Hillary Clinton has long been a gay ally. Who could forget how the former First Lady invited gays into the White House, tried to set up gay administration staffers and marched in New York City's gay pride parade? No wonder so many gay people are throwing their vote behind the Senator from New York.

What would possess a gay person, then, to vote for Barack Obama, a fairly unknown candidate from Illinois? Our editor recently sat down with three of Obama's key gay campaigners to figure out what makes them tick and tock for Obama's presidential clock.

Read all about them - and so much more - after the jump.

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Today's the day! The New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission will release its official report this afternoon. Non-profit Garden State Equality got its gay hands on the complete document and posted it at Civil Unions Don't Work. They've also provided some videos of men and women testifying before the Commission that civil unions are flawed. We've included one such testimony above. It's the most exciting thing we've seen since we woke up.

In addition, GSE started airing a new 60-second radio ad this morning on - you guessed it - how civil unions don't work. Listen to it here.

Minnesota "manorexic" Jeremy Gillitzer won't be celebrating the holidays with his family. The former model - who we first met last October - has found himself forcibly committed to Minneapolis' Eating Disorder Institute.

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Palm Beach Community College loves pussies and bitches, but not fags and dykes:

A Florida college, after denying employees' domestic partners access to medical insurance, has in turn offered a medical plan for employees' household pets.

In August, medical benefits for human domestic partners of employees were denied due to a tie vote among Palm Beach Community College trustees.
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"The fact of the matter is that puppies are covered, partners are not," says Palm Beach County Human Rights Council president Rand Hoch, calling it an affront to employees with domestic partners.

While PBCC's president and director of human relations would like to see gay partners receive benefits, trustees are apparently worried about the high cost of equality: "…Trustees weren't concerned about costs to the college, but potential long-term increases for employees because of additional enrollees in the group plan." Woof.

Justice has been served! Three of the four men involved in Michael Sandy's October, 2006 death have been sentenced to various times in jail.

Anthony Fortunato, the 21-year old who orchestrated the attack, will serve 7 to 21 years. The man who led Sandy to the beach, 20-year old John Fox, faces 13 to 21 years in prison. Meanwhile, the youth who chased Sandy into traffic, Ilya Shurov, will serve 17 1/2 years.

The first two men addressed Sandy's mourning parents to apologize for their gruesome actions, which involved posing as a sex-seeking man online, luring Sandy to a secluded area of Brooklyn and attacking him. Fearing for his life, Sandy ran into road, where a yet unidentified car slammed into the 29-year old.

He died a few days later.

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Singaporean activists took to YouTube to push for Section 377A's repeal. That colonial era law forbids same-sex relations.

Long detested, Section 377A raised fresh debate after Parliament proposed a bill legalizing anal and oral sex between heterosexuals, but stayed firm on the gay sex ban. Now activists are gearing up for a legislative fight:

Member of Parliament Siew Kum Hong will present a petition on October 22 to coincide with debate on the most extensive amendments to the city-state's penal code in 22 years.

The petition urges abolishing part of the penal code that makes sexual acts between males a crime punishable by up to two years in jail.

In addition to the petition, a number of straight and gay activists made the above video. They describe it as a "rap," but it's mostly just talking. Regardless, it's pretty impressive considering Singapore isn't known for its protest culture.

University of Florida police arrested student Andrew Meyer after he asked Senator John Kerry about the 2004 election. Watch as the cops gleefully taser him as students and Meyer scream for help.

What does Kerry do? Nothing.

Family Research Council have put their anti-hate crime law crusade into overdrive. The "family" champions are circulating a recorded message asking Tennessee voters to pressure Senator Lamar Alexander into voting against the bill.

The Christian group's worried Alexander, who has previously voted for similar legislation in 2004, plans to vote for the hate crime law, which, as you all know, will lead to our planet's hellish destruction.

Now they're pulling out all the telephonic stops to stop Alexander…

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John McGhee's defense attorney definitely earned his salary during Wednesday's closing arguments in the Edgar Garzon murder trial.

McGhee faces 25-year in prison if convicted of beating the 35-year old New York native to death in 2001. For this to happen, the prosecutors would have to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that McGhee repeatedly punched Garzon after Garzon hit on him.

