WASHINGTON – In advance of Memorial Day, the Respect for Marriage Coalition hosted a call featuring Former Congressman, Army Captain and Iraq War Veteran Patrick Murphy, Outserve-SLDN Executive Director Allyson Robinson, American Military Partner Association Director of Family Affairs Ashley Broadway and military widow Karen Morgan to highlight the harms of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on the nation’s military and to urge the Supreme Court to strike down the discriminatory law and extend the freedom to marry nationwide.

According to Gallup, LGBT Americans make up 3.5 percent of the overall population. Assuming the same proportion of LGBT service members exists among the 1.5 million active and reserve members currently enlisted in the armed forces, between 50,000-60,000 members of the military would be unjustly affected by DOMA if or when they are married.

While DOMA harms all married same-sex couples, it is particularly hostile to those serving in the military, where 70 percent of an active-duty service member’s compensation comes in the form of benefits and allowances. Withholding such a significant portion of these benefits, which are intended to care for the spouse of a military member, inflicts significant financial burdens on military families headed by same-sex spouses.

“The harms of DOMA aren’t abstract—they are real tangible injustices that hurt children and their parents,” said former Congressman Patrick Murphy . “For those serving our country, equality delayed is equality denied. The same benefits and opportunities should be available to every service member and their family.”

Yesterday, Freedom to Marry and OutServe-SLDN released a video (see above) that tells that story of Karen Morgan who, because of DOMA, faces innumerable challenges following the loss of her wife, CW2 Charlie Morganof the New Hampshire National Guard.

“DOMA haunts almost every aspect of my family’s life, and it doesn’t measure up to our values of freedom and equality that we’ve set as a standard for our way of life in the United States,” said Morgan. “It’s time for the best of who we are as a nation to prevail so that equality is applied fairly to all the citizens of our country.”

“Chief Warrant Officer Charlie Morgan was a courageous fighter for our country, for her family, and for the equality of all who wear the uniform of our nation. Today, her wife Karen carries on that fight, a fight no military spouse should ever have to wage. The time has come to end the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and ensure equal recognition, benefits, and support for all loving and committed military couples and their families,” said Army veteran and OutServe-SLDN Executive Director Allyson Robinson .

Because DOMA defines marriage for federal purposes as “between one man and one woman,” same-sex military couples cannot qualify for many protections available to other couples, including health care, housing assistance, primary next of kin status and survivor’s benefits.

“For far too long, our LGBT military families have been treated as if they aren’t important and as if they don’t matter,” said Ashley Broadway of the American Military Partner Association, the nation’s premier resource and support network for LGBT military families. “We serve our nation, but without the same support and benefits needed to care for our families. For the sake of our children and family readiness, we must end the discrimination and exclusion caused by DOMA.”

Next month, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule in United States v. Windsor, which challenges the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. If DOMA is struck down, the Court’s ruling would have an historic and monumental impact in establishing equal treatment for all service members and their families.

Below are some of the specific benefits that are not extended to same-sex military families.

Billy Bean

ATLANTA – The Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation today announced that former major league baseball player Billy Bean has been named vice-chairman of its board. He will focus on helping professional leagues and athletes at all levels commit themselves to the fairness, equality, dignity and respect that defines true sportsmanship.

The Foundation, founded and chaired by rugby World Cup Champion Ben Cohen, MBE, is the world’s first dedicated to anti-bullying and equality in sports.  Billy Bean is the only out former major league baseball player.

“We believe it sends a powerful signal to all athletes and fans to see two highly accomplished professional sports stars, one straight and one gay, join forces to advance the acceptance and inclusion reshaping sports today,” said Patrick T. Davis, chief executive officer of StandUp.

Billy Bean played major league baseball from 1987 through 1995. He broke into the major leagues with the Detroit Tigers, and tied a major league record with four hits in his first major league game. He went on to play for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres. He kept his personal life a secret from the public and the sports world, before coming out as gay in 1999.

“I want people to learn from my pain and journey, not repeat it. My dream is to help end this social epidemic called bullying that so many kids are subjected to each and every day in locker rooms and on playing fields,” Billy Bean said. “I believe we are nearing that moment in time when athletes lead the way as role models for fairness once again. I am honored to serve StandUp as vice-chairman to help make that dream a reality.”

“Billy has worked tirelessly to dispel the myths and stereotypes that follow LGBT athletes. We can think of no better way to help create understanding, respect and real sportsmanship than from one major league athlete to another. It is at our core, and Billy will extend our work in professional sports,” said Ben Cohen.

“As an organization founded and led by a professional athlete, we can connect with other athletes and teams in especially authentic ways.  Ben and Billy know what it is like inside the teams.  We fund real-world work that makes an impact because we understand professional sports organizations and what their communities expect from them,” said Alison Doerfler, executive director of the Foundation.

Urging families to protect themselves from sexual indoctrination, Randy Thomasson of SaveCalifornia.org is encouraging families to keep their children home from school on and around Harvey Milk Day – May 22 – when schools beef up their educational materials to talk about the accomplishments of the slain gay rights activist and politician.

The day of special significance as it is called was signed into law  Oct. 11, 2009 by then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and intended as a way for the California public school system to teach about Milk’s legacy in an age-appropriate way.

But family values groups like SaveCalifornia.org are having none of it. ”Children belong to their parents, not to the government. And so, if government schools are sexually indoctrinating children, it’s up to the parents to number one, protect their children and two, protest and tell these schools don’t do it again,” says Randy Thomasson.

His site is filled with all the trademark warnings about ‘sexual indoctrination’ and “predatory” behavior that have become staples of the “pro” family movement and the backbone for arguments to encourage boycotts. There is even a three-minute video on the site, complete with a dramatic, staccato-style piano score, that highlights Milk’s past including his having had multiple partners and supporting same-sex marriage. (Ironically, the source for all this vice? None other than Randy Shilts, reported as a “reputable” source in their video and, however full of journalistic integrity, died from living the very lifestyle Thomasson and his ilk so readily condemn.)

“That’s traumatic for children, to be forced into this, to be made sexually uncomfortable by their own teachers and their own principal,” warns Thomasson, although short on proof that Milk’s sex life is the purpose of these lessons in the first place.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Advocates for comprehensive immigration reform won their first major legislative victory this week when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-5 to approve the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” plan.

If enacted, the measure will create a 13-year path to citizenship for most of the country’s 11 million undocumented immigrants.

It aims to strengthen border security while raising the cap on visas for high-skilled workers and establishing a new visa program for low-skilled workers on America’s farms and elsewhere.

Here are five key things to know about the state of play on this issue:

1) There’s still a long way to go

The Judiciary Committee’s 13-5 vote was significant partly because three Republicans — Arizona’s Jeff Flake, South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham, and Utah’s Orrin Hatch — joined the panel’s Democrats in backing the measure. Now, however, attention turns to the full Senate, where the level of GOP support remains an open question.

Assuming every member of the Democratic caucus backs the bill, five Republicans will be needed to ensure it receives the 60 votes needed to pass the 100-member chamber. The bill’s backers have been hoping for as many as 70 votes, in order to give the proposal significant bipartisan momentum heading into the tougher GOP-controlled House.

And make no mistake — serious momentum will be needed in the House, where conservatives remain deeply skeptical about any measure offering a path to citizenship. A lot of conservatives consider that to be amnesty, which may as well be a four-letter word in this debate.

Meanwhile, several House Democrats and Republicans have been working on their own reform plan. If they can get it through the House — a big if — they’d have to reconcile it with the Senate plan in a conference committee. And assuming that can be done, both chambers would then have to pass the compromise legislation.

2) The Gang of Eight remains unified

Eight men put the Senate bill together — Graham, Flake, Florida Republican Marco Rubio, Arizona Republican John McCain, New Jersey Democrat Robert Menendez, Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, Colorado Democrat Michael Bennet, and New York Democrat Chuck Schumer. Each of the eight has promised to oppose any major changes to the bill.

During Judiciary Committee’s consideration of roughly 300 proposed amendments, Flake and Graham repeatedly sided with the panel’s Democrats in opposing significant changes offered by their fellow conservatives. Schumer and Durbin voted against some amendments proposed by more liberal members, even though the pair said they supported the ideas.

Rubio was disappointed that the committee rejected an amendment requiring the use of biometrics — such as fingerprints — for visa holders at all of the country’s entry and exit points. But he hasn’t dropped his support for the overall bill.

“Everybody needs to know it — who’s calling the shots,” conservative Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions said at one recent Judiciary Committee meeting on the bill. The answer, at least so far, remains the “Gang of Eight.”

3) Immigration reform is still Obama’s best shot for a major second-term legislative win

Why? Democrats are basically unified on the issue, while Republicans are divided. When the Judiciary Committee passed the bill Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said he was “hopeful we’ll be able to get a bill that we can pass here in the Senate.”

McConnell praised the “Gang of Eight” for making a “substantial contribution to moving the issue forward.”

Nothing focuses a politician’s attention like an election loss, and Republicans were thumped last year by the country’s growing Hispanic population. Latinos backed President Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by a 44-point margin. GOP strategists are concerned about the party’s long term viability in national elections if that trend is not reversed.

Some congressional conservatives say opposing the “Gang of Eight” immigration reform plan is a matter of principle and they won’t bend. But others might. This is a rare moment when the two political priorities may overlap just enough to make Capitol Hill a productive place.

4) The bill won’t be used to advance gay rights

In fact, in a defeat for backers of expanded gay rights, the Senate committee did not approve a pair of amendments sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, bolstering federal support for bi-national same-sex relationships.

Specifically, Leahy had proposed recognizing same-sex marriages in which one spouse is an American, and allowing U.S. citizens to sponsor foreign-born same-sex partners for green cards given proof of a committed relationship.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the most prominent Republican in the “Gang of Eight,” was among those who called Leahy’s amendments a poison pill virtually certain to destroy GOP support for the measure.

5) Polls — what does the public think?

According to recent polls, most Americans support an eventual pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers. A CNN/ORC International survey conducted last month found that 84% of the public backs a program that would allow undocumented workers to stay in the U.S. and apply for citizenship if they have been in the country for several years, have a job, and pay back taxes.

The overall high level of support is not new — in a 2007 CNN survey, 80% felt that same way.

But the 84% figure is higher than two other national polls released in recent weeks. Nearly six in 10 Americans in surveys from Quinnipiac University and ABC News/Washington Post said they supported an eventual pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers.

The other recent polls did not describe the circumstances under which immigrants would be allowed to stay — such as having a job and paying back taxes — which would likely dilute support for the proposals that are most likely to come before Congress.

(CNN) — Kaitlyn Hunt’s supporters say she is being prosecuted because she was in a sexual relationship with someone of the same sex. Authorities say it isn’t a gay rights issue at all, but rather a simple case of an adult inappropriately involved with a minor.

As public outrage mounts, fueled by Internet activism, 18-year-old Hunt has until Friday to decide whether she’ll accept a plea deal or go to trial for her relationship with a 14-year-old schoolmate.

Hunt is charged with two felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery in the relationship that the young woman and her parents say was consensual. The students attended Sebastian River High School in Sebastian, Florida,

While some of the 150,00 people signing an online petition asking prosecutors to drop the case have suggested that it’s being handled differently because it involves a same-sex relationship, Indian River County Sheriff Deryl Loar said that has nothing to do with it.

“If this was an 18-year-old male and that was a 14-year-old girl, it would have been prosecuted the same way,” he said.

CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin concurs, saying whether the people involved are same-sex or opposite-sex, the legal issues are the same.

“A kid, a child under the age of 16, cannot consent to having sexual relations with an 18-year-old, an adult under the eyes of the law,” she said. “And that really is all this case comes down to when you look at it legally.”

The Indian River State Attorney’s Office has offered a plea deal that would reduce the charges to third-degree child abuse. As part of the package, she would get a year of probation and two years of monitoring, meaning she would have to wear an ankle bracelet.

It would be up to a judge to decide if she would be labeled a felon as she moves forward in life.

Her lawyer, Julia Graves, is asking that “common sense” prevail and that the charges be reduced to a misdemeanor.

“This is a life sentence for behavior that is all too common, whether male, female, gay, straight,” Graves said at a Wednesday news conference. “High school relationships may be fleeting, but felony convictions are forever.”

Charles Sullivan, an attorney for the 14-year-old, told CNN affiliate WPTV that the plea deal is fair.

“It takes into account the seriousness of the offense. It takes into account that it’s a violation of Florida law,” he said. “The plea offer allows her to enter a plea that she will not go to jail and she will not be labeled as a sex offender, so there’s no argument that her life is being ruined by this plea offer.”

A sometimes tearful Hunt said the whole thing frightens her.

“I’m scared of losing my life, the rest of my life, and not being able to go to college or be around kids, be around my sisters and my family,” she said, acknowledging the whirlwind that has surrounded her since the family went public with the story. “Definitely overwhelming to say the least. … Just kind of hopeful, hopeful for the best.”

Prosecutors have said they will not bend on the plea deal.

Mark Sanford and Anthony Weiner

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Politics is full of second chances.

Mark Sanford is living proof.

Now Anthony Weiner is hoping to travel the same route in seeking political redemption.

Weiner was in his seventh term in Congress, representing parts of the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, when he resigned from the House in 2011 amid scandal over lewd photos sent via Twitter.

Weiner talked about his controversy in a video that went up online early Wednesday where he announced his candidacy for mayor of New York City.

“Look, I made some big mistakes, and I know I let a lot of people down. But I’ve also learned some tough lessons. I’m running for mayor because I’ve been fighting for the middle class and those struggling my entire life. And I hope I get a second chance to work for you.”

The video also features his wife, Huma Abedin, a former top adviser to Hillary Clinton, and their young son.

Later in the video, Abedin says “we love this city, and no one will work harder to make it better than Anthony.”

Sound familiar?

Flash back a few months to Mark Sanford, another well-known politician looking for a second chance.

Sanford’s political career was left for dead following an infamous affair, but he made a bid for political redemption, running in a special election to fill a vacant congressional seat.

Sanford succeeded in his comeback by winning this month’s election and is again representing South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, a seat he once held before he became governor.

Sanford talked about his affair in his first campaign commercial.

Most special elections for a vacant House seat don’t grab national attention, but thanks to Sanford (and his Democratic opponent being the sister of Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert), the race was in the headlines.

The media loves a comeback story, if only because it allows them an opportunity to revisit what brought down that politician in the first place.

So Weiner, like Sanford, will be in the spotlight, for better or for worse.

“Voters love a good comeback story. We identify with the underdog and cheer for him as we would for ourselves,” says Republican strategist and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos. “But voters also love justice. We want people to pay for their mistakes. Anthony Weiner hasn’t yet paid for his. He probably will in this election. But who knows?”

