Source: MediaNews via Vallejo Times-Herald, Los Angeles Times

On both sides of the Proposition 8 campaign in California, money is poring in from throughout the country.

Over the last eight weeks, combatants in the Proposition 8 battle have poured in more than $20 million to gear up for an all-out confrontation over whether the nation will begin to move toward tolerance of same-sex marriages - or to preserve traditional views of marriage, MediaNews reports.

Opponents say the campaign to defeat the ballot measure is a fight for gay rights around the country.

"I really think this is our Gettysburg," said Kathy Levinson, a Silicon Valley philanthropist and gay rights activist who pledged last week to match $100,000 in donations to the No on 8 campaign. "If Proposition 8 passes, we'd lose a generation of time. If it fails, it's a statement that says the country has changed."

Those campaigning to pass the amendment that seeks to overturn the landmark May decision by the California Supreme Court paint the political battle over the amendment in similarly stark terms.

"It's a defining issue for this state and the country," said Brian Brown, executive director for the National Organization for Marriage, a New Jersey-based Mormon group, which has contributed nearly $1 million to the Yes on 8 campaign. The outcome of the battle, he said, "will affect what our children will be taught about marriage, and it will affect our religious liberties."

Thousands of Californians have contributed to the Yes on 8 campaign, according to campaign finance statements on the Secretary of State's Web site. But, huge contributions on both sides of the issue have also come from out of state groups.

So far, more than half the money raised to finance the yes-on-8 campaign has come from out of state. James Dobson's Colorado-based Focus on the Family already has given more than $400,000, while the American Family Association -- headquarters, Tupelo, Miss. -- has contributed $500,000. The national council of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization based in New Haven, Conn., weighed in with $250,000.

Big contributions have also been given to the no-on-8 campaign from groups and wealthy benefactors from outside California, including DC-based Human Rights Campaign, and New York-based American Civil Liberties Union.

Tim Rutten points out in a Saturday LA Times op-ed that there also are amendments proposing to ban same-sex marriage on the ballots in Arizona and Florida,

"[P]art of what's focusing national attention on California -- and driving contributions across our state line," Rutten writes, "is an argument being made in conservative online forums that the situation here poses a unique threat to religious liberty.

"This impression was reinforced among many religious traditionalists last month, when the California Supreme Court handed down another significant ruling regarding discrimination based on sexual orientation."

In that case, the court rules that doctors at an Oceanside fertility clinic violated state business laws when they an artificial insemination procedure for a lesbian patient. The doctors cited their religious objections to homosexuality.

Rutten points out that conservative groups have argued that the insemination case, coupled with the same court's marriage-equality decision present a unique threat to what the conservative groups call "religious freedom."

These arguments may make for good fundraising appeals but they're without merit. The Supreme Court's ruling in the fertility clinic case simply means that if a physician routinely provides a service, he or she must provide it to all eligible patients without discrimination. That's because the practice of medicine is a business governed by the laws that regulate commerce. The clergy's exercise of its religious functions, in contrast, is wholly protected by the 1st Amendment.

We wouldn't now tolerate a doctor who only did heart surgery on white men, for example. If a doctor never provides a particular service out of religious conviction -- say abortion -- there is no theory under which a court would compel him or her to do so."

Similarly, the court's ruling on marriage deals solely with its civil variant. There is no supportable legal theory that could compel clergy to perform sacramental marriage in violation of their conscience or their denomination's doctrinal norms.

Twenty-seven states have constitutional amendments outlawing same-sex marriages -- 11 approved by voters in 2004, when the issue became a central part of President Bush's re-election, and seven more in 2006.

The issue has not, so far, been raised as a significant aspect of the current presidential race, but some see John McCain's appointment of Sarah Palin to be his running mate as a signal that his campaign will once again raise social issues like marriage equality as a wedge issue.

Palin is a favorite of some of the same social-conservative groups that are most actively supporting the Yes-On-8 campaign in California. Most political observers believe McCain invited her onto the ticket partly to excite the right-wing base of the party that had been lukewarm to his candidacy throughout the primaries.

