Homosexuals

In a move that may put Mexico City at odds with the rest of the country, the local legislature approved a far-reaching gay rights bill Monday, voting to allow people of the same sex to marry and to adopt children. The leftist-dominated legislature of this massive city of about 20 million people turned aside opposition from the influential Roman Catholic Church and ended lively debate to approve the measure by a 39-20 vote. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard is expected to sign the bill into law. "Mexico City has put itself in the vanguard," said legislator Victor Hugo Romo.

The California Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to uphold Proposition 8 and existing same-sex marriages left in place all rights for California's gays and lesbians except access to the label "marriage," but it provided little protection from future ballot measures that could cost gays and other minorities more rights, lawyers and scholars said Tuesday.

Scholars, gay and lesbian partners and opponents of same-sex marriage are expected to testify about the nature of marriage and homosexuality during an unprecedented federal trial today to determine whether gays and lesbians may marry. UPDATE: The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked video coverage of the Prop. 8 trial in San Francisco. Read more. Gay-rights supporters are upset by the court ruling. Read more on L.A. Now. The case, Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, is expected to become a landmark that eventually will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

THE images in "Blades of Glory" are provocative: Will Ferrell, as a rough-and-tumble macho, and Jon Heder, as the pastel-wearing girlie man, feign romance on the ice as a figure skating pair. They lock legs and hold hands, bump and grind and plant their faces in each other's crotch. It's hilarious and unsettling: The joke, which deftly avoids gay baiting, is on straight men. Straight men and male bonding, it turns out, make for far richer comic ground these days.

THE guys in his boat took to calling him "Badger" because of the grimace he wore during races. Part of a junior rowing club that ranked among the fastest in the nation, Lucas Goodman was relentless on the water. It was a different story on land. The teenager with the powerful build and close-set eyes had to be careful. He hung back ever so slightly when teammates shot the breeze, talking about girls. "You get tired of constantly watching what you say, constantly watching how you act," he said.

Responding to a graphic anti-gay video circulated on Capitol Hill this year, gay activists released their own video Tuesday for distribution to lawmakers and Pentagon officials reviewing the military's ban on homosexuals. Called "To Support and Defend," the video features gays and lesbians who have served in the military, as well as interviews with some of their heterosexual colleagues.

Strictly speaking, the graduation exercise that took place on the fourth floor of Men's Central Jail last week wasn't much of a rite of passage since the graduates weren't going anywhere any time soon. Nonetheless, the hourlong celebration in honor of 15 gay male inmates who had earned high school diplomas or GEDs, or completed 10-week courses in drug rehabilitation, anger management and life skills moistened as many eyes per capita as any traditional school commencement.

As a teenager, Ruben Reyes studied for the priesthood in Mexico, as his strict Catholic family wanted. What Reyes wanted was something very different--especially for a good Latino kid. He longed to live an openly gay life. As an adult, Reyes found himself cruising West Hollywood, but he still felt culturally out of place. A year ago, when he walked into La Casa in East Los Angeles, he finally found people like himself.

Portland, Ore., is a town whose greatest point of pride is perhaps what it is not, and that is Los Angeles. No sprawl, thanks to strict growth management. No smog. A successful light-rail system. And unlike the city plagued by race riots and gang violence, Portland talks of tolerance as a greater truth. So it was with some trepidation nearly a year ago that the city greeted its new police chief, Mark Kroeker, a 32-year LAPD veteran and longtime Los Angeles deputy chief.

Televangelist Paul Crouch, founder of the world's largest Christian broadcasting network, has waged a fierce legal battle to prevent a former employee from publicizing allegations that he and Crouch had a sexual encounter eight years ago. Crouch, 70, is the president of Trinity Broadcasting Network, based in Orange County, whose Christian programming reaches millions of viewers around the world via satellite, cable and broadcast stations.

Aiden Aizumi almost didn't graduate from high school. Aizumi, now 21, is one of many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender young people who say they have suffered through school, enduring homophobic taunts and name-calling. He completed his final semester of high school from home. His mother, Marsha Aizumi, didn't want others to endure the same treatment, so she approached educators about a new school geared for such students. The school, which serves grades seven through 12, is a collaboration between Opportunities for Learning, a charter school with 34 locations across Los Angeles and Orange counties, and Lifeworks, a mentoring program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth sponsored by the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center.