“Anthony was of the most talented politicians in either party, and this race is going to be steep climb for any of the candidates. Anthony definitely has a shot,” says a Democratic strategist who’s worked in New York City politics.

“When you have someone as skillful as a messenger as Anthony, that makes a big difference in a race where TV ad spending is limited due to New York City election laws and the fact that it’s the most expensive media market in county,” adds the strategist, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely.

The big question is what the voters think.

As of now, nearly half of New York City voters don’t think Weiner should run for mayor this year, according to a new poll.

According to a Quinnipiac University survey, which was conducted in the week before Weiner’s announcement and released Wednesday, 49% of New York City voters said Weiner should not run for mayor, with 38% saying he should make a bid and 12% unsure.

The 49% figure is up five percentage points from a Quinnipiac poll conducted in mid-April. The survey indicates Democratic voters are divided, with 41% saying Weiner should run and 44% disagreeing.

But Weiner’s entry into the race finds him in the second spot for his party’s nomination, according to the poll, with 15% of registered Democrats saying they would vote for Weiner if the primary were held today.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn remains in the top spot, at 25%. Quinn has long been the Democratic front-runner in the race, and if she’s elected in the November general election, she’ll become Gotham’s first female and first openly gay mayor.

The other Democratic candidates are at 10% or less in the survey, with more than a quarter of voters undecided. The poll also indicates that at this stage in the campaign, the eventual Democratic nominee would be the front-runner in the November election.

NEW YORK (CNN) — Police in New York are stepping up their presence in neighborhoods with large gay and lesbian communities after a string of recent attacks on residents based on their sexual orientation.

“Hate crimes are down this year, almost 30%, but anti-gay hate crimes are up over 70%,” Commissioner Ray Kelly said Tuesday, hours after the latest incident in which a gay couple walking in the city’s SoHo district were assaulted by two men shouting homophobic slurs. One of the victims suffered an eye injury. Two men, Fabian Ortiz and Pedro Jimenez, were arrested and charged with assault in the third degree as a hate crime, Kelly said.

And late Monday, another man was left unconscious after being struck in the face and head several times when he revealed he was gay to another man.

The suspect, identified as 39-year-old Roman Gornell — “became enraged, and yelled anti-gay expletives,” Kelly said. Gornell has been charged with assault and harassment as hate crimes in the incident.

The rash of violence has caught the attention of city leaders, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who addressed the issue at a news conference Tuesday.

“No person — regardless of what they look like or who they love — should ever walk down the street in fear,” Bloomberg said.

In the past two weeks, five crimes against those in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community have occurred throughout Manhattan’s West Side, according to the New York City Council.

In the most violent incident, 32-year-old Marc Carson was shot and killed in Greenwich Village early Saturday by a gunman who allegedly made multiple anti-gay comments before the shooting. Elliot Morales faces a charge of second-degree murder as a hate crime in the shooting, authorities said.

In response, police are setting up temporary headquarter command vehicles in LGBT neighborhoods at least through the end of June — the city’s Gay Pride month.

“Investigators say there’s no pattern in these types of crimes,” Kelly said Tuesday. “These types of crimes are outrageous. And we are going to do everything in our power to see to it that they certainly don’t occur but if they do occur we’re going to very aggressively investigate them and bring people to justice.”

Carson’s killing inspired a march Monday by city leaders and members of the LGBT community to the spot where Carson was slain.

After the march, New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn announced a five-point plan for keeping the city’s LGBT residents safe. In addition to an increased police presence in LGBT neighborhoods, the plan calls for lessons in schools that address hate crimes and bullying.

“It was a cold-blooded hate crime that cut short a life full of promise — and brought back awful memories for people who were once afraid to walk down the street with the person that they loved. New York City has zero tolerance for intolerance,” Bloomberg said of Carson’s killing.

(CNN) — The eyes of the country will be upon Texas on Thursday.

That’s where 1,400 members of the Boy Scouts of America’s national council are expected to vote on whether to end the 103-year-old group’s outright ban on gay youths.

The outcome, to be announced late afternoon, follows months of intense debate among interest groups and within the ranks of scouting itself.

It comes down to a single sentence at the end of a resolution.

“No youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.”

If the policy change is approved, the BSA will maintain its ban on openly gay adult leaders.

In February, the Boy Scouts’ national executive board postponed a vote on the issue and ordered a survey of its members. That survey showed an organization that is divided — by age and, in some cases, by region.

While most adults in the scouting community support the BSA current policy of “excluding open and avowed homosexuals, young parents and teens tend to oppose the policy.”

A BSA spokesman conceded the issue was “among the most complex and challenging issues facing the BSA and society today.”

A recent Washington Post-ABC News Poll showed that 63% of Americans support allowing gay youths to join the Boy Scouts.

But 61% of surveyed adult members say they support the current BSA policy, which excludes gay youths and adult leaders, the group said.

The vote comes more than a decade after a Supreme Court ruling that found the organization has the right to keep gays out, but also amid declining participation in the venerable American institution.

Membership in Boy Scouts has declined by about a third since 1999. About 2.7 million people now participate nationwide.

The Boy Scouts relies on “chartered organizations” to provide facilities and sponsorship for the individual units.

More than 70% of troops are affiliated with a church or religious groups. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Catholic Church sponsor 43% of Scout troops in the country.

In April, the Utah-based Mormons said, “while the church has not launched any campaign either to effect or prevent a policy change, we have followed the discussion and are satisfied that BSA has made a thoughtful, good-faith effort to address issues …”

The vote could have an impact in at least two Western states

If the policy proposal is approved, 97% of chartered organizations in the heavily Mormon populated states of Utah and Idaho would be likely to leave the organization, local councils say.

The Catholic Church in the United States says it will strive to maintain ties with the BSA, regardless of the outcome.

“We would hope that the Boy Scouts of America will continue to provide young people a formative experience grounded in virtue and directed by service to God and others,” the National Catholic Committee on Scouting said in February.

A full picture of opinions was not captured in the survey, according to the BSA.

“When the survey process was originally announced, several chartered organizations, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Baptist church, and many parents asked that their youth members not be contacted as part of the survey.”

There’s been no shortage of lobbying on the issue, which will be taken up at the BSA’s annual meeting in Grapevine, Texas.

“This (current) ban hurts kids and undermines key scouting values like helpfulness, friendliness and courteousness,” says the Human Rights Campaign. “It’s time to send a message of inclusion — not discrimination.”

James Dale, an Eagle Scout and former assistant troop leader who was kicked out of the Boy Scouts in 1990 because he is gay, said the issue is about fairness.

“Each of us has the power to make positive change,” he says in a video posted by GLAAD (The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation).

In an opinion piece for USA Today on Wednesday, BSA President Wayne Perry endorsed the policy change. “Parents, adults in the Scouting community and teens alike tend to agree that youth should not be denied the benefits of Scouting,” Perry wrote. “The resolution is not about adults; it is about what is best for young people.”

Conservative groups and some religious organizations have argued against making any change, saying it would dilute the Boy Scout message of morality and potentially destroy the organization.

The Family Research Council says the vote is “critically important to the future of the Scouts and the moral fiber of our nation.”

It urged people to visit OnMyHonor.net, a group opposing the policy change, to send their thoughts to scout leaders and executives.

That website reposted an article by the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, who said the BSA was “at the brink.”

“The culture wars came to the Boy Scouts many years ago. For the last few decades, the Boy Scouts have had to fight battles with both secularists and homosexual activists,” wrote R. Albert Mohler Jr.

“How, exactly, are openly gay boys to be included in the activities of scouting? We are talking about boys who will now be expected to participate in everything from camping trips to travel with boys who are openly gay,” says Mohler. “Boys of these ages just might be the least equipped of all God’s creatures to deal with the complexities of the situation. Most parents are likely to decide that, all things considered, this is just not something they want imposed on their sons.”

President Barack Obama has been become outspoken in his support of gay rights and same-sex marriage.

When asked about the BSA policy in February, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama believes the Boy Scouts is a valuable organization that has helped educate and build character in American boys

“He also, as you know, opposes discrimination in all forms. And as such, believes — that gay Americans ought to be able to participate in the Boy Scouts. But in terms of the process of their evaluation of their policies, I don’t have a comment.”

If approved, the new BSA rules would take effect January 1.

The board of directors of San Diego LGBT Pride  announced today that Stephen Whitburn will continue to head the organization as its general manager. Whitburn had held the position in an interim capacity since January.

San Diego Pride’s previous director, Dwayne Crenshaw, departed the organization amid his recent run for a seat on the San Diego City Council. The board moved quickly following the news that Labor coordinator and former police lieutenant Myrtle Cole had defeated Crenshaw in the race for the District 4 seat.

“This is a seamless transition for us,” said board co-chair Joe Mayer. “For several months, Stephen has been leading the team preparing for this year’s Pride weekend, and we are excited about how the celebration is coming together.”

“We congratulate Dwayne on his strong candidacy as a visible member of the LGBT community,” said board cochair Ebony Aldridge, “and we congratulate Myrtle Cole on her election to the seat.”

San Diego Pride will be held the weekend of July 12-14 beginning with the rally and the block party on Friday night, the parade on Saturday, and the festival both Saturday and Sunday. An estimated quarter million people will participate in this year’s festivities.

(CNN) — E.W. Jackson, Virginia’s new Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, said he has nothing to apologize for regarding his startling past comments about abortion, race and homosexuality.

“I say the things that I say because I’m a Christian, not because I hate anybody, but because I have religious values that matter to me,” Jackson told reporters Tuesday at a Fredericksburg campaign stop, according to the Washington Post.

“Attacking me because I hold to those principles is attacking every church-going person, every family that’s living a traditional family life, everybody who believes that we all deserve the right to live,” he continued. “So I don’t have anything to rephrase or apologize for. I would just say people should not paint me as one-dimensional.”

An African-American pastor and attorney from Chesapeake, Jackson has compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan and hammered African-Americans for their “slavish devotion” to the Democratic Party.

He has also referred to gays and lesbians as “sick people psychologically, mentally and emotionally.”

After Republican activists nominated Jackson at their party’s convention in Richmond last weekend, Democrats began bringing Jackson’s past statements into the limelight, seeking to discredit the conservative ticket, which includes gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli, at the top.

Cuccinelli, the state Attorney General, will likely face Democrat Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, in the November election. Democrats will formally decide their nominee in a June 11 primary.

Poll numbers so far show neither party with a sizable lead in the race, less than six months before Election Day. Because Virginia voters elect the governor and lieutenant governor separately, it’s possible that the winners could be from different parties.

Cindy McCain

The Trevor Project will honor philanthropist Cindy McCain with the Trevor Hero Award at  TrevorLIVE New York at Chelsea Piers for her ongoing support of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) community. The award will be presented to McCain by her daughter Meghan McCain  Monday, June 17 at The Trevor Project’s signature annual event which brings together top entertainers, advocates and corporate leaders to support the organization’s life-saving, life-affirming work for LGBT and questioning youth in crisis.

“As a parent you make your best efforts to teach your children everything but there’s always that moment of realization when your child has taught you something,” said McCain. “That’s how I became an advocate to the LGBT community – through my children who taught me that love is love. I’m thrilled to have been selected by The Trevor Project but I share this honor with my children.”

“Cindy McCain has not been afraid to show her support for the LGBT community,” said Abbe Land, Executive Director and CEO of The Trevor Project. “She has become a positive and powerful advocate in helping change attitudes and making the world a better place for LGBTQ youth.”

McCain is known for lending her time and talent to increase awareness of international health organizations. As an advocate for children’s health care needs, Cindy led 55 medical missions to third world and war-torn countries with the American Voluntary Medical Team. On one of those missions, Mother Teresa encouraged Cindy to take two infants in need of medical attention to the United States. Cindy later adopted one of those children, her 21-year-old daughter, Bridget McCain.

McCain is a proponent of marriage equality and most recently was cast in Dustin Lance Black’s acclaimed play 8. A member of the Board of Trustees for the HALO Trust, McCain has also served on the Board of Directors for Operation Smile, was a Founding Member of the Eastern Congo Initiative, and recently joined the board of the Special Olympics Los Angeles 2015 summer games.

Anthony Weiner Photo: CNN

(CNN) — Nearly half of New York City voters don’t think Anthony Weiner should run for mayor this year, according to a new poll.

But according to the Quinnipiac University poll, Weiner, who announced his candidacy for mayor early Wednesday morning, is in second place in the battle for the city’s Democratic nomination.

The congressman, who was in his seventh term representing parts of the New York City boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, resigned from the House in 2011 amid scandal over lewd photos sent via Twitter. He’s now seeking political redemption by making his third bid for mayor.

And Weiner’s announcement comes just two weeks after another politician whose career was left for dead following an infamous affair, former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, made a huge comeback by winning a special election to fill a vacant congressional seat.

According to the poll, which was conducted in the week before Weiner’s announcement, 49% of New York City voters said Weiner should not run for mayor, with 38% saying he should make a bid and 12% unsure. The 49% figure is up five percentage points from a Quinnipiac poll conducted in mid-April. The survey indicates Democratic voters are divided, with 41% saying Weiner should run and 44% disagreeing.

Weiner’s entry into the race finds him in the second spot for his party’s nomination, according to the poll, with 15% of registered Democrats saying they would vote for Weiner if the primary were held today. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn remains in the top spot, at 25%. Quinn has long been the Democratic front-runner in the race, and if she’s elected in the November general election, she’ll become Gotham’s first female and first openly gay mayor.

“With former Congressman Anthony Weiner seeking the Democratic nod, it still looks like Council Speaker Christine Quinn against the guys,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, in a statement hours prior to Weiner’s announcement.

“But where she once was brushing up against the magic 40% number that could get her past a run-off, the wear and tear of the campaign, and possibly the addition of Weiner, are taking a toll on the front-runner,” Carroll added.

The other Democratic candidates are at 10% or less in the survey, with more than a quarter of voters undecided. The poll also indicates that at this stage in the campaign, the eventual Democratic nominee would be the front-runner in the November election.

The Quinnipiac University poll was conducted May 14-20, with 1,802 New York City voters, including 701 registered Democrats, questioned by telephone. The survey’s overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points, with a plus or minus 3.7 percentage points for Democratic primary questions.

May 11, New Yorker Carl Marucci insisted that his mother bring his boyfriend Drew Marsenison to Bethesda Fountain in Central park. Drew had no idea what was waiting for him … watch the video!

Patrick Leahy

WASHINGTON (CNN) — As the Senate Judiciary Committee neared completion of its consideration of comprehensive immigration reform legislation on Tuesday, it remained unclear whether the panel’s top Democrat would move forward with a pair of controversial gay rights amendments vehemently opposed by congressional Republicans.

