Shirley Tan Saved from Deportation by Private Bill

Shirley Tan, who had received a temporary reprieve and was scheduled to be deported and separated from her partner of 23 years, Jay Mercado, and their two children on April 22, was saved at the last minute by a private bill introduced by Senator Dianne Feinstein, according to a message sent out by the family's rep. Melanie Nathan:

"A private bill was introduced on the floor today on behalf of Shirley Tan. She will not have to leave the USA until this session of congress ends, and unless UAFA - Uniting American Families Act passes through Congress. A great big thanks from the Tan-Mercado family to Rep. Speier and her amazing staff as well as Sen. Feinstein and her staff, all of whom showed extraordinary care and diligence through the process. A special mention to the organizations that lent their support. Marriage Equality, Immigration Equality, Out4Immigration, Love Exiles and all the Media that remained so patient and supportive. Sen Boxer is sponsoring UAFA and we now hope that Sen. Feinstein will do the same as many many others are in as bad a predicament as  Shirley Tan has been. When I spoke to Jay today she was crying with joy and said the whole family including the boys were absolutely overwhelmed with emotion. The news was conveyed to her directly by Senator Feinstein’s office. It has been a long and arduous process and so a very special thank you goes to Attorney Phyllis Beech, San Francisco and Fresno."

More details on the legislation, which was proposed earlier this month, AFTER THE JUMP...

News: Daft Punk, Dianne Feinstein, End the Lies, Rihanna, Jacko

Sore Loser: Why is John McCain being such a jerk?

Harder, stronger, faster: Daft Punk to score Tron2.

Chris Brown to Rihanna: "You just did the stupidest thing ever. I'm going to kill you."

HRC launches EndTheLies website to counter false statements made by anti-gay right wing groups: "As we gear up to fight for passage of our legislative agenda in Congress, EndTheLies.org will feature an “interactive wall” of anti-LGBT crusaders (i.e. the AFA, Sally Kern, and George W. Bush) and will provide ways for visitors to take action against their efforts. Users will also be able to nominate their own candidates for the wall."

POLL: Dianne Feinstein would be instant front-runner in California gubernatorial race.

Michael Jackson takes mask off.

Suspects in hate crime attack of 41-year-old man elude Seattle police: "According to police, the victim was assaulted by two men as he walked toward his home from a bar. The victim told police that he didn't get a clear look at the men, but from their voices he believes they were in their late teens or early 20s. He suffered a broken tooth, eye lacerations and injuries to his chin, nose, hands and ribs. According to a police report, the victim was wearing a white sailor suit costume that he had worn earlier in the evening while working at Gay Bingo in downtown Seattle"

Two men arrested for killing gay man and stabbing his partner on London doorstep.

Man receives community service for punching gay man in face in San Francisco, calling him "stupid faggot": "Under a plea agreement reached in San Francisco Superior Court in January, Andrew Duhamel, 29, will be placed on formal probation for four years. As conditions of probation, in addition to a stay away order from the victim, Jerry Deal, 32, and payment of full restitution to him, Duhamel was ordered to pay $1,000 to Community United Against Violence. He was also ordered to perform 250 hours of community service or serve four months in county jail."

Lindsay Lohan thinks she's like a virgin.

Ryan Reynolds, Taylor Kitsch Wolverine promo photos unleashed...

NPR reporter bashes gays over Prop 8 donations: "[These incidents have] given rise to charges that as gay rights advocates tried to change public opinion, some stepped over the line and turned their protest into a witch hunt."

Rick Schroeder gets back to nature (nsfw)...

Russian scholar says gays will have hand in U.S. collapse: "[Igor Panarin] also noted he had been predicting the demise of the world's wealthiest country for more than a decade now. But he said the recent economic turmoil in the U.S. and other 'social and cultural phenomena' led him to nail down a specific timeframe for 'The End' - when the United States will break up into six autonomous regions and Alaska will revert to Russian control. Panarin argued that Americans are in moral decline, saying their great psychological stress is evident from school shootings, the size of the prison population and the number of gay men."

