Homosexuals

After angering gay rights supporters with the choice of evangelist Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration, President-elect Barack Obama has chosen the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church to pray at the kickoff event for the inaugural festivities Sunday. Bishop V.

One day this thought won't matter. One day this thought won't be relevant. Today is not that day. Today, the fact that "Milk" received eight Oscar nominations from the academy, including best picture, is significant and says much about where we are in our relationship, and comfort level, with the gay rights movement. In a word -- improving. Why? Director Gus Van Sant's "Milk" is not a tentative film, rather it is openly, unapologetically gay.

The mayor of Portland said Sunday that he would not resign despite calls for him to do so after he admitted lying and asking a teenager to lie about their sexual relationship. "Tomorrow, I go back [to] work as your mayor. I know I have let you down and made mistakes. I ask your forgiveness," Mayor Sam Adams said in a statement. "I believe I have a lot to offer the city I love during this time of important challenges." Adams, who was sworn in Jan.

A young man who formerly attended New Life Church says then-pastor Ted Haggard performed a sex act in front of him in 2006 and sent him explicit text messages. His hidden relationship with Haggard, the man said, was followed by a period of isolation, struggles with drinking, drugs and suicide attempts. The latest allegations against Haggard, once an influential national evangelical leader, were reported Monday night by KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs, which interviewed the man, now 25.

Same-sex couples seeking to wed showed up at marriage license counters across the nation Thursday to highlight a right they don't have in 48 states. In San Francisco, where same-sex marriage was legal for nearly five months last year before California voters approved a gay marriage ban, many of the couples who went to City Hall had already tied the knot and wanted both to express their gratitude and to show they're part of the fight.

It wasn't the first time Robin Tyler and Diane Olson said "I do," but they hope it will be the last. Holding hands as they stood under a white chuppah, the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in Los Angeles County returned to the Beverly Hills Courthouse on Friday morning and repeated their vows. "I hope this will be the last Valentine's Day we all have to come back here," said Tyler, 66. "But this is not about us anymore. We do not want to be the only ones on the freedom train."

The California Supreme Court strongly indicated Thursday it would rule that Proposition 8 validly abolished the right for gays to marry but would allow same-sex couples who wed before the November election to remain legally married. The long-awaited hearing, which came as dueling demonstrators chanted and carried banners outside, was a disappointment for gay rights lawyers.

March was a busy month for courts weighing issues affecting churches and clergy in California and across the nation. Three rulings -- one from a church body, two from secular courts -- involved a California lesbian who hopes to become a priest, a dispute over church property in Colorado and whether children in Texas should observe a minute of silence before starting their school day.

Efforts to allow gays and lesbians to serve as clergy in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have been defeated again, sealed by votes tallied Saturday. But the margin of defeat -- the final tally has yet to be determined -- is guaranteed to be closer than in previous years. That is encouraging for supporters of gay clergy and cause for concern for opponents, with both sides expecting the issue to be revisited. Last summer, the General Assembly of the 2.

The recent run of states legalizing gay marriage -- punctuated Wednesday by Maine becoming the fifth state to do so -- has increased the likelihood that California voters will face another ballot measure on the issue as early as next year, according to strategists on both sides. The California Supreme Court is expected to uphold Proposition 8, November's ballot measure banning same-sex marriage, with a decision coming in the next few weeks.