The amendments, backed by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, would recognize same-sex marriages in which one spouse is an American, and also would allow U.S. citizens to sponsor foreign-born same-sex partners for green cards given proof of a committed relationship.

Contacted by CNN, a Leahy spokeswoman would not say whether the senator would put the measures to a vote. Leahy said Tuesday that it’s possible the panel will complete its work on the bill by the end of the day.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the most prominent Republican in the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” senators responsible for crafting the 844-page bill, has publicly warned that Leahy’s amendments are a poison pill that will destroy any GOP support for the measure.

If Leahy withdraws the amendments on the committee level, he could offer them again when the bill is taken up by the full Senate. Doing so would be little more than a symbolic gesture, however, as the proposals have virtually no chance of winning the 60 votes almost certainly needed to clear the 100-member chamber.

A spokesman for the Immigration Equality Action Fund, which promotes equality in immigration laws for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals, told CNN that gay rights advocates had been repeatedly misled by two key Democrats on the Judiciary Committee — Chuck Schumer of New York and Richard Durbin of Illinois, who are also part of the “Gang of Eight.”

“It is important to note that, when the Senate immigration framework (which Schumer and Durbin helped write) did not include LGBT couples, both senators assured our families they would be in the base bill,” Steve Rall said in an e-mail.

“When the base bill (which they also helped write) was not inclusive, they assured us we would receive a vote in committee. Now, they may be on the verge of breaking a third promise to LGBT families.”

“While Senator Leahy has stuck his neck out for LGBT couples, Schumer has remained notably silent,” Rall continued. “Despite Leahy’s leadership on the issue, if Schumer does not commit to casting the decisive 10th (committee) vote in favor of the amendments, they would not succeed.”

Schumer’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

But Max Gleischman, a spokesman for Durbin, told CNN that “Senator Durbin strongly supports equality for binational LGBT couples. While Senator Durbin supported including (Leahy’s proposal) in the base bill, he was one of eight members who negotiated a bipartisan compromise.”

“Immigration Equality’s decision to take pot shots at one of their strongest supporters is unfortunate, but Senator Durbin will continue to push for an immigration bill that is fair and just for everyone as the debate moves forward,” Gleischman added.

Earlier this month, Durbin noted the possibility that an upcoming ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on the federal Defense of Marriage Act could render the whole issue moot.

“The DOMA ruling could change this whole debate,” Durbin said. “They could eliminate DOMA and impose obligations on our federal government (relating to) same gender marriage, and that would dramatically change what we’re trying to achieve.”

The Gang of Eight’s bill creates a 13-year path to citizenship for most undocumented immigrants while strengthening border security and bringing dramatic change to labor policy on America’s farms.

If enacted, the plan would constitute the first overhaul of the nation’s immigration policy since 1986.

Proponents say the change is necessary to permanently and fairly resolve the status of roughly 11 million undocumented residents. Critics insist the proposed change amounts to amnesty, rewarding those who chose to break the country’s immigration laws.

Several Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives are currently working on a separate immigration reform plan.

(CNN) — After years of controversy, the latest version of the “psychiatric bible” — the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — has been released.

The DSM-5 (fifth edition)’s introduction, over the weekend at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting, marks “the end of more than a decade’s journey in revising the criteria for the diagnosis and classification of mental disorders,” the association says on the DSM-5 website.

The manual includes the criteria used by mental health professionals to diagnose patients. It’s also used by insurance companies, schools and other agencies responsible for covering and creating special provisions for individuals with developmental or mental disorders.

The overhaul — the first for the DSM since 1994 — has not come without opposition from activists, some grass-roots organizations and even the National Institute of Mental Health, which last month said it was launching a project aimed at laying the foundation for a new classification system and would be “re-orienting its research away from DSM categories.”

Here are five ways the DSM changes may affect you:

Being transgender no longer a mental disorder

The DSM-5 eliminates the term “gender identity disorder,” which mental health specialists, along with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists, had considered stigmatizing. It refers to “gender dysphoria,” which focuses attention only on those who feel distressed by their gender identity.

“I think it’s a significant change,” Jack Drescher, a member of the psychiatric association group that recommended the change, said late last year. “It’s clinically defensible, but it reduces the amount of stigma and harm that existed before.”

Homosexuality was removed from the DSM in 1973, a move he believes changed global views.

Some LGBT activists applauded the change, while others have questioned whether it goes far enough.

Bereavement or depression?

Previously, clinicians were advised against diagnosing major depression in people within two months after the death of a loved one: the “bereavement exclusion.”

The DSM-5 removes the exclusion, a move the psychiatric association says “helps prevent major depression from being overlooked and facilitates the possibility of appropriate treatment including therapy or other interventions.”

Research has shown that for some people, the death of a loved one can precipitate major depression — much like other stressors such as losing a job, the association says on the DSM-5 website. But “bereavement is the only life event and stressor specifically excluded from a diagnoses of major depression” in previous manuals.

Binge eating is officially an eating disorder

Binge eating was approved as its own category of eating disorder in the DSM-5. It’s defined as “recurring episodes of eating significantly more food in a short period of time than most people would eat under similar circumstances, with episodes marked by feelings of lack of control.”

According to the association, the move is aimed at “increasing awareness of the substantial differences between binge eating disorder and the common phenomenon of overeating. While overeating is a challenge for many Americans, recurrent binge eating is much less common, far more severe, and is associated with significant physical and psychological problems.”

Binge drinkers may be diagnosed as mild alcoholics

The revised DSM collapses the medical distinction between problem drinking and alcoholism. Some experts say this could lead college binge drinkers, for example, to be mislabeled as alcoholics, a diagnosis that may follow them into adulthood.

Prior DSM editions included “alcohol abuse,” along with the more serious “dependence.” However, the DSM-5 will make “alcohol use disorder” a single condition.

“The field of substance abuse and addiction has witnessed an explosion in important research in the past two decades,” said Dr. David Kupfer, chairman of the DSM-5 Task Force, in a February statement. The changes “reflect the best science in the field and provide new clarity in how to diagnose these disorders.”

Asperger’s syndrome becomes autism spectrum disorder

The proposal to group Asperger’s and other developmental conditions together generated a flurry of comments and concerns. In 2010, when the change was proposed, the Asperger’s Association of New England, a nonprofit organization with more than 3,000 members, wrote a letter to the American Psychiatric Association emphasizing that Asperger’s should remain separate.

But “the revised diagnosis represents a new, more accurate, and medically and scientifically useful way of diagnosing individuals with autism-related disorders,” the national group says on the DSM-5 website.

The work group that recommended the change “believes a single umbrella disorder will improve the diagnoses of ASD without limiting the sensitivity of the criteria, or substantially changing the number of children being diagnosed.”

In a statement on its website Tuesday, the New England association assures its members, “regardless of your diagnosis or label, we will continue to provide a gathering place where members of the Asperger’s community can connect to one another.”

WASHINGTON, D.C., – Peace Corps Deputy Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet today announced that the agency will begin accepting applications from same-sex domestic partners who want to serve together as volunteers overseas.  Same-sex couples may begin the application process starting Monday, June 3.

“Service in the Peace Corps is a life-defining leadership experience for Americans who want to make a difference around the world,” Deputy Director Hessler-Radelet said. “I am proud that the agency is taking this important step forward to allow same-sex domestic partners to serve overseas together.”

Expanding service opportunities to same-sex domestic partners who want to volunteer together further diversifies the pool of Peace Corps applicants and the skills of those invited to serve overseas in the fields of education, health, community economic development, environment, youth in development and agriculture. Married heterosexual couples have been serving together in the Peace Corps since its inception in 1961. Currently, 7 percent of Peace Corps assignments are filled by married volunteers serving together.

The Peace Corps requires formal documentation for all couples who want to serve, and same-sex domestic partners will be required to sign an affidavit before leaving for service that will act as verification of their relationship. The Peace Corps continually works with staff in host countries to identify placements that allow for safe and productive assignments.

Couples who serve together gain a unique perspective of host country customs and culture, but opportunities for couples are limited, as both applicants must apply at the same time and qualify for assignments at the same post. Many factors affect placements, including an applicant’s overall competitiveness, program availability, departure dates, and safety and medical accommodations. For any applicant, the number one factor in determining an assignment is the demand from host countries for skilled volunteers.

To learn more about serving in the Peace Corps as a same-sex couple, visit peacecorps.gov

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Wednesday, May 22, the White House will honor ten openly LGBT elected or appointed officials as “Harvey Milk Champions of Change.”  The event falls on Harvey Milk’s birthday and will recognize these individuals for their commitment to equality and public service.

“When President Obama posthumously awarded Harvey Milk the Medal of Freedom in 2009, he praised his leadership and courage in running for office.  Today, we honor Harvey Milk’s legacy in these ten outstanding public servants, who will surely inspire the next generation of public servants,” said Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to the president.

The Champions of Change program was created as an opportunity for the White house to feature groups of Americans – individuals, businesses and organizations – who are doing extraordinary things to empower and inspire members of their communities.

Simone Bell

Georgia State Representative

Atlanta, GA

Simone Bell serves in Georgia House District 58 in Atlanta, Georgia. After more than 20 years of advocacy and activism around a host of issues she won a special election in 2009 and became the first African American out lesbian to win a seat in a State House in the United States. Representative Bell serves on Inter-Governmental Coordination, Juvenile Justice, and Human Relations and Aging committees, and is a respected member of the Democratic Caucus WHIP Team. Representative Bell shares her life with her partner of 24 years, Valarie Acree.

Buhl O’Donnell

South Dakota State Senator

Sioux Falls, SD

Senator Buhl O’Donnell, 28, is in her second term in the South Dakota State Senate, serves as the minority caucus chair, and is the first openly LGBT person elected to any office in the state.  Senator Buhl O’Donnell has a background in non-profit work, and has advocated for LGBT South Dakotans, as well as for women, Native Americans, workers, low-income families, domestic violence and sexual assault victims.  A proud 4th generation South Dakotan, Senator Buhl O’Donnell represents the heart of Sioux Falls, South Dakota’s largest city, where she resides with her husband, Jacob.

Karen Clark

Minnesota State Representative

South Minneapolis, MN

Representative Karen Clark was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1980, making her the longest serving openly gay or lesbian state legislator in the country.  She represents three inner city neighborhoods in South Minneapolis, the lowest income district in the state.  Representative Clark is an advocate for low income, Indigenous American Indian and community of color constituents, including many new Americans.  A former public health nurse, current college instructor and co-founder of the Women’s Environmental Institute, some of Representative Clark’s major legislative accomplishments include chief authoring and passing worker and consumer right-to-know toxic exposure laws, affordable housing and homelessness initiatives, youth and dislocated worker job training strategies and numerous  human rights, environmental justice  and anti-discrimination protections. Recently, Representative Clark authored and helped pass the 2013 Minnesota Freedom to Marry bill with bi-partisan support.

Michael A. Gin

Mayor of Redondo Beach

Redondo Beach, CA

Mayor Michael A. Gin is currently serving on his second term as the 28th Mayor of the City of Redondo Beach, having been reelected in March 2009.  As Mayor, he has seen the city through several years of economic challenges with a consistently balanced budget and a thriving local economy.  He has worked to bring the community together from all sectors on various issues, resulting in uniquely collaborative solutions.  Mayor Gin has been in public service for over 20 years.

Kim Coco Iwamoto

Hawaii State Civil Rights Commissioner

Honolulu, HI

Kim Coco Iwamoto, a certified therapeutic foster parent, was elected to Hawaii’s State Board of Education in 2006 and re-elected in 2010.  During her time in office, Commissioner Iwamoto was able to implement many of the policy recommendations of the Department of Education’s Safe School Community Advisory Committee, and in 2011, she drafted the Hawaii Safe Schools Act, which gave the legislature and the governor an opportunity to join the effort to reduce bullying and harassment in public schools.  The bill was signed into law later that year.  In 2012, Commissioner Iwamoto was appointed and confirmed to the Hawaii State Civil Rights Commission.

John Laird

California Secretary of Natural Resources

Santa Cruz, CA

John Laird has a forty year public service career, including twenty-three years in elected office.  In 1983, he was one of the first openly gay Mayors in the country.  His election to the state legislature in 2002 made him one of the first openly gay men elected to the California legislature, where he was author of 82 bills signed into law and was part of leadership as Budget Chair. He was appointed California’s Secretary of Natural Resources on January 5, 2011.  Secretary Laird resides in Santa Cruz and Sacramento, with his spouse John Flores.

Ricardo Lara

California State Senator

Long Beach, CA

In 2012, Senator Ricardo Lara, a native of East Los Angeles, became the first openly gay person of color elected to the California State Senate.  He is the first LGBT legislator to Chair the California Latino Legislative Caucus and also serves as Vice Chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee and as a member of the Committee on Senate Rules.  Senator Lara represents parts of Southeast Los Angeles and Long Beach, which is home to the nation’s largest port complex and one of the most diverse populations in the United States.

Kim Painter

Johnson Country Recorder

Iowa City, IA

Kim Painter serves as Johnson County Recorder in Iowa City, Iowa.  In 1998, she became the first openly gay person to win election to public office in Iowa.  In 2007, she was selected by peers to serve as president of the Iowa State Association of Counties.  She has also chaired Iowa’s Commission on the Status of Women.  She and spouse Jessica Kardon have been together for 17 years. They married in Iowa in 2009.

Chris Seelbach

Cincinnati City Council Member

Cincinnati, OH

When he was elected in 2011, Chris Seelbach became the first openly gay person ever elected in the city of Cincinnati.  Since taking office, Council Member Seelbach has led efforts to extend equal partner health insurance to all city employees, create an LGBT liaison in the police and fire departments, and make it mandatory for anyone accepting subsidies or funding from the city to agree, in writing, to follow an inclusive non-discrimination policy.

Pat Steadman

Colorado State Senator

Denver, CO

An attorney by training, Senator Pat Steadman has worked for equal rights for LGBT Coloradans for over two decades.  In 1992, he helped organize the lawsuit challenging Colorado’s infamous “Amendment 2,” an anti-gay initiative that was declared unconstitutional by the United State Supreme Court in 1996 in the landmark Romer v. Evans ruling.  Prior to his election, Senator Steadman was a partner in a successful lobbying firm in Denver where his clients included LGBT advocacy groups, and on their behalf he championed anti-discrimination laws, second parent adoption, hate crimes protections and equal benefits laws.  Senator Steadman was the lead sponsor of Colorado’s recently enacted civil unions law.

