Homosexuals

The fierce fight over same-sex marriage in California and elsewhere is creating pressure to recognize a new free-speech right that could keep petition signatures secret. The Supreme Court voted last week to block release of the names of more than 138,000 people in Washington state who signed petitions seeking to repeal a same-sex domestic partner law in a ballot scheduled for Nov. 3. The Supreme Court's intervention set off a broad debate among election-law experts and 1st Amendment scholars over what is private and what is public when it comes to politics.

Who could have foreseen what would happen between the Mormon filmmaker and the lesbian priest? Not Douglas Hunter, even after he took a leap of faith and trained his camera on the Rev. Susan Russell. And maybe not even Russell, who had undergone a remarkable transformation from onetime suburban soccer mom to priest and outspoken champion of gay rights.

Women are far more likely than men to be kicked out of the military under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy against gays in uniform, according to government figures released Thursday. Critics of the policy said the disparity reflects deep-seated sexism in the armed forces. Women accounted for 15% of all active-duty and reserve members of the military but more than a third of the 619 people discharged last year because of their sexual orientation. The disparity was particularly striking in the Air Force, where women represented 20% of personnel but 61% of those expelled in 2008.

Ever since Miss California Carrie Prejean declared onstage last month at the Miss USA Pageant that she believed gay people should not have the right to marry, she has battled her critics in TV interviews, been championed by groups opposed to same-sex marriage and pretty much eclipsed the woman who beat her to become the reigning Miss USA. (Does anyone even remember what state the winner was from?) But that's nothing compared to what Prejean did to the Miss California organization.

Joseph Berg, a 43-year-old entrepreneur, sat brooding and alone on a bloodstained sidewalk Sunday, a few feet from the policeman blocking the stairwell to the basement crime scene. Fifteen years ago, Berg first took refuge in that basement, then a newly established community center of the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Assn. "I came here, found people to share myself with, to be who I was with others," he recalled.

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown once again refused to defend Proposition 8's ban on same-sex marriage Friday, telling a federal judge that it violated the U.S. Constitution and should be struck down. Brown made his arguments in response to a federal lawsuit against the state by two gay couples who contend the initiative violates federal due process and equal protection guarantees.

In the state's continuing political battles over gay marriage, both sides are targeting Latino voters, and a new Los Angeles Times poll illustrates why. Overall, the poll showed a majority of voters in Los Angeles support the right of same-sex couples to legally marry, with 56% in favor and 37% opposed. That finding closely tracked results of November's election, when Proposition 8, which limited marriage to a man and a woman, won statewide but lost in Los Angeles.

The California Supreme Court will reveal its decision on the fate of gay marriage Tuesday morning when it rules on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the court announced Friday. But even before the court acts, gay rights activists -- braced for defeat -- are preparing to use the occasion to jump-start the next political campaign for gay marriage, which could come in 2010. They are planning news conferences, vigils and marches from South Los Angeles to the Oregon border.

Saying they suffered injustices under the Defense of Marriage Act, a dozen legally married same-sex spouses filed suit against the federal government Tuesday, alleging that the 1996 law deprives them of a range of benefits accorded other couples. The suit filed in Boston by the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD, challenges a section of the federal law denying gay couples access to more than 1,000 federal programs and legal protections in which marriage is a factor.

The mayors of Los Angeles and San Francisco joined gay rights groups Sunday in raising concerns about the Obama administration's defense of a federal law restricting same-sex marriage. "I think it's a big mistake," San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said shortly before he and his Los Angeles counterpart, Antonio Villaraigosa, kicked off the annual L.A. Pride parade in West Hollywood.