To help shade the already shady situation, however, Charles D. Abercrombie successfully painted their key witness, Christopher Ricalde, as liar.

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Some Floridian politico and police are bending space - and the Constitution - for this weekend's St. Pete's Pride celebration. St. Petersburg mayor Rick Baker and Police Chief Charles Harmon are considering "free speech zones" within the gay parade. Within these predesignated zones, anti-gay activists are free to air their anti-gay grievances.

While this may sound like a perfectly fine idea, the ordinance will violate the Supreme Court's 1995 case, Hurley v. Irish American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group. It its ruling, the Court ruled that St. Patrick Parade organizers can ban gays because a parade constitutes an expression of free speech. Gays, then, cannot interfere with the organizers' vision.

Baker and Harmon, however, chose to ignore that ruling when they endorsed a new city ordinance allowing for unregulated "free speech zones". These zones will be determined on an event-to-event basis. In this particular case, not only would homophobes be allowed to bark their objections in the midst of the fag's festivities, gays can be arrested for expressing their opinion outside predetermined districts.

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Pot puffin' pop star George Michael has some amazing luck. The gay singer could have been sent to jail for driving under the influence, but the judge took pity on him and sentenced him to 100 hours of community service. has been sentenced to 100 hours community service after being arrested last year for driving under the influence. Cops found the former Wham! singer slumped over his steering wheel in the middle of a busy intersection, his second arrest of this nature in less than a year. In light of his track recrod, the judge also revoked Michael's license for two years.

While Michael took his punishment like a champ, he had some harsh words for the media:

The media coverage of this case has been farcical, concentrating almost entirely on the prosecution's allegations. In reality I have been sentenced today on the basis of unfit driving through tiredness and prescription medicines which I fully accept responsibility for. I am glad to put this behind me and I am now off to do the biggest show of my life.

Michael performs this weekend at London's new revamped Wembley stadium.

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All that lobbying paid off. The House of Representatives has passed H.R. 1592 232-to-180, with 208 democrats and 25 republicans voting in the affirmative. The Bill, also known as the Matthew Shepard Bill, will now go to the president. Unfortunately, the President has fallen in line with his conservative base and has vowed to veto the bill.

A White House spokesperson released a statement earlier this morning:

The Administration favors strong criminal penalties for violent crime, including crime based on personal characteristics, such as race, color, religion, or national origin. However, the Administration believes that H.R. 1592 is unnecessary and constitutionally questionable. If H.R. 1592 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.

Meanwhile, the ACLU's law-loving activist Washington legal head, Caroline Fredrickson applauded the move:

Prosecuting violent hate crimes is critically important. This bill will also protect due process and the Constitution, especially our First Amendment rights to speak freely and associate with whom we'd like. When a person inflicts violence based on hate, it is important that they be punished.

She did warn, however, that we must all respect free speech.

Barney Frank spoke freely after the vote. From Joe.My.God, "From the podium, Barney Frank exhulted, 'The bill is passed!'" Go on and celebrate, Frank, you deserve it.

Ivan Massow built a £22m business dedicated to providing insurance and mortgages. to gay men and women. All it took to take it down was a homophobic insurance giant, he claims

Massow founded Massow Financial Services back in the early 1990s, when insurance companies refused to give gay people equal protection. The AIDS crisis made gays a bad investment and many companies denied gays coverage. And, if they did, the rates were extortionately inflated. Massow stepped in to adjust the rates. The company took off and soon enough Massow found himself competing with the big boys. He even ran a series of adverts taking on more established companies' anti-gay reputations, including a 1996 poster against a company called Allied Dunbar, which would later become part of Swiss insurance monolith, Zurich.

In 2002, Zurich approached Massow to arrange a cease-fire and potentially lucrative business deal. As part of the arrangement, Zurich floated Massow a £330,000 loan. Massow admits he doubted Zurich's claims that they would adjust their policies for gay people, but he signed the contract anyway. It soon became clear, however, that Zurich had no intentions of altering their discriminatory ways. He alleged they were cruising Massow's client list.

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