Sally Ride

WASHINGTON, D.C.– Today, President Barack Obama announced he will award a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom to Dr. Sally Ride, the first American female astronaut to travel to space.  The Medal of Freedom is the Nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

President Obama said, “We remember Sally Ride not just as a national hero, but as a role model to generations of young women. Sally inspired us to reach for the stars, and she advocated for a greater focus on the science, technology, engineering and math that would help us get there. Sally showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve, and I look forward to welcoming her family to the White House as we celebrate her life and legacy.”

Americans were first introduced to Dr. Sally Ride when she traveled on the Space Shuttle in 1983.  After leaving NASA in 1987, she focused her efforts on science education and on teaching girls in particular that there are no limits to what they can accomplish.  Dr. Ride founded Sally Ride Science in 2001 to develop and provide classroom materials, programs, and professional development opportunities for K-12 science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) educators.  She placed a strong emphasis on gender and racial equality in the classroom and on introducing students to working scientists, engineers and mathematicians who exemplified this diversity in their respective fields.  Dr. Ride was one of the architects and drivers of the Administration’s ongoing efforts to maximize participation of underrepresented groups in STEM classes and careers. And her devotion to the exploration of space never wavered, as multiple Administrations, including President Obama’s, called on Dr. Ride to serve on advisory boards focused on national space exploration efforts.

Dr. Ride’s partner, mother, and sister were notified last week of the president’s decision to award her with the Nation’s highest civilian honor for her contributions to the U.S. space program and education system. The remainder of the honorees selected by the president will be announced over the coming weeks and the awards will be presented at a White House ceremony later this year.

E. W. Jackson

(CNN) — An outspoken and provocative conservative who emerged from Saturday’s Republican Party of Virginia Convention as the party’s nominee for lieutenant governor once compared Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan and blasted African-Americans for their “slavish devotion” to the Democratic Party.

E.W. Jackson, an African-American pastor and attorney from Chesapeake, made the comments in a self-produced “message to black Christians” posted on YouTube last year.

“The Democrat Party has created an unholy alliance between certain so-called civil rights leaders and Planned Parenthood, which has killed unborn black babies by the tens of millions. Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was,” he said in the video. “And the Democrat Party and the black civil rights allies are partners in this genocide.”

Sensing an opportunity to tie Jackson to the rest of the Republican ticket in Virginia, especially conservative gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli, Democrats have already started highlighting those remarks and others in emails to reporters.

Cuccinelli, the state Attorney General, will face Democrat Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, in the November election.

Cuccinelli and Jackson were nominated at Saturday’s GOP convention in Richmond, where Jackson beat out six other candidates for the number two spot on the ticket. Party activists tapped Mark Obenshain to be their nominee for attorney general.

Jackson, the founder of a nondenominational church, is a former Marine and graduate of Harvard Law School. But he is rapidly becoming known for a raft of controversial statements that have bubbled up online in the wake of his surprise victory on Saturday. He has publicly questioned President Barack Obama’s faith and has been spearheading efforts to recruit black Democrats to the GOP since last year, when he unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Virginia.

“Shame on us for allowing ourselves to be sold to the highest bidder. We belong to God,” he said in the video. “Our ancestors were sold against their will centuries ago, but we’re going through the slave market voluntarily today.”

As lieutenant governor, Jackson would hold the tie-breaking vote in what is currently an evenly divided state Senate. Republicans currently hold the lieutenant governorship and control of the 40-seat body. But with the unpolished Jackson as the GOP nominee, Democrats are now a safe bet to pick up the lieutenant governor’s office and control of the senate.

Democrats will decide their nominee in a June 11 primary. To the frustration of establishment Republicans, GOP activists in the state chose to nominate their candidates at a convention instead of in a primary, a move that gave a relatively small group of conservative activists control over the nomination process.

A purple state, Virginia currently has a Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, but voted for Obama in the last two presidential elections.

Poll numbers so far show neither party with a sizable lead in the race, less than six months before Election Day. Because Virginia voters elect the governor and lieutenant governor separately, it’s possible that the winners could be from different parties.

Anderson Cooper Photo: CNN

(CNN) — CNN anchor Anderson Cooper played the groom in a surreal wedding scene send-off for Bill Hader’s Stefon character on the season finale of “Saturday Night Live.”

Hader announced last week that he was leaving SNL after eight seasons to move to California and get more sleep, which meant his memorable characters were also saying goodbye.

Stefon — Weekend Update’s New York City correspondent — gave one last report Saturday night, rushing off the set after telling anchor Seth Meyers, “You never respect me.”

“I didn’t want to do this here, but I’ve met someone else, and he’s a lot like you, except he likes me for me, and we are getting married,” Stefon said. “Bye, Seth Meyers.”

Stefon has always appeared to have a unrequited gay crush on the straight Meyers, but now Meyers seemed hurt by the rejection.

“Hey, go to him,” Meyers’ “platonic work friend” Amy Poehler said. “It’s never too late. Follow your heart.”

Thus began a bizarre pre-produced segment that parodied the “Wayne’s World” parody of Dustin Hoffman’s frantic run to interrupt his true love’s wedding in “The Graduate.”

Meyers ran from NBC’s Rockefeller Center headquarters down 5th Avenue to Marble Collegiate Church, where he found Stefon at the altar.

Fetish characters described in Stefon’s many SNL reports made up the bridal party, including “human traffic cones” as bridesmaids.

The camera panned to reveal his groom — Anderson Cooper.

A brawl ensued when Cooper stopped Meyers in the aisle. “Get ready for Anderson Cooper — 360!” he said as he went into a slow motion round-about spin. But one punch from Meyers knocked Cooper out.

Meyers grabbed Stefon, and the couple dashed away, while DJ Baby Bok Choy — another character from Stefon’s reports — blocked Cooper from following. Wedding guests — including smurfs, a gremlin and Alf — converged to celebrate.

Ben Affleck, host of the last episode of SNL’s 38th season, made a cameo appearance, yelling to Meyers: “Follow your heart, bro. Follow it!”

Meyers and Stefon then reappeared live on the “Weekend Update” set as SNL cast members tossed rice on them.

Meyers is taking over NBC’s “Late Night” show next year, although he is expected to return to SNL for season 39.

LOS ANGELES — In an effort to encourage condom use and safer sex practices, the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health will begin distributing its official “L.A. Condom” in a 40-foot condom mobile that made its debut at Long Beach Pride. Condoms being distributed feature new wrappers designed by local residents as part of last summer’s “L.A. Condom” wrapper design contest.

The goal of the campaign is to distribute one million and one (1,000,001) condoms by the end of 2013. To help distribute the condoms, the campaign also announced that it is partnering with local lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) intramural sports leagues, including the Los Angeles Flag Football League, Lambda Basketball and The Greater Los Angeles Softball Association. Other sports and activity groups are also encouraged to sign up for the condom distribution program.

Team members from the LA Flag Football League, Lambda Basketball and The Greater L.A. Softball Association also volunteered to be featured in the new campaign ads.

“Gay athletes have always been in sports and we’re delighted some professional athletes have made steps to live their life honestly in the public’s eye. We’re hopeful that this recent attention can help Lambda Basketball shine a light on causes important to us,” said Garsten Bergquist, vice president, Lambda Basketball. “Health education and community service are a part of our mission, so we’re happy to help promote a healthy lifestyle – whether it’s staying active by playing in a team sport or by using condoms and getting tested regularly for HIV or STDs.”

“Some of the guys I play with were not out of the closet when they first joined the LA Flag Football League. Our group is so diverse and inclusive that we even have straight guys that play football with us,” said Ralph Sansano of the gay Los Angeles Flag Football League. “We’re happy to break stereotypes of what it means to be gay, bisexual or even straight. And we’re also proud to be out in the community to help promote safer sex and condoms.”

“Since 1978, we’ve been a safe place for the LGBT community to play competitive softball,” said Ken Scearce, commissioner of The Greater Los Angeles Softball Association. “HIV is still a reality in our community and condoms are still the most effective way to prevent it. So, we’re happy to spread the word and distribute some free condoms during Pride season and at our upcoming events.”

Last June, L.A. County Public Health’s Division of HIV and STD Programs announced the winners of its first-ever condom contest to design an official Los Angeles branded condom wrapper. The contest received over 500 entries with more than 185,000 online votes cast.

An estimated 2,000 new HIV infections occur annually in L.A. County.  In 2011, the Department of Public Health reported more than 47,500 new cases of chlamydia, more than 9,500 new cases of gonorrhea and nearly 1,800 new cases of syphilis.

The L.A. Sex Symbol program is funded by the County of Los Angeles, Department of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This initiative is intended to increase condom use, drive awareness of HIV and STD prevention, and provide information about HIV/AIDS and STD treatment and care.

ATLANTA (CNN) — Past, present and future came together on a thunderstorm-filled Sunday, as President Barack Obama received an honorary doctorate and gave the commencement speech at historically black Morehouse College, where the Rev. Martin Luther King and many other prominent African-Americans spent their formative years.

After opening with several one-liners, and more smiles than we’ve seen from him in the damage-control-filled recent weeks, Obama delivered a serious message to the class of 2013.

During a speech rife with both personal and historical references, the president invoked a past full of challenges, often resulting from racism, but noted that African-Americans need to break free from that past to succeed in a globally competitive economy.

“I understand that there’s a common fraternity creed here at Morehouse: ‘Excuses are tools of the incompetent, used to build bridges to nowhere and monuments of nothingness,’” Obama said.

“We’ve got no time for excuses — not because the bitter legacies of slavery and segregation have vanished entirely; they have not. Not because racism and discrimination no longer exist; we know those are still out there. It’s just that in today’s hyperconnected, hypercompetitive world, with millions of young people from China and India and Brazil — many of whom started with a whole lot less than all of you did — all of them entering the global workforce alongside you, nobody is going to give you anything that you have not earned,” he said.

“Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination. And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you’ve gone through, it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured — and they overcame them. And if they overcame them, you can overcome them, too,” he said.

Morehouse valedictorian Betsegaw Tadele praised Obama for setting a strong example.

“There is no impossible. There is no unbelievable. There is no unachievable, if you have the audacity to hope,” Tadele said, paraphrasing the name of the president’s 2006 book, “The Audacity of Hope.”

Following Tadele — whom Obama jokingly called “a skinny guy with a funny name” — Obama reflected on how being an African-American has affected his personal journey.

“Whatever success I have achieved, whatever positions of leadership I’ve held, have depended less on Ivy League degrees or SAT scores or GPAs, and have instead been due to that sense of connection and empathy, the special obligation I felt, as a black man like you, to help those who need it most; people who didn’t have the opportunities that I had — because there, but for the grace of God, go I. I might have been in their shoes. I might have been in prison. I might have been unemployed. I might not have been able to support a family. And that motivates me,” the president said.

The president’s repeated mention of connection to the black community comes after blunt criticism from Morehouse alumnus Kevin Johnson, a pastor from Philadelphia, who criticized Obama in an April 14 editorial in the Philadelphia Tribune, calling him “a president for everyone, except black people.”

Johnson gave a baccalaureate sermon on Saturday as part of Morehouse’s graduation weekend.

The president’s speech on Sunday was well-received, though the crowd had to brave some thunder and lightning and endure pouring rain.

One awkward silence came when Obama slightly deviated from his prepared remarks. He was expected to say, “Be the best husband to your wife, or boyfriend to your partner.” However, instead, he said “Be the best husband to your wife, or your boyfriend, or your partner,” eliciting some clearly confused responses from the crowd.

Later, he noted that Morehouse men can set examples for other groups that have been subjected to discrimination: Hispanics, gays and lesbians, Muslims, and women.

“It is not just the African-American community that needs you. The country needs you. The world needs you. As Morehouse men, many of you know what it’s like to be an outsider; know what it’s like to be marginalized; know what it’s like to feel the sting of discrimination. And that’s an experience that a lot of Americans share,” he said.

Obama finished his speech with a message not just to the newly minted Morehouse grads, but to all Americans — a message based on Martin Luther King’s refusal to be afraid.

“That’s what being an American is all about. Success may not come quickly or easily. But if you strive to do what’s right; if you work harder and dream bigger; if you set an example in your own lives and do your part to help meet the challenges of our times, then I am confident that, together, we will continue the never-ending task of perfecting our union.”

NEW YORK (CNN) — Police are investigating the slaying of a 32-year-old man in the Greenwich Village neighborhood early Saturday as a hate crime because the gunman made multiple anti-gay comments, they said.

It is the third violent attack in two weeks believed to be motivated by anti-gay bias, police said.

The suspect’s anti-gay remarks were noted before the shooting took place, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. The man was seen urinating on the street outside a bar before going inside and making anti-gay comments to the bartender and brandishing a silver handgun.

A little after midnight, the gunman and two other companions confronted the victim, Marc Carson, and another man he was with on the street. The suspect reportedly made anti-gay remarks and asked them whether they were “gay wrestlers,” Kelly said.

Carson and the other man turned toward the taunts, but backed down and kept walking away. They didn’t know it, Kelly said, but the suspect followed them.

The gunman confronted the two men again, before shooting Carson in the face, police said.

Carson was pronounced dead on arrival at Beth Israel Hospital.

Around 4 a.m., a police officer, responding to a radio alert of the shooting, came across the alleged gunman and apprehended him. The suspect turned over a silver Taurus .38-caliber six-shot revolver, according to police.

Police later identified the suspect as Elliot Morales, 33. Police said the suspect had forged identification and they used facial recognition technology to determine his true identity.

Morales faces a charge of second-degree murder as a hate crime, authorities said.

The identities of the suspect’s two companions — at least one of whom Kelly said left the suspect before the shooting — are still not known.

Kelly said that the killing appeared to be “a hate crime, a bias crime.” There were no words that would aggravate the situation, and the victim did not know the perpetrator, he said.

According to Kelly, there have been 22 bias-motivated events this year. That’s up “significantly” from 13 this time last year.

On May 10, five men brutally beat two gay men near Madison Square Garden after the couple was denied entry into an after-hours billiards bar, according to Port Authority Police. The victims suffered severe facial injuries. Police were able to arrest two of the five men; the rest fled the scene.

There was another attack on gay men on May 5, outside of Madison Square Garden following a New York Knicks game. One of the victims told CNN affiliate WCBS he believes the attack wasn’t an isolated incident.

“There is no words to describe the pain, ’cause this was not an attack on us, this was an attack on all of us,” he said.

Kelly said authorities do not believe the acts are connected, but the investigations are ongoing.

“It’s not a pattern,” he said, “but something that concerns us.”

Herndon Graddick

NEW YORK – GLAAD, the nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy organization, today announced the resignation of President Herndon Graddick.

