"You commie, homo-loving sons of guns..."

...As started Sean Penn's acceptance speech for his Oscar win for Best Male Performance in a Leading Role for his portrayal of Harvey Milk.

It certainly was quite a night for the gay and lesbian community. Not only was Penn's win a great surprise, but Dustin Lance Black's Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay for Milk was also wonderfully exciting and touching. Below is his acceptance speech:

"Oh my God. This was, um, this was not an easy film to make. First off, I have to thank Cleve Jones and Anne Kronenberg and all the real-life people who shared their stories with me. And, um, Gus Van Sant, Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, James Franco and our entire cast, my producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, everyone at Groundswell and Focus for taking on the challenge of telling this life-saving story.

When I was 13 years old, my beautiful mother and my father moved me from a conservative Mormon home in San Antonio, Texas to California, and I heard the story of Harvey Milk. And it gave me hope. It gave me the hope to live my life. It gave me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and then maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married.

I wanna thank my mom, who has always loved me for who I am even when there was pressure not to. But most of all, if Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he'd want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, by the government or by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon, I promise you, you will have equal rights federally, across this great nation of ours.

Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, God, for giving us Harvey Milk"

It continues to give me hope when people like Black are recognized for the work they do, not only creative work, but for telling socially conscious stories.

How The G.O.P. Courts The Gay Vote

Cartoon by Barry Deutsch

Wyoming legislators reject changing state constitution to ban gay marriage

By Tony Grew • February 10, 2009 - 15:00

From http://www.pinknews.co.uk/

The state legislature in the US state of Wyoming has rejected a bill that would have cleared the way for a statewide ballot to ban recognition of any out of state gay marriage.

Republicans, who were behind the measure, portrayed it as protecting "traditional" marriage.

On Friday the state House of Representatives voted it down 35 to 25 after an emotional debate on the issue of same-sex couples. A similar move stalled in the state Senate last month.

Wyoming law already prohibits marriage by gay and lesbian couples.

The resolution, which sought to place the proposed amendment before voters, would have written this prohibition into the state constitution and also threatened to prohibit other forms of relationship recognition for gay and lesbian couples.

"We are grateful that the Wyoming House of Representatives stood up for equality and refused to write discrimination into the state constitution," said Joe Solmonese of leading LGBT equality group Human Rights Campaign.

"I am thrilled and proud that my colleagues took a stand against writing discrimination into Wyoming's constitution," said state Representative Cathy Connolly.

Rep. Connolly and 34 other representatives voted against the proposed amendment.

Several representatives made strong statements in opposition to the resolution. Rep. Pat Childers spoke of his daughter, who is a lesbian.

"Folks, till my dying breath there isn't anybody in this country who could say that she is a terrible person, or someone that needs to have their rights restricted," Rep. Childers said.

Last Friday's vote indefinitely tables the resolution. The session ends in March.

At present gay and lesbian couples can get married in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Civil unions that carry all the state rights of marriage are legal in New Jersey, Vermont and New Hampshire.

Gay marriage was legal in America's most populous state, California, between June and November last year, until a statewide ballot measure banning same-sex marriage was passed by voters.

The measure, Proposition 8, is being challenged in the courts.

Federal marriage rights were denied to same-sex couples by the 1996 Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA).

States are not required to "treat a relationship between persons of the same sex as a marriage, even if the relationship is considered a marriage in another state."

California Supreme Court to hear gay marriage cases on March 5

By Howard Mintz
Mercury News

Posted: 02/03/2009 02:50:43 PM PST

The California Supreme Court will hear the legal showdown over gay marriage on March 5, ensuring a decision on the future of same-sex nuptials across the state will arrive before summer.

In a statement released Tuesday, the high court set three hours of arguments for its calendar in San Francisco, setting the stage for the justices to consider a series of legal challenges to voter-approved Proposition 8. Civil rights groups and a number of cities and counties, led by San Francisco and Santa Clara County, sued after the November election, arguing that the ballot initiative is invalid and should be struck down.

By a 52 to 48 percent vote, Proposition 8 restored the ban on gay marriage, after the state Supreme Court last year found the prior law outlawing same-sex marriage unconstitutional. The various lawsuits argue that the ballot measure was an improper method of amending the California constitution, and deprives same-sex couples of the right to marry established in the May 2008 Supreme Court ruling.

Attorney General Jerry Brown, in an unusual move, is not defending the law, arguing that Proposition 8 should be struck down because it erased an existing constitutional right.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case last year, and will decide not only the legality of Proposition 8, but also the fate of thousands of same-sex couples who married before voters approved the measure. The justices have 90 days from the March 5 hearing to decide the case.

Opponents of same-sex marriage have aligned behind Proposition 8, urging the state Supreme Court to uphold the law and warning that a ruling otherwise would ignore the will of the voters. Various organizations have threatened a political backlash against the court if the justices overturn the gay-marriage ban; the court was already divided 4-3 last year when it struck down the prior state law.

Proposition 8 supporters are being represented by Kenneth Starr, the conservative Pepperdine law school dean and special prosecutor in the impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton.

Dozens of groups have also filed friend-of-the-court briefs with the Supreme Court on both sides of the issue.