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A group called WhoSigned.org says it will publicize the names of people signing petitions for Referendum 71, which seeks a public vote to overturn a new expansion of Washington's same-sex partnerships. WhoSigned.org says it's partnering with the gay rights group KnowThyNeighbor.org to put the names online. In a live interview on KIRO FM's Dori Monson show on Monday, campaign director Brian Murphy said it is not their intention to harass those who signed the petitions. Murphy said they want to make the information available to the public which will "Allow people to have conversations with their neighbors, to be able...

Same-sex marriage backers in California, anticipating a loss in court, are preparing to make their case at the ballot box in 2010 rather than waiting until 2012. "The right time is now," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told ABC News. "And if that means going back in 2010, I couldn't be more supportive." "Wait almost always means never," he added, invoking Martin Luther King Jr. California voters approved Proposition 8 in November, a change to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage. Although a decision has not yet been rendered in the legal challenge to Proposition 8, many gay marriage proponents...

Lesson learned: Don’t ever e-mail Perez Hilton! One big slip of the keyboard Monday, and local industrial photographer Ron Manera saw his business crawl to a virtual stop. And he says he's got blogger Perez Hilton and "his gay mafia" to thank. Manera's phones stopped working as callers were greeted either by a busy signal or a voice saying the phone was disconnected – even though it wasn’t. His website got overloaded and crashed. And his e-mail inbox filled up with hate mail. Someone wanted to burn his Palm Beach Gardens home. Someone else wrote about killing him and his...

Threats of protest halt Pink Swastika author's scheduled talk by Temecula Valley News staff The Murrieta/Temecula Republican Assembly’s (MTRA) next meeting was scheduled to be April 3; however, that meeting and location are now in doubt as a result of threats of protest. According to MTRA president Bob Kowell, their speaker was scheduled to be Pastor Scott Lively from Abiding Truth Ministries in Massachusetts. Pastor Lively’s book, “The Pink Swastika,” has gained the attention and protest of gays and gay activists across the world. “The meeting was to be held at Temeku Hills Country Club,” said Kowell. “Temeku Country Club...

Prop. 8 fallout doesn't daunt Ice cream shop's owner - Sacramento News - Local and Breaking Sacramento News | Sacramento Bee By Jennifer Garza Feb 16, 2009 Sunday morning after church, Alan Leatherby thinks about ice cream.He looks around the Arden Way restaurant as employees gear up for another day at Leatherby's Family Creamery, a Sacramento institution known for its half-gallon banana splits. Leatherby hopes it is a good day.It has been three months since the November election and Leatherby family members still are dealing with the aftermath...p> They've been picketed, employees wearing company sweat shirts have been harassed, angry...

In the nearly four weeks since Election Day, gay activists and thousands of their supporters have rallied outside Mormon temples around the country, protesting the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' support for California's Proposition 8, the ballot initiative to make same-sex marriage illegal in the Golden State.There have been calls to boycott the annual Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah; some activists have called for a boycott of the entire state of Utah. Protesters have defaced some church buildings, and in Arapaho County, Colo., the Sheriff's Office is investigating a possible hate crime — the torching...

A policeman who accused his force of promoting gay rights over religious beliefs was last night sacked for misconduct.PC Graham Cogman, 49, had been disciplined after sending emails to colleagues quoting biblical texts and making remarks considered offensive to homosexuals.In one message he suggested homosexual sex was sinful and in another, addressed to a gay liaison officer, included the phrase ''love the sinner hate the deed.'PC Cogman also circulated the details of an American organisation which offered 'to cure' homosexuality.The devoted family man and church-goer has now been fired by Norfolk Police after a misconduct hearing yesterday. The committed...

Video footage from KPSP CBS 2 Palm Spring News shows Proposition 8 protesters surrounding an elderly woman and the reporter trying to interview her, shouting and blocking the camera's view of the woman, ultimately forcing the two to flee from the encircling crowd. Phyllis Burgess, a supporter of true marriage, had been assaulted earlier as she displayed a large cross in front of the protesters. Video footage shows the anti-marriage crowd pushing Burgess, slapping the cross out of her hand and stomping on it as they surround her. When reporter Kimberly Chang attempted to interview Burgess shortly thereafter, she grew...