Under Graddick’s tenure, GLAAD began campaigns including a national call for the Boy Scouts of America to end their ban on gay scouts and scout leaders. The organization also announced a continuation of its commitment to incorporate bisexual and transgender people as well as allies from diverse backgrounds in GLAAD’s work to shape the media narrative and build public support for LGBT people.

“GLAAD is very grateful for Herndon’s work championing LGBT rights, especially his work on behalf of the trans community,” said GLAAD Board of Directors Chair Thom Reilly. “On behalf of the entire organization, I want to wish him the best.”

“I’m proud to leave GLAAD with a stronger, more efficient organization and an incredibly talented and experienced board and staff. I’m happy the role I was able to play in advancing the need for our community to fully support the rights of our transgender brothers and sisters. Our movement is benefited by the leadership not only of heroes like Evan Wolfson, Chad Griffin, Mara Keisling, and Kate Kendell, but of the necessary and vital blogger and grassroots communities. I look forward to returning to a private life and supporting the fight from behind the scenes,” said Graddick.

GLAAD’s Chief of Staff Dave Montez is serving as acting president. In addition to continuing to lead GLAAD’s development team, he will oversee GLAAD’s staff on the ground in Dallas next week throughout the Boy Scouts of America’s vote on whether to end their ban on gay scouts and leaders as part of GLAAD’s Boy Scouts campaign. GLAAD staff members are continuing work to share stories in the media of marriage equality in advance of next month’s Supreme Court decision as well as pushing for comprehensive immigration reform, increased trans visibility in the media, LGBT acceptance in professional sports, and building acceptance of LGBT people.

“GLAAD makes a great impact and the board has complete confidence that Dave’s proven leadership in building coalitions across diverse communities, advocating for lasting change, as well as fundraising for social justice causes will continue to forward the work of GLAAD in his role as acting president,” said Reilly.

The GLAAD board of directors is scheduled to meet later this month in New York City to determine next steps.

Pat Robertson Photo: CNN

(CNN Belief Blog) — The Christian Broadcasting Network regrets the misunderstanding. Again.

Pat Robertson, the network’s 83-year-old founder, was not condoning adultery when he answered a viewer’s question on “The 700 Club” this week, the network said.

The viewer said she was having difficulty forgiving her husband for cheating. Robertson said the “secret” was to “stop talking about the cheating. He cheated on you. Well, he’s a man. OK.”

Robertson went on to suggest the woman focus on why she had married her husband and whether he provided for her needs and those of their children, adding, “Is he handsome? Start focusing on these things and essentially fall in love all over again.”

“Males have a tendency to wander a little bit. And what you want to do is make a home so wonderful he doesn’t want to wander.”

CBN spokesman Chris Roslan wrote in a statement that Robertson’s “intent was not to condone infidelity or to cast blame. We regret any misunderstanding.”

Robertson’s off-the-cuff comments through the years have perplexed and angered other Christian leaders. One Christian pastor said his New Year’s resolution was to not comment on Robertson’s gaffes for an entire year.

Here are some of Robertson’s most memorable statements:

1. The U.S. should kill Chavez

In 2005 Robertson suggested the United States should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

“We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with,” he said in a segment about the now-deceased head of state.

After considerable outcry, the minister backtracked and released a statement saying, “Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him.”

A U.S. State Department official called the remarks “inappropriate.”

2. How bad is weed, really?

Robertson, who once ran for president as a Republican, broke ranks with religious conservatives by endorsing the legalization of marijuana. “I believe in working with the hearts of people, and not locking them up,” he said in a 2010 broadcast of “The 700 Club.”

Cue spokesman Chris Roslan, who wrote, “Pat has never condoned the use of, nor does he use, marijuana.”

3. You know who’s to blame for that earthquake in Haiti? Haitians.

Shortly after a 2010 earthquake in Haiti left more than 220,000 people dead and Port-au-Prince decimated, Robertson referenced a slave revolt in 1804, where, legend has it, the Haitian slaves made a deal with the devil to shake off French colonialism.

“And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal,’” Robertson said one day after the quake.

“You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.”

That day CBN quickly clarified: “Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God’s wrath. If you watch the entire video segment, Dr. Robertson’s compassion for the people of Haiti is clear.” In fact, while Robertson was talking about Haiti on TV, his charitable arm Operation Blessing was already on the ground providing medical treatment, food, and supplies to victims.

4. Gay days = hurricanes and possibly meteors

In June 1998, after Walt Disney World announced it would have special days for gay and lesbian families in Orlando, and city officials announced they would fly rainbow flags in support of the event, Robertson warned the city, “You’re right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don’t think I’d be waving those flags in God’s face if I were you.”

Robertson told the Orlando Sentinel at the time that his comments were taken out of context and released a full transcript of what he said on the show:

“So if the United States wants to embrace ‘degrading passions’ – according to the Bible, something that the Bible says is an abomination against God – we’re not in any way, shape or form hating anybody. This is not a message of hate; this is a message of redemption. But if a condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation; if it will bring about terrorist bombs; if it’ll bring about earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor, it isn’t necessarily something we ought to open our arms to. And I would warn Orlando that you’re right in the way of some serious hurricanes and I don’t think I’d be waving those flags in God’s face if I were you.”

David Beckham

(CNN) — Father, son, husband of a Spice Girl, fashion icon, role model, sporting ambassador. It is sometimes easy to forget that David Beckham was ever a midfielder of the highest caliber with more than 100 appearances for England.

He wore a sarong, a headscarf, nail varnish, adorned his body with tattoos and changed his expertly coiffured hair-do practically every week. He spoke sparingly and, when he did, it was with a high-pitched, slightly effeminate whine. And, as far as anyone could tell, his female partner seemed to make all the important decisions. And yet his masculinity was never in doubt.

In the 1990s, we called Beckham a New Man, or a metrosexual. He was evidently straight, but never aggressive or even assertive in a traditional masculine way. In fact, he seemed mild-mannered. He dressed stylishly — if a little too flamboyantly for many tastes — groomed himself painstakingly and appeared unembarrassed when asked about his formidable following of gay fans.

There was a shimmering complexity, a quiet elegance, and perhaps even a sly wit about Beckham. Footballers, as the world knew them, were hard-boiled characters, who liked a drink and a good play up, especially after a game. Their reputation was hewn from the granite of working class tradition — men were tough and affectless. We can barely imagine the reaction in the locker room when Beckham unpacked moisturizer, bronzer, and assorted hair products from his kit bag.

In the late 1990s, when he first surfaced, only Beckham could get away with it. After all, he enjoyed the adoration of women all over the world, had a pop star girlfriend and soon-to-be wife, and had to fend off advertisers who clamored for his endorsement services. He was a man with the world at his feet. He still is.

Today, cultural history is unimaginable without Beckham — because he helped change that history. He slew the image of the unrelentingly macho sport hero and emerged heroically as the world’s first all-purpose celebrity athlete. A symbol of a new masculinity.

And still we have to remind ourselves: Beckham was never rated as the best footballer in the world. And, far from being a hellraiser or a serial womanizer like many a notorious sports figure, he was squeaky clean.

Well, at least until 2004 when the News of the World tabloid alleged that he had an affair with his assistant — something he denied. Paradoxically, the alleged affair added rather than subtracted from his already iconic status, introducing a dash of devilry and rescuing Beckham from a kind of borderline piousness, and perhaps issuing a reminder that, despite all the affectations, his manhood was beyond doubt.

So why is Beckham the game-changing celebrity athlete?

There were two David Beckhams: one the flesh-and-blood mortal who kicked a ball around for a living, the other a character that existed independently of time and space — a product of our imaginations.

Everyone thought they knew Beckham and enjoyed a secret relationship with him. He was like a blank canvas. Had he espoused his own views, or aligned himself with great causes he would have spoiled it. But he was silent, giving interviews rarely — and, I suspect, at Victoria’s discretion. And while he stayed largely unknown, the Beckham mystique grew.

When Beckham first entered the popular consciousness it was amid feelings of hate and revenge. Red-carded in a crucial England game against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup, Beckham was blamed for his team’s exit. Effigies of him were burnt and he was forced to retreat. It’s difficult to imagine the intensity of the loathing back then. Yet it was crucial in generating interest, even, passion.

The sight, even the name of Beckham stirred up powerful feelings. Football fans may have despised him, but others were just curious. And they became more curious as Beckham defiantly refused to give interviews or make public appearances, save for at the occasional fashion launch or a party hosted by a rock star or designer. All this was very un-footballer-like and faintly unmanly.

By the time Beckham and Victoria were married in 1999, interest in him had extended far beyond the football fraternity. His most devoted followers knew nothing of football. Unlike traditional sport fans, they were not interested in how he played: they were interested in him — just Beckham.

At the start of the 21st century, there was only an embryonic celebrity culture; the fascination we now have for people who make no material impact on our lives and, in many cases, had no accomplishments of note was a new and perplexing development. Fans knew famous sportsmen and women by their talents and achievements. Beckham was different, he was known for being Beckham and, in this sense, he was among the first generation of celebrities.

Beckham’s departure from football will not mean his disappearance. He will remain on our TV screens, in our magazines and on advertising hoardings the world over. But most significantly, he will remain in our imaginations.

David Beckham Photo: CNN

(CNN) — David Beckham was always adept at curling the ball around a wall — but when it came to the barrier of homosexuality in football, he broke straight through it.

Former England captain Beckham, who announced his retirement from football Thursday, was the first superstar footballer to embrace his “gay icon” status, freely giving interviews to gay magazines and openly talking about his gay fan base.

That attitude was the catalyst for a change, according to author and journalist, Chas Newkey-Burden.

“What David Beckham did was break the long silence about homosexuality in football,” Newkey-Burden told CNN.

“Before Beckham came along, it was basically a taboo but he changed all that.

“He openly courted his gay fan base, saying he loved being a gay icon and was happy for his wife to broadcast that around.

“He was the first to give interviews to gay magazines — before that, no footballer would have done that.

“He also changed the way footballers were looked at. He was inherently good looking, but it was that he paid so much attention to his appearance that was unprecedented.”

In an interview with the BBC given in 2007, Beckham spoke of his pride at being tagged as a “gay icon”.

“Maybe it’s things like (the fact) I like to look after myself, I like to look smart and presentable most of the time,” he said at the time.

“I always liked to look good, even when I was a little kid. I was given the option when I was a page boy once of either wearing a suit or wearing knickerbockers and long socks and ballet shoes — and I chose the ballet shoes and knickerbockers.”

Once Newkey-Burden spent five months trying to organize an interview with the midfielder, only for the player himself to sanction the piece after reading one of the journalist’s articles on football and homosexuality in Four Four Two magazine.

“David read the piece I did about how far football had come in dealing with homophobia,” Newkey-Burden recalled.

“I know he was very moved by the fact I wrote how he had opened the door to change and that is what swung getting me the interview with him.

“Look, there are 92 league clubs in England with each squad having around 20 players, so statistically, there must be some gay players, ” added the journalist.

“One day it will be common place for footballers to come out and David Beckham will have played a part in that.

“He opened the door and it is the person who opens the door who makes the difference.

“Beckham said to the world: ‘I’m straight, I’m the England captain and I think it’s cool people are gay.’”

Despite Beckham embracing his “gay icon” status, football continues to struggle with homophobia.

Last February, U.S. football star Robbie Rogers announced he was retiring from football after “coming out” — leaving Swedish player Anton Hysen as the only openly gay player in Europe.

Rogers might yet make a return given he has been training with Los Angeles Galaxy.

Beckham was also key in footballers becoming fashionistas and attracting interest from the mainstream media, according to Newkey Burden.

“Gay football fans don’t want 11 neatly coiffured and manicured players to admire,” said the journalist and celebrity biographer who has written books about Adele, Brangelina, Michael Jackson and Paris Hilton.

“They’re more attracted to the old-fashioned kind of player like Vinny Jones or Alan Shearer if I’m honest.

“But Beckham was someone who was proud to be a gay icon and made it cool too.

“Just look at the number of metrosexuals who have emerged since Beckham.

“It’s now OK for players to have silly, floppy hair and dress in the way they do. He did that.”

Players now try to trend it like Beckham more often than they try to bend it like Beckham.

From wearing his wife’s underwear to parading around in a sarong, the former Manchester United, Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain man has never been one to shy away from experimentation.

While former Spice Girl Victoria has gone on to establish herself as a leading fashion designer, it is Beckham who brought men into the 21st century with his eye for the latest trends.

From his outrageous hair styles to his love of grooming and moisturizing, Beckham relaunched the notion of the metroxsexual along with his very own brand of cologne.

Whether it was by provocatively modelng in his Armani underwear or being paraded in front of the press in another exquisitely tailored suit, Beckham set the bar high when it came to looking sharp.

“Beckham was the antithesis to the godawful lad culture of the late Nineties,” GQ.co.uk fashion editor Nick Carvell told CNN.

“Being a footballer who was clearly motivated by fashion trends and absolutely loved clothes, he turned the idea of what it meant to be a stylish sportsman at the time on its head.

“Sure he made some mistakes along the way (cornrows), but that’s what made him a trendsetter — he always led and never followed.

“He was certainly one of the first celebrities to de-stigmatize grooming pursuits that were previously seen as girls-only (his early penchant for highlights comes to mind).

“Lots of people would say that it helps he has an athlete’s body, but there are plenty of sportsman who dress appallingly.

“I think it’s his willingness to try new things combined with a clear appreciation for a good tailor.

“He might have worn the occasional eye-raising get-up when he was younger, but it always fitted perfectly.”

That infamous sarong, which he was pictured wearing in 1998, was certainly one “eye-raising item” but as Newkey-Burden explains, Beckham had no regrets.

“When I interviewed him in 2006, I asked Beckham if he regretted wearing that ‘dress’. He said: ‘No, that’s one of the things I’d do again!’”

(CNN) — France’s top court ruled Friday that a bill permitting same-sex marriage and allowing gay couples to adopt children adheres to the constitution.

President Francois Hollande is expected to sign the bill into law on Saturday.

After the lower house of Parliament, dominated by Hollande’s governing Socialist Party, passed the bill last month, conservative and centrist senators filed a legal challenge with the court, the Constitutional Council.

The legislation admits France to a small but growing club.

Lawmakers in New Zealand this year made it the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize same-sex marriage. The law is set to be enacted later this year.

Its move came a week after Uruguayan lawmakers approved a measure allowing same-sex marriage. The measure awaits the signature of Uruguay’s president, who has indicated he supports it.

If and when the laws in New Zealand, Uruguay and France are enacted as expected, the count of nations allowing same-sex marriage will rise to 14.

France would be the ninth country in Europe to allow same sex marriage.

