Comedy duo Frangela and a number of celebrities, like Wilson Cruz and Amy Brenneman, are lending their faces and talents to Equality Campaign PSA's fighting Proposition 8, a ballot measure that hopes to nullify same-sex nuptials in California.

Here's a link to the rest - pass it on!

The Jewish Rosie Perez, Fran Drescher, hosts a party tonight to help keep gay marriage in California legal.

Drescher, who surprisingly hasn't turned out that many drag queen lookalikes, will join ex-husband Peter Marc Jacobson to support Equities California's fight against Proposition 8, which wants to take away homos' right to scream at each other in front of the kids that Cali gays just received.

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Chris Crain, a gay journalist with many conservative politics, definitely does not approve of the Log Cabin Republicans' endorsement of John McCain. How do we know this? He penned a lengthy critique of their queer politics.

Here's but a taste:

It’s as if our gay Republican friends forgot the basic politics of the carrot and the stick. Now that McCain and Palin are happily chomping away on the endorsement carrot that Log Cabin could have kept dangling in front of them, all they’re left with is the stick. With apologies to my friends among their number, including my beloved co-blogger Kevin, gay Republicans aren’t exactly known for carrying a big stick.
…
Cynics will no doubt see the rushed endorsement as a desperate ploy by Log Cabin to gain entree into the GOP’s “big tent,” a concept that gay and pro-choice Republicans have demonstrated a much greater commitment to than has the rest of the party.

Crain also quite rightly points out that McCain's opposition to DOMA FMA - the Cabinites' sole gay-related celebration of the candidate - has been faltering: "McCain has been backing away from his opposition to a federal amendment, and he pledged last month to back an amendment if even one judge rules the notorious Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional." The journalist goes on to say that McCain could end up being worse on gay politics than President Bush, an idea that makes our blood run cold.

Remember when Idaho Senator Larry Craig got caught cruising in an airport bathroom? Of course you do!

That seemed to be a turning point for the States' social political landscape. We even predicted that Craig's arrest would help bring the long-raging Culture Wars to a close.

John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, however, may prove us wrong.

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Here's some promising news out of California, where a majority of voters say they oppose Proposition 8, a measure that would overturn this year's gay marriage win:

A majority of California voters oppose a ballot initiative to ban gay marriage, though they are evenly split on the practice itself, according to a poll released Wednesday.
…
A majority of likely voters, 54 percent, oppose ending gay marriage, compared with 40 percent who support it, the poll said. The result is similar to the findings of a Field Poll in July, which found that 51 percent of likely California voters opposed ending gay marriage, while 42 percent said they supported it.

But when it comes to general attitudes about gay marriage, voters in the Public Policy Institute poll are evenly split, at 47 percent for and against — as they have been for the past three years.

Eh. That's fine by us. Just don't go revoking any hard fought rights…

Words, they say, matter - especially when dealing with potentially discriminatory legislation:

Arizona voters will be told when they go to the polls that it already is illegal for gays to marry in this state.

Secretary of State Jan Brewer agreed late Tuesday to add that fact to the description of Proposition 102 that will appear on the November ballots. Approval would add a same-sex-marriage ban to the state constitution.

Brewer — along with supporters of the measure — originally did not want that language used, saying it would only confuse voters. But Attorney General Terry Goddard, who has to approve the ballot summaries she writes, said the addition was necessary.

Unlike the ballot measure itself…

Oh no! Del Martin, one of the plaintiffs in California's landmark gay marriage case, has died.

Martin and her longtime lady love, Phyllis Lyon, fought tirelessly for the right to wed and finally got their wish this June, when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom officiated their well-publicized celebration. Martin, whom you can see on the left, was 87 years old.

In honor of Martin's life of civil rights activism, here's an excerpt from a 1956 essay she wrote in The Ladder, a lesbian magazine Martin and Lyon edited.

…The lesbian is a very elusive creature. She burrows underground in her fear of identification. She is cautious in her associations. Current modes in hair style and casual attire have enabled her to camouflage her existence. She claims she does not need help. And she will not risk her tight little fist of security to aid those who do.

But surely the ground work has been well laid in the past 5½ years. Homosexuality is not the dirty word it used to be. More and more people, professional and lay, are becoming aware of its meaning and implications.

Lyon was reportedly by her wife's side when she finally bid the world adieu.

Rumor has it that MSNBC newsman Chris Matthews will run for senate once his contract runs out.

Seizing on those rumors, Philadelphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal asked Matthews about his stance on gay marriage. After eschewing the question - what would Matthews do about the defense of marriage act - Matthews went into a valid tirade about freedom, which could come across as support.

Segal, however, wanted specifics. What he received were expletives:

MS: Well, where are you on the issue?
CM: I have an open heart. I’ll have to live with it.

MS: In other words, you won’t answer the question.
CM: I can answer it the way I have, which is any fucking way I want. I can answer in my way even if it isn’t your way.

You kiss your wife with that mouth?!

As the Democrats were holding their love fest yesterday, the Republican are releasing their party platform.

Though the Grand Oldies are trying to trim down their agenda, it seems they're still committed to coming out against the queers. You know, it wouldn't be a Republican party without a bit of divisive action.

And - surprise! - gay party members seem ready to roll over and take it, because no one enjoys getting fucked more than a gay Republican.

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The Democratic Party hopes to project a united front at their convention in Denver, which begins today. Not all Democrats, however, are backing the presumptive nominee, Barack Obama.

Gay media honcho Paul Colichman, a former Hillary Clinton backer who owns Regent Entertainment, Out and The Advocate, tells Page Six that he's so disappointed with Obama's gay marriage stance that he refuses to shell out the dough for the Senator's campaign:

[Colichman] said he finally dealt with his disappointment over Clinton's defeat last week and came around to Obama.

"I thought, 'Get over yourself!' I had literally written out a check to the Obama campaign. And then I saw him in front of an evangelical group in Anaheim," he said.

Before Rick Warren at the Saddleback Civil Forum, both Obama and McCain defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

"I thought, 'Wow! He just threw the gay community under the bus,'" Colichman said. "My partner looked over at me, and we tore up the check."
…
"If we always vote for the lesser of two evils, if we accept their crumbs and platitudes, if we write checks to candidates who don't stand up for us, aren't we being self-destructive?" he argues.

Colichman forgets, of course, that Clinton also defines marriage should be between a man and a woman. She and Obama both back civil unions.