to be relying on this younger generation to take care of them in a lot of ways,” says Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau. “In another generation, this is going to be our workforce that is supporting Social Security.”

Orange County, Fla., home of Walt Disney World, is one of six U.S. counties where the population became majority-minority in 2008: more than half the population are in groups other than non-Hispanic whites.

That’s “not a surprise” to Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty, who says the county has always been “a snapshot of what America looks like.” Nearly 10 percent of the nation’s 3,142 counties have a minority population above 50 percent.

The demographic shift is most dramatic among “kids under 20,” Mather says. “They really are the groups that are driving these changes.”

Contributing: Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY

By Paul Overberg, Martha T. Moore

Rick McManus (right) holds his daughter, 10-month-old Jacqueline, as his husband, Michael McManus, speaks with their adopted son, 2, at their Charlton, Mass., home. Rick and Michael said that within Massachusetts being married as a same-sex couple has been a big plus, especially in dealing with state adoption officials. The McManus family chose not to provide their son's name.

WHITINSVILLE, Mass. – Twenty years after he met the love of his life, nearly five years after their wedding helped make history, it took a nasty bout of pneumonia for Gary Chalmers to fully appreciate the blessings of marriage.

“I was out of work for eight weeks, spent a week in the hospital,” Chalmers said. “That was the first time I really felt thankful for the sense of the security we had, with Rich there, talking with the physicians, helping make decisions. . . . It really made a difference.”

At stake was the most basic recognition of marital bonds – something most spouses take for granted. But until May 17, 2004, when Chalmers and Richard Linnell were among a surge of same-sex couples marrying in Massachusetts, it was legally unavailable to gays and lesbians in the United States.

Since that day, four other states – Connecticut in 2008, and Iowa, Vermont and Maine this year – have legalized same-sex marriage, and more may follow soon. A measure just approved by New Hampshire’s legislature awaits the governor’s decision on whether to sign. But Massachusetts was the first, providing a five-year record with which to gauge the consequences.

At the time of those first weddings, the debate was red-hot – protests were frequent, expectations ran high that legislators would allow a referendum on whether to overturn the court ruling ordering same-sex marriage. Now, although Roman Catholic leaders and some conservative activists remain vocally opposed, there is overwhelming political support for same-sex marriage and no prospect for a referendum.

According to the latest state figures, through September 2008, there had been 12,167 same-sex marriages in Massachusetts – 64 percent of them between women – out of 170,209 marriages in all. Some consequences have been tangible – a boom for gay-friendly wedding businesses, the exit of a Roman Catholic charity from the adoption business – and some almost defy description.

Mary Bonauto, lead lawyer in the landmark lawsuit, said, “I know people who’d been together 20 years who say, ‘Getting married – it knocked my socks off.’ ”

Partners since 1988

Chalmers and Linnell were among seven gay and lesbian couples recruited by Bonauto’s team to be plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

They had been partners since meeting in Worcester in 1988, and now live nearby in Linnell’s childhood house in Whitinsville with their 16-year-old daughter, Paige, whom they adopted as an infant.

The town of 6,300 is relatively far from cosmopolitan Boston and the gay vacation mecca of Provincetown, but the family feels thoroughly comfortable.

Paige is helping form a gay-straight alliance at her high school. When her fathers got married, she said, “all my friends were saying they wanted to come to the wedding.”

Chalmers, an elementary school curriculum coordinator, and Linnell, a nurse manager at a medical center, say they didn’t need the wedding to prove their commitment, but they appreciate the added legal stability and the recognition they get from others.

“Before, we had wills, we had power of attorney,” Chalmers said. “But the fact of the matter was, you can’t make up for the thousand or so rights that are given to married couples.”

Another plus: Explanations about family ties are easier now that “husband” is an option.

“More than once,” Chalmers recalled, “I was introducing Rich and said, ‘This is my partner’ and they’d say, ‘Oh, what kind of company do you own? What business are you in?’ ”

Two moms, two sons

Another of the lawsuit couples – Gina and Heidi Nortonsmith – live in the college town of Northampton in western Massachusetts with their two sons – Quinn, 9, and Avery 12. Like their fellow plaintiffs, they married as soon as legally possible, on May 17, 2004.