The first same-sex couples walked down the aisle in the Netherlands in 2001, with others following suit in Canada, South Africa, Belgium and Spain. Argentina was the first Latin American nation to legalize such marriages, in 2010. Other countries on the list are Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden.

Many countries remain split over the issue. A Brazilian court this week issued a directive removing a barrier that had limited same-sex marriage, but no bill has made it through Congress.

Legislators in the United Kingdom are also weighing proposals to legalize same-sex marriage. Lawmakers in Australia voted against a bill to legalize same-sex marriage last September. A poll for the advocacy group Australian Marriage Equality indicated that 64% of those surveyed “support marriage equality.”

In the United States, the question went before the Supreme Court and justices are now deliberating over the matter.

Twelve U.S. states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriages. On the other side, many states have specific laws blocking same-sex couples from legally marrying.

In a sign of just how difficult the nascent gay rights movement is in the relatively new, relatively democratic country of Georgia, protesters, led by leaders of the Orthodox Christian Church derailed a gay pride parade shortly after it was scheduled to get under way. Thousands of anti-gay protestors, some with signs reading “We don’t need Sodom and Gomorrah!” threatened to lash the participants with stinging nettles.

A similar rally in the capital of Tbilisi was also cut short last year when police, clearly outnumbered and overwhelmed, were forced to escort members of the LGBT community out of the square where they were set to march.

The reaction from the church was unsurprisingly pointed. Father David, a priest who was one of the organizers of Friday’s anti-gay rally, said the parade “insults people’s traditions and national sentiments.” His views, however, continue to represent the majority in a part of the world that has not nurtured democratic principles for long. President Vladimir Putin of Russia recently stated that he would review his relationship with France regarding adoptions after the nation recently legalized same-sex marriage. He argued that France must respect the “cultural norms” of his country.

These views are not just limited to the country’s elders whom one might expect to hold more traditional, more conservative views. Young people are equally aghast at homosexuality. According to a report on Ames, Iowa’s Channel 5, 21-year-old student Nikolai Kiladze said, “We are against the propaganda of homosexuality. If we need to allow parades like this in order to become a member of the European Union or other Western organizations and blocs, then I’m against joining these organizations.”

Georgia’s authorities had given the green light for the gay parade to take place, saying that all Georgian citizens, irrespective of their sexuality, are entitled to voice their views in public.

Video message by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, on International Day Against Homophobia, May 17, 2013

“Today, as we commemorate International Day Against Homophobia, we rededicate ourselves to a basic but essential truth – that human rights are universal and must be protected for all.  Homophobia, sadly, is present in every corner of our world.  And, it is a problem we continue to face here in the United States.

“At the United Nations, the United States is standing up for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and fighting to ensure that their voices are heard and protected.  The United States was proud to co-sponsor and adopt an historic resolution at the UN Human Rights Council condemning human rights abuses and violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

“We will continue to work in every possible arena to protect communities and promote societies in which everyone – especially LGBT youth – can live safely and without fear regardless of who they are or whom they love.  We call on all nations and all peoples to join us in ensuring that human rights are universally protected everywhere every day.”

 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), a non-profit public-private partnership focused on helping all digital citizens stay safer and more secure online, today announced a new collaboration initiative with the LGBT Technology Partnership to encourage greater awareness about cybersecurity and safety issues for LGBT communities.

The LGBT Technology Partnership works to provide a centralized, national presence for the many LGBT organizations and groups that are impacted by telecommunications, cable and technology policies. The organization also serves as a strong unified voice ensuring that policy implementation at the local, state and federal levels address the unique needs of the LGBT community.

While the NCSA has worked to educate all digital users about staying safe online for over a decade, the organization has increased its focus on more closely targeting specific populations with uniquely tailored awareness messages. This ongoing effort includes working with the LGBT Technology Partnership in creating an LGBT cyber education toolkit with fact sheets, tip sheets and posters.

Both organizations will also hold a Twitter Chat about LGBT cyber safety issues  June 13 in honor of Internet Safety Month and LGBT Pride Month. For more information, visitwww.stopthinkconnect.org/twitterchats.

“The Internet pervades our daily lives like never before and for specific populations such as the LGBT community, the Web is an integral tool to stay connected,” said Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance.  “Everyone with access to the Internet should be well educated about the importance of online safety and we believe that education and awareness is best received when it comes from a trusted a source. Our collaboration with the LGBT Technology Partnership allows for the dissemination of online safety and security practices via an organization with strong ties to their community. Since the LGBT community typically ranks among the earliest adopters of new technologies, it is critical that they have cutting edge information to make them safer and more secure online.”

“We are excited about our partnership with National Cyber Security Alliance and developing LGBT specific tips about staying safer online,” said Christopher Wood, co-founder of the LGBT Technology Partnership.  “The LGBT Technology Partnership’s mission is to make sure LGBT communities are aware of the significant benefits but also the underlying challenges that come with the early adoption of new technologies.  We are working with organizations like NSCA to make technological experiences safer for all communities.”

There is an increased need for ongoing cybersecurity education in LGBT communities through awareness initiatives. Past research has shown that an increased focus on cyber security awareness in the LGBT community is a necessity in a society where:

·       59 percent of gay men and 58 percent of lesbians are more likely to say they rely on technology to help manage their hectic lifestyles (“2012 LGBT Community Survey,” Community Marketing Inc.)

·       27 percent of gay men (mainly 18-29 year olds) and 18 percent of lesbians are early adopters of new technology products within their peer lifestyle networks (“2012 LGBT Community Survey,” Community Marketing Inc.)

·       Smartphone ownership among gay and lesbian consumers is almost a third more than the national average, with 87 percent LGBT smartphone owners compared to a 62 percent national average of smartphone owners (“2012 LGBT Community Survey,” Community Marketing Inc.)

For more details about the new partnership or LGBT cyber education materials, visit: www.staysafeonline.org.

Franklin Graham

(CNN) — Franklin Graham, one of the country’s most prominent evangelicals, says the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service included two of his ministries.

“I am bringing this to your attention because I believe that someone in the administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us,” Graham wrote in a letter Tuesday to President Barack Obama. The evangelical leader is the son of famed evangelist Billy Graham.

Graham said the IRS contacted the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, a North Carolina-based ministry, after it ran newspaper ads in that state in April encouraging support for an amendment against same-sex marriage. The group also bought newspaper ads in November encouraging Christians to vote for candidates who oppose same-sex marriage, support Israel and “base their decisions on biblical principles.”

Graham said the ads were purchased by funds donated by “friends of our ministry.”

In September, the IRS informed the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, an international aid group, that it would review the groups’ records for the tax year ending in 2010, according to Graham. IRS agents conducted the review in October, Graham said.

The organizations, both of which are run by Graham, later received notice that they remain eligible for federal tax exemptions, he said.

“I do not believe the IRS audits of our two organizations last year is a coincidence — or justifiable,” Graham said in the letter to Obama.

The IRS did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. The agency has acknowledged that it gave extra scrutiny to tea party groups applying for federal tax exemptions. The Treasury Department’s inspector general said in a report that the IRS’ use of “inappropriate criteria” ended in May 2012.

Obama said Tuesday that he has directed Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to hold IRS employees accountable for “these failures.”

“But regardless of how this conduct was allowed to take place, the bottom line is, it was wrong,” Obama said.

Each year since 2004, May 17 has marked  the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia (“IDAHO”) around the world. In more than 100 countries on all continents, activists and their allies are mobilizing.

The mobilization for the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia this year confirms that May 17 has become an annual landmark for the defense of human rights, as LGBT activists and their allies mark this date around the globe.

This mobilization includes:

• 17 African nations. In 14 of these countries homosexuality is legally punishable, with maximum prison sentences ranging from 3 months to 14 years.

• Several Middle-Eastern countries, including Egypt, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine.

• 17 of 21 countries in South and Central America.

• Several countries where there are more than 50 events planned around the day, including the UK, the US and Brazil.

Says Joel Bedos, executive director of the IDAHO committee, the organisation promoting the day worldwide, “The mobilization shows just how universal the fight for freedom and basic human rights is. Today, there are still 78 countries in which same-sex relationships are illegal.

“Although the world has made progress in relative terms, the actual number of people concerned by these laws is almost the same as in 1950, and today there are still 1.5 billion people who live under direct risk of criminal sanctions for same-sex relations. If we agree with the consensual figure of 3% of any population having a predominant emotional and sexual attraction to someone of the same sex, then we are talking about 45 million people whose love is illegal. That’s the population of Spain!

“And even if the decriminalization of homosexuality was to continue at the same pace it did since the ’50s, it still would be totally completed globally only in … 2040 !”

Around the world, hundreds of activists have unleashed their imagination to press their governments for change. This year, a special focus has been placed on staging ‘Rainbow Flashmobs’. In total, actions which connect with the “IDAHO Global Rainbow Flashmob” have been confirmed in 49 different countries. As part of this, multi-color dance flashmobs will happen through the streets of Nairobi and Bangkok, a “rainbow bubble” action is scheduled in Japan, and street parades are happening in Jakarta, Havanna and Managua !

And hundreds of other events are reported.

Amongst these, a special video The Riddle (see above) was released yesterday (May 14) by the United Nations’ Commissioner for Human Rights to mark the day. Still from the UN, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will deliver an address during a major Europe-wide conference organised by the government of the Netherlands, in presence of HM the Queen and bringing together major stakeholders in European and global politics.

Meanwhile Pop icon Mika will headline the giant concert organised for IDAHO in Paris,  May 21.

On the other side of the Altantic, Washington, D.C’s National Cathedral will be hosting an event which will bring key faith leaders together to discuss how progressive religious voices contribute to fighting homophobia. Similar events calling on the positive power of religions will happen in an additional 11 countries.

Says a Kenyan community activist, “The International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia creates an opportunity for all to celebrate the courage of the thousands of people who pursue the thought of Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small group of committed and thoughtful citizens can change the world ! And day after day, this is what we do !”

Shanghai Pride

June 14 the LGBT community in Shanghai will come together to celebrate its fifth anniversary. The eight-day event will be host to the usual assorted revelry, shirtlessness and tight Lycra short shorts. But amid the festivities, a note of seriousness will underscore what many see as an accomplishment in and of itself. “A week-long string of events has been planned to boost the LGBT’s community position in China and raise awareness around LGBT themes including marriage equality, sexual health and societal acceptance,” note event organizers.

While miniscule by Western standards, the 800 or so people that showed up for both last year’s opening and closing day festivities, demonstrated to the Chinese that a voice was emerging in a country where approval of same-sex marriage now hovers around 30 percent.

“We’re very optimistic that this year will be the biggest and most fun Pride yet, but more importantly it will be the most significant in terms of content,” said Dylan Chen, one of the event organizers. “With a greater focus on equality, advocacy and sexual health we hope that we can bring together people in a more meaningful way than we have done in the past. It’s time to stop being afraid of confronting the issues that seemed daunting to us before, it’s time for us to come together as a community and share our experiences and knowledge for the benefit of our society.”

This year’s Pride plans on showcasing independent queer cinema, too. The goal, event organizers state, is to make the Shanghai Gay and Lesbian Film Festival the largest of its kind in China in several years. This year’s Pride will also feature art and theatre performances.

It’s estimated that there are nearly 30 million gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in China many of whom are forced into cooperative marriages (xinghun) because of the intense social pressure to get married. But with each passing year, the growth of Pride events across China shows that change, however slow, will free thousands of young people to live their lives openly.

Being Alive HIV/AIDS Services is going green with the collection of plastic bottles and cans to support Daniel’s Pantry that feeds the clients every month. More than 400 people use the Pantry each month for a collection of canned goods, rice, fresh fruits and vegetables and some frozen meat. There are donation bins at local businesses and recyclables can be dropped off Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Being Alive, 4070 Centre Street, San Diego, 92103. For more information on this program call Harrison at 619-291-1400 ext. 320.

Being Alive is also continuing on the going green by collecting used cell phones, inkjet cartridges, mp3 players, laser cartridges, laptops, iPods, cds, dvds, blue rays, video games and other small electronic devices. This not only helps the environment it also raises needed money for the valuable services at Being Alive. Any items can be dropped off at Being Alive, 4070 Centre Street, San Diego, 92103 or at The Postal Place, 1010 University Ave., Suite C113 in Hillcrest. For more information on the e-waste recycling program call Terry at 619-291-1400 ext. 313.

Being Alive San Diego’s mission is to deliver quality and compassionate services to people affected by HIV/AIDS and to provide education to those in need. Being Alive was formed by 6 HIV + individuals in 1989 to address the need for “peer driven” support and services. Today Being Alive is the longest running AIDS service organization in San Diego, serving more than 10,000 individuals every year.

Last year, a court in Moscow ruled that the Pride celebrations cannot take place for the next 100 years. This means that organizing a Pride event in the city can first be realized in 2112.

Now Stockholm Pride wants to  invites all Russians to instead # GOWEST and celebrate Pride in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. They have devised a campaign that allows you to compose a Tweet-invite that’s automatically translated into Russian. In addition, your location for this particular Tweet will be changed to a location in Russia.

In a statement, Stockholm Pride said, “To celebrate that love, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and gender identity is a democratic right, we have taken this opportunity to, with humor and love, direct a special invitation to all of Russia to celebrate Pride with us. Twitter is one of the fastest tools for advocacy worldwide. The goal of the campaign is to create a trending topic on Twitter with # GOWESTand thus reach out to both the people of Russia and the rest of the world.”

Visit Sweden have announced that their movie Glorious Stockholm, promoting Stockholm as a gay-friendly city has won a total of seven awards, one jury’s choice awards and received one nomination.

The awards are as follows:- Berlin Toura d’Or (2nd place)- Peoples Telly Awards on YouTube (2nd place)- Riga Tour Film (2nd place)- New York Festival – World TV & Films (nominated)- Tourism Film Festival Bulgaria (Jurys award)- Telly Awards (3 categories: Tourism, Music, Non Commercial Marketing Film)- Warsaw FilmArt & Tourism Festival “FilmAT” (3rd place for tourism)

Watch the video!

(CNN) — The Brazilian National Council of Justice, which oversees the nation’s judiciary, passed a resolution Tuesday that denies notaries the right to refuse to perform same-sex marriages.

In Brazil, notaries officiate marriages and civil unions.

Recently, 12 Brazilian states began allowing same-sex couples to marry or convert their civil unions into marriages. However, since the Supreme Court does not carry legislative powers, it was up to each notary to officiate at their discretion, and many refused, citing the lack of law.

Joaquim Barbosa

Joaquim Barbosa, president of the Council of Justice, said in the decision that notaries cannot continue to refuse to “perform a civil wedding or the conversion of a stable civil union into a marriage between persons of the same sex.”

