Over 100,000 protesters across the country and across the globe attended rallies and marched on Saturday in protest of California's Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage. From Fairbanks, Alaska, where 32 people stood with signs in 6 degree weather as snow fell to San Diego, where 25,000 people marched on an unseasonably hot autumn day that reached into the 90s, supporters of civil rights demanded equality.

"This is the first time in U.S. history that the majority voted to strip the rights of a minority. Who will be next?" asked Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center CEO Lori Jean, who also credited young people as the driving force of the movement, saying "We now pass the torch to you!" The protests, organized via the website www.jointheimpact.com, spread through sites like Facebook, Myspace & Twitter.

Many of you sent in photos, videos and stories of the day. After the jump, we present some of these snapshots from across the country. You may want to grab a hankie.

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Lane Hudson and Matt Foreman know a little something something about the gay rights movement. As the outgoing leader of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Foreman has helped spearhead a number of movements in Washington, New York and throughout the rest of the United States. The activist tells us he caught the activist bug after witnessing the atrocities of West Virginia's coal mining industry and only later got involved in the nascent gay rights movement. Foreman later got caught up in the more progressive, grass roots-oriented gay rights movement. Hudson, meanwhile, has been involved in activism since his wee years, when political active family members informed his social consciousness. The former Human Rights Campaign staffer gained notoriety after exposing Mark Foley's inappropriate exchanges with congressional pages. He lost his job for his involvement in that scandal and now works as an independent gay rights activists and contributes to Huffington Post. Just in case you didn't know…

The editorial union of these men counts as the first in a sporadic series called "Homo Encounters," during which our editor moderates a conversation between two notable homos from various fields. Today's one super Tuesday, so we thought Hudson and Foreman could offer some interesting thoughts on where the gay movement remains today - and where it's meant to go tomorrow. We don't want to give too much away, but be prepared for the pros and cons of incrementalism, how the Democrats can shape up (or ship out), why the federal level ain't the shit and which political enemies should be our mentors - after the jump, naturally.

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A Washington DC church faces a serious schism after the Washington Blade published some very unJesus like emails from an irate choir member to their pastor, Bishop Alfred Owens Jr. The woman, who has not been identified, tells Owens that she can no longer attend the church because of all the queers in the choir. She also took it upon herself to out 107 church members. From The Blade:

The outings added to the inner turmoil experienced by a large number of gays who attend services at the 7,000-member Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church, located on Rhode Island Ave., N.E., according to a gay former member who provided copies of the e-mails to the Blade.

“I will be leaving the choir at the top of the year because 80 percent of the tenors are homosexuals and act more like a female in choir rehearsal than I do,” the church choir member said in one of her e-mails to Bishop Alfred Owens Jr., the church pastor.

The e-mail, sent in December, identifies about 45 fellow church members as gay. She sent a second e-mail to Owens on Jan. 2 identifying another 62 church members as gay.

“The following people I am asking you to monitor very closely and my prayer is that you will sit them down from their ministries,” she told Owens in the December e-mail. “Because they are ushering in the presence of sin, lies, a spirit of homosexuality and sexual spirits.”

No doubt Owens appreciated the heads up - he's got a long history of homophobia, including saying that real men, not faggots, can love Jesus.

The National Black Justice Coalition released a statement blasting Owen and his ilk: "We know that many of the gays that go there like the traditional setting of a church like that. It tears at your soul."

Oregon-born Aaron Jensen has dedicated the past seven years of his life to the Department of State. Despite his dedication, our government still refuses to grant Jensen and other gay employees the same benefits offered to straight officials. The unspoken discrimination made big headlines last year when former Romanian Ambassador Michael Guest blasted Condoleezza Rice and others for their inaction on gay equality.

Jensen hopes that he won't have to do the same. That's why he heads up the 400-strong Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies, which strives to revamp the Department's employment policies. Our editor recently sat down with Jensen to talk shop. The results are intriguing, particularly because Jensen - who spoke in fairly calm, nearly monotonous tones - attempts to toe the line while also advocating for gay rights. It's an odd combination, to be sure, but not surprising considering the circumstances.

Andrew Belonsky: First, what exactly is your role - what's your job?

Aaron Jensen: My job job?

AB: Yeah.

AJ: I'm a desk officer for the State Department, but I'm not going to focus or really talk about my professional job.

AB: Okay… So you work for the State Department. Why did you decide to work there?

