Original sentence: From February 12 until March 11, 2004 (when the weddings were halted by the California Supreme Court), about 4,000 same-sex couples were issued marriage licenses in San Francisco.Newsom claimed the California Constitution's equal protection clause as his authority to do so, and decided to perform the marriages after hearing President Bush's State of the Union address.Newsom gained international attention, and attracted controversy, in February 2004, when he issued a directive to the city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.On August 12, 2004, the California Supreme Court voided all of these marriages
Edited sentence: From February 12 until March 11, 2004 (when the weddings were halted by the California Supreme Court), about 4,000 homosexual couples were issued these unlawful "marriage" licenses in San Francisco.Newsom erroneously claimed the California Constitution's equal protection clause as his authority to do so, and decided to perform the so-called "marriages" after hearing President Bush's State of the Union address.Newsom gained international attention, and attracted controversy, in February 2004, when he issued an unlawful directive to the city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples.On August 12, 2004, the California Supreme Court declared all of these pseudo-marriages null and void