Heidi runs an emergency food pantry; Gina is an elementary school classroom aide. Heidi gave birth to both sons, who are biracial, and the family name merges the moms’ maiden names.

“When we were getting ready to have the kids, we wanted to cross all our T’s and dot all our I’s, feeling there were so many protections for heterosexual married families that just weren’t available to us,” Heidi said.

“When marriage finally happened, there was that emotional sigh of relief – just knowing there would be a legal framework, and a court of law would understand our family.”

Heidi and Gina bridle at the contention of some gay-marriage opponents that children such as theirs will suffer from not being raised by both a mother and father.

“We have really great kids,” says Gina. “It’s been fun to have people see who we are.”

Opposition fading

One of the striking developments, since 2004, is the fading of opposition to gay marriage among elected officials in Massachusetts.

When the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2003 that banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, there seemed to be sufficient support in the Legislature for a ballot measure that would overturn the decision. But a gay-marriage supporter, Deval Patrick, was elected governor; and in 2007 lawmakers rejected, 151-45, a push for a referendum.

The view now contrasts with 2003-04, when the debate was wrenching for legislators such as Sen. Marian Walsh. Her district, including parts of Boston and some close-in suburbs, is heavily Catholic and socially conservative. Many supported overturning the high court’s ruling.

“I had hundreds of requests to meet with people on both sides,” Walsh said. “Everyone wanted to know how was I going to vote.”

She read up on the law, wrestled with her conscience, and finally decided the court was correct – and there should be no referendum.

“I came to the decision that it really is a civil right – that the constitution was there to protect rights, not to diminish rights,” she said.

The reaction? Embittered constituents, hate mail and death threats, rebukes from Catholic clergy, she said. But she won re-election in 2004 and again in 2006.

Unions unrecognized

Neither the federal government nor the vast majority of other states recognize Massachusetts’ same-sex unions. Partly as a backlash to Massachusetts, 26 states have passed constitutional amendments since May 2004 explicitly limiting marriage to male/female unions.

Even the 2010 census, under the Defense of Marriage Act, likely won’t record legally wed couples in Massachusetts and elsewhere as married.

Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, the Boston legal firm which won the same-sex marriage case, filed a new lawsuit in March challenging the portion of the act that bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. But for now, non-recognition can be stinging.

After Michael and Rick McManus of Charlton married in 2006, they honeymooned in Panama, and on return to the United States were told at the immigration booth that they had to go through separately because U.S. law didn’t consider them married.

Michael and Rick have subsequently adopted a son, who turned 2 on May 7, and a daughter, almost 1. They plan to limit international travel until the federal policy changes.

“I don’t want our kids to be coming through customs and having to explain that their dads aren’t married there,” Michael said.

They are frustrated at having to file two sets of tax returns – as a married couple in Massachusetts and as single men for the Internal Revenue Service. And they were dismayed when Arkansas voters last fall approved a ballot measure that bans gay couples from adopting.

“There’s a sense of security for our family here,” Michael said. “But when we leave this state, it’s a very different world.”

Is the sky falling?

“Holy cow, the sky hasn’t fallen.”

That assessment of five years of same-sex marriage came from Jennifer Chrisler, who advocates for gay and lesbian parents as head of the Boston-based Family Equality Council. But that message can be grating for those with opposing views.

“We absolutely believe the sky is falling,” said Kris Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute. “But we believe it would be a generational downfall, not an overnight downfall.”

Mineau and his allies say their primary concern is the welfare of children raised by same-sex couples – even though establishment groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics say such children fare just as well as those with heterosexual parents,

“No matter how loving and how caring two women are, there’s no way they can replace the role of the father,” Mineau said.

Mineau also said religious liberty is at risk in Massachusetts, and cited the example of Catholic Charities of Boston, which stopped providing adoption services in 2006 because state law required it to consider same-sex parents when looking for adoptive homes.

Public schools are another venue in the dispute over gay marriage.

David Parker of Lexington objected when his youngest son brought home a book from kindergarten that depicted a gay family. He was later arrested for refusing to leave the school after officials wouldn’t agree to notify him when homosexuality was discussed in his son’s class.

