Prop 8 trial closing arguments set for June

Theodore Olson will deliver closing arguments in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case in June.

Timing for closings was discussed today in the courtroom of Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker of the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. An exact date and time will be set once the attorneys and the court hash out their schedules.

“Kris, Sandy, Paul and Jeff, and millions of Americans like them, simply want to get married, just like their friends and neighbors can,” said American Foundation for Equal Rights Board President Chad Griffin. “Proposition 8 denies fundamental Constitutional rights and does so for no good reason. Today’s move toward closing arguments brings us that much closer to full equality for every American.”

The American Foundation for Equal Rights brought together attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies, who notably faced-off in Bush v. Gore, to lead this challenge to Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that stripped gay men and lesbians of their right to marry. Olson and Boies represent Paul Katami & Jeff Zarrillo and Kris Perry & Sandy Stier, two couples who want to get married but cannot because of Prop. 8.

After both sides presented their cases from Jan. 11 to Jan. 27, Chief Judge Walker said he would reconvene the trial for closing arguments after he analyzes the evidence and testimony that were presented at trial, as well as other filings with the court.

At trial, Olson and Boies demonstrated the unconstitutionality Prop. 8 through the presentation of 17 witnesses and revealing cross-examination of the defendant-intervenors’ witnesses. Put simply, the case against Prop. 8 was made by plaintiffs’ witnesses and those of the defendant-intervenors.

The trial proved that:

• Prop. 8 does irreparable harm to Americans
• Marriage has shed discriminatory restrictions over time
• Gay men and lesbians are entitled to the full protection of the 14th Amendment
• There is no good reason for Prop. 8’s denial of fundamental civil rights

Since the end of testimony, leading civil rights organizations, legal scholars, doctors, scientists, and religious organizations have also filed amicus briefs in support of Olson and Boies case against Prop. 8, including: the California NAACP, Mexican American Legal Defense & Educational Fund (MALDEF), Asian Law Caucus, National Black Justice Coalition, South Asian Bar Association of Northern California, ACLU, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Center for Lesbian Rights, retired California Court of Appeal Justice Donald King, family law professors from across the state, American Anthropological Association, American Psychoanalytic Association, National Association of Social Workers, and the American Academy of Pediatrics California Chapter.


Specifically, Proposition 8:

• Violates the Due Process Clause by depriving Americans of fundamental rights
• Violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
• Singles out gays and lesbians for a disfavored legal status, thereby creating a category of “second-class citizens”
• Discriminates on the basis of gender
• Discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation
  

“More than 30 years ago, the United States Supreme Court recognized that marriage is one of the basic rights of man,” the suit against Prop. 8 states, referring to the Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia, which struck down bans on interracial marriage.

Under Proposition 8, the State of California government unconstitutionally categorizes Americans into four separate and unequal groups:

• Those will full marriage rights
• Those with no marriage rights
• Those who married between May 2008 and November 2008 whose current marriages are recognized, but who cannot remarry if divorced or widowed
• Those who can marry in another state and petition California for recognition of their marriages
  

Focus on Family tones down anti-gay rhetoric

Conservative group Focus on the Family, under its new leader, Jim Daly, has stopped being involved directly in so-called "reparative therapy," as part of a general move away from its most extreme, anti-gay positions. Although the group is still against marriage equality, Daly said he is "not going to demean human beings" as part its activism.

The Supreme Court Didn't Take Kindly to Protect Marriage Washington. Does That Mean It'll Rule Against Them?

At the Doe. v Reed oral arguments in front of the Supreme Court, attorneys posed the situation as a battle between democracy and the First Amendment. Project Marriage Washington, which is fighting to keep secret the names of voters who helped put Referendum 71 on Washington State's ballot, claimed releasing the identities would invite harm to people who just wanted to exercise their rights. James Bopp Jr., attorney for PMW, insisted "no person should suffer harassment" by signing a petition. The justices weren't buying it.

The pullquote to walk away with comes from Antonin Scalia, who told Bopp, "Running a democracy takes a certain amount of civic courage. … The people of Washington evidently think that this is not too much of an imposition upon people's courage, to stand up and sign something and be willing to stand behind it." Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were adamant about getting Bopp and Washington's Attorney General Rob McKenna, representing Sec. of State Sam Reed to argue whether signing a petition was a legislative act, or political speech. And Sonia Sotomayor jumped in to quiz Bopp about how, if the court were to rule unconstitutional the state's disclosure laws, it would mesh with prior rulings affirming such disclosure laws in politics, particularly among candidates. Bopp's response? In those situations, disclosure is more important, and thus justified.

Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to support Bopp's arguments, but Samuel Alito was the only one to do it so vocally. Without Scalia's nod, however, it's unlikely PMW would be able to secure a five-vote majority.

It'll be many weeks before the justices issue their ruling, but it's notable that this will be Justice John Paul Stevens' last case he will hear in his multi-decade tenure; today was the last day of oral arguments of the court's season, and he's retiring this summer.

But if the tone and questioning was any indication, at least among the justices who spoke (which would be all but Clarence Thomas), the majority was quite aghast at PMW's claims.

Lawmakers Announce New Campaign Ad Limitations To Counteract Citizens United Ruling

Corporations and unions would have to identify themselves on political ads they bankroll, and the CEO or top official would have to make "I approve this message" statements under legislation being introduced in Congress Thursday.

The measures are a direct response to a 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court in January that upheld the First Amendment rights of such groups to spend money on campaign ads – a decision that greatly enhances their ability to influence federal elections.

"At a time when the public's fears about the influence of special interests were already high, this decision stacks the deck against the average American even more," Sen. Charles Schumer told a news conference on the steps of the Supreme Court building.

The New York Democrat was joined by other Democrats, including Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, a campaign finance legislation veteran. He said the ruling in the Citizens United case was "one of the worst decisions in the history of this distinguished body."

The bill had no Republican sponsors, but Schumer said Democrats were talking to GOP lawmakers and "a good number" were favorably disposed.

A House group led by Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a member of the Democratic leadership, and two Republicans, will hold a similar news conference later in the day.

Opponents of the ruling say it overturned established law and that it dangerously tilted the power balance away from individual candidates and voters and in the direction of deep-pocketed corporations and unions. Supporters argue that in addition to abridging the freedom of speech, those seeking to limit campaign spending are serving the interests of better-funded incumbents.

President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union address last February, said the ruling "reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections."

Saying "sunlight is the best disinfectant," Obama urged Congress in a statement Thursday to act quickly "so the American people can follow the money and see clearly which special interests are funding political campaign activity and trying to buy representation in our government."

Quote Of The Day - Laura Bush

"In 2004 the social question that animated the campaign was gay marriage. Before the election season had unfolded, I had talked to George about not making gay marriage a significant issue. We have, I reminded him, a number of close friends who are gay or whose children are gay. But at that moment I could never have imagined what path this issue would take and where it would lead.”

