A recent study has shown that African-Americans in California were far less supportive of proposition 8 -- which banned gay marriage in California in Novemer - than originally believed, but still more supportive than several other groups.

The study by Patrick J. Egan, Ph.D., assistant professor of politics and public policy at New York University, and Kenneth Sherrill, Ph.D., professor of political science at Hunter College, CUNY, under the auspices of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute shows that while exit polls indicated Black voters supported Prop 8 by nearly 70 percent, they in fact supported it by about 58 percent.

The study looked at pre- and post-election polls and conducted a sophisticated analysis of precinct-level voting data from five California counties with the highest African-American populations (Alameda (Oakland), Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego and San Francisco). Based on this, it concludes that the level of African-American support for Proposition 8 was in the range of 57-59 percent.

Egan said, "Party identification, age, religiosity and political view had much bigger effects than race, gender or having gay and lesbian family and friends."

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "...support among blacks is still well above the 52 percent Prop. 8 received from all voters in the Nov. 4 election. Much of that can be attributed to the strong religious tradition in the black community, where 57 percent of African American voters attend church at least once a week, compared with 42 percent of Californians overall."

New laws passed in Australia in November mean widows of war veterans in that Country can apply for pension benefits. The new laws come as a result of a ruling by the United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the case of Edward Young of Australia.

According to an article in The Age, Young's partner of 38 years, Larry Cains, served in the Australian Army in Borneo during World War II. The two met in London in 1960 when Cains was a photographer and Young a model.  "He was desperately handsome," Young said, "we spent two weeks together and I told him I wanted to spend my life with him."

Edward Young  Photo: Peter Rae/ The Age

Young's battle began 10 years ago with the death of his partner.  Young applied for the pension only to be told that he and Cains were not a legally recognized couple under the Veteran's Entitlement Act.  The UN court ruled in his favor in 2003, saying Australia breached the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but the government of then Prime Minister John Howard held out on reviewing Mr. Young's case.

A spokeswoman for Veteran's Affiars said the new law will come into effect on July 1 of this year and encouraged others in Young's position to come forward and apply after that date.  "People such as Mr. Young will not be denied a war widow or widower's pension on the basis of a same-sex relationship."

In all the recent excitement around gay marriage, civil unions and domestic partner registration the last few years, some of us might have forgotten that these unions, while they can be sacred spiritually and emotionally, are at their core legal agreements and, as such, should not be entered into lightly.

In that vein, I offer you “Domestic Partnership in California: A Cautionary Tale…”

After 6 years of living apart in a joyful and exciting relationship, my partner and I decided to move in together and register as domestic partners in California in 2004.  Up ‘til then, I had always lived by the adage, “if it aint broke, don’t fix it.”  But it seemed to us that it was the right time for us to take these next steps.

He had inherited a large sum of money.  I was at the beginning of a new career.  So we could save expenses by moving in together and I could focus on getting my career off the ground while he took a year’s sabbatical from work before deciding on his next steps. 

For me, I admit, the domestic partnership was almost an afterthought.  We should be covered in case one of us ends up in the hospital, I thought (visitation rights!).  We would have legal protection under the law as a couple! Hooray for legal protection!

Was I naïve?  Yes.  Because my partner had a great big secret he wasn’t telling me and it got bigger and bigger until it destroyed our relationship earlier this year.

That it would happen isn't a real big surprise - this being the age of micro-productions and all.  But that a musical about California's bigoted Proposition 8 should feature not just teddy bear bad-boy Jack Black AND reborn wild and crazy (and damned funny) Neil Patrick Harris (not to mention honorary queer guy Margaret Cho) is nothing short of ... well, WOW!

But that's just what has happened, compliments of Marc Shaiman, who composed such Broadway hits as Hairspray.  Ladies and Gentlemen: Proposition 8 The Musical!

Just goes to show you: never piss off 'the gay' - especially ones who know how to sing, how to dance, and how to put on a kick-ass show!  So enjoy the show and also be sure to go to jointheimpact.com to get involved.

