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.

The plaintiffs' lawyers--the hot shot team of Ted Olson and David Boies who argued either side of Bush v. Gore--and the Hollywood publicist who spearheaded the case and rustled up some funding from some rich Hollywood gays, have been arguing that they want to go it alone and that any interference from these groups, or the city of SF would be a hindrance. The gay groups, for their part, just don't want to see this thing botched for lack of experience in this area of the law, especially if the case reaches our not exactly liberal Supreme Court. In any event, it's sure to be some terrific courtroom theater, and will almost certainly be adapted for the screen.

For those of you not aware of the current rumblings in the SF gay community, Prop 8 is so five minutes ago and everyone (especially local drag star Anna Conda) is UP IN ARMS over an incident from July 31 in which an affectionate gay male couple was kicked out of Internos Wine Cafe on Geary Street for macking on each other. Yes, they were kissing, and were promptly booted out by the owner who also allegedly called them perverts and faggots.

An initial kiss-in was staged at Internos on August 1st, and was followed this past weekend by a larger National Kiss-In, which included the event in Union Square and 50 other cities across the country (video above c/o SF Appeal). The national mobilization follows on an incident in the Mormon-owned Main Street Plaza in Salt Lake City in which two men were detained by Latter-Day Saints security forces for kissing in public. Look for more gay PDA in a neighborhood bar near you.

A California gay couple who were legally married in San Francisco last summer have had their wedding announcement rejected by a southern Utah newspaper that claimed to be friendly to gay wedding announcements. The Spectrum in St. George, Utah initially accepted the paid announcement and were going to run it without a photo. It seems then that the couple felt dissed, appealed to the publisher to run it with photo, and then the publisher simply rejected the ad altogether and said the paper's policy was to recognize only marriages legal under Utah state law.

It's unclear why the couple, Spencer Jones and Tyler Barrick (pictured), were trying to publish a wedding announcement a full year after they were married in a Utah paper, but one of them must be Mormon and wanted to stir up some shit over there. The liberal Salt Lake Tribune has agreed to run the announcement this weekend.

Later this evening, President Obama, who has been soft on gay issues thus far during his administration, awarded Harvey Milk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. Sapphic tennis player Billie Jean King, Sen. Edward Kennedy, thespian Sidney Poitier, Judge Sandra Day O'Connor, and smart guy Stephen Hawking are also among tonight's honorees.

Before the awards, Obama spoke fondly about Milk's legacy. "His name was Harvey Milk, and he was here to recruit us, all of us to join a movement and change a nation," he begins.

Congratulations, Harvey. (Sorry it's 30+ years late.)

Oh, and towering above lesser recipients is, of course, Chita Rivera who will also score a well-deserved Presidential Medal of Freedom.