- Laura Bush, writing in her forthcoming memoir.The path this issue took, of course, was Laura's husband using the issue of gay marriage to demonize millions of gay Americans. Despite his "close gay friends."

California Lawmaker Seeks To Nullify Influence Of Texas Textbook Rules

Last month, the Texas Education Agency fundamentally changed how humanities subjects would be taught in schools.

Thomas Jefferson was removed from a discussion on the Founding Fathers, the term "capitalism" was stricken from economics lessons, the separation between church and state was glossed over, Joe McCarthy and Ronald Reagan replaced John F. Kennedy and the history of changing gender roles was tossed over concerns that it would lead students into "transsexualism."

A bill introduced recently in the California state legislature seeks to prevent these changes from seeping into textbooks in the Golden State. The bill, introduced by California State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) is largely symbolic, however, since California will not be purchasing textbooks in the near future due to budget cuts.

"There needs to be a counter to this," said Lee's chief of staff Adam J. Keigwin, referring to the Texas revisions.

Yee introduced SB 1471, which requires the state's board of eduction to examine all future textbooks so that none of Texas' new regulations would enter California schools. The bill is currently making its way through the state legislature.

"It goes beyond politics," Keigwin told the Huffington Post.

When the bill cleared an early legislative hurdle last week, Yee said in a statement: "Our kids should be provided an education based on facts and that embraces our multicultural nation."
Texas and California are the states with the two largest K-12 student populations in the country. With millions of potential textbooks to be sold, publishers will more often than not cater to the demands of the two states, who have often acted as counterbalances on textbook politics.
Keigwin called the new textbook guidelines coming out of Texas "quite alarming."

"Not only is it not appropriate for students in Texas to face this, but potentially students all across the country even though their representatives didn't vote for this," he said. "They know a lot of this history is not true. They may have communities of color who want to have that history taught in the schools, and it may not happen because of poorly written textbooks."

Keigwin said he hopes that other states will follow California's lead: "Every state should do it."

California Assembly Removes Archaic State Requirement That Health Officials Seek 'Cure' for Homosexuality

A measure to remove an archaic California law that required state health officials to seek a cure for homosexuality which was approved by an Assembly committee in early April, was passed by the full Assembly yesterday, CBS5 reports:

"In 1950, the state Legislature directed the Department of Mental Health (then known as the Department of Mental Hygiene) to conduct research into the causes and potential cures of homosexuality. The law was part of a larger investigation into sexual deviance. It classified gays as sexual deviants and required the state to conduct research to find the causes of sex crimes against children. One research paper from the era completed as a result of the law noted that gays might 'engage in criminal aggressive behavior' as they strive to 'overcome strong homosexual drives.' The 80-member Assembly voted 62-0 to modify the law, removing all references to homosexuals in the provision that calls for research. It now goes to the state Senate. 'It's time to get this phony cure off the books,' said Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, who is gay. Supporters said the change was long overdue. The law was written in 1950 in reaction to a series of sex crimes, including the molestation and murder of a 6-year-old girl in Los Angeles."

The bill was authored by Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal after being brought to her attention by Equality California.

Stewart Hammers Arizona Lawmakers For Immigration Bill

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House Speaker pledges to hold vote to end military ban in 2010

The U.S. House will vote on a measure to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tel" law before the end of 2010, according to the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. In the Senate, however, a repeal measure is "still short of some critical votes" on the panel's Armed Services Committee, said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

RNC Census Mailer Spurs Mail Fraud Report

The Nebraska Democratic Party filed a mail fraud report against the Republican National Committee on Monday for sending out deceiving mailers that appear to be a "Census Document." A member of Congress has also confirmed that the U.S. Postal Service was investigating the matter.

In a letter sent to the Postal Inspection Service on Monday, Victor Covalt III, a bankruptcy lawyer and Nebraska Democratic Party official accused the RNC of "attempting to wrongfully trade off and profit from the 2010 Census."

He also charged the Committee with violating a recently-passed law, by not including "an accurate return address including the name of the entity that sent such matter," in its deceptive mailers.

The filing by Covalt represented the first legal action taken against the RNC in the wake of reports that it was continuing to send misleading census mailers even after Congress had passed a law to stop the practice. On Tuesday, however, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle heaped criticism on the GOP group. Two senior members of the House Oversight committee -- Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and William Clay (D-MO) -- sent a letter to the Postmaster General, urging him to "act swiftly" on the matter. And Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) confirmed to The Plum Line's Greg Sargent that the postal service was investigating whether laws were broken.

"They're trying to be deceptive, and it outrages me," Chaffetz said.

Covalt was actually the recipient of one such mailer himself. The Nebraska Democratic Party state chair got an RNC fake census document in his mailbox last Wednesday, after which he decided to file a mail fraud report to the Postal Inspection Service.

"I can't believe that a national party such as this would stoop down so low that there is even any argument about it. Where is there honor? Is there no honor in the Republican Party," Covalt said in a brief telephone interview with the Huffington Post. "Republicans claim to be the constitutional party. Yet they are the first ones to insult the constitution with this low-ball play. That's what is going on. It is trash. That is what it is."

Proud

Christian Singer Talks To Larry King About Her Coming Out

One-time popular Christian rock singer Jennifer Knapp has been away from the music scene for several years but she's back with a new album. Much to the surprise to her original fan base, she's recently revealed that she is a lesbian and appeared on Larry King last night to discuss her faith as well as her coming out.

Also on the show was Pastor Bob Botsford from the Horizon Christian Fellowship, who has referred to Knapp's homosexuality as "self-destructive behavior." Botsford has known Knapp on a personal level for years and has also been aware of her sexual orientation for some time.
He said to King and Knapp on the program: "I prayed for a lot of years having been told of Jennifer's same-sex decision and relationship. And so, I didn't say a word to anybody, kept it quiet, did not go public with anyone except the Lord in my prayers for Jennifer until it came public last week in the articles that she just mentioned to you that she gave. And then I said, well, hey, this is not right."

Ted Haggard also popped up to give his two cents. Watch a clip of the show, including a moment where King asks Botsford if he thinks Knapp is going to hell for being gay,

Gays Conspicuously Absent from Obama DNC 2010 Video

In new video taped on Friday by President Obama to coincide with an email blast to 13,000 people from DNC Grassroots project Organizing for America and DNC Chair Tim Kaine, LGBT people are conspicuously absent from a list of groups Obama is specifically counting on in 2010 Democratic reelection efforts. In the past, gays and lesbians have been included in lists such as these.

Says Obama in the video, in part: "So that's what we're going to do. ... It will be up to each of you to make sure that the young people, African Americans, Latinos, and women, who powered our victory in 2008 stand together once again. ... If you help us do that – if you help us make sure that first-time voters in 2008 make their voices heard again in November – then together we will deliver on the promise of change, hope, and prosperity for generations to come."