She appears to have rallied the conservative base to McCain in their early joint campaign outings even though she's stuck so far to the McCain script of portraying the ticket as "maverick" outsiders without mentioning hard-line social conservative causes,

But even she doesn't explicitly mention issues like same-sex marriage, Palin is expected to draw more right-wing voters to the polls in November because her views on the hot-button social-conservative issues are well known to voters.

That could add a new dimension to the amendment issues in the three states where they'll be voted on this year, and could draw even greater issue to the Proposition 8 campaign in California.

Source: Extra help for California's Prop. 8 | Los Angeles Times
State's gay marriage battle crosses borders | Vallejo Times-Herald (MediaNews)

  ::   Way Out, an Australian support group for LGBTQ youth, has filed a discrimination complaint against a Victoria campground that refused to lease the resort to them. The campground, owned by a tax-exempt Christian church, said Way Out's proposed camp for LGBTQ youth would be "unsafe" because, according to a spokesman, "Our definition of safety, because of our Christian faith, does not support or include the promotion of homosexuality." The camp was intended to give LGBTQ youth from rural areas a break from from "terrible, sometimes violent, homophobia" and a chance to discuss ways combat homophobia in their towns. Way Out eventually booked a YMCA campground.  

  ::   Even after the initial flurry of same-sex marriages in June, a "steady stream" of gay and lesbian couples have applied for marriage licenses at the Santa Cruz County Clerk's office, Santa Cruz Sentinel reports. Some couples told the paper that they're hedging their bets -- getting married before the November vote on Proposition 8. Although the status of those marriages is likely to become a subject of legal wrangling if the measure banning marriage equality passes, California's attorney general has said he thinks they'll remain valid.

  ::   An HIV-positive Iowa man has filed a discrimination suit against a Dryersville McDonalds franchise alleging he was unlawfully fired because he's a gay man with HIV. Daniel Carver, 46, alleges he was passed over for promotions and given fewer hours. He says the situation escalated during his four years at the restaurant. Carver alleges that a manager punched him in the stomach and another employee slapped him in the face with a piece of cheese after calling him a derogatory name.

   ::   Rachel Weisz, 36, is a lesbian icon. She topped an online poll of lesbians voting for "Women We'd Love To Love". The Mummy star beat off competition from actress Nicole Kidman, who took second place. Voters said it was the 41-year-old’s stockings and suspenders in the hit musical movie Moulin Rouge that turned them on. Minnie Driver, Kate Winslet, and Naomi Watts were the other top vote-getters.

Source: The Guardian, QueerBlog.it, Milano 2.0 

A Milan traffic cop who beat out 46,000 contenders to grab the top prize in GaydarNation.com's 'Sex Factor' competition, has graced the covers of several magazines and home pages of several websites, but he's about to take on a new and more difficult task: As front man for a group of openly gay Italian soldiers and policemen who are planning to set up an organization to combat discrimination.

To highlight their case, the cops are plotting a collective coming-out event to show Italy's police chiefs and army generals that they are a force to be reckoned with, The Guardian reports.

The photogenic Fabrizio Caiazza, 33, is a natural front man for the group. He came out publicly with a splash after besting the 46,000 contenders from 162 countries (including at least one other policeman) to win the online competition's €15,000 top prize and a modeling contract from Gaydar, a UK-based international gay dating/hookup site.

The sexy Caiazza got plenty of publicity in Italy for his victory. When he won, Caiazza said he was happy to have "promoted the reputation of Italian men worldwide," according to QueerBlog.it. But his superiors in the Milan police offices were not so happy and slapped him with a reprimand because he donned his official uniform to pose for online shots in the competition's Mr Uniform category.

Milan police commander Emiliano Bezzon said that Caiazza should have requested permission to wear the uniform. After facing the online voters in Gaydar's competition, Caiazza will now have to face a city disciplinary committee. He could be slapped with a six-month suspension from service and a reduction by half of his salary, according to an auto-translation from the website Milano 2.0.