Parker filed an unsuccessful lawsuit contending that school administrators violated a state law requiring that parents get a chance to exempt their children from sex-education curriculum. School officials said the books didn’t focus on sex education, and merely depicted various families.

“Parental rights lost out in a big way – the right of parents to oversee the moral upbringing of their own children,” said Parker. He and his wife, Tonia, now homeschool their two sons.

Opposition to same-sex marriage remains strong in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Disappointment in the legislature for blocking a referendum is still deep.

“Why was it squelched?” asked Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester. He complained that “a well-heeled, organized political action group” got more attention from legislators than average people.

He added: “The proponents of same-sex marriage argue that if you’re opposed, you are exercising bigotry. No one who’s proud of being an American wants to be accused of being a bigot, so some people retreat into a live-and-let-live situation.”

McManus insists the church’s views, over time, can still prevail.

Bonauto, the lead lawyer in the lawsuit, sees a different outcome as more states consider same-sex marriage or extend other recognition to gay couples.

The Massachusetts ruling “was a game changer,” she said. “Even our opponents know it’s only matter of time before there’s marriage equality nationwide.”

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GAY MARRIAGE:

KEY DATES

Some important dates relating to gay marriage in Massachusetts and nationally:

July 1, 2000 – Acting under a state Supreme Court order, Vermont becomes the first state with civil unions that provide same-sex couples with the same legal rights and responsibilities as marriage.

April 11, 2001 – Seven same-sex couples in Massachusetts, denied marriage licenses, sue in Superior Court in Boston to challenge the state’s gay marriage ban.

Nov. 18, 2003 – Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court rules it is unconstitutional to bar gay couples from marriage.

May 17, 2004 – Marriages of gay couples begin in Massachusetts.

June 14, 2007 – Massachusetts lawmakers vote to block a proposed referendum seeking to ban same-sex marriage.

July 31, 2008 – Massachusetts repeals a 1913 law that barred most of-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in the state.

Oct. 10, 2008 – The Connecticut Supreme Court strikes down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Nov. 4, 2008 – California voters pass Proposition 8, a ballot measure overturning a state Supreme Court decision that had legalized same-sex marriage earlier in the year. The issue remains in legal limbo.

April 3, 2009 – The Iowa Supreme Court orders the legalization of same-sex marriage.

April 7, 2009 – Overriding the governor’s veto, lawmakers in Vermont make their state the first to legalize same-sex marriage by a legislative vote.

May 6, 2009 – Maine’s governor signs a gay marriage bill passed by legislators. Opponents immediately file papers seeking a repeal referendum.

NEW YORK – The number of vacationing Americans will be down this summer, according to a new AP-Gfk Poll, and a third of Americans surveyed said they have already canceled at least one trip this year because of financial concerns.

Overall, the survey found only 42 percent of Americans plan a leisure trip this summer, down from the 49 percent who said they planned to take a summer trip in an AP-Ipsos poll conducted in May 2005.

Not surprisingly, the less money you make, the less likely you are to take a vacation. More than two-thirds of those in the $100,000-plus bracket will take some type of leisure trip this summer, compared to 48 percent of those earning $50,000-$100,000 and just one-third of those with family incomes under $50,000.

In terms of destinations, 12 percent of those planning a trip said they would stay in their home state, 67 percent will go to another state and 19 percent will travel outside the U.S. The poll also found that 20 percent of those planning a trip this summer will stay closer to home this year due to economic worries, while 23 percent will save money by staying with friends or family instead of a hotel.

Despite the downturn, travel bargains are tempting a small number of people — mostly upper-income — to take bigger and better trips. Seven percent of all Americans and 18 percent of those earning more than $100,000 said they would take more elaborate trips than usual because of lower prices.

The poll was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media from April 16-20 by landline and cell phone telephone interviews with a nationally representative random sample of 1,000 adults. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Arch Woodside, a professor of marketing at Boston College who specializes in tourism, described the overall decrease in summer travel as “a substantial drop” that will have a significant impact on the industry, especially in places like Florida and New York City where tourism is big business.

Woodside said travel could shrink even more next year as new economic realities sink in. “Most people unconsciously maintain their lifestyles immediately after a big drop in their economic well-being: an ‘I’m going to be all right’ response,” Woodside said. “The impact of their new lower economic reality becomes conscious reality in the second year following a big change.”