T-News: the good and the bad

Transgender Candidate Runs in Florida

Donna Milo, a transgender Republican businesswoman from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is in the race for the 20th congressional district seat, running on a platform of conservative values in government.

"I'm concerned about the way the government is growing —all of the overregulation, all of the taxation," Milo told CBS4, a Miami television station.

Milo has never held public office and hopes her transgender status does not deter voters.
"It's one of my characteristics, but my campaign and platform, what I'm all about is the conservative values that made this country a great country that made this country a beacon of hope for many people, including my family," Milo said. "My friends and family have been very supportive. I've been blessed."

In addition to being a mother and a candidate, Milo is a homebuilder and a pilot.
Milo, along with six other candidates, is trying to unseat incumbent congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat who is running for reelection.


Transgendered student attacked on LB campus

Police are asking for the public's help to find the person who attacked a transgender student on the California State University, Long Beach campus.

Authorities say that the 27-year-old victim was approached in a campus bathroom April 15.

According to police, the suspect pulled the victim's T-shirt over his head, pushed him into a stall, and then slashed his chest with a sharp object. The attacker then fled the area.

The victim was treated at a hospital and released. Police believe the attack was an isolated incident.

The suspect is described as a white male in his 20s, 5 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall, with a thin build and dark colored hair. He was last seen wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt with dark khaki shorts.


Transgender Woman Murdered in Puerto Rico

Ashley Santiago Ocasio was found dead in her home in Puerto Rico last week, raising concerns of increasing hate crimes against transgender women on the Caribbean island.

Santiago, a 31-year-old beauty salon owner, was shot in the head in the central mountain town of Corozal, the Associated Press reports. Although her car was missing, no signs of a break-in were apparent. Her killer remains at large.

“The grisly scene at Santiago's home raised suspicion that she may have been targeted because of her gender identity,” reports the AP. “A common characteristic of hate crime killings is excessive violence done to the victim, and there was so much blood spattered on the walls and floors that police initially believed Santiago had been stabbed repeatedly.”

Police have yet to determine whether the evidence warrants investigating the murder as a hate crime. An autopsy is pending.

Gay teenager Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado was found decapitated and burned in another small town in Puerto Rico in November. His killer, who confessed to stabbing Lopez after he discovered he was a man, faces a charge of first-degree murder, but he is not charged with a hate crime.

JON STEWART ON OBAMA HECKLING AND LINDSEY GRAHAM

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Colbert Urges Lindsey Graham To Release Straight Sex Tape

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Archie and Veronica's Gay Pal

The new student at Riverdale High School is definitely not into Betty and Veronica.

Archie, Jughead, and the girls make a new friend in Kevin Keller, a new character in the Archie comic book series who happens to be gay. Artist and writer David Parent told FeastofFun.com that Veronica is interested but can't figure out why he's not into her.

"We're trying to reflect society and we're just trying to show Riverdale is a diverse place," Parent said of the 69-year-old Archie Comics brand.

Kevin will first appear in September in issue 202 of Veronica.

And Jughead? "He's straight," Parent said, "but he's just more interested in food."

Kevin Keller, Archie Comics' first "openly" gay (those parenthesis were directed towards you, Jughead Jones) character and Veronica's soon-to-be main fag.

Gay Celebrity Will Come Out on May 5th

TheDishrag – Ricky Martin recently came out about being a homosexual. Not exactly earth shattering news, but still a commendable act of personal courage for the father of two.
So which Hollywood celebrity is going to come out on May 5?

People Magazine allegedly has the exclusive and the celeb is booked on several major talk shows that week including “The View.”PR powerhouse Howard Bragman, who has successfully — some might add brilliantly — orchestrated several celeb outings in the past decade talked about his next coming out project.

Thousands of Afghan Boys Are Being Forced Into Child Prostitution. And the Perpetrators Are Proud

Bacha Bazi, or "boy play" as it's known (pronounced bah-cha bah-zee), is the underage sex trafficking phenomenon in Afghanistan. There is just no other way to describe what is portrayed in PBS's Frontline documentary, where young boys are kidnapped or sold by their poor families into sex slavery. To dress up their horrific actions, the men involved in this trade will often insist these boys are merely dressing up in women's clothing and dancing in front of groups of paying men. But these boys are subjected to more than that. They are forced to have sex with these adult men. That they are killed if they don't comply. And what's perhaps even more disgusting than their actions is their blatant openness about it.

What Frontline and reporter Najibullah Quraishi is showing us is Afghan men admitting on camera, and then displaying their terrorizing "business," what they are doing to little boys. Adult men, with the financial means, pay to rape them.

Bolivian President: Eating Estrogen-Rich Chicken Makes You Gay

Bolivian President Evo Morales caused laughter to ripple through the audience at a conference on climate change on Tuesday when he suggested that eating hormone-injected chicken caused men to deviate into homosexuality, Spero News reports:

"[Morales] claimed that the presence of homosexual men around the world is a consequence of inadequate nutrition. According to Morales, this is due to eating chicken saturated with feminizing hormones 'The chicken that we eat is chock-full of feminine hormones. So, when men eat these chickens, they deviate from themselves as men.'"

Morales also blamed European baldness on genetically modified foods.

Agence France Presse reports: "Spain's National Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals sent a protest letter to the Bolivian embassy of Madrid, calling Morales remarks 'homophobic.' The president of Argentina's homosexual community, Cesar Cigliutti, said: 'It's an absurdity to think that eating hormone-containing chicken can change the sexual orientation of a person.' ... 'By following that reasoning, if we put male hormones in a chicken and we make a homosexual eat it, he will transform into a heterosexual,' he added, in online comments."

According to Spero, "The conference was billed as the First Worldwide Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth and organized by the South American nation’s government as defense of environmentalism. The conference assailed capitalism as an assault on Mother Earth, which many Andean peoples refer to as 'Pacha Mama.' According to Morales, genetically altered foods and Coca-Cola are 'symbols of capitalism.'"

Sources Rebut White House "Shut Down" on DADT

Multiple sources say that White House officials, during a February 1 meeting, were “noncommittal” about whether President Barack Obama would include a measure to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” in his defense authorization budget proposal.

As The Advocate reported Wednesday, an anonymous participant at the meeting between LGBT advocates and the administration said White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina totally “shut down” any notion that the president might recommend inclusion of repeal in this year’s defense funding bill, the best vehicle for attachment of such a measure.

But Robert Raben of the Raben Group refuted that version of events.

“That wasn’t the meeting I was at,” said Raben, who lobbies the White House on immigration reform, abortion, and Supreme Court nominees, and is also a paid strategist for the Human Rights Campaign. “The idea that Messina 'shut down' anything is not accurate. They were, if anything, frustratingly cautious about committing to anything.”

Raben said Messina relayed that advisers were still discussing various options with the president. He added that the main area of focus for the meeting was the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that would be taking place the next day with Defense secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs chair Adm. Mike Mullen.

