In this story:

• Vermont: 'I'm not family'
• At issue: Legal definition of marriage
• California vote set
• Georgia: Southern Baptists ban gay-friendly churches
• Related stories and sites

MONTPELIER, Vermont (CNN) -- Two weeks after voters in Alaska and Hawaii rejected legalizing gay marriages, the Vermont Supreme Court began hearing arguments Wednesday from three same-sex couples seeking to wed.

In California, meantime, voters will get a chance to decide whether to limit the legal definition of marriage to a compact between a man and a woman.

And in Georgia, the state's Southern Baptists, protesting the idea of same-sex marriages in their churches, have chosen to exclude congregations that endorse homosexuality.

At the center of the Vermont challenge are Lois Farnham and Holly Puterbaugh, who have lived together for 26 years and adopted a daughter four years ago.

The women, joined by two other gay couples -- Stan Baker and Peter Harrigan; Nina Beck and Stacy Jolles -- are suing the state over its 28-year ban on same-sex marriages.

"We want to legally be a family," said Puterbaugh, a mathematics professor at the University of Vermont. "Lois's family is my family and my family is hers, but legally we're at a loss."

"If Lois were in a car crash, under most hospital rules only family members can visit and authorize medical treatment," Puterbaugh explained. "I'm not family. If I were to die, she might not be able to go to the funeral because many places restrict bereavement leave to immediate family members."

Farnham, a nurse, says she is covered under Puterbaugh's health benefits "because the University of Vermont has something called same-sex spousal equivalent. But unlike married heterosexual couples, she's taxed on it."

Baker and Harrigan have been together for five years. "We want to get married for the same reason heterosexuals do," said Baker, who works for a nonprofit mental health agency. "We've fallen in love. Marriage is the logical extension of that."

Harrigan, a professor at a Roman Catholic liberal arts college in Vermont, noted: "We've already been 'married' by Chase Manhattan (the bank that holds their home mortgage). We think it's time for the state to recognize the relationship."

Both men say civil marriage is a fundamental right, but Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell disagrees.

"Although traditional marriage has been deemed fundamental by the U.S. Supreme Court, it has only been in the context of opposite-sex marriages, which by their nature are capable of procreation," Vermont argued in its brief to the state's high court.

Ten groups, including a coalition of other states, have written briefs supporting Sorrell's definition of marriage.. Seven other groups have filed arguments that contend Vermont's Constitution guarantees gays the same rights to marriage as heterosexuals.

The legal definition of marriage in California will be determined in 2000 under a measure that qualified on Tuesday for placement on the state ballot.

California Secretary of State Bill Jones said the "Definition of Marriage" initiative, written by Republican state Sen. Pete Knight, had won a spot on the March 7, 2000, state primary ballot.

On November 3, voters in Hawaii approved a ballot question allowing the state legislature to limit marriage to heterosexual couples. In Alaska, voters approved a ballot question that defined marriage as existing only between one man and one woman.

Georgia's Southern Baptists said their vote to exclude congregations that endorse homosexuality was aimed at same-sex marriages and not gays as individuals.

The vote came Tuesday as more than 2,400 representatives from churches around the state attended the Georgia Baptist Convention meeting in Columbus. There are more than 1 million Southern Baptists in Georgia, second only to Texas.

A very small number of Baptist churches in Georgia endorse homosexuality, said the Rev. J. Robert White, executive director of the convention.

The Rev. J. Gerald Harris, who was named the convention's new president, said Southern Baptists welcome homosexual individuals, but can't allow churches to advocate their behavior.

"The unanimous verdict of scripture is that practicing homosexuality is a sin," said Harris, of Eastside Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia. "Love ... must not compromise the church's allegiance to scripture."

The homosexuality provision says that churches should not knowingly take any action to affirm, approve or endorse homosexual behavior. It was passed overwhelmingly with more than two-thirds of the vote.

Several representatives spoke against the measure. "To speak on this very issue is perilous," said Bill Self of John's Creek Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. "I want to ask one simple question. This year, the homosexuals. Who's next, churches that receive African-Americans? Churches that allow women in the ministry?"

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.