Age-wise, 30-49-year-olds were most likely to travel, with 48 percent planning a trip. Among those ages 18-29, 43 percent said they would travel, and among those ages 50-64, 41 percent plan a trip. The real drop-off is among older folks: Just 34 percent of those 65 or older plan to travel this summer.

Among those saying the economy is keeping them home, Tonya Severine of Bladenboro, N.C., said her husband “works construction and there’s nothing going on right now.” With three children, a vacation is not feasible, but she hopes to spend time outside with the kids, even if it means “staying in the backyard.”

Jon-Paul Juette, a 2008 graduate of Pepperdine University living in Los Angeles, says he has to “keep looking for a job in order to stay afloat. Taking a vacation isn’t possible.” He has a degree in advertising and art history, and his dream is to work in entertainment advertising, but he says he’ll “do anything from graphic design to granding to media planning.” He’s doing odd jobs meanwhile to avoid moving back home.

Nancy Saaranen of Saginaw, Mich., and her husband are also staying home this summer, but they traveled to Arizona in March, visiting everything from the Grand Canyon to Sedona, “so we used up our vacation allotment for the year.” Besides, she added, “we’re both retired, and the grandkids have softball through July,” so they hope to enjoy watching lots of games outdoors.

Among those who will be traveling, Betsy Skipp, a children’s advocacy volunteer who lives in Miami, said she intends to get to the Caribbean. “We live in Miami and we need to get out every now and then,” she said.

Susan Jewell, who works as a personal assistant and studies business administration at Southwestern College in Paradise Valley, Ariz., said she’ll be vacationing in California. “Usually the summer is very busy for me, but I am going to San Diego to check it out and hang out with my sister,” she said. “It’s just something we decided to do, spur of the moment.”

Woodside, the marketing professor, said “actions by marketers” could counteract the drop in leisure travel with “innovative travel packaging.” One area where he predicts growth in 2010 and 2011 is in tours offering “must-do-in-this-lifetime-experiences with an unbeatable low price” designed to attract “independent travelers — many of whom hate (conventional) packaged tours.”

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POLL METHODOLOGY

The Associated Press-GfK Poll on summer travel was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, April 16-20. It is based on landline and cell phone telephone interviews with a nationally representative random sample of 1,000 adults. Interviews were conducted with 800 respondents on landline telephones and 200 on cellular phones.

Digits in the phone numbers dialed were generated randomly to reach households with unlisted and listed landline and cell phone numbers.

Interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish.

As is done routinely in surveys, results were weighted, or adjusted, to ensure that responses accurately reflect the population’s makeup by factors such as age, sex, education, and race. In addition, the weighting took into account patterns of phone use — landline only, cell only and both types — by region.

No more than one time in 20 should chance variations in the sample cause the results to vary by more than plus or minus 3.1 percentage points from the answers that would be obtained if all adults in the U.S. were polled.

There are other sources of potential error in polls, including the wording and order of questions.

The questions and results for this poll are available at http://www.ap-gfkpoll.com.

Jacob remained king among the boys in 2008, his 10th straight year at the top, the Social Security Administration said Friday.

Biblical names dominate the top choices for boys while popular culture appears to have influenced some of the girls’ names.

Emma debuted in the top 10 in 2002, the same year that Jennifer Aniston’s character on “Friends” gave the name to her TV show baby. In the latest lineup, Emma was followed by Isabella, Emily, Madison and Ava.

The top five boys names remained unchanged from 2007. Jacob was followed by Michael, Ethan, Joshua and Daniel.

Little else changed among the top 10 for either sex. Alexander joined the top 10 at No. 6, while Andrew dropped out. Among the girls, Chloe inched her way up to No. 10 while Hannah dropped out.

“There’s something about naming a child that’s a very existential statement,” said Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue. “As you read through this you see the influence of recent immigration, religion, popular culture. Sometimes, it’s just people who are admired.”

The Social Security Administration started compiling name lists in 1997. The agency offers lists of baby names dating to 1880.

New girl names in the top 1,000 included Isla (623), Mareli (718), Milagros (731), Dayami (750) and Nylah (821).