“That’s not to say I'm not frustrated,” he said of the White House’s disengagement on legislative action. “I feel like it would be fantastic if the president walked over to the senate and said, ‘Get this done.’”

Raben also noted that the dynamic isn’t unique to LGBT issues.

“It’s even more wrenching in the immigration context,” he said. “The president gave that a line in the State of the Union too. It’s April 22 — where’s the bill?”

Other sources who were also present at the meeting and spoke anonymously agreed with the recollection of Raben and the Human Rights Campaign’s David Smith, who said on Wednesday, “They were noncommittal about legislation in that meeting, but not definitively one way or the other.”

One source said, “Messina was purposely vague. He didn’t want to make any commitments.”

Lindsey Graham Gay? Conservative Group ALIPAC Demands Senator 'Admit Homosexuality'

William Gheen, head of the conservative, anti-"amnesty," anti-illegal immigration group Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), spoke at a Greenville, S.C. Tea Party rally this weekend and called for Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to "come out of that log cabin closet."

According to Gheen, being gay is "a secret that Lindsey Graham has."

Gheen told the crowd: "I hope this secret isn't being used as leverage over Senator Graham, so today I think Senator Graham, you need to come forward and tell people about your alternative lifestyle and your homosexuality."

"Barney Frank is more honest and brave than you," Gheen continued, referring to the openly-gay Massachusetts congressman.

ALIPAC has posted the video titled "US Senator Graham is Gay" on YouTube, where various news outlets have covered it.

At one point, the video contained the tags "queer" and "fag," which Gheen told HuffPost were the result of a hacked YouTube account. When Gheen was informed of the keywords, he replaced them with less incendiary language.

The group defended itself Monday, and in fact doubled down on calls for Lindsay Graham to admit his homosexuality.

Jon Stewart Takes On Goldman Sachs Fraud Case

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Why Won't McDonald's Accept a Requirement for Even Just 5% Cage-Free Eggs?

Meanwhile, McDonald's Europe is Going 100% Cage-Free

The battery cage photo above is described this way: "95% of egg laying hens in the United States spend their entire lives in a battery cage like this one. 6-8 birds are confined to a cage this size; each bird having less room than a standard sheet of notebook paper to live her entire life. In these crowded conditions, they are unable even to spread their wings." This is the type of living conditions that McDonald's board of directors seems to think is appropriate for the chickens that produce the eggs used to make its meals in the U.S.

US Military: Massive Oil Shortages as Soon as 2015

Global Oil Demand Reaches Record High: 86.6 Million Barrels a Day!As the world recovers from recession, industry worldwide is getting the ol' bounce back in its step. And that bounce, of course, requires a hell of a lot of oil. More oil than at any point ever before in history, in fact. Yes, the International Energy Agency has released its projections for this year, and they've found that the oil demand will hit a whopping 86.6 million barrels a day--up 2% from last year, and 100,000 more barrels a day than the previous record set in 2007.

Court To Hear Arguments On Campus Christian Group

In a case that pits nondiscrimination policies against freedom of religion, the Supreme Court is grappling with whether universities and colleges can deny official recognition to Christian student groups that refuse to let non-Christians and gays join.

The high court was to hear arguments Monday from the Christian Legal Society at the University of California's Hastings College of the Law. The Christian group said its constitutional freedoms of speech, religion and association were violated when it was denied recognition as a student group by the San Francisco-based school.

The group has made this argument at several universities around the nation with mixed results. The high court's decision could set a national standard for universities and colleges to follow when Christian and other groups that want to exclude certain people apply for money and recognition from the school.

Hastings said it turned the Christian Legal Society down because all recognized campus groups, which are eligible for financing and other benefits, may not exclude people due to religious belief, sexual orientation and other reasons.

The Christian group requires that voting members sign a statement of faith. The group also regards "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle" as being inconsistent with the statement of faith.

The 30-member Hastings group sued in federal court after it was told in 2004 that it was being denied recognition because of its policy of exclusion. Federal courts in San Francisco, including the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, rejected the group's assertions that the law school's policy violated its constitutional rights.

According to a society news release, it invites all students to its meetings.

"However, CLS voting members and officers must affirm its Statement of Faith," the release said. "CLS interprets the Statement of Faith to include the belief that Christians should not engage in sexual conduct outside of a marriage between a man and a woman."

The Christian Legal Society has chapters at universities nationwide and has sued other universities on the same grounds. It won at Southern Illinois University, when the university settled with the group in 2007 and recognized its membership and leadership policies.

Anti-Gay Leviticus Sign is Free Speech, Says Casper, Wyoming

The city can't force Casper, Wyoming homeowner Chris Trumbull to remove a sign painted on his fence that reads "LEVITICUS 20:13 - TO BE GAY = DEATH" despite the fact that 100 students walk by it each day on their way to and from school, the Tribune reports:

"Emily Tews, a 17-year-old student at Roosevelt, said she has gay friends and was disappointed in the sign -- especially its prominence on K Street -- but related it to a lesson in her history class. 'It's a form of protesting -- visual protesting,' she said. 'There's nothing you can do about it.' Marty Wood, safe schools coordinator for the Natrona County School District, said the sign is a cause for concern, but he doubted the district could act against the owner. City Code Enforcement Supervisor Shelley LeClere said Trumbull owns the fence and painted the sign. Trumbull was asked to remove his message, but he declined. Beyond asking, LeClere said, there was nothing the city could do. Trumbull's message, whether appropriate or not, is protected speech."

Says Trumbull: "I'm not doing it to be spiteful. Gay people are bashing themselves. My fence seems like the proper setting [to express an opinion]."

You may recall that Casper is the town where, for years, Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church has been lobbying to erect a "Matthew Shepard in Hell" monument.

Church Pedophilia Scandal Grows In Latin America

The detention of an 83-year-old priest in Brazil for allegedly abusing boys as young as 12 in a case involving lurid videotape and a congressional investigation has added to the scandals hitting the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America.

The allegations against Monsignor Luiz Marques Barbosa – and two other Brazilian priests – have made headlines throughout the world's most populous Catholic nation and come amid accusations of sexual abuse by priests across the world.

The scandal erupted when Brazilian television network SBT last month broadcast a tape of Barbosa in bed with a 19-year-old that was widely distributed on the Internet.

The station said the video was secretly filmed in January 2009 and sent anonymously to the network. It was not clear if the 19-year-old, identified as a former altar boy who had worked with Barbosa for four years, had previous sexual relations with the priest.

SBT reporters went to Barbosa's house and confronted him. Asked if he ever abused boys, Barbosa said he could only answer such a question "in confession" and cut off the interview.

Brazil's legislature launched a sex abuse investigation, which produced allegations Barbosa molested boys. The elderly priest was detained late Sunday.

Judge Romulo Vasconcelos told Globo TV on Monday that he requested Barbosa's immediate detention out of fear the priest would flee the country.

