Writing today for Bay Windows, journalist Rex Wockner reported that the California Senate passed a resolution Aug. 30 condemning Uganda‘s Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The vote was 21 – 14.

Sponsored by Equality California, the resolution calls upon the U.S. State Department to escalate efforts to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. It also “encourages a more careful review of all United States funding and resources given to faith-based organizations in foreign countries.”

The resolution says that “some United States-based religious leaders have been fomenting fear and discrimination against the…LGBT community in Uganda” and that “the links between some United States-based religious groups and the antigay bill…have been well-documented.”

“There is a growing movement, supported and funded by some United States-based religious groups, to further criminalize homosexuality globally,” the resolution states. “[T]he Senate calls upon the United States Department of State to censure American citizens and organizations who contravene American foreign policy by demonstrated exportation of fear and misinformation to other countries. …”

In the big Prop 8 trial in California, President Barack Obama’s position against marriage equality is directly harming our community and being thrown in our faces.

Our opponents are saying, “Mr. Obama is not a bigot and he believes that marriage is between a man and a woman. So, how can the proponents of Prop 8 be bigots if they share the same views as the President?”

Well, actually he is a politician who believes in getting elected.

During his run for Illinois state Senate in 1996, Barack Obama stated his unequivocal support for marriage equality, according to an exclusive story in the Jan. 14, 2009 Windy City Times newspaper:

President-elect Obama’s answer to a 1996 Outlines newspaper question on marriage was: “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.” There was no use of the phrase “civil unions”.

It seems the Windy City Times showed that Obama is a pol with his finger in the wind on this issue.

LGBT groups, including Truth Wins Out, want Obama to take a stand on the Prop 8 trial. Equality California said Friday that it has collected 91,000 signatures on a petition urging the president to file a brief supporting a challenge to the measure. The White House has not responded. (typical)

Mr. Obama, it is time to get off the sidelines. It is time to stand up and do what it right. We are not holding our breath. But, for once, will you please surprise us? The right wing hates you anyway. They think you are a communist and some even hold the view that you are an illegal alien or the anti-Christ.

You will never win over these crazy, irrational people. Never. Ever.

Please, stop trying to do so. If a person hates LGBT people, they are likely not voting for you anyway. Don’t you get it?

As the Tea Party gains prominence, it almost assures that your 2012 Republican opponent (maybe Sarah Palin or Sen. Jim DeMint) will overwhelmingly win the fringe vote. So, why not do what is moral and just, by rallying the people who actually care about your presidency and support you?

We are waiting, Mr. President, and so far we are pained by your silence. Your words are being used as a justification for our oppression. Only you can change this.

Equality California has invited Carrie Prejean, Miss California, to meet with gay couples and students, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

EQCA executive director Geoff Kors hopes that Prejean will get to know these people and learn first-hand the impact of her vocal opposition to marriage for gay people.

According to the San Francisco Bay Times:

Miss California probably doesn’t realize how hurtful her statements are, especially to LGBT youth,” Kors said in the statement. “But this is about something much bigger than the issue of marriage alone, and I have to believe that if she meets us, she will come to see our humanity, and at the very least, I hope she will understand that what she says as Miss California can either hurt people or bring them together.

The Bay Times reports that a former Miss California (2003), Nicole Lamarche, has released a lengthy statement about the controversy involving Prejean’s response to a question about gay marriage during the Miss USA pageant. Lamarche is married to fellow seminarian Jeremy Nickel and now serves as minister at Cotuit Federated Church in Cotuit, Massachusetts.

The truth is that it is difficult to know for sure the intentions of the biblical authors, but we do know something about God. Those of us who know God through Jesus of Nazareth know that he went to great lengths to express God’ love to people who were labeled as outcasts. He spent time with children, prostitutes, and lepers, all of whom were labeled as outside of the grasp of the Holy.

Lamarche indirectly criticized Prejean for using the Bible as a weapon against others.

Meanwhile, over at MSNBC.com, Helen Popkin asks, “Who died and made Perez Hilton official spokesperson of everything?”