Report: Obama, Not Feinstein or Committee, Made Warren Choice

According to Americablog:

"A powerful Democratic friend contacted me this morning to let me know that they talked to the key players yesterday, and Diane Feinstein, chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, had nothing to do with the pick of Rick Warren as Obama's invocation speaker at the inaugural. The decision was made by Obama himself, I'm told, and Feinstein just assumed that he had vetted it with his staff. Difi went along with Obama's decision, not the other way around. If this is true, then our apologies to Senator Feinstein for suggesting that she was involved. But Jesus. This is rather uncharacteristic of Obama, making some grand gesture from his gut, and not checking it with his brain, or the brains around him. Unless, of course, his brain trust thought this was a brilliant strategic move. I can easily imagine them thinking, what better than to make a nod to the religious right and the religious left, by having Rick Warren and Joseph Lowery, at his inauguration?"

Earlier
Pastor Rick Warren to Give Invocation at Obama Inauguration [tr]
Obama Camp Releases Talking Points on Rick Warren Selection [tr]
Anderson Cooper 360 on the 'Big Tent' Theory and Rick Warren [tr]

Senator Dianne Feinstein on Harvey Milk, Prop 8, Marriage Equality

Maureen Dowd spoke with California Senator Dianne Feinstein about Harvey Milk and Proposition 8 in a column published over the weekend. Feinstein's well-known, soon to be extremely well-known gut-wrenching press conference following Milk's assassination, frames both the Friedman/Epstein documentary The Times of Harvey Milk and features prominently in Gus van Sant's biopic Milk, opening this week.

Feinstein also campaigned against Proposition 8 in an ad that was run statewide before the election.

Said Feinstein of Milk: "I was the one who found his body. To get a pulse, I put my finger in a bullet hole. It was a terrible, terrible time in the city’s history...It’s very painful for me. It took me seven years before I could sit in George Moscone’s chair. It took me a long time to talk about it. I was only recently able to talk about it."

On the validity of the nearly 20,000 same-sex marriages in California: "You can’t redact it. You can’t blot it out. It’s so intrinsic to the Constitution that you cannot remove it by a vote of the people."

On same-sex marriage in general, and gay adoption: "I think as more and more people have gay friends, gay associations, see gay heroism, that their views change. I think people are beginning to look at it differently, I know it’s happened for me. I started out not supporting it. The longer I’ve lived, the more I’ve seen the happiness of people, the stability that these commitments bring to a life. Many adopted children who would have ended up in foster care now have good solid homes and are brought up learning the difference between right and wrong. It’s a very positive thing."

The NBC Nightly News report on the Milk and Moscone assassinations, AFTER THE JUMP...

Marriage on the Rocks [maureen dowd]

Dianne Feinstein Speaks Out Against Proposition 8

Airing statewide in California tonight is this message from Senator Dianne Feinstein urging a 'no' vote on Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that would ban same-sex marriage.

Says Feinstein: "Proposition 8 would be a terrible mistake for California. It's about discrimination and we must always say NO to that."

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

The "no on Prop 8" still needs your help. Donate HERE.

Resolution to Censure Dianne Feinstein Killed Without Vote

A resolution to censure California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, submitted by progressives within the party last week, was killed before it even got to a vote, the HuffPost's Rick Jacobs reports:

"When the resolution was brought up late in the session, the Party's senior advisor and long time chief spokesperson, Bob Mulholland, stood and shouted from the side of the room, 'Object, and object!'" There were other shouts from the room as committee members joined in. Committee Co-Chair John Hanna objected and then others objected and then, as if to make sure that we got the point, everyone who wanted to join the chorus of objections demanded that their objections be counted, too. It was a sort of pile on moment, in which one veto simply would not do. It all happened within about a minute."

The move to censure came following two dubious votes — one to confirm assumed torture-supporter attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey and the other to confirm racist bigot judge Leslie Southwick in Mississippi — and other less-than-left activity by Feinstein, including recent word that she supports granting immunity to telecom corporations that shared customer email and phone records with the federal government as part of the warrantless surveillance program.

According to Jacobs, because the motion to censure was submitted as a "late" resolution (within 10 days of the meeting), any member can kill it with a single objection.

Late last week, for California.

Recently
Progressive Democrats Moving to Censure Dianne Feinstein [tr]
GOP Lauds Feinstein as "Linchpin" Vote for Racist Bigot Judge [tr]