Well, thanks really shouldn't go out to that Turkish master criminal but rather the Oscar-winning and avowed heterosexual actor who brought him to sinister life in 1995's The Usual Suspects: Kevin Spacey.

So why should we be thanking Mr. Spacey? Because he recently -- and eloquently -- spoke out against California's abhorrent Prop 8 at a fundraiser in New York.  The interview comes courtesy of DoSomething.org's blog Celebs Gone Good.

"Well there’s no doubt that election night was a bittersweet night. But in some ways, these kinds of setbacks allow for a bigger fight, more challenges, and eventually we’re going to get it right. Eventually the American public will figure out that it really isn’t right to deny citizens basic civil human rights. And we can no longer allow that to happen. So the fact that these things were voted in, to me, it’s just an example of the fact that they had more money. How much money did the Mormon church put in? So I hope, like Arnold Schwarzenegger said, 'Don’t give up. Keep protesting.'"

Thanks, Kevin! Now maybe if you came clean about your own sexual identity, your voice would be even more powerful in this fight!

Does banning same-sex marriages in California require a Constitutional Amendment or Revision? That arcane distinction may be Prop. 8 opponents' best chance to have the recent voter-approved Amendment thrown out by the courts.

The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear three cases that claim the measure abridges the civil rights of a minority group by relying on a Constitutional Amendment rather than a Constitutional Revision. The California Constitution requires an Amendment to receive a simple majority vote to pass, while a Revision requires a vote of two-thirds of the California Legislature followed by a majority vote of the citizens.

The determination as to whether an Amendment or Revision is required hinges on whether the changes are narrow or broad. Prop. 8 added only 14 words to the Constitution and advocates say it deals only with the narrow issue of defining marriage, therefore requiring only an Amendment. Opponents say is is a Revision because Prop. 8 stripped a fundamental right (marriage) from a suspect minority class (gays and Lesbians). Does your brain hurt yet? Mine does.  If you want it to hurt even more, you can read the brief filed yesterday by several legal groups representing gay couples.

But that procedural distinction in California is what it might all come down to so you can bet lawyers on both sides are going to be parsing the Amendment vs. Revision argument in their briefs.

This past Friday, police had to come between Christianists who were preaching on the corner of Castro and 18th and a group of angry locals. Here's an excerpt from a KTVU story-

In San Francisco's Castro District, people on both sides of the same-sex marriage controversy confronted each other on Friday night, as police tried to keep the peace. Proposition 8 passed in a close vote and eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry.

Members of the gay community said that almost every Friday night, a Christian group meets at the corner of Castro and 18th Streets. They try to convert gays and lesbians into a straight lifestyle. This Friday night, the message didn't go over well. Some gays and lesbians reacted by trying to chase the group out of the Castro."Their rights were respected," said Joe Schmitz, an opponent of Prop 8. "They got a chance to go ahead and pray on the sidewalk and I had the opportunity to express my freedom of speech which is telling them to get out of my neighborhood. "San Francisco Police officers in riot gear formed a line and escorted the religious group into a van to safely get them out of the area. Members of the gay community insisted that their reaction to the Christian group was spontaneous. "It was not an organized thing. We're tired of it. It's not religious. It's not a racial thing. It's about hate. We're trying to send a message across the world that we're standing up and we don't want this to go on anymore," said Adam Quintero.

Some reports have been coming in on right-wing blogs saying that the Christians were physically attacked. There was also the incident in Palm Springs last week that many Christianist blogs are reporting on.

The jointheimpact.com protests against prop 8 today had huge turnouts. There were protests in all 50 states and 10 countries. I haven't heard the official numbers for San Francisco, but we were in the tens of thousands. The estimate for the LA rally is 30-40,000 people.

We had an impromptu sign making party at our house this morning before we headed over to City Hall.

Prop 8 has been huge in the news this week and celebrities have been raising their voices to speak out against this blatant violation of civil rights. Keith Olbermann has the best response that I've seen to date-

Ellen reads a great quote by sexy daddy George Clooney-