AJ: It's what I always wanted to do - since about college. It sounded really great - a diplomatic corp that goes around representing the United States' interests to various countries in the world. You really get to know what it's like to live and work in a foreign country.

AB: And where have you traveled?

AJ: Guanjo, China, Madrid, Spain and Kabul, Afghanistan.

AB: How many languages do you speak?

AJ: Really just Spanish and Chinese.

AB: Afghanistan must have been a struggle, must have been a challenge.

AJ: Yeah, it was a challenge. I didn't speak the local language, so I relied on translators when I dealt with Afghans who didn't speak English. The main challenge, I would say, was social. The work was super exciting - you worked long hours, but people work long hours here.

AB: What do you mean "social challenges"? Because you were working all the time?

AJ: No. For security reasons your social group is primarily the people you live and work with.

AB: Tell me about your work with Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies.

AJ: I'm the president of the organization presently - until March.

AB: How long are your terms?

AJ: One year. I have an opportunity to go abroad - I thought I would stay another couple years, but I'm going to go abroad. But [GLIFAA is] a department recognized employee affinity group, [whose] main responsibility is advocating for gay and lesbian issues in the State Department. Our priority is trying to get equality in benefits for gay and lesbian employees and equality in benefits for families of gay and lesbian employees.

AB: You're "department recognized". What is your relationship with the State Department. Is it just that they respect you? That's the "recognition"?

AJ: There are - let's see - we are considered to be the equivalent to Blacks in Government or the State… We don't get a budget from the department, but it's recognized that we can meet occassionally with state officials, if they so choose.

AB: Do you guys have regular meetings with officials or is it case-by-case?

AJ: It had been case-by-case, but the director general, the head of human resources, basically - he's going to meet quarterly with all affinity groups. We also have members from the US Agency for International Development, the Foreign Agricultural Service and the Foreign Commercial Service…

AB: Do you get involved in international advocacy?

AJ: Never.

AB: You're primarily concerned with employee equality, but are there other issues with which you engage, make statements?

AJ: Almost never. Never. Never, ever, ever do we advocate on U.S. foreign policy. No. That's not our purview. Just advocacy for State employees.

AB: And that's an internal decision?

AJ: Yes. We do have speakers from various international GLBT organizations, but we ourselves do not speak out publicly on any foreign policy issues.

While the NY Times editorial board approves of the President's hypodermic turnaround, the journalists expect more from the Bush administration:

Congress and President Bush have done the right thing, lifting a disastrous nine-year ban that prevented Washington from using locally raised tax dollars on needle-exchange programs that help fight the spread of AIDS. Unfortunately, that still leaves in force an even broader and more damaging law that prohibits the use of federal funds for needle-exchange programs in the United States or abroad.

That ban must also be rescinded.
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First enacted by Congress 20 years ago, the prohibition against using federal dollars for these crucial needle-exchange programs has hobbled AIDS prevention efforts both in this country and abroad. Health organizations using American tax dollars should be encouraged rather than blocked from developing these programs.

Eliminating the federal ban would save many thousands of lives every year.

And that's the truth, Ruth.

DC-resident "Nathanial" had a shittastic Friday night. The DC-resident says a gang of "faggot" flinging men attacked him in a metro station, leaving him bruised, shaken and stirred.

DCist paraphrases the Fox News video:

As the doors closed at Metro Center, the group surrounded and beat Nathaniel, kicking him as he fell to the floor and yelling "faggot".

Nathaniel managed to get off the train at the Smithsonian station, and he ran up to the station manager's booth to report the incident. He said Metro Transit Police would not drop him off at his house, only to another Metro station.

He believes that the attackers targeted him for money and their realization that he's gay "escalated their rage."

Police refused to share surveillance footage with Fox. They're obviously very concerned with finding these jack-offs.

Washington DC leads America's HIV/AIDS pack. One in twenty people in our nation's capital carry the deadly retrovirus. Many of you are probably wondering, "How in the world could our government allow such disgraceful numbers?" Activist Nicole Styles has her suspicions.

Via ABC:

Styles thinks that when these staggering numbers were announced, a state of emergency should have been declared. Instead, she and many others in D.C. suspect that the government's seeming indifference is because 80 percent of those infected are black and most of the others are gay.

Styles believes that if the disease affected white heterosexuals at a rate of one in 20, the city and federal government would have more of a response.

What?! Our Republican controlled government ignores blacks and gays? How retro!