The case now goes to prosecutors, who will decide whether to file child abuse charges.

Sen. Magno Malta, the Brazilian lawmaker leading the legislature's probe, called Barbosa's detention a milestone in the fight against child abuse in Brazil.

Regulation Reform Bill Slammed By Dem Insiders, Economic Experts In Reid Letter

A coalition of former regulators, left-leaning economists and Democratic insiders have slammed the Senate's version of regulatory reform in a letter to the parties' two leaders, warning that the current bill won't prevent a future financial crisis.

In a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 36 highly respected officials, including former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, and longtime Democrat and Obama adviser Leo Hindery, paint a dire picture of the state of legislation to fix Wall Street.

"Nineteen months after the most devastating financial crisis since the Great Depression, our financial system remains at risk," they write. "Neither the bill passed earlier this year by the House, nor the one currently under consideration in the Senate would have prevented the crisis. Without serious restructuring, they will not prevent a future crisis."

Sonoma County, Calif. separates elderly gay couple and sells all of their worldly possessions

Clay and his partner of 20 years, Harold, lived in California. Clay and Harold made diligent efforts to protect their legal rights, and had their legal paperwork in place--wills, powers of attorney, and medical directives, all naming each other. Harold was 88 years old and in frail medical condition, but still living at home with Clay, 77, who was in good health.

One evening, Harold fell down the front steps of their home and was taken to the hospital. Based on their medical directives alone, Clay should have been consulted in Harold's care from the first moment. Tragically, county and health care workers instead refused to allow Clay to see Harold in the hospital. The county then ultimately went one step further by isolating the couple from each other, placing the men in separate nursing homes.

Ignoring Clay's significant role in Harold's life, the county continued to treat Harold like he had no family and went to court seeking the power to make financial decisions on his behalf.

Outrageously, the county represented to the judge that Clay was merely Harold's "roommate." The court denied their efforts, but did grant the county limited access to one of Harold's bank accounts to pay for his care.

What happened next is even more chilling.

Without authority, without determining the value of Clay and Harold's possessions accumulated over the course of their 20 years together or making any effort to determine which items belonged to whom, the county took everything Harold and Clay owned and auctioned off all of their belongings. Adding further insult to grave injury, the county removed Clay from his home and confined him to a nursing home against his will. The county workers then terminated Clay and Harold's lease and surrendered the home they had shared for many years to the landlord.

Three months after he was hospitalized, Harold died in the nursing home. Because of the county's actions, Clay missed the final months he should have had with his partner of 20 years.

Compounding this tragedy, Clay has literally nothing left of the home he had shared with Harold or the life he was living up until the day that Harold fell, because he has been unable to recover any of his property. The only memento Clay has is a photo album that Harold painstakingly put together for Clay during the last three months of his life.

With the help of a dedicated and persistent court-appointed attorney, Anne Dennis of Santa Rosa, Clay was finally released from the nursing home. Ms. Dennis, along with Stephen O'Neill and Margaret Flynn of Tarkington, O'Neill, Barrack & Chong, now represent Clay in a lawsuit against the county, the auction company, and the nursing home, with technical assistance from NCLR. A trial date has been set for July 16, 2010 in the Superior Court for the County of Sonoma.

Palin PAC Stiffs Candidates

Is Sarah Palin stockpiling her money? The former governor of Alaska handpicked 20 House races that conservatives should target last month, but her PAC, SarahPAC, has yet to give them any money. Despite raking in $400,000 in the first quarter, she gave only $7,500 to two candidates between January and the end of March. Those candidates were Wisconsin House candidate Sean Duffy and Kentucky Senate candidate Ron Paul, neither of whom appeared on her hitlist. Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Betsy Markey of Colorado says she raised $355,000 of her $505,000 since Palin targeted her.

The Lutheran Church Embraces the LGBTQ Community!

George Bernard Shaw once said, "Certainly all great truths begin as blasphemies." On April 11, 2010, those who identify as people of faith and as "non-heterosexual" were given particular cause to celebrate Shaw's wisdom: a most unlikely church has given a most unlikely people a gift of love and truth, and I cannot stop smiling.

After twenty-five years of deliberation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Church Council has abolished its anti-gay policies, effective immediately. Following from discussions at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly last summer, the ELCA will now allow people in same-sex relationships to serve as rostered leaders. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) human beings are no longer considered abominations but blessed church members with full standing. Same-sex partners and families can now fully participate in the ELCA Pension Plan.

Best of all, the ELCA is reinstating people who were removed from ministry positions because they were truthful and came out of the closet, as well as those who conducted holy unions for non-heterosexual couples. The ELCA has practiced restorative justice.
The Lutherans -- breaking from Garrison Keillor stereotypes as shy, retiring, or stoic -- said, "Just do it!" All votes passed overwhelmingly, with no votes against and no drawn-out hassles about how to implement the policies.

Iceland to Have Same-Sex Marriage by July?

A marriage equality bill in Iceland is quickly making its way through the nation's parliament, SDGLN reports:

"The liberal nation, which has a population of about 320,000, is already one of the most progressive in the world toward LGBT equal rights. Iceland is the first nation in the world to have an LGBT person as head of state. Openly lesbian politician Johanna Sigurdardóttir (pictured) became prime minister last year when voters supporting the Social Democrats and their partners, the Left-Greens, ousted the conservative Independent Party that had ruled for 18 years. The Sigurdardóttir administration presented the bill to Parliament on March 23. The bill’s passage is expected soon, and same-sex marriage could become legal as early as June 27."

Destroying the Tea Party from the Inside Out

Buzzfeed has a gallery of some of the signs carried by fake teabaggers who infiltrated a Tea Party rally in Boston yesterday.

Activist Jason Levin hopes to destroy the Tea Party from the inside out: "The scheme reads like a sequel to 'Being John Malkovich': Levin's group of protesters plan to get in the heads of tea partiers at the Tax Day Tea Parties nationwide Thursday and manipulate them right out of relevance. They'll dress like tea partiers, talk like tea partiers and carry signs like tea partiers. In fact, according to Levin they'll be completely indistinguishable from tea partiers, except for one thing -- they won't be out-crazied by anyone. 'Our goal is that whenever a tea partier says 'Barack Obama was not born in America,' we're going be right right there next to them saying, 'yeah, in fact he wasn't born on Earth! He's an alien!' Levin explained. He said that by making the tea parties sound like a gathering of crazy people -- his group's goal -- the movement will lose its power."

Pope Urges Catholic 'Repentance'

Pope Benedict XVI broke his recent silence on the clerical abuse scandal Thursday, complaining that the church was under attack but saying that "we Christians" must repent for sins and recognize mistakes.

The main U.S. victims group immediately dismissed his comments, saying they are meaningless unless Benedict takes concrete steps to safeguard children from pedophile priests.

Benedict made the remarks during an off-the-cuff homily at a Mass inside the Vatican for members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.