Barbosa, who also presides over the Supreme Court, says the resolution merely follows the transformation of society.

“Our society goes through many changes, and the National Council of Justice cannot be indifferent to them,” he said.

Civil unions between same-sex couples have been recognized in Brazil since 2011, after the Supreme Court ruled that the same rights and rules that apply to “stable unions” of heterosexual couples would apply to same-sex couples, including the right to joint declaration of income tax, pension, inheritance and property sharing. People in same-sex unions are also allowed to extend health benefits to their partners, following the same rules applied to heterosexual couples.

Brazilian lawmakers have debated same-sex marriage, but in most cases, the bills introduced have not progressed through Congress.

Brazilian neighbors Uruguay and Argentina are the only other two countries in Latin America that have laws allowing same-sex couples to marry.

SAN DIEGO — San Diego Pride has announced its 2013 Spirit of Stonewall Award winners, who will be honored at the Spirit of Stonewall Rally, taking place Friday, July 12 at 6 p.m., at the Hillcrest Pride Flag.

The annual awards are designed to honor individuals and organizations that have made a positive impact on San Diego’s LGBT community. Nominations for the awards were received from the San Diego community and the list of recipients is as follows:

Champion of Pride
Cheli Mohamed – 20 years of service to San Diego LGBT Pride

The Champion of Pride Award honors individuals or couples who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the LGBT community during an extended period of years, or who have made an exceptional contribution through the past year.

Friend of Pride
David Boies and Ted Olson – Prop. 8 legal team, American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER)
Cindy Green – LGBT ally, community volunteer

The Friend of Pride Award honors individuals or couples who do not identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, but who have stalwartly supported the LGBT community through an extended period of years or the past year.

Stonewall Service Award
North County LGBTQ Resource Center and Executive Director Max Disposti – service provider

The Stonewall Service Award honors groups or organizations, which may or may not identify as specifically LGBT, but which have greatly supported the community through an extended period of years and/or have made an exceptional contribution in the past year.

Community Service
Sean Bohac – marriage equality activist
Gibran Guido – queer person of color (QPOC) activist
Hector Martinez – LGBTQ advocate
Jeri Muse – Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, LGBT Work Group chair

The Community Service Award honors individuals or couples who are recognized as “up-and-coming” leaders within the community, or whose contributions to the community over the past year carried significant impact.

Since the enactment of anti-gay ‘propaganda’ laws that have overwhelmingly passed in some of Russia’s largest cities, the LGBT community is seeing a discernible rise in violent crimes. Recently, a young gay man, Vladislav Tornovoi,

Vladislav Tornovoi

was brutally attacked then killed after he admitted to his drinking buddies that he was gay. In Volgograd, the 23-year-old man was beaten, had a beer bottle forcefully inserted in his anus, was set on fire and then, for good measure, had a stone dropped on his head killing him at once.

With the brutality of his death comes the painful realization that Russian society is on the brink of an all-out war against the LGBT community. Adding fuel to the fire is President Vladimir Putin’s call to allow the ultra-conservative Orthodox Church a larger voice in the moral direction of the country. With passage of a decree to that effect all but certain, gay activists, like Nikolai Alexeyev, worry that it will translate into a license to act. “It essentially gives these people carte blanche to commit such crimes,” Alexeyev warned. “Such crimes are committed around Russia every day. As a rule, all these crimes are categorized as something ordinary – they argued over a bottle of vodka, or there was ‘personal animosity’. The real motive of hate is not mentioned.”

Hate crime statistics are hard to come by in Russia where the concept is fairly new (and tenuous). For example, there were only three attacks reported in 2011 but 12 in 2012.

Gay activists say the government’s conservative policies offer “unspoken support” for violence. This, they say, could even have made the suspects in the Volgograd murder describe their victim as gay to win some sympathy.

That, coupled with Russia’s declining population together with rising HIV rates, make gays easy targets. On a recent trip to the Netherlands, faced with very vocal opposition, Putin clearly made his position, however tortured, known. ““It is imperative to protect the rights of sexual minorities, but let’s agree that same-sex marriage does not produce children,” Putin said.

The outlook for the near future is grim and while activists continue to combat the rising tide of intolerance, Putin, along with the state-sanctioned church make one thing all but certain: crimes against the LGBT community, if reported, will remain far under the radar screen.

David and Jason are a married bi-national couple fighting the Defense of Marriage Act which denies gay Americans more than 1,100 federal rights. This includes preventing gay Americans from gaining green cards for their foreign born spouses.

Since meeting in the Spring of 2007, Jason has returned to L.A. more than a dozen times for expensive lengthy visits but is now being warned he will no longer be allowed to visit as a tourist. Aside from separating the pair on birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and countless other occasions DOMA has cost the couple upward of $12,000 on flights alone and forced Jason to put his career on hold.

Marcus Urban

(CNN) — Four walls, a bed and a slop bowl. If prison represents physical confinement and a loss of every personal freedom, what does imprisonment of the mind feel like?

“Unbearable” according to Marcus Urban, a German footballer who gave up his chosen profession — his “first love” — because of homophobia in the game.

In a sport infamous for macho bravado on the pitch and anti-gay chants in the terraces, Urban was battling an unspeakable shame.

A promising talent, Urban in his youth played alongside and against future German national team stars Robert Enke, Bernd Schneider and Thomas Linke.

“To play soccer basically means to rejoice in life,” Urban told CNN. “I never stopped playing football. It has always been my first love and it will remain forever.”

But, as is the case with so many first loves, Urban’s left him with a heartbreak which was almost too much to bear.

The young midfielder, born and raised in East Germany in the 1970s and 80s in the days before reunification with West Germany in 1990, dreamed of representing his country — but he was living an exhausting double life.

On the surface he was a rising football star, but beneath he was a man coming to terms with his homosexuality.

“I hid 24 hours a day, I adjusted,” explained Urban, who was terrified of being “outed” in a sport which today has just one openly gay professional player in Europe.

“It was an almost unbearable pain, a great sacrifice, a painful price to pay to achieve my goal of becoming a professional footballer.

“Constantly hearing gay used as a curse word like s**t, made me think, ‘Of course, I’m s**t.’ I spent 50% of my energy trying to hide, so a maximum of 50% of my energy was available for football. It wasn’t fair.

“I kept thinking, ‘I cannot do this anymore, I don’t want to. What is going on?’ Nobody was there to help me.”

Urban’s love affair with football began in 1978, when he joined East German club Motor Weimar at the age of seven before moving to Rot-Weiss Erfurt in 1984.

He trained twice a day with his new team and looked capable of achieving his ambition of playing for the German national team, winning a youth championship with Rot-Weiss in 1985.

His reputation was growing and he was called up to East Germany’s youth team in 1986. Urban went on to make over 100 appearances for Rot-Weiss’ senior team in the German second division.

But rather than marking the start of his rise to the top of German football, Urban’s spell in Erfurt proved to be the peak of a career cut short by fear, insecurity and self-loathing.

“By my early 20s I was burned out,” he said.

“I realized that if I became a professional footballer, I would suffer as a man. I chose freedom over a constructed prison.

“Talent is not enough. You need the will, physical fitness, good luck and a tough mentality. But what if you hide 24 hours a day because you are gay?

“The fear and pain robbed me of my energy because I was constantly thinking of what to say, how to act so people might think I was heterosexual.”

When it became clear he was in the twilight of his playing career, Urban finally summoned the courage to open up to one of his teammates following a switch to provincial club SC 1903 Weimar in 1991.

“I told only one player, in Weimar at the end of my career — and precisely for this reason,” said Urban. “He found it interesting that I was gay, I was one of his best friends on the team.”

Compared to other areas of society, the football profession is statistically lacking in openly gay players.

Former United States national team player Robbie Rogers recently announced he was gay on the same day he retired from the sport, while Sweden-based Anton Hysen is currently the only openly “out” player in Europe.

Justin Fashanu’s tragic story is the last time a top-flight player has been so open.

The Englishman committed suicide in 1998, aged 37 — just eight years after announcing that he was gay. He had become the first £1 million black player when he joined Nottingham Forest in 1981.

Speaking at a sports forum in Berlin last September, German chancellor Angela Merkel urged gay players to feel confident enough to “come out.”

Her comments came following an article in a German magazine in which an anonymous gay Bundesliga player said the fear of added media attention was the reason why he hadn’t announced his sexuality.

German second division team FC St. Pauli placed itself on the front line of football’s battle with homophobia during a match with Paderborn.

Fans of the club, formerly run by openly gay president Corny Littmann, staged a demonstration against discrimination which included brightly-colored posters and a banner reading, “Football is everything — even gay.”

Basketballer Jason Collins recently made history by becoming the first openly gay NBA player, while the NHL has drawn plaudits for its anti-homophobia work.

Fifteen years on from Fashanu’s suicide, with other sports such as rugby and basketball setting a precedent and with the NFL reportedly closer than ever to having a homosexual player, is the beautiful game ready for a high-profile gay star?

“Why not?” replied Urban. “It is a great opportunity for the football world to show now that it is ready. Associations and clubs can come out as ‘gay-friendly’. Then players, officials, coaches, referees and so many others will follow.

“The effects of outings gay footballers will go far beyond football.”

After years of torment and secrecy, Urban’s coming out proved to be a turning point. With new-found confidence, he was able to pursue a life away from the football pitch.

Urban has told his story in the book “Hidden Player: The story of a gay footballer,” while he is also something of a life coach, consulting with organizations — including football associations — on issues of diversity and integration.

“I was so glad to finally be myself and I finally knew what the years of torment had been about,” he explained. “With the energy and force of liberation I went on the front foot, on the offensive.

“I work as a personal coach and diversity consultant. I work for organizations and I help them to appreciate the dimensions of age, ethnicity, gender, religion and even sexual orientations.”

With a wealth of personal and professional expertise on the subject of “coming out,” Urban is in a unique position to offer advice to any player in a similar situation to the one he found himself in two decades ago.

According to Urban, former Wales international rugby player Gareth Thomas — who told the world he was gay in 2009 — has set out the perfect blueprint for others to follow.

“He proceeded in stages,” Urban said of Thomas. “First he outed himself to his wife. Then he told his coach and then two players. After each step he received positive feedback.

“He was told by everyone that he was still the same person. This enabled him to increase his self-esteem until it was big enough to go public. He then got exceptionally positive feedback.”

An openly gay football star would be a turning point not just for the sport, declares Urban, but also for society as a whole.

Football, he suggests, stretches into areas where attitudes towards homosexuality have so far proved difficult to change.

“Football is the only way to tackle this topic comprehensively,” he said. “Very many people are geared towards football role models on television.

“If world soccer stars accepted their homosexuality, young people would question having to be so rough and macho.

“The result would be a social change that goes far beyond football.”

Urban is now comfortable with his sexuality, but he is not impervious to the homophobic barbs he often overhears in general conversation.

“‘F****, f****t’, any negative way of calling someone gay,” replies Urban when asked which insults he hears. “I was constantly affected by insults. Although it is not said to me directly it concerns me, even today.”

“But today, with more self-esteem and confidence, I look at homophobia from the perspective of a personal coaches and diversity consultant. Sometimes I have to laugh about it too, because it’s stupid and ridiculous.”

Self-esteem and confidence have helped Urban to heal the wounds inflicted by his first love, football.

He is once more besotted with the sport, playing with and against gay-friendly teams from across the globe.

It might not be playing at a World Cup with the German national team, but Urban is now back on the pitch, this time with his head held high.

“I really wanted to play for the men’s national team,” reflected Urban. “It makes me happy to have made something out of my experiences.

“For years I could never play football in the stadium. I saw the grass and could not stand being a spectator rather than being down playing on the pitch. I had regrets, I was sad and angry.

“After I came out I was so much more confident. I played football at university, in a team consisting predominantly of gay footballers against other gay teams from Paris, London or New York and Washington.

“Today, I play at a club in Hamburg, accepted by everyone and my teammates are proud of me, I think. It is a great experience to play football and to feel free, pure happiness.

“There are certainly more boring lives than mine.”

There are leaders within the LGBT community that are extremely frustrated that President Obama has not issued an executive order eliminating discrimination in employment for our community. Those leaders are extremely shortsighted and do not fully understand the strategy of the Obama administration.

First, an executive order can be overturned immediately by the next president who disagrees with the order. President Obama is smarter than that. What Obama wants is the Congress of the United States to recognize that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people deserve the same treatment as everyone else in America.

The LGBT community wants equality in the workplace. Yesterday.  Unfortunately, in the current political environment, if President Obama issued an executive order to ensure employment non-discrimination for LGBT people, what is likely to happen is retaliation from the Republican House of Representatives and potentially a Republican Senate, or worse an executive order by a Republican president in 2016 that codifies LGBT employment discrimination.

Executive orders are temporary fixes. President Obama is about permanent solutions; solutions that cannot be easily overturned by the stroke of a pen. That is what the LGBT community should be working toward. In this case, haste indeed does make waste.

President Obama is thoughtful and methodical, we all know that. The same LGBT voices, who cry out for an executive order ending LGBT discrimination in employment, are many who said that Obama would not repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, or pass hospital visitation rights. Those voices were wrong then and they are wrong now.

President Obama understands that it is prudent to wait for the Supreme Court decisions concerning same-sex marriage in California and the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). It is crystal clear that the court will rule that marriage is a state’s rights issue. Thereby, Californians should be able to enter into same-sex marriages by July based upon the lower court ruling.

Once the Supreme Court rules that same-sex marriage is a state’s rights issue, then they will overturn DOMA and effectively give all the federal rights granted to heterosexual couples to same-sex couples. It is a win-win-win.

When gays and lesbians get marriage in California from the Supreme Court, the LGBT community will be happy, the right wing will be happy because the ruling will not create same-sex marriage nationally, and the Supreme Court will be happy because it will be on the right side of history.

An executive order will only complicate the marriage issue, as well as the potential passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which will protect LGBT people from workplace discrimination. Why can’t our community give President Obama a break? Obama has proven that his LGBT equality agenda is working and his detractors have proven time and time again that their strategies or suggestions are not fully developed.

The president supports same-sex marriage which has dramatically changed the view of the electorate in the United States. Obama has judiciously used executive orders to ensure he does not step on the toes of Congress. The time to ask for an executive order is in late June or early July after the Supreme Court has ruled in our favor. Not now. Obama knows better, and to be frank, I trust his political judgment more than many of the leaders in the LGBT community.

