CECIL B. DEMENTED: Do you think you are the next video director auteur? The next Mary Lambert or Herb Ritts? The Gay & Lesbian Center in Los Angeles is holding a contest, Project Pushback. A competition designed to inspire the production of video messages in support of marriage equality. There are cash prizes.
I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU HUSBAND AND HUSBAND: Marriage equality is causing a tsunami debate effect across the country.
DC: The AP is examining the recent decision in DC to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states and what Congress will display: "After the legislation receives final approval from the council, which is supposed to come next month, the bill is then subject to a 30-day congressional review. That review could be the new Congress' first opportunity to signal its appetite for re-examining the Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages and allows states to do the same."
IOWA: Governor Chet Culver released a press statement stating he would respect the Supreme Court's stance in same-sex marriage: “[Opponents] can talk to their legislators about amending the constitution. They will have the option on the ballot in 2010 to call for a constitution convention. So the voters will have an opportunity to weigh in on this.”
A rally is expected at the Iowa capitol on marriage equality, expect supporters and foes.
NEW YORK: Governor David Paterson wants the state senate to vote on a same-sex marriage bill. NY is now a Democratic Senate as opposed to two years ago when Elliot Spitzer proposed a same-sex marriage intitiative in a then Republican-controlled Senate that let the bill stall and fail. Said Paterson: "We'll put a bill out and let the people decide one way or the other, which is actually the reform Albany really needs. Why can't people just defeat the bill, vote on it? If you have the votes later on to pass it, bring it back."
CALIFORNIA: Everyone is interested on how the Supreme Court's Proposition 8 ruling will turn out after the recent decisions in Iowa and Vermont:
"Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, who led the challenge to Proposition 8 in oral arguments before the California court last month, was jubilant Tuesday after Vermont joined Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa as the fourth state to allow gay marriage. While the other states went through lengthy legal battles, Vermont's approval came when the Legislature overrode their governor's veto. But Minter said it was Iowa's ruling that was important to California in two ways. First, the Iowa court stresses 'that equal protection is such an essential structural foundation of our system of government' that it can't be left to the ballot initiative process, he said. Second, he said, Iowa justices adopted the California Supreme Court's analysis of why providing a separate status for same sex couples is inherently unequal. 'It would be very ironic,' he said, 'if just at the time that other state courts are following the California Supreme Court in holding that only marriage can provide true equality, that California were to backpedal away from that holding.'"
The sense that something big is happening has been felt by the other side of the battle too. 'The momentum seems to be now on the side of those pushing for the legalization of same-sex marriage,' the Rev. Albert Mohler told TIME on Wednesday. 'The Vermont and Iowa developments seem to signal the fact that, as many of us have sensed for some time, the legalization of same-sex marriage is taking on a sense of inevitability.' Mohler is president of the nation's flagship Southern Baptist seminary in Louisville, Ky., and one of America's most respected Evangelical thinkers."
Hardball: Mike Barnicle had guest Maggie Gallagher, President of NOM, and Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign to discuss what happened in Iowa and Vermont:
TV TV: Tranny TV is coming to us. Stu Rasmussen, who became the nation's first transgendered mayor in Oregan, is getting a reality show.
The Statesman Journal reports: "Camera crews from Los Angeles rolled into town Monday to begin filming a teaser for the show...At a packed City Council meeting Monday night, the crew from production company RDF USA began filming the project...Lead producer Gerald Massimei said Silverton has exceeded their expectations. 'It will make a phenomenal background for a really interesting story,' Massimei said. 'There is something really special about this town...We want to invite people, if they see us filming, to come say hi to Stu. Don't be afraid of the cameras.' The show would be centered around Rasmussen and his challenge as a transgender person living in a small town. It would also look at the mechanics and intricacies of local government, including some 'hot button' issues such as the Silver Creek Dam, Rasmussen said. 'I have a big ego, but not big enough to think this is going to be Stu-centric,' he said."
BEATEN BUT NOT BROKEN: Two gay men were viciously beaten in South Florida robberies.
It's unclear if the victims were targeted because of sexual orientation or just random acts of violence.
The Miami Herald notes:
"David Villanova Jr., 27, and Craig Cohen, 47, were beaten in separate attacks early Monday morning by the same group of men, according to BSO spokeswoman Dani Moschella. Cohen, of Oakland Park, at right, remains unconscious at Broward General Medical Center. Villanova Jr., of Pompano Beach, suffered a skull fracture but was awake Wednesday afternoon and speaking with detectives. Moschella said Wednesday that the same group of robbers attacked both men at separate times. Moschella said detectives are treating the two attacks as robberies, but have not ruled out the possibility that the beatings were hate crimes. 'They were two brutal attacks but right now the only motive we know definitely is robbery,' she said."
RIP: A Springfield tween committed suicide as a result of anti-gay bullying at New Leadership Charter School:
"Two days after the worst day of her life, when she found her 11-year-old son had committed suicide by hanging himself, Sirdeaner L. Walker said on Wednesday she wants the bullying to stop. She found Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover (above) hanging by an extension cord on the second floor of their 124 Northampton Ave. home Monday night after he had endured another day of taunting at New Leadership Charter School, where he was a sixth-grader, she said...She phoned the school repeatedly since Carl began attending in September but the bullying continued, she said. Other students made him a target, daily calling him gay, making fun of how he dressed and threatening him, she said"
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