"I must say, we Christians, even in recent times, have often avoided the word 'repent', which seemed too tough. But now under attack from the world, which has been telling us about our sins ... we realize that it's necessary to repent, in other words, recognize what is wrong in our lives," Benedict said.

"Open ourselves to forgiveness ... and let ourselves be transformed. The pain of repentance, which is a purification and transformation, is a grace because it is renewal and the work of divine mercy," he said.

Victims of clerical abuse have long demanded that Benedict take more personal responsibility for clerical abuse, charging that the Vatican orchestrated a culture of cover-up and secrecy that allowed priests to rape and molest children unchecked for decades.

Those demands have intensified in recent weeks as the Vatican and Benedict himself have been accused of negligence in handling some cases in Europe and the United States.

"Factual disclosures are not 'attacks' and 'penance' protects no one," said Mark Serrano, a spokesman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, the U.S. group.

"When the Pope can't bring himself to utter the words 'pedophile priest' or 'child sex crimes' or 'cover-ups' or 'complicit bishops,' it's hard to have faith that he is able to honestly and effectively deal with this growing crisis," Serrano said in a statement.



The Catholic Church's Pedophilia Defense
There are 4,392 priests and deacons in the U.S. Catholic Church alone who have been charged with allegations of sexual abuse from 1950-2002. As of last week, the Vatican has attempted six different public-relations campaigns to deflect any blame away from Pope Benedict XVI on the stonewalling of the church regarding priest sexual abuse.

Then a letter surfaced, signed personally by Pope Benedict when he was a cardinal, refusing to take action against a pedophile priest. The church’s latest attempt is to blame “gay priests.” In other words, try and blame it on those gays, who we all know abuse little boys.

The church should be protecting children rather than the priests who sexually abuse them. Regardless of what sexual orientation the priest is, he should be dealt with as a man who has raped/abused a child. Instead, the church hides the abusing priest behind bishops, cardinals and, now it has been proven, even the (future) pope.

The money parishioners put into the Sunday plate that has gone to settle lawsuits and legal fees has climbed to $1.5 billion, and that was only until 2006?.

What About the Girls?
Boys aren't the only victims of the Catholic Church's sex-abuse scandal.

We thought we knew the script in the Catholic-priest sex-abuse scandal. Both the victims and the perpetrators were male. But a recent story in The New York Times seemed to suggest that this scenario ignored a whole segment of victims: young girls. The Times reported on a Catholic priest who was permitted to move to India instead of facing accusations of molesting two Minnesota girls. Meanwhile, Slate's June Thomas asked, "Is anyone else wondering if young women have been left out of this story, and if there's some agenda that's driving that absence?" a question that Andrew Sullivan’s readers have also been discussing. (Slate and NEWSWEEK are both owned by The Washington Post Company.)

In the case of the priest scandal, boys were the victims of sexual misconduct much more often than girls, by a factor of about four to one, says Margaret Leland Smith of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. But what has gotten scant attention is the fact that the female victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests tended to be younger than the males. Data analyzed by John Jay researchers, including Smith, shows that even though there were many more boy victims than girls overall, the number and proportion of sexual misconduct directed at girls under 8 years old was higher than that experienced by boys the same age. Specifically, between 1950 and 2002, there were 246 girls younger than 8 who were sexually abused by priests (representing 14 percent of all girl victims), compared with 236 boys (3 percent of all boy victims). However, the most likely age of victims—for girls and boys—was between 11 and 14.

The John Jay study, commissioned and financed by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops after the uproar in 2002 over the priest-sex-abuse scandal, also indicates that the girl victims were more likely than boys to be the sole victims of their abuser. Priests who targeted one girl or one boy were more likely to focus on someone older than 14 than those with multiple victims. (Overall, 27 percent of the girls and 34 percent of the boys were between 15 and 17 years old.) The duration of abuse involving a sole victim was more likely to last a year or less. Priests who preyed on multiple children were more likely to continue the abuse for five years or longer. In the case of both boys and girls, most of the abuse occurred between 1960 and 1980, and fell sharply after that, but most of the charges were not reported to authorities until after 1992. Smith says that as the Catholic Church continues to turn over any newly made charges of abuse to the John Jay team, the researchers continue to see the same trends in terms of gender, age, and dates when the abuse occurred.

Boy Scouts Lose Sex-Abuse Case

A state-court jury found the Boy Scouts of America negligent in a sexual-abuse case, awarding damages of more than $1 million to an Oregon man who said he was molested by an assistant scoutmaster here in 1983 and 1984.

The Multnomah County Circuit Court jury took less than three days to find that the Boy Scouts of America National Council of Irving, Texas, and the local Cascade Pacific Council failed to protect the 38-year-old plaintiff from abuse as a youth. The jury found the national body 60% negligent for the abuse and the local council just 15% negligent, assessing economic damages of $840,000 and $210,000, respectively.

Deliberations on punitive damages—the plaintiff's attorneys are asking for $25 million—resume next week.

Attorneys arguing for the plaintiff, Kerry Lewis, called Boy Scouts officials reckless in permitting an assistant scoutmaster named Timur Dykes to work with a local troop even after Mr. Dykes had admitted to a leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that he had molested Boy Scouts in the past. That denomination, known as the Mormons, had sponsored the troop to which the plaintiff belonged. The jury found the church 25% responsible for negligence, but since it had already reached a cash settlement with Mr. Lewis, the church won't make any additional payment after Tuesday's verdict.

Timur Dykes has been convicted of sex abuse dating back to the early 1980s.

As with the abuse scandal roiling the Catholic Church, the Portland case against the Boy Scouts drew national attention, in part because it was one of the very few times jurors have been allowed to review secret "perversion files" the Boy Scouts compiled against its own membership.

The national organization in the past has tried to keep those files out of court proceedings, but lost an appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court last February that would have kept confidential its files on pedophiles dating back to 1964. During the trial, attorneys for the Boy Scouts argued that the files demonstrated the lengths Boy Scouts officials have gone to police their ranks and keep suspected pedophiles away from children.

Attorneys for the defendants declined to comment, citing the coming deliberation on punitive damages. The Boy Scouts of America issued a statement on its Web site denouncing the jury's decision.

"We are gravely disappointed," the scouting organization said. "We believe that the allegations made against our youth protection efforts are not valid. We intend to appeal."

Obama Orders Hospital Visitation Rights

President Barack Obama signed a memorandum Thursday requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have nonfamily visitors and allowing their partners medical power of attorney.

The memorandum orders the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo was posted on the White House website Thursday afternoon.

Reads the memorandum: “Often, a widow or widower with no children is denied the support and comfort of a good friend. Members of religious orders are sometimes unable to choose someone other than an immediate family member to visit them and make medical decisions on their behalf. Also uniquely affected are gay and lesbian Americans who are often barred from the bedsides of the partners with whom they may have spent decades of their lives — unable to be there for the person they love, and unable to act as a legal surrogate if their partner is incapacitated.”