Debuting among the boys were Aaden (343), Chace (655), Marley (764) Kash (779) and Kymani (836). Beckham debuted at 893, perhaps a nod to the British soccer star, David Beckham, who now plays for a team in Los Angeles.

Elvis is still in the building, but he fell from 673 to 713.

Barack won the White House but he didn’t quite crack the top 1,000. He did, however, move up a record 10,126 spots, to No. 2,409.

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ON THE WEB

Social Security Administration: www.ssa.gov

New Hampshire legislators were also poised to send a gay marriage bill to their governor, who hasn’t indicated whether he’ll sign it. If he does, Rhode Island would be the region’s sole holdout.

The Maine Senate voted 21-13, with one absent, for a bill that authorizes marriage between any two people rather than between one man and one woman, as state law currently allows. The House had passed the bill Tuesday.

Democratic Gov. John Baldacci, who hadn’t previously indicated how he would handle the bill, signed it shortly afterward. In the past, he said he opposed gay marriage but supported civil unions, which provide many benefits of marriage.

Debate was brief. Senate President Elizabeth Mitchell, D-Vassalboro, turned the gavel over to an openly gay member, Sen. Lawrence Bliss, D-South Portland, to preside over the final vote.

Republican Sen. Debra Plowman of Hampden argued that the bill was being passed “at the expense of the people of faith.”

“You are making a decision that is not well-founded,” warned Plowman.

But Senate Majority Leader Philip Bartlett II said the bill does not compel religious institutions to recognize gay marriage.

“We respect religious liberties. … This is long overdue,” said Bartlett, D-Gorham.

Maine is now the fourth state in New England, to allow same-sex marriages. Connecticut enacted a bill after being ordered to allow gay marriages by the courts, and Vermont passed a bill over the governor’s veto.

New Hampshire’s House was also expected to vote on a bill Wednesday and send it to Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat.

Massachusetts’ high court has ordered the state to recognize gay marriages. In Rhode Island, a bill to legalize same-sex marriage has been introduced but is not expected to pass this year.

Outside New England, Iowa is recognizing gay marriages on court orders. The practice was briefly legal in California before voters banned it.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Thousands of Kenyan women vowed Wednesday to begin a weeklong sex strike to try to protest their country’s bickering leadership, which they say threatens to revive the bloody chaos that convulsed the African country last year.

Leaders from Kenya’s largest and oldest group dedicated to women’s rights, the Women’s Development Organization, said they hope the boycott will persuade men to pressure the government to make peace.

Eleven women’s groups are participating in the strike. The groups have also called on the wives of President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to abstain. It was not clear how either wife responded to the request.

“We have looked at all issues which can bring people to talk and we have seen that sex is the answer,” said Rukia Subow, chairman of the Women’s Development Organization. “It does not know tribe, it does not have a (political) party and it happens in the lowest households.”

Sex strikes are rare worldwide. Many men in Kenya are polygamous, as is allowed by law.

Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said he was unaware of the strike.

The disputed election between Kibaki and then-challenger Odinga led to violence that killed more than 1,000 people and left more than 600,000 homeless. The two were installed after a month of mediation, but infighting has threatened to break apart the fragile coalition.

Paterson, whose job approval rating has plunged below 30 percent, is making a political gamble that he can ride the momentum of other states that have recently allowed the practice, and it’s unclear how the legislation will play in New York.

The proposal is the same bill the Democrat-controlled state Assembly passed in 2007 before it died in the Senate, where the Republican majority kept it from going to a vote. Democrats now control the Senate, but opponents are vowing to make sure this one fails, as well.

Gay marriage is a crucial issue of equal rights in America that cannot be ignored, Paterson said. He was joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and other elected officials, as well as gay rights advocates and his wife, Michelle.

“For too long, gay and lesbian New Yorkers — we have pretended they have the same rights as their neighbors and friends. That is not the case. All have been the victims of what is a legal system that has systematically discriminated against them.”

Paterson, who is black, framed the issue in sweeping terms, invoking Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe and drawing a parallel between the fight to eliminate slavery in the 1800s to the current effort to allow gay marriage.

“Rights should not be stifled by fear,” Paterson said. “What we should understand is that silence should not be a response to injustice. And that if we take not action, we will surely lose.”

