Gay and Lesbian Relationships

Bill Extending Rights to Third Parent Follows Senate OK with Assembly Nod--and Usual Foes

A bill approved by the California Assembly Monday would allow judges to extend parental rights to a child's third parent.Senate Bill 1476, which was co-authored by state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), would allow--for instance--a gay father raising a child with a lesbian couple to also have paren ... More >>

Jane DeLeon and Irma Rodriguez, Lesbians Undone by DOMA, Sue Over Immigration Woes

Jane DeLeon came to this country from the Philippines two decades ago as the common-law partner of a man.In 2008, when same-sex marriage was still legal in California, she married a woman and had been leading a happy life in America--until the federal government told her she must leave.Now DeLeon is ... More >>

[UPDATED With New Celebration Location:] Court Strikes Down Proposition 8; Celebration in Downtown Santa Ana Tonight!

UPDATED, FEB. 7, 4:30 P.M.:The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday struck down California's ban on same-sex marriage.A three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that Proposition 8, which limits marriage to one man and one woman and was approved by voters in 2008, violates equal protection rights u ... More >>

Starbucks Supports Gay Marriage

​Even if their coffee's not really your thing, this might warm you up to the StarCorp. The company has come out in support of Washington State legislation that recognizes marriage equality for same-sex couples.Here's the letter sent out to nearly 150,000 employees: 

Quick Ruling for Gay Marriage in California Expected Despite Today's Prop 8 Ruling

​The California Supreme Court ruled today that gay marriage foes can fight the reversal of Prop 8.Because the offices of the governor and state attorney general refuse to defend the same-sex marriage ban, legal scholars such as UC Irvine School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky had opined that Prop 8 ... More >>

[UPDATED] Federal Government Will No Longer Defend Defense of Marriage Act

​UPDATE, FEB. 23, 4:18 P.M.: The couple who filed the first marriage equality case in California and later became petitioners to overturn Prop 8, Diane Olson and Robin Tyler, said today's decision by the Obama administration to stop defending the federal government's anti-gay marriage law is "a hu ... More >>

California's 5 Worst Ballot Initiatives

​Happy Election Day! Could you even sleep last night? Do you view your local polling place like a 5-year-old views a Christmas tree on Christmas morning? Can you not wait one more minute to vote the bastards out?Well, before you go get your teabag on, take a gander at bad initiatives that have gon ... More >>

California Gay Marriages Banned Indefinitely

​So much for Prop 8 backers not having any standing.A three-judge federal appeals court put same-sex weddings in California on hold indefinitely moments ago while it considers the constitutionality of the state's gay marriage ban.

[UPDATED:] Prop 8 Overturned

​UPDATE: More details on tonight's celebratory rally (see end of post) . . .In a landmark case, Proposition 8, the 2008 California voter initiative that outlawed gay marriage, was overturned. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco ruled that the voter initiative is unconstitution ... More >>

My Kid Raised by Lesbians is Smarter Than Your Kid Raised by Straights

​The longest-running study of same-sex couples concludes the children of lesbian parents outscore their peers socially and academically.Results of the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study leave no doubt as to the success of lesbian couples as parents, according to a University of California, ... More >>

Cinema Italiano: Saturno Contro

Bowers Museum

Proposition 8 Is Keeping Same-Sex Couples From Marrying, But It Has United OC's Gay Community

LGBT Groups Seek to Intervene in Prop. 8 Challenge

This just in from the ACLU, which believes the action taken today will help a judge hearing a challenge of Prop. 8 understand the unequal rights inherent in the ballot initiative . . . SAN FRANCISCO -- Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and the American Civil Liberties Union ... More >>

Prop. 8 Upheld, But Previous Gay Marriages Remain Valid

The California Supreme Court has announced its ruling on the challenge to the state's gay marriage ban: The voter-approved ban shall remain in place, but the 18,000 gay couples who were married before it took effect will not have their marriages invalidated. The decision was made by a 6-1 majority o ... More >>

Supremes' Prop. 8 Oral Arguments Generate Vigils, Viewing Parties, Rallies

Okay, Prop. 8, supporters, be honest: Would you rather attend a party thrown by gays or straights? If you answered the latter, well, then, you haven't been to a party thrown by gays, have you? Think of all the collected knowledge of Martha Stewart, the Queer Eye guys and Chelsea Handler funneled int ... More >>

Honest Abe Lincoln Delays OC Participation in Same-Sex Marriage Stunt

Tomorrow, same-sex couples throughout the country will go to their local county clerk counters and request marriage licenses as part of National Freedom to Marry Day. That won't happen in Orange County, however. The Old County Courthouse is closed due to Abraham Lincoln's birthday. This is ironic, g ... More >>

[Trendzilla] They Oughta be Band

Is Rick Warren Outing His Tolerant Self of Just Bluffing?

UPDATED WITH PASTOR WILEY DRAKE SAYING GOD WILL PUNISH RICK WARREN FOR PARTICIPATING IN OBAMA INAUGURATION (SEE THE VERY END).The choice of Rick Warren as Barack Obama's inaugural invocation giver has apparently so touched the leader of Lake Forest's Saddleback Church that he has become The Most Tol ... More >>

The Purpose Driven Knife in the Back of Obama's Gay Supporters

Perhaps for not going so hard on Barack Obama in last summer's Saddleback presidential forum, the Lake Forest mega-church's pastor, Rick Warren (right), will deliver the invocation at the president-elect's swearing-in ceremony Jan. 20, reports CNN. Warren did not make a public endorsement in the rac ... More >>

Prop 8: No Way in Hell Is This Over

I spent my Election Night trying to find non-existent parking outside Hamburger Mary's in Long Beach. The celebration inside sure looked like fun, though, but I don't think I would have stuck around past midnight to watch all the tears turn from Obama joy to Prop 8 despair. Failing that, I instead d ... More >>

Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau Goes Gay, Gay, Gay, Gay, GAY!

Hello, young gay lovers, wherever you are. If you are heading toward the altar, the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau wants you! That is, they want you to get married in fabulous, homo-hatin', Laguna Beach-acceptin', Belmont Shores nearin', closeted-gay legislatin' Orange County. It ... More >>

Theatre Out's 'Small Domestic Acts,' Staging in Fullerton, Is a Small Step in the Right Direction

Eat, Drink and Be Gay Married! After 27 Years, One Couple Finally Has Its Big, Fat, Mexican Wedding

[Summer Guide] My Big Fat Gay Wedding

James Randal Ross (1926-2007)

Legendary outlaws and dirty jokes aren't typically mentioned in the obituaries of Superior Court judges in OC, but as the panel of judges who censured him in 1998 could have told you, James Randal Ross was not a typical judge. Ross, who served as an Orange County Superior Court judge from 1983 to 1 ... More >>

Hate Sells

Tim Millers tale of gay love