Results matching “gay marriage”

Unless you're a godless whore who uses contempt for a group of people to make a cheap buck, most young people are in support of gay marriage. Which means, after most of the bigots finally -- finally! -- die off, marriage equality stands a chance.

Seattlest talked about gay marriage, performing, and the sexiness of the Pacific Northwest with Rufus Wainwright.

       

Last year at this time, the gay community (and then some) lost their collective shit over the passing of Prop 8, a pro-discrimination measure that effectively pruned the rights of gay married couples. The passing of the anti-marriage confused and disturbing "Fuck Mormons" banner from his home, while blaming "middle class people" for Prop 8's passing(!); and this handy map of those who donated to Prop 8.

How the Department of Correction did everything wrong with Philip Garrido. [SFGate]

After today's profoundly disappointing news that gay marriage was repealed in the state of Maine -- alas, unadulterated hate wins again -- rallies will be held across the country starting tonight.

SF Appeal brings it to our attention that smarmy San Francisco-based (located on Maiden Lane, specifically) "independent integrated marketing communications company," Criswell and Associates, earned about $700K in the past couple of months producing anti-same-sex marriage ads for Stand For Marriage Maine with the help of SF production company Coyote Films.

What do you get when a liberal, obviously embittered playwright sets out amidst the second term of the second Bush Administration to write a political satire about a conservative, buffoon-ish, sitting president whose poll numbers rival "Ghandi's cholesterol numbers" and a lesbian speech writer who wants to marry her partner? You get "November," an already dated-feeling and minor play by the whip-smart David Mamet that plays for mostly cheap laughs and a handful of clever one-liners. [Spoiler alert: We're now going to reveal several of the play's plot points.]

Without giving any specifics,,President Barack Obama pledged to end the U.S. military's dated and bizarre ban on openly queer homosexuals serving in the military. During a speech at the annual Human Rights Campaign dinner on Saturday, Obama said, "I will end 'don't ask-don't tell."

The people who sponsored last year's gay marriage ban must hand over certain internal campaign records to lawyers looking to overturn Prop 8. Turning down a request to block their super-special information from being made public, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, KTVU reports, "said the Protect Marriage campaign had failed to show that providing private e-mails, memos and reports would inhibit the political activities of gay marriage opponents or subject them to unbridled harassment."

This story comes out of Florida, not San Francisco, but it's pretty compelling. See, a few years ago, a hospital refused to let a lesbian, Janice Langbehn, see her dying partner, Lisa Pond, simply because they don't like gays. The couple had three kids together too, which made no difference to the Miami hospital. "[Jackson Memorial Hospital] did everything it could to prevent Langbehn from having any contact with Pond, and succeeded in keeping them apart until Pond died," reported Independent Gay Forum. Very recently, Langbehn sued the hospital and lost, with the court ruling that the hospital is under no obligation to accommodate homos. This is insane; this is inhumane. And as horrible and cruel as it is, this is what the people pushing Prop 8 (and Question 1 in Maine) actually WANT to happen to queer folk.

Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California piece of gristle who famously and fascistly told the Miss USA audience that gays should not be allowed to marry, is now suing pageant officials. Why? Because she's accusing them of "libel, slander and religious discrimination." According to CBS 5 / AP, "[t]he lawsuit claims [executive director Keith Lewis and actress and former Miss USA Shanna Moakler] both told Prejean not to mention God on her Miss USA application or at public events at least two months before she gave her anti-gay marriage answer." If you recall, Prejean was fired for being lazy, failing to show up at public appearances, brushing with Pearl Drops, or not performing whatever bizarre job duties are required of pageant winners.

The gay marriage case that Hollywood made will be heading to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on January 11th, and the City of San Francisco will be included as a party to the case, says U.S. District Judge Vaughan Walker. Three gay rights organizations--Lambda Legal, the ACLU, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights--were asking to be included as parties to the case on the side of the plaintiffs as well, but they were denied and will have to settle for filing friend-of-the-court briefs. Whether this will serve to un-clutter and speed up the proceedings remains to be seen.