Gay and lesbian couples are denied as many as 1,324 civil protections — such as health care and pension rights — because they cannot marry, Paterson said.

Quinn, who is openly lesbian, dared anyone to “tell me I deserve less” than the right to marry her partner.

“Look me in the eye and tell me that Kim and I aren’t a family, that we don’t struggle every day, that we don’t pay taxes, that we don’t work every day in this city. No one can look me or her in the eye and tell us that, because it is not true.”

At the same time Paterson was announcing his proposal, Sen. Ruben Diaz of the Bronx, also a Democrat but an opponent of same-sex marriage, met with religious leaders to discuss how to block the bill.

Diaz, an evangelical pastor, said his meeting in the Bronx was to inform Hispanics, Catholics, evangelicals and others opposed to same-sex marriage of their options to prevent the bill’s passage.

Diaz said it was disrespectful of Paterson to introduce the legislation in the same week that Catholics celebrated the installation of New York City Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Paterson attended the ceremony Wednesday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

“I think it’s a laugh in the face of the new archbishop,” Diaz said Thursday before the start of his meeting. “The Jews just finished their holy week. The Catholics just received the new archbishop. The evangelical Christians just celebrated Good Friday and resurrection. He comes out to do this at this time? It’s a challenge the governor is sending to every religious person in New York and the time for us has come for us to accept the challenge.”

Paterson defended the timing of his announcement and brushed off suggestions that he was deflecting attention from the state’s financial troubles, saying he has supported same-sex marriage publicly since 1994.

“I haven’t in any way changed my point of view,” he said. “We stand to tell the world we want marriage equality in New York state.”

Paterson noted he was introducing the proposal with “the winds at our back,” referring to the recent approval of same-sex marriage in Iowa and Vermont.

New York Democrats gained a 32-30 majority in November’s elections. Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, who did not attend Thursday’s announcement, supports the measure but has said he doesn’t believe there are enough votes to pass it.

A Quinnipiac University poll this month showed that 41 percent of New York voters backed legalized same-sex marriage; that 33 percent favored civil unions; and that 19 percent wanted no legal recognition for such couples.

In March, a Marist College poll showed Paterson’s job approval rating was 26 percent, down from 46 percent in January and 57 percent in October.

There were more babies born in 2007 than in any time in the country’s history, and those 4,315,000 little bundles of joy are potential customers to a growing cadre of baby-centric businesses.

The baby product industry nationally was worth $8.9 million last year, according to the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association.

This year could be stronger.

Not only is there a regenerating supply of new customers every year, but it remains seemingly unaffected by fickle buyers. Even if parents don’t purchase goods for themselves, they will always buy for their babies, slow economy or not.

Professional organizer Mary Devereaux, owner of The Uncluttered Baby in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., said that her business remains steady even in the troubled economy.

Devereaux, a former wedding consultant, started her business when she had her first son about 14 months ago and realized there wasn’t much out there to help new mothers get and remain organized.

“I couldn’t get a straight answer on what I needed,” she said. “I quickly figured it out by researching, and I started doing free consultations. It’s so overwhelming, and just the stresses in having a child … you don’t need anymore stress with a newborn.”

Devereaux isn’t alone in recognizing the economic viability of the baby products industry in this economy as well.

Last year, the National Independent Nursery Furniture Retailers’ Association, Inc., had a sold-out trade show, boasting 1,100 exhibitors of juvenile product industry stores and services. More than 300 of those exhibitors were first-timers, according to the representatives of the association.

As people try to cut down costs, baby “swap shops” or consignment shops are gaining in popularity, as well.

Susan Baustain, director of Once Upon A Child in Melbourne, Fla., said the company, which purchases gently used clothes and resells them, has seen high single-digit increases in sales over the last few years.

“When people are looking for a value, we’re being thought of even more than we have before,” she said. “We’re being thought of not only because of the value but because we’re at the forefront of recycling.”

The waste-not, want-not attitude of today’s consumers is what many baby consignment and resale stores thrive on. Swapping and exchanging at a lower price instead of paying more and buying new pays off in more ways than just saving money, according to Ruhling-Spilos.

“Our slogan is ‘Go Green. Go Consignment’,” she said. “It’s better to buy reused than new because you’re just going to fill up the landfills.”