"I know I should have asked, but it would have been a complicated request," said Caiazza.

"This will likely finish with a simple reprimand and is all about the longstanding rules, not discrimination," said Milan's deputy mayor, Riccardo De Corato. "I know of no cases of discrimination occurring in the Italian police," he added.

That did not square with Caiazza. "Many policemen don't come out because of the enmity they would face from colleagues and the isolation they would be put in by superiors," he said according to The Guardian.

Indeed, a fellow Milan policeman told the site Milano 2.0 (according to an awkward automatic translation) that Caiazza's appearance in uniform on the gay website would "discredit the entire body."

Vito Raimondi, a tax policeman from Turin, said the new group, called Polis Aperta. would combat the isolation felt by uniformed gays afraid to come out, The Guardian reports.

"I was at a Gay Pride event when a colleague, who had been standing on the fringes, saw me by the stage and decided to come over to greet me. It was a great moment and the proof we must be more visible," he said.

The new group will put Italy on a par with other European countries, particularly Spain, where organization Gaylespol hosted a conference of 14 associations for gays in uniform this year.

"This will move Italy closer to the rest of Europe and break with absurd and still pervasive macho taboos," said the Mario Mieli Association, an Italian gay rights group.

Source: Italy's gay policemen join forces to come out | Guardian 
Milan cop is sexiest gay man in the world, but now Fabrizio Caiazza risks a suspension | Milano 2.0 [translation]
Fabrizio Caiazza, the sexiest gay cop in the world | QueerBlog.it [translation]

Source: Kitsap Sun
Bremerton, Wash. -- A 44-year-old Bremerton man is suspected of "malicious harassment" -- Washington's name for a hate crime -- after assaulting two men outside a downtown bar in this Navy town west of Seattle.

According to a police report, the man attacked the two men after taunting them with anti-gay slurs, Kitsap Sun reports.

Bremerton police were called to the scene Saturday at 2:16 am -- bar closing time.

A witness told officers the 44-year-old began taunting the two men for being gay. The men left the bar, and after enduring more name-calling, used a profanity to tell the man to leave them alone, the Sun reports.

The 44-year-old then attacked one of the men, a 38-year-old, by punching him in the face, and then shoved the other man, a 36-year-old, to the ground, the report said.

The man who was shoved sustained a broken ankle in the fall.

A friend of the suspect told police the two victims were the aggressors, but the officer found his account was not credible.

It's not clear if the 44-year-old was arrested, but Bremerton Sun reports, "Police have probable cause to book him into jail for investigation of second-degree assault and malicious harassment."

Source: 44-Year-Old Arrested for Assault | Kitsap Sun

Source: Malta Star, MaltaMedia News
The ruling party in the tiny European island nation of Malta, located on an archipelago south of Sicily, is considering changes to the country's rent laws that have a gay rights group there calling foul.

The changes proposed in a white paper released by the ruling Nationalist Party deal with leases entered before rent/lease controls were removed in June, 1995.

If laws proposed in the white paper were adopted, rules would be changed for leases entered into before 1995 when housing laws gave strong protection and advantages to tenants and limited rent/lease increases.

According to a property-management website, the old rent-control rules are still in force for about a quarter of the housing stock in Malta. Current law is considered landlord-friendly for leases entered into after 1995.

The proposed new rules would ease some restrictions on rent increases for the older leases, but would also specify who can inherit or take over the lease for a rent-controlled unit.

The Malta Gay Rights Movement (MGRM) charges that the government's proposed changes discriminate against gay and lesbian couples.

Under the proposal, the extension of rights to existing rents is limited to a husband or a wife who are married and not separated.

Gabi Calleja, coordinator of the MGRM told the Maltese-language Sunday paper Kullhadd that the white paper clearly discriminates against same-sex couples who live together, Malta Star reports.