The head of a think tank on marriage and family testified at the Proposition 8 federal trial Tuesday that same-sex marriage would weaken marriage and possibly lead to fewer heterosexual marriages, more divorces and "more public consideration of polygamy." But under cross-examination, David Blankenhorn, founder and president of the Institute for American Values, acknowledged that he wrote in a book in 2007 that the U.S. would be "more American on the day we permit same-sex marriage than we were on the day before."

The online dating site EHarmony.com has reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by gays and lesbians who said the service discriminated against them. As part of the proposed agreement, the company will pay more than half a million dollars and make its website more "welcoming" to seekers of same-sex matches, according to court documents filed Tuesday. The Pasadena-based company had already launched a service last year for gays and lesbians, called Compatible Partners, as part of an unrelated settlement with the New Jersey attorney general's civil rights division.

A political scientist hired by defenders of Proposition 8 testified at a federal trial Monday that gays have accumulated substantial political power in recent years, though he admitted that stereotyping and discrimination persist. Claremont McKenna College professor Kenneth P. Miller, the first witness for defenders of Proposition 8, was called to the stand to rebut a plaintiff's expert who testified that gays were politically powerless. The question of power is part of the legal analysis over whether gays need stronger constitutional protection.

Same-sex marriage has been practiced in various cultures over time, including among some people in China, India, West Africa and North America. Roman emperors sometimes married men. These were some of the bits of testimony delivered during the last two weeks at the historic federal trial on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage. Challengers of the 2008 ban concluded testimony Friday after calling multiple witnesses to define homosexuality, marriage and the role religion has played in prejudice.

An official proponent of Proposition 8 testified at a federal trial Thursday that he was involved in disseminating claims that same-sex marriage could cause children to become gay and spark legalization of sex with children, incest and polygamy. William Tam, one of five official proponents for the 2008 ballot initiative, also testified about his personal views toward same-sex marriage. "It is very important that our children won't grow up to fantasize or think about, 'Should I marry Jane or John?

An official proponent of Proposition 8 testified at a federal trial Thursday that he was involved in disseminating claims that same-sex marriage could cause children to become gay and spark legalization of sex with children, incest and polygamy. William Tam, one of five official proponents for the 2008 ballot initiative, also testified about his personal views toward same-sex marriage. "It is very important that our children won't grow up to fantasize or think about, 'Should I marry Jane or John?

After days of anti-Proposition 8 witnesses being described as liberal and activist, challengers of California's gay marriage ban elicited testimony Tuesday from San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, a Republican and the city's former police chief, who said his previous opposition to same-sex marriage stemmed from prejudice. At the federal trial over Proposition 8, Sanders told the court that when his elder daughter, Lisa, now 26, was in college, she told him she was a lesbian. He said he expressed his "overwhelming love" for her but also had concerns she would face discrimination.

The legal team challenging Proposition 8 in a federal trial tried to show Thursday that the ballot initiative was a form of bias that was likely to make gays and lesbians more vulnerable to mental health problems. Columbia University professor Ilan H. Meyer, an expert in mental health issues among gays, lesbians and bisexuals, testified that gays and lesbians were more likely to suffer from mental disorders than heterosexuals because of discrimination. Proposition 8 sent "a message that gay relationships are not respected, that they are of secondary value if they are of any value at all," Meyer said.

A federal trial on same-sex marriage focused Wednesday on the similarities and differences between homosexual and heterosexual couples, with a psychology professor citing "remarkable similarities." Letitia Peplau, an expert on couple relationships, testified that studies have found that the quality of heterosexual and homosexual relationships was on average "the same" as measured by closeness, love and stability. "On average, same-sex couples and heterosexual couples are indistinguishable," said Peplau, a UCLA professor of social psychology called by attorneys for two same-sex couples who are trying to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 voter initiative that reinstated a state ban on same-sex marriage.