AS APPEARED IN THE NEW YORK POST, JULY 26, 2004

SECTION: All Editions; Pg. 16

LENGTH: 138 words

HEADLINE: GAY NUPS PROTESTED AT CITY HALL

BYLINE: STEPHANIE GASKELL

BODY:

   Dozens of heterosexual couples renewed their wedding vows outside City Hall yesterday to protest gay marriage.

   "When you counterfeit marriage, you weaken it," said Rev.

   Joseph Mattera, director of the City Covenant Coalition in Brooklyn. "As soon as you begin to water it down, it begins to take away from the quality of it."

   Mattera insisted that the demonstration was not an anti-gay rally.

   "I love homosexual people," he said. "But we're here to say that just because you're homosexual doesn't mean the laws should be changed."

   Rolf and Nereida Barth came from Rockland County to renew their vows after 27 years of marriage.

   "Marriage is very sacred between a man and a woman," said Nereida, who admitted that both she and her husband were divorced in the past.

   "We were very young," she said. "We're reborn Christians."