• Thief tries, fails to steal ATM with car. [KGO]
• Sex events happening this week. (NSFW) [SFBG]
• Bob Novak, the Prince of Darkness? [Bronstein]
• No one is buying at The Marquee. After a $300K-plus price cut, maybe somebody will. [Curbed]

Turns out that an attorney representing some married gays in a federal court case for marriage equality has his own nefarious yet completely insane reasons for taking on this case - splitting California into two floundering pieces!

The drama never ends with these two. Once again, all is not well in the Wright-Penn house. According to People, Robin Wright Penn filed for divorce from her husband Sean Penn last week. While the Marin-based celebrity couple have an off-again/on-again marriage, this latest development seems somewhat definite. "The papers, filed in Marin County, Calif., on Aug. 12, state that 'both parties have already agreed to [shared] custody' over their minor son, Hopper Jack, 16, and that 'the estranged couple have already agreed to division of all property.'" (Just who gets to call Tosca home away from home is still up in the air.) Irreconcilable differences is listed as the reason for the divorce. The two, married in 1989, have filed for divorce twice, as recently as May of this year. This also puts an end to rumors that Sean Penn might, in fact, be gay. He's not. With this kind of chronic drama, he is officially a lesbian.

In a decision that is probably wise and shouldn't be too shocking, Equality California announced today that they will put off the ballot fight for gay marriage until 2012, rather than going for it in the mid-term elections next year. The idea here is that not only do more people go to the polls in presidential elections, but there will be a greater change in "voter rolls" in 3 years.

Enter the $100,000 2010 San Francisco Dream Wedding Giveaway to win a gaudy, lavish wedding. [SFCitizen]

The July 2 issue of Sacramento News & Review, it seems, wasn't the most popular issue of SN&R. Why? Well, the cover story -- featuring a safe couple, Ben and Lonny Phillips-Lesenana, and the headline, "5 easy steps to marriage freedom" -- proved very unpopular with Sacto ilk. So much so that the paper's return rate that week was staggeringly high.

The City of San Francisco has moved to intervene on behalf of the gay Burbank couple and the Berkeley lesbian couple who are the mascots in a huge federal lawsuit to overturn Prop 8 which is awaiting trial at the 9th Circuit. A trial date has still not been set, but the drama over who is best equipped to argue the case has been underway for several weeks, and won't be decided until mid-August.

Anti-LGBT Carrie Prejean -- the former Miss California who was stripped of her title after using her crown to spread hate in lieu of doing her pageant duties -- has been offered a book deal. The literary effort will focus on her controversial Miss USA moment. Prejean has falsely claimed over and over that "she believes her crown was taken because of her stance opposing gay marriage" -- which, as it turns out, doesn't , will provide Prejean an opportunity to learn the definition of things like the First Amendment. If you recall, a confused Prejean slammed many pro-civil rights advocates for being brave enough to respond to her bile. (See, Carrie, you are allowed to say whatever you want about whichever group of people you want, no matter how hateful or ungodly, but then other people -- get this -- are allowed to respond. That's sort of how it all works. Pretty cool, huh?)

Phillies' Shane Victorino beats out Pablo Sandoval for All-Star spot. [SFGate]

As some of you know, Marc Leno's pushing a bill that wouldn't change any same-sex marriage laws, just clarify existing ones. See, Leno wants the state of California to recognize gay marriages taking place in other states. It didn't sound too controversial when we first heard about it, but sure enough, some people, like whimsical hate-group the California Catholic Daily, found a reason to object.

The state of Massachusetts has sued the Federal government over the Domestic Marriage Act, claiming that it discriminates against the people, namely gay folks, who want to wed. According to the , "the lawsuit, filed this morning in federal court in Boston, challenges the application of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which [Attorney General Martha] Coakley says prevents gay and lesbian couples here from receiving tax, retirement, insurance, Social Security and other benefits."