A gay anarchist group infiltrated the Mt. Hope Church in Eaton County Sunday morning, disrupting a service by pulling a fire alarm, dropping leaflets and yelling at parishioners, a pastor said. The group, Bash Back, was simultaneously picketing outside the church, beating on buckets and using a megaphone to shout “Jesus was a homo” and other slogans as confused churchgoers continued to enter the building.

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The recent countywide trend of disappearing campaign signs has turned some ordinary citizens into crime scene detectives. In Encinitas, one News 8 views is using his own surveillance system to catch thieves in the act. Video

Both sides chide Nelson for his same-sex stance Both sides of the gay marriage ban issue have criticized Sen. Bill Nelson for his moderate approach to the issue. WASHINGTON - Sen. Bill Nelson, a moderate often panned for sidestepping controversial issues, has become a target in the red-meat debate over a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. Nelson, a Florida Democrat up for reelection, opposes gay marriage but disapproves of federal intervention and says he is inclined to vote against the likely-to-fail measure, which the Senate is to take up this week. ''He cannot support an amendment that basically puts the...

In its mandatory "diversity training" classes, a school district has instructed students who believe homosexual behavior is wrong to keep their opinions to themselves, prompting a federal lawsuit. The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund filed a motion for preliminary injunction [PDF file] yesterday to immediately prohibit the Boyd County, Kentucky, Board of Education from restricting the free-speech rights of its students. "We are filing this motion because students are being forbidden from expressing their own viewpoint on this matter," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Kevin Theriot. "That's unconstitutional, and it must stop." The motion was filed in a Feb. 15 lawsuit...

THE death last week of Philip Johnson, the nonagenarian enfant terrible, brought 20th-century architecture to a symbolic close. Even Mr. Johnson's friends sometimes doubted that he was an architect of the first rank, but friend and foe alike agreed that he was an emblematic figure of his time. But emblematic of what? In death, his role in American culture will come into sharper focus, and it's a darker picture than many have thought. Traditionally, Mr. Johnson is presented as the great champion of modern architecture - organizer of the landmark 1932 Museum of Modern Art show on the International Style,...

(AgapePress) - Christian students who openly opposed a pro-homosexual event at their Wisconsin public school met stiff resistance from school officials. The Gay Straight Alliance Club at Evansville High School recently held a "Day of Silence" to protest alleged discrimination against homosexuals. The club was permitted to advertise the event through posters, literature, and on the school intercom. The school even provided them with a "safe room" to sit in if they felt they were being harassed during the day. But a group of Christian students who countered the Day of Silence by praying and sharing Bible verses in the...

A repeal effort will be discussed at a town hall meeting tonight in RaleighFrederick J. Smith learned that he was breaking the law eight years ago during a court battle over the custody of his two sons. His ex-wife's lawyer got Smith, 44, and his boyfriend on the witness stand to admit to having oral sex and demanded that both be arrested on the spot for violating North Carolina's "crime against nature" statute. The bailiffs laughed, recalled Smith, a plant worker from Fletcher. "They all thought it was a big joke that this guy made such a big deal about...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Daytime television viewers -- considered to be among America's most conservative audiences -- will see their first on-screen lesbian kiss next week, ABC television said on Monday. The kiss will take place during the April 22 episode of the Emmy-award winning soap opera "All My Children," making what ABC said would be a first in the world of daytime television. It comes in a scene featuring gay teen character Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel), who came out as a lesbian in 2000, and her new friend Lena (Olga Sosnovska) who "in a moment of truth and true...

Selling Homosexuality by Matt Kaufman You generally know an ad campaign when you see it, and you don't take it seriously. You may buy Pepsi, but you don't really believe drinking it makes you cool because Britney Spears pitches it. But you may not recognize an ad campaign so easily when it's not relegated to paid 30-second spots. Or when the product being sold isn't a soft drink, but an idea, or an attitude, or a worldview. Which brings us to a fascinating article in the Regent University Law Review. In an issue analyzing various aspects of gay activism, one...

At a high school in prosperous Newton, Massachusetts, it’s “To B GLAD Day”—or, less delicately, Transgender, Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian Awareness Day. An advocacy session for students and teachers features three self-styled transgendered individuals—a member of the senior class and two recent graduates. One of the transgenders, born female, announces that “he” had been taking hormones for 16 months. “Right now I am a 14-year-old boy going through puberty and a 55-year-old woman going through menopause,” she complains. “I am probably the moodiest person in the world.” A second panelist declares herself an “androgyne in between both genders of society.” She...