Three men who were arrested last month for a hate-crime bb-gun shooting outside a San Francisco gay bar were taken into custody again Friday in a San Francisco courtroom. The three men from Hayward, CA were originally arrested Feb. 26 and charged with firing a round that hit a 27-year-old San Francisco man who was smoking outside of a Mission District bar, KTVU reports. The man was not badly hurt. He called police who arrested the three suspects after they drove by the same area again while officers were interviewing the suspect. Prosecutors on Friday asked for ...

San Francisco LGBT Center Flickr photo by CTG/SF     ::: A committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors yesterday moved to delay final action on a request by the city’s LGBT Center for a loan to prevent foreclosure on its $12.3 million building, which opened in March 2002, Bay Area Reporter reports. The center is asking the city for a $157,500 loan, to help it through a financial pinch, according to San Francisco Chronicle. Supervisors on the board’s budget and finance committee yesterday expressed support for the center, but asked for more ...

Appearing with this San Francisco Chronicle article on last weekend's International Bear Rendevouz was this picture of grrr-inducing bears hairymaking merrymaking "during the country-western Hanky Dance." Woof![source] ...

San Francisco’s Balboa High School Flickr photo by BernalKC via SFSchools photoblogging The San Francisco School Board voted Tuesday to fund the district’s support programs for LGBT students in city schools even though it will add to the district’s debt. Before their vote, the board was told that a survey conducted by the district shows that nearly 13 percent of San Francisco's middle school students (about 1,000 students) and 11 percent of high school students (about 1,700 students)identify themselves as gay, lesbian, or transgender, San Francisco Chronicle reports. 43 percent of those middle schools students—430 ...

Judge Vaughn Walker San Francisco Chronicle photo by Paul Chin Chief US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker, who is hearing the Perry v. Schwarzenegger (Prop 8) case in San Francisco, is gay. San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross publicly revealed that in a Sunday column. But they weren’t exactly “outing” the judge. They write that it has been “the biggest open secret in the landmark trial”. They write: Many gay politicians in San Francisco and lawyers who have had dealings with Walker say the 65-year-old jurist, appointed to the bench by President George ...

Over the weekend, the San Francisco Chronicle revived the story that the judge in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger Proposition 8 case, Judge Vaughn Walker, is probably gay. This has led to social conservative group the National Organization of Marriage, po... ...

The way the far-right is handling Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn' Walker's "outing" is absolutely disgusting. Because they're not just coming out and saying that the Prop 8 federal trial judge's sexual orientation makes him biased. If they were, we'd almost have more respect. But instead, they're timorously putting the point out there, and using it as further "fuel" for their ridiculous claim that the trial has been stacked against them from the beginning, with Judge Walker being the reason why. Focus on the Family: As any reader of this blog already knows, I’ve criticized Walker’s handling of the case ...

The San Francisco Chronicle has published a story revealing to the general public an open secret that many of us have already known: Vaughn Walker, the federal judge conducting the federal trial into the unconstitutionality of Proposition 8 known as Perry v. Schwarznegger, is gay:The biggest open secret in the landmark trial over same-sex marriage being heard in San Francisco is that the federal judge who will decide the case, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, is himself gay. Many gay politicians in San Francisco and lawyers who have had dealings with Walker say the 65-year-old jurist, appointed ...

Cheers erupt for San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus Saturday night from part of the capacity crowd at Redding’s Cascade Theatre San Francisco Chronicle photo by Lacy Adams San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus performed this weekend to capacity crowds in both Redding and Chico, California. Redding. Chico. Those are two small cities at the northern tip of California’s Central Valley. And they’re deeply conservative strongholds. Like most of their Central Valley neighbors to the south, voters in Redding and Chico strongly favored Proposition 8 in 2008. Seventy percent of voters in Shasta County, which includes Redding, voted for ...

Courtesy of AmericaBlog, here's the video of President Obama calling for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell:Here's the money quote:"This year I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are — it’s the right thing to do."I guess someone in the White House saw my quote in the San Francisco Chronicle a few months ago:If Obama does not reverse the military policy "there will be hell to pay," said Ron Buckmire, a professor at Occidental ...

365gay.com: SCOTUS reinstates death sentence for anti-gay neo-Nazi Newsweek: Male-on-male sexual harassment on the rise NGLCC: Transgender business owner toolkit The Onion: Gay teen worried he might be Christian San Francisco Chronicle: High court bans TV from Prop. 8 trial Posted in LGBTQ ...