A White House official told The Washington Post the memorandum will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.

Maine Gov. Helps Group Dumped by Church

Maine governor John Baldacci prepared and served spaghetti meals at a fundraiser Wednesday for a homeless group denied funding by the Catholic church over its support for marriage equality.

National Day of Silence - April 16, 2010

On the National Day of Silence hundreds of thousands of students nationwide take a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools.

Tax Day Fact Check: Most Americans Got A Tax Cut This Year

On Tuesday, a wave of protesters, upset with overly-burdensome taxation by the federal government, are set to descend on the nation's capital to express their displeasure.
But does their anger reflect the truth about today's tax rates?

After all, neutral economists insist that, under the Obama administration, the overwhelming likelihood is that your tax burden has gone down, not up. Even conservative economic analysts acknowledge that there really is no basis for middle- and working-class Americans to believe that they're suddenly paying more.

"The only tax I think that has been put in place so far is an increase in the federal cigarette tax. I can't think of another Obama tax that has gone in place so far," said Chris Edwards, Director of Tax Policy Studies at the conservative Cato Institute. "I would say that people are angry because big taxes are coming down the road because of the gigantic deficit built up under Bush and continued under Obama."

And yet, Thursday is expected to bring a range of hotly-charged rhetoric over the damage this 'tax-and-spend' president has done to the general public's bottom line.

A look at the numbers tells a different story. For starters: the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities reported on Wednesday that "Middle-income Americans are now paying federal taxes at or near historically low levels." How low? The average family of four right now is paying 4.6 percent of its income in federal income taxes -- the second lowest percentage in 50 years.

Tea Party Contract From America: Activists Unveil 'Blueprint For 2010 And Beyond'

Tea Party groups across the country unveiled the movement's "Contract from America" on Wednesday, one day before proponents plan to rally and protest in honor of Tax Day.

The "Contract from America" is the Tea Party activists' "legislative blueprint for 2010 and beyond" -- a document of ten principles and priorities outlining the movement's agenda for the road ahead.

Who was responsible designing the "Contract?" According to the coalition behind its construction, "Grassroots activists from across the country visited the website to choose their top ten priorities from a list of 21 action items that committed Americans from all walks of life proposed. The top ten issues comprise the final Contract."

Below -- the ten principles outlined in Tea Party's contract:

• “Require each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does.”
• “Stop costly new regulations that would increase unemployment, raise consumer prices, and weaken the nation’s global competitiveness with virtually no impact on global temperatures.”
• “Begin the Constitutional amendment process to require a balanced budget with a two-thirds majority needed for any tax hike.”
• “Adopt a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the internal revenue code and replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words -- the length of the original Constitution.”
• “Create a Blue Ribbon taskforce that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs, assessing their Constitutionality, and identifying duplication, waste, ineffectiveness, and agencies and programs better left for the states or local authorities, or ripe for wholesale reform or elimination due to our efforts to restore limited government consistent with the US Constitution’s meaning.”
• Impose a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of the inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth.”
• “Defund, repeal, and replace the recently passed government-run health care with a system that actually makes health care and insurance more affordable by enabling a competitive, open, and transparent free-market health care and health insurance system that isn’t restricted by state boundaries.”
• “Authorized the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering prices and creation competition and jobs.”
• “Place a moratorium on all earmarks until the budget is balanced, and then require a 2/3 majority to pass any earmark.”
• “Permanently repeal all tax hikes, including those to the income, capital gains, and death taxes, currently scheduled to being in 2011.”

Assembly kills resolution honoring Boy Scouts

The Assembly is often divided on many of the big issues of the day -- taxes, gay marriage, the Boy Scouts... That's right, the Boy Scouts of America got caught in the political crossfire Tuesday when a proposed resolution honoring the group was killed in the Assembly Judiciary Committee at the behest of Democrats.

The measure died on a party-line vote, with the commitee's three Republicans voting in support and seven Democrats voting against the measure. Committee chairman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) led the opposition to the measure, citing the Scouts' history of not allowing gays to serve in their leadership.

The measure honoring the group was authored by Assembly Republican Leader Martin Garrick (R-Solana Beach) and presented in committee by Assemblyman Curt Hagman (R-Chino Hills), a former Eagle Scout. Hagman called the uproar over the resolution "kind of crazy. With all the resolutions we do here, they're not all perfect. If you don't support it, just [don't vote for] it , but to oppose the Boys Scouts on their birthday seems silly."

Discovery Channel Insider: Sarah Palin's Show Is "a New All Time Low for Discovery"

Last week Discovery had its annual sales conference for ad buyers for all of its 13 networks. The presentation showcases all of their new shows across the different networks. That night the presentation was on Sarah Palin's Alaska.

Our source says "the whole thing [was] comical." Apparently the ad buyers were not impressed. This Discovery insider said, "When the promo was over, people (employees and buyers) were rolling their eyes, snickering, and even laughing. People were laughing and it's not even a comedy. No one took it seriously."

This person was concerned that given the lack of interest from ad buyers that Discovery would have to dump the show to "a crappy time slot" to cut its losses. They added, "Bottom line everyone thought it was a new all time low for Discovery. My guess is the show is going to tank big time."

Remember Discovery is paying Sarah Palin $250,000 an episode for this series. There are eight episodes, so she will be clearing $2 million for this possible disaster (TLC will be spending between $800,000 to $1.2 million per episode for the whole production). The ratings for her new show on Fox News Channel were already low (she couldn't even hold on to Greta Van Susteren's audience). Imagine how much worse she'll do on The Learning Channel where the audience presumably wants to learn something, i.e. the exact opposite of what Sarah Palin is known for.

California's Next Great Federal Marriage Lawsuit Comes Down to Pension Benefits

Challenger: Three gay couples.

Opponent: California Public Employees' Retirement System, the state's pension program.

Locale: Federal court in San Francisco.

Claim: By not making long-term care insurance available to their same-sex spouses, state employees claim California's pension fund is violating their civil rights.

Italy’s Highest Court Rejects Gay Marriage

The highest court in Italy rejected appeals Wednesday from three same-sex couples seeking the right to marry. According to Bloomberg.com, “The Constitutional Court judged the requests related to gay unions ‘not admissible’ and ‘unfounded,’ according to an e- mailed statement today. Courts in the northern cities of Trento and Venice had asked the court in Rome to rule on the matter.”

The reason for the decision, not yet published, will be forthcoming, Bloomberg.com reports. Italy remains one of the few Western European countries without laws that recognize same-sex couples.

The Gay Sex Joke Tony Perkins Is Spreading

Apparently a lovely moment with the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, where conservatives gather to strategize on sinking Democrats during the presidential election year, went unreported. Sad!, because Perkins told a gay funny. After explaining that he had just had a fifth (and no doubt extremely heterosexual) child, conceived in an act of heterosexual sex, Perkins told a military-themed gay joke that had the conference in stitches (but which did not make its way into the official transcript of Perkins' speech as sent out by the FRC flack).