As expected, U.S. judge in San Francisco denied an injunction yesterday on a federal lawsuit that challenged Prop 8. What does this mean? This: So, after the California Supreme court came down with their ruling that even though state law gives gays a right to marry, you can take that right away. David Boies and Ted Olsen (former adversaries during the Bush v Gore brouhaha who came together for in order to protect "human decency") filed suit saying that Prop 8 violates federal constitutional law. Why? So that this one would go to the U.S. Supreme Court and cover everyone in America, win or lose. Anyway, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker decided not to rule on the question right now, but is going to have a trial soon to go over all the history of homophobia in the U.S., the effects of Prop 8 in California, etc., which should actually be interesting (even though it sounded like yesterday's trail was listless.) According to CBS5 / BCN, Walker has yet to set a trial date. "but ordered lawyers on both sides to submit a statement to him by Aug. 7 detailing which facts they agree on, which facts are in dispute and a 'plan of action' for resolving the case." (Hat tip: Rita Hao for her legal expertise.)

                            

Here are our NSFW batch of images taken at this past weekend's 39th San Francisco Pride. Thousands came in from all over the world to march, party, and prance about. Best of all, we captured it for you. We've got spanking, leather, flesh, same-sex kissing and Pride Grand Marshall Cloris Leachman. Check them out. If you dare.

American Apparel is offering "Legalize Gay" shirts for those of you who feel the need to (gaudily) show your support for same-sex marriage on your chest. You can even get one for free with a purchase of $50 or more. Cool, huh? But, at the risk of nitpicking, we're not entirely comfortable with a company making money off of discrimination. While American Apparel's heart is in the right place, if Prop. 8 went away, their market for this item would dry up. Maybe they should donate even a scant bit of the proceeds to an equality organization? Like, for example, Act Blue, who need money to help defeat the same people who ran the yes on 8 campaign in California who moved to Maine to crush gay marriage. Or, better yet, something like this. At least then we'd know that some of our money is going towards a good cause rather than being crammed into the sweaty pockets of a tiny little pair of track shorts.

Don't let the Obama's defense of DOMA get you down this Pride season. City Attorney Dennis Herrera just filed a brief in federal court yesterday stating the obvious: Proposition 8 has no constitutionally legitimate purpose. Which is to say, SF has demanded a federal judge to overturn California's unfortunate ban on gay marriage. This latest war tactic against bigotry and slack-jawed mentality "uses a different tactic and argues that Proposition 8 violated the federal constitutional guarantees of due process and equal treatment," according to SFGate. In other Prop 8 news, a census study of gay married couples found striking similarities to husband-and-wife couples. (Pluming fixtures aside, of course.) Also, the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people killed in because of their sexuality are at their highest since 1999. For comprehensive coverage on civil marriage equality in California and elsewhere, please visit Stop8.org.

"New Hampshire legislators," according to AP, "have approved a measure that would make the state the sixth to allow gay marriage." And Gov. John Lynch will, most likely, sign the legislation sometime this afternoon. The Senate passed the civil rights triumph on Wednesday, with the House approving it later in the day. (The House vote, by the way, was 198-176.) New Hampshire joins Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, and Iowa as the only U.S. state that legally recognize and allow gay marriage. Kudos to you, NH. (An aside: Maine? Vermont? Connectichusetts? Technically, these aren't even real states, California State Supreme Court. So, you know, something to think about.)

              

On Saturday, droves of pro-civil rights citizens and "hundreds" of anti-gay, bigoted types rallied in Fresno for an event called Meet in the Middle for Equality. Newsom wast there so was Charlize Theron. The Bible and God were exploited by religious zealots in favor of the voter-approved ban on gay marriage; and emotional speeches were given by real-life loving homosexuals, having to explain, yet again, that they are, in fact, regular people, not peripheral characters or wacky sidekicks.

For those of you who don't care for loud protests, cannot afford to donate, or don't like signing petitions, here's the best way you can show your support for gay marriage. This cute sticker at right -- tastefully adorned with two twee red hearts, measuring a scant 4.5" x 6" (about the size of a postcard) -- which you can get for free. According to this bizarre political activism and/or mobile communications company called CREDO, who are giving the stickers away, "we want everyone to know that we support marriage rights for all couples -- you can let everyone know that you do, too with one of our awesome stickers! You can get one sticker for free. Buy 5 or 50 stickers; we'll donate the profits to fight for marriage equality. For $5 we'll send you 5 stickers; for $25 we'll send 50 stickers."