Gay Rodeo Dance Party Catches Eye, Angers Sacramento-Area Man

A party held by the Capital Crossroads Gay Rodeo Association in Wilton, California, is making headlines in Sacramento after a man who lives nearby the rented lot where it was held videotaped it and said he was upset that his children could possibly see what was going on.

CBS13 reports: "The home video shows a group called 'The Capitol Crossroads Gay Rodeo Association' at play. Dance contestants' names were called out as men's bare buns and frontal regions are exposed. Monty Stanley shot the video. He says he could see all the nudity from his home across the street. 'They were dancing under the stars,' said Stanley. 'You can't have man on man, woman on woman, men on women, you can't subject these children to looking at that kind of stuff.' Stanley says the night of the dance his kids had neighborhood friends over for the night. 'I was sickened by seeing men on public display there...In clear view of children,' explained Stanley."

A video report on the party, which was held with a legal permit, is here.

News: GLSEN, RuPaul's Drag Race, Hawaii, John Mayer Twitter

GLSEN meets with Education Secretary Arne Duncan to discuss bullying in schools. Exec. Director Byard: "It was moving to witness these students and teachers sharing their personal stories of pain, rejection, resilience and hope with the nation’s top education official. Secretary Duncan showed great compassion for their experiences, respect for their perseverance and dedication to identifying effective responses to school climate issues."

Complex: Kanye West does whiteface.

Jake Gyllenhaal dines out with Amazing Race contestant Mike White.

Lesbian named head of U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Anchorage, Alaska drag bars change to appeal to straight customers.

Straight bachelorette parties putting strain on gay bars in Chicago. "The women are a hoot, and some can be just delightful. But because not everybody can get married, watching them celebrate, it's such a slap in the face. Prop 8 just reopened the wound."

UK Videogame designer suing Microsoft: "He said mocking emails were sent around his workplace with headings such as 'I'm Jim and I'm Gay' and 'Me and My Favourite Men'. He said the firm did not have policies to deal with his complaints."

REPORT: John Mayer chose Twitter over Jennifer Aniston: "The source said: 'John suddenly stopped calling her or returning her emails and when she would finally catch up with him, he'd say: 'I've been so busy with work. I'm sorry I haven't had time to call you back.' The source added: 'Jen was fuming. There he was, telling her he didn't have time for her and yet his page was filled with Twitter updates.'"

Zac Efron won't be taking the Kevin Bacon route.

Democrats seek to break deadlock on Hawaii civil unions bill: "Opponents, led by conservative Christian church groups, have lobbied against the bill, saying Hawaii voted against gay marriage in 1998 and that the issue should not be taken up again. Now supporters of the bill say a recent statewide survey done by QMark Research and Polling shows 81 percent support for equal treatment for couples no matter what their gender. For the Senate Democrats, the issue is whether they have enough votes to either pull the bill from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is deadlocked 3-3, or fashion a compromise by amending the bill in committee. An amended bill would require passage by the Senate, sending it back to the House for either approval or a conference committee later this spring."

The Indigo Girls are back.

And a four-piece Ukranian band covers Katy Perry's "Hot & Cold".

Inspired by an Iron Age fertility symbol, UK teen proceeds to create his own on the roof of his parents' home so he can see it from Google Earth.

Hate crimes surge in Kent, UK.

Jennifer Hudson taping secret Idol concert tonight.

RuPaul winning dance chart drag race?

OUT interviews the real winner of RuPaul's Drag Race (spoilers).

Police to receive honor from Sacramento gay group.

Sarah Palin a hypocrite on "special needs" children.

Former Gawker editor Choire Sicha penning book on 'death of New York': "It used to be, you came to New York and you got a job as an assistant, and sooner or later you got to have part of your boss’s job and you moved up. There was sort of a continuum. There was a thing called a career in New York...For me, what the recession for young working people reminds me of is HIV in the early 90s, when my generation of gay men decided there wasn’t much of a future. I feel like I hear from people now, and they’re like, 'fuck tomorrow!' Which seems completely reasonable to me. And whether that’s based on a real understanding of the economy or on what we’re getting through the filter of the media, it doesn’t matter– it’s a completely appropriate response to the moment we’re in."

Prop 8 'Eve of Justice' Vigils Held Across California: Round-Up

Vigils were held across California on Wednesday night in anticipation of the Supreme Court arguments on the constitutionality of the voter-passed Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state and revoked the marriage rights of millions of people. It's likely to be the most watched hearing in the state's history, and you can watch it too if the servers are not overwhelmed, right here.