Resources: 365gay.com: Historian says marriage is about more than procreation CNN: Prop. 8 is simply unconstitutional Newsweek: The conservative case for gay marriage San Francisco Chronicle: YouTube could humanize issue Coverage: 365gay.com: Live blogging and news stories Courage Campaign: Daily recaps, breaking news, live blogging and updates Law Dork: Daily analysis of trial proceddings Pam’s House Blend: Boies and Olson appear on Maddow Towleroad: [...] ...

[Note: Article based primarily on courtroom Twitter updates from several sources. See this Twitter list for the full stream.] The Perry v. Schwarzenegger (aka Prop 8) trial turned today from history to economics as the chief economist for San Francisco, Dr Edmund Egan, took the stand. Egan explained his office reviews legislation proposed by the Board of Supervisors to determine if the measure would have a material economic impact on the city and county. Under questioning from plaintiff’s lawyers, Egan testified that the Prop. 8’s ban on same-sex marriages is costing San Francisco millions of dollars a year in ...

Dozens of supporters of marriage equality rallied outside the Phillip Burton US Courthouse building in San Francisco as the Prop 8 trial got underway San Francisco Chronicle photo by Liz Hafalia “Marriage symbolizes the most important decision you make as an adult,” said Kristin Perry in today’s first day of the trial in San Francisco on a suit that challenges the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8. Perry and her partner, Sandra Stier of Berkeley, California are two of the four plaintiff’s in the landmark case that asks the US District Court to to issue an injunction against ...

    ::: In his three-dot San Francisco Chronicle column, former San Francisco mayor and former assembly speaker Willie Brown notes that Republicans in the California Assembly last week refused to cast their votes for the assembly’s new speaker, John Pérez, a Los Angeles Democrat who became the body’s first out gay speaker. Brown writes of the vote: “Apparently, conservative bloggers raised such a ruckus over voting for ‘one of them’ that Republicans declined to participate in the ceremonial, bipartisan ‘best of luck’ voice vote.” Capitol Weekly reports that instead of participating in the traditional unanimous consent vote, ...

In case you're wondering... Golden Globe predictions tomorrowIndie Wire the winners of the European Film AwardsTopless Robot Natalie Portman to produce and star in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Yes, they're making a movie from the gimmicky bestseller.San Francisco Chronicle takes down Carey Mulligan and offers up Michelle Pfeiffer instead for Best ActressYouTube toddler Hamlet with Brian Cox. So adorableAnne Thompson on the f/x finalists for Oscar. She doesn't mention it but isn't it kind of weird that Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones didn't make it. I guess a lot of people (not just me) ...

Speaker-elect of the California Assembly, John Perez Sacramento Bee photo by Paul Kitagaki Jr A freshman lawmaker from Los Angeles was unanimously chosen yesterday by fellow Democrats to become the next speaker of the Assembly—the the lower house of the California legislature. Assemblyman John Pérez, an out gay 40-year-old Democrat, and will become the body’s first out gay leader. He ascends to the top post in the Assembly just a year after winning his first election to the legislature. He will succeed Speaker Karen Bass, and will now be responsible for steering the lower house of California’s ...

Lisa Larges After an epic 20-year struggle to become a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Lisa Larges’ quest came one step closer to fulfillment last night when the San Francisco Presbytery voted to ordain Larges, who would become the first out lesbian to be ordained in the church. The 156 to 13 vote came after what San Francisco Chronicle characterizes as “hours of contentious debate at the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley.” But the vote will probably not be the last word. Opponents of Larges’ ordination will appeal the vote, reports the religiously-conservative website BeliefNet. ...

Source: Bangor News, Associated Press, Portland Press Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times “Devastating” is an adjective often used in press articles to describe the results of Maine’s vote on Question 1 Tuesday that denies marriage rights to the state’s gay and lesbian couples. Vote totals from the opposite side of the country were only slightly more hopeful. With Referendum 71, voters in Washington weighed in on a law that grants the rights and responsibilities of marriage to lesbian and gay couples, but specifically denies them the use of the term ...

Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer  San Francisco Chronicle  Wednesday, October 28, 2009 (10-28) 04:00 PDT Bangor, Maine -- The next bellwether battle over same-sex marriage will be settled in Maine Tuesday by an expected 500,000 voters, about as many as cast ballots last year in Sacramento County when the nation's most-populous state, ... ...