"Obviously the white paper discriminates against same-sex couples, even if these would have been in a relationship for years. It ignores the human realities which concern sexual minorities. [T]he consequence [of this is] that if a partner dies, at the same moment of grief and sorrow for having lost your loved one, a gay person can end up homeless or looking for an alternative home," Calleja said.

The opposition Malta Labor Party objects to a number of aspects of the proposed new rules, including the issues raised by MGRM.

In its response to the government white paper, Labor notes that the recommendations "cut corners without taking into consideration specific circumstances of the new social reality which society is experiencing."

"This puts aside new social realities such as cohabitation, same-sex couples, and members of the same families (brother and sisters) who live together," said the Labor Party in its analysis.

Labor also says that 46 per cent of tenants whose lease started before 1995 will see an increase in their rents. The majority of these tenants are elderly people. Labor argues that it is unjust that after years of contribution they are faced with such a drastic change in their standard of living.

MGRM's Calleja said the ruling Nationalist Party's failure to recognize gay and lesbian couples is consistent with the party's lack of response to other initiatives from the rights group. "MGRM has long been lobbying to legal recognition of same-sex couples," Calleja said. "Such a law would be protecting gay and lesbian couples in such situations."

Calleja welcomed Labor's support, but argued that its critique of the rental-law white paper did not go far enough.

"MGRM welcomes Labour’s position recommending that same sex couples should be given the right to inherit rented property," Calleja said. "They should also be considered as married couples even where inheritance of property (which is owned, not rented) is concerned."

Source: Gay community welcomes Labour's rent reform stand | Malta Star
MLP reacts to white paper on rent reform | MaltaMedia News

Source: Capitol Media Services via East Valley Tribune, Catholic News Agency

Arizona's two Catholic bishops are urging the faithful to vote for a November ballot measure that would constitutionally ban gays from marrying in the state.

After extensive wrangling in the legislature, the proposed amendment was approved for the November ballot earlier this year. It will appear as Proposition 102 and states: "Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state."

In a pastoral letter, Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix and Gerald Kincanas of Tucson said Proposition 102 "is in alignment with our deeply held moral beliefs regarding marriage."

Current Arizona law already restricts marriage in the state as a contract solely between one man and one woman, but the bishops say in their letter that they backed the amendment because they believe that without "constitutional protection," the state's present law on marriage could be changed "to the detriment of society."

“Without constitutional protection, the legal definition of marriage as we understand it today in Arizona is subject to redefinition,” they argued.

The bishops' comments drew criticism from David Felten, minister of Fountains United Methodist Church in Fountain Hills.

"People have got this idea that they can speak for God and speak universally for all Christians," he told Capitol Media Services. And he noted it took the Catholic Church nearly 400 years to admit that Galileo was right and that the Earth is not the center of the universe.

Olmstead was out of the state on personal business. But Kincanas told Capitol Media Services he sees nothing improper about urging people to put the church's view on marriage into the state constitution.

"The church has always and will continue to address issues especially that are related to moral and ethical principles," he said. "We believe that marriage is a sacred relationship, that it is at the heart and core of society."

Kincanas said he sees the issue before voters in absolute terms.

"The purpose of this proposition is to assure the fact that in the state of Arizona, the institution of marriage as, from time immemorial, is a relationship between one man and one woman," he said.

"Our support is based upon our Church's teaching on the sanctity of marriage as a faithful, exclusive, lifelong union of a man and a woman joined in an intimate community of life and love,"  the bishops say in their statement.

Capitol Media Services asked Bishop Kincanas about the mention in the Old Testament of men with multiple wives.

He responded, "The reality is there have always been people who have lived in common-law relationships or perhaps have polygamous relationships," Kincanas said. "But that doesn't necessarily change the understanding of the institution of marriage because there are other possibilities."

Source: Catholic bishops urge voters to ban gay marriage | East Valley Tribune (Capitol Media Services) 
Arizona bishops back state marriage amendment | Catholic News Agency
Arizona Bishops Encourage Yes Vote in Support of Proposition 102, the Marriage Amendment | Diocese of Phoenix press release

  ::   The American Civil Liberties Union reported donating $1.2 million to defeat Proposition 8, the California ban on marriage equality, on the November ballot. Sacramento Bee reports that it's the single largest check written to the campaign, though Equality California, a gay-rights group, and the Human Rights Campaign, a similar group, have bundled more total donations.