We'll have news on the hearings as it comes in. Top photo from our reader Joe Rodriguez.

Here are some updates and news links about last night's vigils:

Rex Wockner has an update from San Diego. I posted some of his news last night.

SF Chronicle: "Supporters of same-sex marriage marched from the Castro district to the state Supreme Court on the eve of a hearing to decide the fate of Proposition 8 - the controversial amendment to the state Constitution that bans marriages of two men or two women."

San Francisco: Sean Chapin sent us some GREAT video coverage from the event, which you can watch, AFTER THE JUMP. In one video, longtime activist and friend of Milk Cleve Jones speaks to the crowd. In the second, Chapin reports, "An 11-year-old boy named Sam who has two mothers and wrote a letter to Assemblyman Michael Duvall who opposed gay marriage telling him to support the CA legislative resolutions to oppose Prop 8.  He really wowed the crowd, and Mark Leno shook his hand right after his speech." In the third, "James Brosnaham, (I believe) a senior partner at a prominent law firm in San Francisco.  His speech was incredibly eloquent and ended on such a poignant, emotional note that it electrified the crowd."

Watch the video clips, AFTER THE JUMP...

Los Angeles L.A. Times: "As rain fell and the song 'Fidelity' blasted through the sound system, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presided Wednesday night over the "recommitment ceremonies" of half a dozen gay couples who married during the five-month period that such weddings were legal in California...Many of the 200 or so people who attended Los Angeles' vigil said they did not expect their demonstration to influence the justices who will decide whether Proposition 8 is valid."

Mercury News, San Jose: "As similar scenes played out across the state, San Jose gay-rights activists marched tonight in quiet solidarity on the eve of legal arguments before the California Supreme Court about the validity of Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage. 'This is about equality. We should get the same rights as everybody. We pay taxes just like straight people, we have families and we're even in the armed forces,' said Arlene Jimenez, of San Jose who married her longtime partner last October. Wednesday night, Jimenez held a makeshift candle and joined about 150 others who ringed the intersection at Winchester and Stevens Creek boulevards near Santana Row. There, groups holding huge banners supporting gay marriage, walked each corner, occasionally chanting, 'Gay straight, black, white, marriage is our civil right.' As they did so, cars passing by honked in support."

KMPH Fresno: "On a drizzly day in downtown Fresno, dozens marched in the cold to put heat on the Supreme Court. 'We ought to be treated like equal citizens,' Proposition 8 opponent, Ellis Vance, said. Vance and Robin Greiner have been together for almost 43 years, and just before their 42nd anniversary last October, they legally became husband and husband. 'We never thought we would get to the point where we would really be able do that in our lifetime,' Vance said."

The Mercury News today also profiles the Pope family, a Santa Cruz couple who crusaded for passage of Proposition 8 while their daughter fought against it with her lesbian partner and daughter from their home in Salt Lake City, Utah.

NPR: Big profile on SF Mayor Gavin Newsom today.

Watch three clips of the San Francisco action, AFTER THE JUMP...

Neil Patrick Harris and Jack Black in Prop 8: The Musical

Hairspray composer Marc Shaiman (whose boycott lead to the resignation of Sacramento's California Musical Theatre creative director Scott Eckern following his donation to Prop 8) wrote and conceived this hysterical short piece (presented with a wink and a nod by the 'Sacramento Community College Players'), which was directed and staged by Hairspray director and choreographer Adam Shankman and features plenty of folks you will recognize.

Shaiman plays the piano. Jordan Ballard, Margaret Cho, Barrett Foa, J.B. Ghuman, John Hill, Andy Richter, Maya Rudolph, Rashad Naylor, Nicole Parker star as 'California Gays and The People That Love Them'. John C Reilly as a Prop 8 leader, and Alison Janney as his wife. Kathy Najimy as his second wife. Jenifer Lewis as a riffing Prop 8'er. Craig Robinson as a preacher. Rashida Jones, Lake Bell, Sarah Chalke as Scary Catholic School Girls from Hell. Katharine "Kooks" Leonard, Seth Morris, Denise "Esi!" Piane, Lucian Piane, Richard Read, Seth Redford, Quinton Strack, and Tate Taylor as The Frightened Villagers.

Jack Black stars as Jesus Christ, and Neil Patrick Harris is billed as 'A Very Smart Fellow'.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Marriage Equality Supporters March on Sacramento

The California Highway Patrol estimated that 5,000 people showed up on the steps of the California capitol building on Saturday in the latest major action against Proposition 8, including speakers Gloria Allred (above), Robin Tyler, Diane Olsen, Margaret Cho, Selene Luna, and Equality California's Geoff Kors.

