Homosexuals

Miss California USA, who became a controversial symbol of the anti-same-sex-marriage movement, can keep her bejeweled crown, Donald Trump, owner of the Miss Universe and USA pageant system and final arbiter of all such matters, decided Tuesday. Title holder Carrie Prejean was thrust into a media firestorm last month at the Miss USA pageant when contest judge Perez Hilton, who runs a celebrity blog, asked her how she felt about same-sex marriage.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will soon announce that gay American diplomats will be given benefits similar to those of their heterosexual counterparts, U.S. officials said Saturday. In a notice to be sent soon to State Department employees, Clinton said regulations that denied same-sex couples and their families the same rights and privileges of straight diplomats were "unfair and must end," because they harm U.S. diplomacy.

The nation's mainline Protestant denominations have quarreled for years over the role of gay men and lesbians in church life, but those debates promise to grow even more intense and acrimonious this summer. The conflicts, which come as California and other states wage legal fights over same-sex marriage, could well influence whether some of the religious denominations remain intact or splinter into smaller factions.

Aiming to reach out to conservative voters, about 3,000 gay-rights supporters gathered Saturday in California's Central Valley in a renewed campaign to win support for same-sex marriage. Just days after the California Supreme Court upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages, activists launched a 14 1/2 -mile march from the town of Selma to Fresno, where they rallied in front of City Hall as a peaceful campaign-styled event to win back marriage rights.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney waded into another roiling public debate Monday, saying he supports same-sex marriage as long as the issue is decided by states rather than the federal government. Cheney, whose youngest daughter has a longtime lesbian partner, said at the National Press Club that "people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish."

Facing a political backlash from an important voting bloc, President Obama met with leaders of the gay and lesbian community Monday, asking for patience and assuring them that in time he will usher in policy changes that protect them from discriminatory treatment. "We've been in office six months now," the president said. "I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration."

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights group partly founded by Martin Luther King Jr., has threatened to fire the president of its Los Angeles chapter because he supports same-sex marriage. The Rev. Eric P. Lee, president of the local SCLC chapter for two years, became an outspoken advocate of same-sex marriage during the recent campaign against Proposition 8, an amendment to the state Constitution that banned such unions.

Despite insisting just a few months ago that they wanted to go back to the ballot in 2010 to try to amend the state Constitution to allow same-sex marriage, many of the state's gay-rights groups now say that is too soon. They worry about raising the millions of dollars needed to run a campaign and suggest that the job of changing enough voters' minds on same-sex marriage might take longer than 12 months. "Going back to the ballot . . .

The Episcopal Church, casting aside warnings about further alienating conservatives within its ranks, on Tuesday lifted a de facto ban on the ordination of gay bishops and is continuing to weigh a measure that would sanction blessings for same-sex couples. Bishops, clergy and lay leaders voted overwhelmingly at the denomination's General Convention in Anaheim to open "any ordained ministry" to gays and lesbians.

Capping a 10-day convention in Anaheim, leaders of the Episcopal Church agreed Friday to consider marriage liturgies for same-sex unions and to give bishops greater latitude in meeting the spiritual needs of gay and lesbian couples. The new policy marked a second victory for liberals after the church gave final approval Tuesday to a measure ending a de facto ban on the ordination of gay bishops. Debate over liberalizing the rules underlined deep theological differences within the church of 2.