STAMPP CORBIN

PUBLISHER

San Diego LGBT Weekly

LGBTweekly.com

The state of Minnesota made it a round dozen for marriage equality when it became the twelfth state to pass a marriage equality bill. Minnesota also became the first Midwestern state to do so legislatively as Iowa became a marriage equality state due to a decision by the state Supreme Court.

Gov. Mark Dayton has vowed to sign the bill.

Scott Dibble

Openly gay Sen. Scott Dibble led the effort in the Senate and and openly lesbian Rep. Karen Clark was lead sponsor in the House. Gaypolitics.com reported that moments before his vote Dibble said, “Today we have the power, the awesome, humbling power to make dreams come true.”

Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund said, “This is a dream come true for same-sex couples across Minnesota, and for the state’s gay and lesbian lawmakers who’ve worked so hard for this victory. Their leadership has been powerful and inspirational, and they deserve our thanks for standing up for fairness, for equality and for all LGBT Minnesotans.”

(CNN) — A transsexual woman has won on appeal the right to marry her boyfriend, a decision poised to rewrite Hong Kong’s marriage law.

The appellant — known only by the initial “W” — is a post-operative male-to-female transsexual who was refused the right to marry because she did not quality as a “woman” under Hong Kong law.

The Court of Final Appeal ruled 4-1 Monday that the restriction was unconstitutional. The 37-year-old woman — who had a government-subsidized sex change operation — had twice lost her case at lower courts.

“I may have born a man but after transgender surgery at a government hospital more than five years ago, I’ve lived my life as a woman and been treated as a woman in all respects except as regards my right to marry,” W said in a statement to local reporters through her attorney, Michael Vidler, according to the South China Morning Press.

“This decision rights that wrong, and I’m very happy the Court of [Final] Appeal now recognizes my desire to marry my boyfriend one day, and that desire is no different to that of any other woman who seeks the same here in Hong Kong.”

The court decision will not come into effect for 12 months to give the Hong Kong legislature the opportunity to address the portion of the law deemed unconstitutional. “We should make it clear that nothing in this judgment is intended to address the question of same sex marriage,” Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li and Judge Robert Ribeiro wrote in their majority decision.

The majority found the idea that a “woman” is a biological criteria fixed at birth “is particularly hard to justify in the light of significant medical advances in the treatment of transsexualism and important changes in the understanding of and social attitudes towards transsexual persons which have occurred over the last 40 odd years.”

The only dissenting judge — Patrick Chan Siu-Oi — argued “it is difficult and unrealistic to consider marriage to be entirely unconnected with procreation.

“There is no evidence that social attitudes in Hong Kong on the institution of marriage have changed to the extent that this concept of marriage has been abandoned or generally and substantially weakened,” Judge Chan wrote.

Christian DeMario Davis

In what some see as a quasi-victory, New York Jets linebacker and self-described devout Christian Christian DeMario Davis went public Thursday in his support of gay athletes. In an interview with the Daily News, Davis appeared supportive of the idea of playing with other members of his team who were gay. “If someone was to come out on our team, we’re a team that’s about winning,” Davis said. “When it comes to the (Jets), I put my personal beliefs separate from the team.”

But moments later, during that same interview, Davis made sure to add that his religious beliefs inform his worldview. ““According to the scriptures, and God’s law, homosexuality is wrong. The act is wrong,” Davis said. “I’ve got homosexuals in my family who I love to death. I’ve got drunks in my family. I’ve got people who have premarital sex in my family. And I don’t agree with any of those things, but I still love and respect those people.”

The response comes on the heels of news that Jason Collins, the center for the Washington Wizards, came as gay making him the first man on a professional North American sports franchise to publicly come out while still playing.

And while there has been some blowback to Collins’ announcement, some of it far less nuanced than Davis’, his reaction, he admits, comes from many of the angry responses generated by ESPN sport commentator Chris Broussard’s now famous statement that being gay was an “open rebellion against God.”

“What really made me upset was when people began to attack Chris Broussard,” Davis said. “It’s important for me to do interviews of this nature, to talk about faith and political views and religious views because, it’s very important that the entire scope of the thinking is understood, versus just one set of views on a particular act.”

Davis, while skirting  specifics, spoke of his own struggles in college with alcohol and pre-marital sex but it is assumed that homosexuality was not among them. “If you have a problem with someone being against homosexuality your problem isn’t with me, your problem is against God,” Davis said.

SAN DIEGO – The San Diego LGBT Community Center has announced the launch of Project TRANS, its Transgender Services Program. Project TRANS (Transgender Referrals, Assistance, Networking and Services) will serve as an umbrella for the various services The Center has previously offered specifically to the transgender community, including discussion groups, behavioral health services, HIV prevention services, youth services and more.

In addition, the program will also focus on advocacy, referrals, outreach, cultural sensitivity trainings, social activities and events, workshops and networking with community agencies. Through a partnership with the Transgender Law Center, Project TRANS will also provide assistance with legal documents for those who need to change their name and gender marker on their driver’s license or other forms of identification, often a daunting task for transgender individuals.

Connor Maddocks

The new project will be led by program coordinator Connor Maddocks, who has served the community with The Center for seven years.

“The Center has offered discussion groups and behavioral health counseling for a long time, but it is time to branch out to address some of the more specific and emerging needs of the community by having a designated program and program staff dedicated specifically to working on the issues that are really affecting the transgender and gender queer community right now,” Maddocks said.

“I’m hoping we can help build and strengthen the community, and make clear that the transgender and gender queer community are safe, welcomed and celebrated at The Center.”

For more information about Project TRANS and a schedule of the various discussion groups, please visit The Center’s Web site at thecentersd.org or contact Maddocks at 619-692-2077, ext. 109 or via e-mail at trans@thecentersd.org

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — While same-sex couples across the country fight for the right to marry, others are fighting for the right to divorce.

A patchwork of state marriage laws and the federal Defense of Marriage Act has made the process of unraveling a relationship extremely difficult — and expensive.

A same-sex couple who marries in one state and later relocates to a state that doesn’t recognize the marriage, for example, may be unable to get a traditional divorce. Often, they either have to move to the state where they married to establish residency or dissolve the marriage outside of the court system. Some states call this a dissolution of marriage instead of a divorce.

In most cases, this means filing a civil lawsuit — or multiple lawsuits. With no threat of a trial or a judge to make a ruling, couples often get stuck in negotiations and the lawyer fees can really pile up, said Kevin Maillard, a law professor at Syracuse University specializing in nontraditional families.

And because this is still a niche area of practice, the lawyers aren’t cheap.

“While we celebrate the growing acceptance of gay marriage, there is a tendency to avoid the issue that gay divorce goes along with it,” said Jim Duke, founder of the Guide for Gay Men and a life coach who helps men with issues like divorce. “The current legal structure leaves massive holes that straight couples do not face.”

Duke entered a domestic partnership in California in 2001, but eight years later he and his partner divorced. He ended up paying $12,000 in legal fees for a simple 50-50 split of property and assets.

Christina Fuentes and her partner decided not to dissolve their civil union after realizing it was going to cost at least $6,000 — even though the only property they would need to divide was their furniture. Instead, they waited two years, until Fuentes got a full-time job, to start the separation process.

“The lawyer fees were [high], because this is a new type of law and basically lawyers have to figure out how to charge and how to negotiate with the other side,” she said.

For an out-of-court settlement in states where same-sex marriage isn’t recognized, a same-sex divorce typically costs around $20,000, versus $10,000 for an opposite-sex couple, said Randall Kessler, a partner at Kessler & Solomiany Family Law Attorneys in Atlanta.

And the costs go up exponentially when children are involved. Even though a divorce typically can’t be brought to court in states that don’t recognize same-sex marriage, custody issues can — resulting in court fees on top of the lawyer fees the couple is already paying to resolve property issues outside of court.

Same-sex couples who negotiate property division on their own but bring the custody issue to court are usually looking at $40,000, compared to $20,000 for opposite-sex couples, Kessler said. And a long, drawn-out court battle over custody could lead costs to jump to $100,000 or more for a same-sex couple, twice what it costs for an opposite-sex couple.

Many same-sex couples face extra custody costs even in states where same-sex marriage is recognized.

Andrea Friedman, an associate at Sari M. Friedman in New York, is representing a client who is battling for custody of her child. But since the client isn’t the biological mother — her wife carried the child — her legal standing to argue for custody is in question, and an appeal has been filed against her.

“An appeal can be very costly, so on top of the cost to get divorce, the fight over custody adds more legal work on top of it and can really complicate things,” said Friedman.

Other attorneys say same-sex divorces cost the same amount as opposite-sex divorces in states where same-sex marriage is recognized — and are sometimes even cheaper because the marriages are usually very short given how recently the laws have taken effect.

No matter what state they’re in, same-sex partners can still be subject to a federal gift tax when they transfer property or assets worth more than $14,000 to one another in a divorce. Opposite-sex married couples don’t have to pay this tax when dividing assets.

Another growing trend that makes divorce even more complicated for same-sex couples: some like to get married in multiple states in order to secure rights in as many places as possible — making it unclear how many divorces are needed and potentially causing costs to skyrocket, said Carolyn Satenberg, a New York divorce attorney.

“Everything will be murky until case law develops, and the murkier it is, the longer it’s going to take to hash out — and the more hours it takes, the more expensive it is,” said Satenberg.

SAN FRANCISCO – GLAAD honored California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Grammy-nominated singer Adam Lambert and the best in entertainment and journalism Saturday night at the 24th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in San Francisco. Mel B, Guillermo Diaz, Tamala Jones, Jinkx Monsoon, Rex Lee and Laverne Cox were among the special guests.

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and the issues that affect their lives. The GLAAD Media Awards also fund GLAAD’s work to amplify stories of LGBT people and issues that build support for equality.

At the ceremony, filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom presented GLAAD’s Golden Gate Award to her husband, Gavin Newsom.

In accepting the award, Newsom said, “There’s one fundamental that defines the best of this city, and the best of this organization, and that is we don’t tolerate our diversity, we truly celebrate our diversity. We highlight all those wonderful and interesting differences, but at the end of the day we unite around our common humanity. As Dr. King so eloquently said, ‘We are all bound together by a web of mutuality.’ We’re all in this together.”

Melanie Brown, a judge on America’s Got Talent and former Spice Girl, presented GLAAD’s Davidson/Valentini Award to out singer Adam Lambert. Speaking of the challenges associated with being an out entertainer, Lambert said, “We are right in the middle of two generations with two different perspectives but one common thread – love. With all the differences of opinion both within the LGBT community and elsewhere, the best we can do is to keep it real and to spread a message of acceptance. If we can inspire even one person to open their mind, or another to be who they want to be, whether they’re gay or straight, old or young, man or woman, black or white – then it’s worth being objectified by the sometimes frustrating world of media sensationalism.”

Lambert continued, “Thank you to GLAAD for recognizing my efforts, because I put a lot of effort into this. I think about it a lot (it makes me crazy), but my goal is to try to represent both myself and my community proudly.”

The reigning World Series champion San Francisco Giants received the Corporate Leader Award. The Giants are the first professional sports team honored by GLAAD. They were the first ever professional sports team to host an HIV/AIDS benefit game in 1994, and have generated more than $1.3 million for Bay Area HIV/AIDS education. The Giants were also the first major league sports team to record a video for the It Gets Better project, and this month will hold their 11th Annual LGBT Night Out.

Travis Fine, the writer/director of Any Day Now, accepted the award for Outstanding Film – Limited Release. Writer and artist Dan Parent accepted the award for Outstanding Comic Book for the ongoing comic book series Kevin Keller. Journalist Marc Lamont Hill accepted the award for Outstanding Digital Journalism Article for his piece “Why Aren’t We Fighting for CeCe McDonald?” which appeared on Ebony.com.

GLAAD also presented Special Recognition Awards to Kevin McClatchy, former owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team who came out in a New York Times article last year, and Brittney Griner, an out basketball player and this year’s number one draft pick for the WNBA.

RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon performed for the capacity crowd. Guests included: Tamala Jones (Castle); Guillermo Diaz (Scandal); Jessica Clark (True Blood); Rex Lee (Suburgatory); Teri Polo, Sherri Saum, Peter Paige (The Fosters); Jaymes Vaughn, James Davis (The Amazing Race); Kyle Richards (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills); Jennifer Biesty, Ryan Scott, Josie Smith-Malave (Top Chef); Laverne Cox, E.J. Bonilla (Musical Chairs); Travis Fine, Isaac Leyva (Any Day Now); Dan Parent (writer, artist Kevin Keller); Marc Lamont Hill (HuffPost Live); Prop 8 plaintiffs Jeff Zarrillo, Paul Katami, Kris Perry, Sandra Stier; LGBT advocates Karen and Eric Andresen, Shane Bitney Crone, Jennifer Tyrrell and Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler; former Pittsburgh Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy; number one WNBA draft pick Brittney Griner; GLAAD National Spokespersons Wilson Cruz and Omar Sharif, Jr.

Following is a complete list of GLAAD Media Award recipients announced Saturday in San Francisco. Additional awards were presented in New York on March 16 and in Los Angeles on April 20.

• Golden Gate Award: Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom
• Davidson/Valentini Award: Adam Lambert
• Corporate Leader Award: San Francisco Giants
• Outstanding Film – Limited Release: Any Day Now (Music Box Films)
• Outstanding Music Artist: TIE: Adam Lambert, Trespassing (19 Recordings, RCA Records) and Frank Ocean, Channel Orange (Def Jam)
• Outstanding Comic Book: Kevin Keller (Archie Comics)
• Outstanding Digital Journalism Article: “Why Aren’t We Fighting for CeCe McDonald?” by Marc Lamont Hill (Ebony.com)
• Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia: “Edie Takes on DOMA” In the Life (ITLMedia.org)
• Outstanding Blog: Rod 2.0 (http://rodonline.typepad.com)

SPANISH-LANGUAGE

• Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: “En el cuerpo equivocado” Noticias 19 (KUVS TV-19 [Sacramento, Calif.])

More than 100 corporate partners are showing their support, including National Presenting partners Ketel One Vodka and Wells Fargo, New York and Los Angeles Presenting partner Delta Air Lines, and San Francisco Presenting partner Southwest Airlines. GLAAD is also grateful to the 24th Annual GLAAD Media Awards Platinum Underwriter corporate partners Anheuser-Busch, Inc., Comcast/NBCUniversal, Prudential and Sheppard Mullin, as well as Underwriter corporate partners: Allstate Insurance Company, AT&T, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, Caesars Foundation, Disney-ABC Television Group/ESPN, Kirkland & Ellis, New York Marriott Marquis & Renaissance Hotel, PwC and VPI Pet Insurance. Gold Patron partners include 1800Flowers, CBS/Showtime, Citi, Viacom, and the Wasserman Foundation.