The L.A. Times reports: "Many in the crowd held signs calling for equality and separation of church from state. Several banners targeted the Mormon Church whose members helped defeat the measure. 'If the ban on marriage equality was unconstitutional in May, the ban will also be unconstitutional when the Supreme Court makes its decision in January,' said incoming Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. California's highest court agreed this week to hear three legal challenges seeking to nullify the state's new ban on same-sex marriage. All three cases claim the ban abridges the civil rights of a vulnerable minority group. They argue that voters alone did not have the authority to enact such a significant constitutional change."

The SF Chronicle reports: "Protesters filled much of the lawn beyond the Capitol steps, carrying homemade signs with messages like 'What's so scary about our love?' and 'Give tolerance a chance.' Vendors walked through the crowd, selling gay-rights buttons and rainbow flags. The crowd was much smaller than the 15,000 to 30,000 organizers originally had advertised or even the scaled-back 10,000 they hoped for this week. But while the rally was talked up in the days after the election, the actual organizing was done on the fly. 'There was a lot of buzz about this, but no real information,' said Keegan Killian of California Outreach, one of the organizers. 'Our first planning meeting was little more than a week ago.'"

A couple great videos from the march, AFTER THE JUMP...

Mormons Have Embedded Police Officials Watching Out for Them?

A reader pointed me to this article in the Sacramento Bee about stepped-up security around Mormon churches as a result of the recent protests. One would hope that law enforcement is there to serve and protect all citizens on an equal basis but according to one LDS official they have embedded officers watching out for them:

"They are hiring extra security to watch over the Folsom temple, and asking members to drive by church buildings late at night. Mormons in law enforcement are keeping track of Internet chatter to find out where protests will be held. 'Our members in law enforcement know where to look for this kind of stuff,' said Lisa West, spokeswoman for the church in the Sacramento region. She added that they are doing this on their own time. 'There's a lot of volatility in the air, so we're asking people to keep their eyes and ears open.'"

Our reader writes: "I think this is newsworthy. The Mormon church openly admits that it's embedding members into police departments then using them to advance their agenda... They're not saying that they're working with police like everyone else does, they're admitting that they're engaged in a conspiracy to advance their agenda using their police officer members in a possible circumvention of the law, and a definite violation of basic police ethics."

Here are a couple more related updates:

The NYT published a major article on Friday, highlighting the Mormon church's significant role in the passage of Proposition 8.

The L.A. Times also noted in a major weekend article that the LDS church is feeling the heat.

It was also revealed over the weekend that the main cinema used by the Sundance Film Festival is a Cinemark cinema. The CEO of Cinemark, Alan Stock, gave $9,999 to 'Yes on 8'. Cinemark operates the 'Century', 'CinéArts', and 'Tinseltown' theater chains. Sundance won't pull out of the anti-gay cinema. While Sundance is one issue, Cinemark also stands to profit from showing the Gus van Sant film Milk in its theatres. A group has sprung up online boycotting Cinemark theatres and encouraging viewers to see Milk at an alternative theatre chain.

Utah gay rights advocates oppose a boycott of the state. State senator Scott McCoy: "Now is no time to boycott Utah. Now is the time to stand up in solidarity ... We need to show Utahns that we are not going to go away and that we need to be paid attention to. We need rights for our families."

Tiny but visible counter-protest seen in Salt Lake City over the weekend.

The Mormon church blamed white powder it received in envelopes on gay activists, calling it domestic terrorism: "'We call upon those who have honest disagreements on this issue to urge restraint upon the extreme actions of a few,' church President Thomas S. Monson said in a statement. The Utah Pride Center, a gay rights group, put out its own statement calling the powder hoaxes and acts of vandalism 'deplorable.' However, the group said, 'It is false to conclude that yesterday's suspicious package came from gay protesters. Overwhelmingly, gay and allied Utahns have expressed their pain, frustration and commitment to securing rights through peaceful demonstrations and marches.' The coalition that ran the campaign to defeat Proposition 8 also issued a condemnation Friday. 'The NO on 8 campaign was about civil rights and seeking equality for all Californians. We have said time and again that the Mormon church deserves the same respect as any other religion,' said Ali Bay, a spokeswoman for Equality California, the state's largest gay rights group. The FBI is still investigating both cases, spokesman Juan T. Becerra said, noting that it's a crime to release a substance to threaten harm and stoke public fear."