  ::   Their neighbors to the south rejected an ad campaign that proclaimed "South Carolina is so gay" but several communities in North Carolina's Triangle are trying to attract more gay and lesbian visitors, saying they are an important segment of the tourism market. Chapel Hill has launched major marketing push that includes a website for LGBT visitors. Durham portrays itself in ads as "very accepting, very engaging". Raleigh markets itself as a good spot for LGBT conventions.

  ::   A high school for LGBTQA youth is being planned in Chicago. A location has not yet been chosen, but the team planning the new "Social Justice High School-Pride Campus" says the school could be open by 2010. Planners call a public hearing on Sept. 18 the "last hurdle" before the college-prep school is approved. It would join New York's Harvey Milk School in providing a welcoming, safe education for queer and questioning youth and their allies.

  ::   The International Gay Lesbian Football Association (IGLFA) has awarded the 2009 Gay Soccer World Championships to Washington, DC.  The Federal Triangles Soccer Club will be host club for the tournament scheduled for June 14-21, 2009. England's Stonewall FC won the 2008 championship game last month, after competing in a tournament that welcomed 40 teams -- from the UK,  US, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Uganda, Ireland, Iceland, Denmark, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Japan, and Australia.

  ::   In celebaby rumors, Jamie Lynn Spears reportedly showed sisterly support to veep-wannabe-daughter Bristol Palin in the form of baby-shower gifts. Reports say she sent sixty dollars worth of "pink burpcloths" from an overpriced Hollywood baby boutique to the Alaska governor's mansion with the note: "Dear Bristol, Hang in there! XOXO Jamie Lynn Spears." Breaking update: Spears now denies the reports. Daily Show's researchers came up with clips of "Papa Bear" Bill O'Reilley's "gestating" judgements on the parents of teenage moms (in the middle of this video).

-- A proposed lesbian/gay retirement community called Marigold Creek in Surprise, Arizona -- near Phoenix -- is facing a major hurdle after a land deal for 32 acres fell apart. But developers insist that they're still planning to go ahead with the retirement-housing project designed specifically with gay and lesbian residents in mind. St. Louis-based Out Properties, LLC said it is looking for a new parcel and still hopes to build in Surprise. "I don't think anybody just totally loved that site," said a spokeswoman for the developers. "It's more of the concept than that site." The company still hopes to build a community that includes 190 condos and homes priced from $249,000 to $850,000. 

-- From a second-floor window, a drunken Clifton, NJ woman yelled anti-gay slurs at her next-door neighbors -- a lesbian couple -- and then made her way downstairs and pushed one of the neighbors, who called police. When the cops arrived, the drunken women resisted arrest, screamed racial epithets at the officers, and threatened to kill them. She was charged with harassment, obstruction of governmental administration, assault on a police officer, and resisting arrest. She was still in jail a day later.

-- Financial problems forced organizers of a long-time queer festival in Cardiff, Wales to abandon their program earlier this year. Now, nature has taken aim at its replacement. Tomorrow's Cardiff Pride was canceled after torrential rains left the field where events where planned waterlogged, flooded and "absolutely gutted". Organizers still hope to hold a few events as a street party.

-- If you make it onto Project Runway (yeah... sure), but find yourself sweating while facing the withering comments of Michael Kors, Nina Garcia, or Heidi Klum, then Season 4 hunk Jack Mackenroth and Kevin Christiana have a bit of advice: Use panty-liners in your shirt. Mackenroth recommends Always brand in the purple box, but advises, "You've got to get the ones with the sticky side, so you can stick them onto your clothes." After all, liners falling to the floor could give you even more reason to sweat. (If only Keith had heard that before this season. It might have helped him avoid melt-down.)