Like so many of us, my friends Mary Jo Godges and Renee Sotile are anxiously awaiting District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling on the constitutionality of Prop 8, the amendment passed by voters in 2008 that stripped away the right of same sex couples to marry in California. Walker does not have to give any advance warning that the decision is imminent – so we’re all just holding our breath.
Mary Jo (wearing the glasses in this photo) and Renee got married on Election Day 2008, becoming among the same sex couples married before the right was rescinded. When Mary Jo told me she had former Vice President Al Gore and LA Gay & Lesbian Center CEO Lorri Jean on videotape talking about the case – I realized this was more than just waiting for the news. For them, the wait alone was like a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, threatening their marriage, as well, though the California Supreme Court ruled the 18,000 or so same sex marriages remained valid. I asked Mary Jo to write about their marriage – just a reminder to everyone what this Prop 8 ruling is all about. Please click inside to read Mary Jo’s story, plus see video of Lorri Jean on the ruling and Mary Jo and Renee’s wedding.
But first – considering how prescient Al Gore is (he was warning about climate change long before An Inconvenient Truth) – here’s the exchange between Renee and Gore, during a book tour stop in Beverly Hills on Nov. 12, 2009. Renee hands him a DVD of a documentary she and Mary Jo made about Christa McAuliffe, the first Teacher in Space who was killed when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986. (Christa McAuliffe: Reach for the Stars). Gore says, “I hear good things about the court decision coming up on Prop 8.” He says this six months after the American Foundation for Equal Rights announced they filed Perry v, Schwarzenegger and two months before the case went to trial in San Francisco.
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Grasp this: on Saturday, for the first time in American history, an openly gay man will be officially recognized for his accomplishments by the state of California. May 22 marks the birthday of the late LGBT martyr Harvey Milk, who will be honored with an official State Day of Recognition – Harvey Milk Day.
I have been infuriated about this racist Arizona immigration law since it
Throughout the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner theatrical masterpiece
The day after Easter and you’d think the
Here’s some history to make your LGBT heart swell. This is John A. Perez being sworn in as the first openly gay Speaker of the California Assembly. Please click inside to see videos of John’s acceptance speech, a transcript of his remarks, and photos.
Attorney General Jerry Brown just sent out this email to supporters announcing that he is formally running to be California’s next governor. Right now he seems to have the Democratic nomination locked. The Republicans have a primary fight between millionaires Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner. Here’s Brown’s email:
Fans of the Harry Potter films were slightly taken aback when young star Daniel Radcliffe
Be your own Rachel Maddow! Fans of the brilliant MSNBC commentator know that one reason Maddow is so popular is because she confronts lies with the truth. Now LGBTs and their allies can do the same thing when it comes to the debate about the military’s antigay policy, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Could that odd sound you hear be the creaking hands of time clicking over to a new day?
Iowa’s progressive and highly regarded Grinnell College named (
Next Thursday – Feb. 25 – I am going to be on a Los Angeles Press Club panel with Andrew Harmon, senior editor for The Advocate,
It’s one thing when a big guy like Keith Olbermann makes irate or snarky comments about Glenn Beck – the weepy, often wrong conservative talk radio and Fox TV commentator who has a “gazillion” followers. But when skinny PDd lesbian geek Rachel Maddow talks about getting death threats from Beck groupies, calls him out for lying about her and then tells Beck to “back off! – something’s happening here. I wonder if this might be the beginning of the “spinal transplant” 