Perkins had recently been speaking by phone with one of his old Marine buddies, who, along with totally not being gay, is about to retire after decades of service to his country. When Perkins asked his friend why he was hanging up the uniform, the friend replied, "When I joined, homosexuality was illegal. When I reenlisted, it was optional. I want to get out now — before it's mandatory!" The SRLC erupted at the punch line.

The 3 Supreme Court Cases Obama's New Pick Will Decide For You

With Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens retiring this summer, everyone's started wondering who'll replace the LGBT-friendliest judge. Republican Senator John Cornyn has already said that he'd be OK with a gay appointee, just as long as they don't get too gay with their decisions. He may well get his wish as the AP just released a short list with 7 of Obama's 10 possible Supreme Court nominees, including rumored lesbian Janet Napolitano. But whether the next Justice is gay or not, several of the court's upcoming cases will certainly address gay rights. And Obama's pick, and Republicans' soon-to-come blocking efforts, will decide your future.

Perry v. Schwarzenegger
What separates California's Prop 8 from the Texas "Homosexual Conduct" law and Colorado's Amendment 2 is that it reads, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." It doesn't explicitly say anything against homosexuals, gay marriage, or their receipt of civil benefits, so it doesn't fall under the types of laws that the Supreme Court has already ruled against. It's insidious in its simplicity.

Even if Judge Vaughn Walker finds Prop 8 unconstitutional, California gay marriages won't resume the following day. Instead, it's likely that he'd put his ruling on hold in expectation of an appeal. The case would then go to the very liberal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and whoever loses there would then almost certainly appeal to the Supreme Court.

We expect the justices will take up the case, but even if they do find Prop 8 unconstitutional, their ruling may just effect California and not the Defense of Marriage Act or anti-same-sex marriage amendments in other states, depending on how narrow their ruling. It's very possible they would declare, in the best of outcomes, that Prop 8 infringes on the Constitution's Equal Protection clause under the 14th amendment. However, it could leave DOMA and other state laws open to future court battles.

Log Cabin v. United States of America
The mostly-useless Log Cabin Republicans have taken on Alexander Nicholson (a multi-lingual Human Intelligence Collector fired under Don't Ask Don't Tell) and "John Doe" (a unnamed man currently serving in the military) as plaintiffs against the military's anti-gay policy.

We're giving this case about a 50-50 chance of making it before the Court. First off, it's questionable whether the LCR even has standing to challenge the U.S. government. Does the group's collective suffering give it sufficient authority to challenge the DADT? That remains to be seen, and these higher courts are notorious for dismissing cases from the get-go for this (valid) reason alone.

LCR says soldiers should be granted the same due process, freedom of expression, and equal protection afforded all Americans. Except that soldiers voluntarily sign away most of their rights as soon as they enlist. Furthermore, LCR says that to let DADT stand, the military must prove the policy is rationally related to its permissible goals. But the military doesn't have to prove squat. They still forbid women from serving on the front lines despite repeated legal challenges. They're not a corporation or citizen government—they're an armed force responsible for the defense of our country. As such they're given a wide berth to internally decide what's best for unit cohesion, and the Court very possibly could let them and Congress continue deciding best policies.

Our gay-friendly foreign allies have proved how well the military takes to gays. Nevertheless, our military is committed, laughably, to additional study on the matter, a delay tactic while the White House figures out how to survive mid-term elections and those two wars the Cowboy Dubya got us into.

More probably is legislator repealing the law via the Defense Department's budget bill, meaning DADT will be gone before the case even hits the Supreme Court — and Justice Stevens' replacement

Gill et al. v. Office of Personnel Management et al.
In March of 2009, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) filed a lawsuit in Boston's Federal District Court on behalf of eight married couples and three surviving spouses from Massachusetts all denied federal legal protections available to spouses. GLAD's argument is this: DOMA violates the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits Congress from intruding on areas of exclusive state authority. States decide marital laws, not the federal government. DOMA requires the federal government to override a state’s decision about who is married by designating which marriages are valid (something that falls out of its jurisdiction). Furthermore, GLAD says that DOMA violates the Constitution's Fifth Amendment by denying "life, liberty, and property" to American citizens by refusing federally promised legal protections to its gay citizens

But GLAD's case is most likely dead in the water for a few reasons.

One, its plaintiffs must prove they have standing to argue for state's rights. Second, ever since the Civil War, federal laws have always trumped state laws. Even though states determine their own marriage laws, the federal government gets to decide whom to pay out in its programs. The case could easily get thrown out by a federal court on either of these grounds.

Rather, it's more likely that DOMA will find a real challenge in Massachusettes v. DOMA because it stands on a much stronger leg. The entire state's coming forward and saying that DOMA hurts everyone within it, not just 19 gay citizens. Furthermore, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley not only mimics GLAD's claims, but adds that DOMA makes the state act against its own citizens (or else face a loss of federal funding) and that the law illegally targets gay people without furthering any state aim.

As a result, Massachusetts v. DOMA is the best legal challenge against the federal law thus far. It also relies heavily on the precedent Stevens laid out in Romer v. Evans and Lawrence v. Texas; leaving behind a legacy that could benefit future generations of LGBT Americans long after he leaves the court.

Barney Frank: Obama's Refusal to Call for Repeal of DADT This Year 'Is a Problem'

Congressman Barney Frank was in Los Angeles over the weekend and Karen Ocamb of LGBT POV had the chance to sit down with him and discuss pending LGBT rights legislation, specifically ENDA and 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'.

Frank expressed frustration over Obama's lack of support on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell':

“I’m frustrated. I’m disappointed with the administration, in part. There have been some good things. Admiral Mullen saying what he said was spectacular. And enforcing it the way it was originally supposed to – even though I didn’t like it – discharges can be cut by over 90 percent.

But there will be a vote in the House. Rep. Patrick Murphy is going to offer his amendment. I think we’ll pass it in the House and then in the Senate – I’m told by some of the Senate leadership that they don’t think they have the votes to repeal it. People ought to talk to Sen. Carl Levin, he’s the key guy who’s our great ally.”

He added:

“[Obama's] not being for it will give people an excuse to not vote for it. Thing is – we’ve done hate crimes. We do ENDA. It’s a big agenda all at once. At this point – the President’s refusal to call for repeal this year is a problem.”

Why is it a problem? Democrats could lose many seats in the upcoming November elections, putting all pending LGBT legislation at risk. I'd say it's a problem for the Human Rights Campaign as well, who have the President's ear and have been insisting all year that there's a "clear path" to repeal.

On ENDA, Frank urged people to lobby their congressmen: "Sending in your own individual letter is the best or your own email or go in to see them. Sending the same copy of a letter – it’s better than nothing. Signing a petition is least important because it doesn’t indicate that much activity."