Kevin James

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Kevin James, a gay Republican, recently got a boost to his campaign when Republican political consultant Fred Davis created a "super PAC" to help James win. Davis plans to raise $3.5 million through a pro-James independent committee called Better Way L.A.

Davis and other Republicans in Los Angeles, which includes L.A. County D.A. Steve Cooley, have embraced James' candidacy, but will gay and lesbian voters? A recent study by UCLA's Williams Institute, a prominent gay think tank, showed that gays heavily lean Democratic.

So far, an odd political reversal may be playing out, in which Republicans, who do not have a reputation as being gay-friendly, support a gay candidate but LGBT voters distance themselves from him... even though James could be the first openly gay mayor of the nation's second largest city.

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Update: The court didn't take up the case, but still could do so Friday.

Today is the day that U.S. Supreme Court could take up the legality of same-sex marriage in California.

Seems to us that folks who back equality in marriage would rather see the high court turn its back on California's Proposition 8, the initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in the Golden State in 2008

That's because that by failing to take action, the court would let another ruling that overturns it stand:

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Los Angeles gets mocked and dumped upon by all kinds of outside critics, but they can't say it isn't a great place to be gay.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights organization based in Washington D.C., Los Angeles is one of the top 11 gay-friendly cities in the United States. In fact, L.A. scored a perfect 100 in HRC's "municipal equality index" -- a better grade than gay mecca West Hollywood, which scored a 98.

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Darrel Steinberg

California State Senate President Darrell Steinberg told the Sacramento Bee that since Democrats hold a super-majority in the state legislature, he would be "open" to using that power by placing a pro-gay marriage initiative on a ballot.

"Depending upon what the Supreme Court might or might not do with Proposition 8," Steinberg told the newspaper, "in coalition with stakeholders and the gay and lesbian leadership, if it were appropriate and necessary to put a repeal of Prop. 8 on the ballot with our two-thirds supermajority, I would be open to that."

Gay rights activists are undoubtedly hoping such a scenario won't play out that way.

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Global Voice Broadcasting

The L.A. billboard of of a gay online radio show has been defaced for the second time, according to its Hollywood broadcaster.

The advertisement for "The Craig & Robbie Hour" looks like it's been splooged by a massively horny fan, but the internet radio company is taking it as a "hate crime."

According to Global Voice Broadcasting:

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Four years ago, Senator Barack Obama won the presidency, but gay folks across the country were outraged that California voters approved Proposition 8, the anti-gay marriage ban.

Last night, it was a completely different story -- and one of the most historic and significant nights for the LGBT community, the gay rights movement, and the advancement of overall equality in the United States.

Throughout the country on election night, gay issues and candidates won major races -- with gay rights activists working hard on the front lines and straight folks opening up their hearts and minds.

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betsybutler.com

Betsy Butler

For the L.A. Weekly story "Will Betsy Butler's Sex Pervert Vote Kill Her Political Career?" we talked with longtime political analyst Jamie Regalado, who thought state Assemblywoman Betsy Butler had another major problem on her hands: The gay vote may go to rival Richard Bloom in the contentious Assembly District 50 race.

"They are totally turned off by her," says Regalado, "and they are throwing their support behind Richard."

During the primary, Butler and gay rights activist Torie Osborn had fought mightily, and Regalado believes that may come back to haunt the assemblywoman.

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Shaun Kadlec

Living in gay-friendly Los Angeles, and an increasingly gay-friendly America, is a wonderful thing, but not all gays and lesbians are so lucky. Born This Way, a documentary by Los Angeles filmmakers Shaun Kadlec and Deb Tullmann, focuses on the underground gay and lesbian community in Cameroon.

The film, which should be completed by the end of this year, follows Cedric and Gertrude, two brave, young Cameroonians. They move between a secret, supportive LGBT community and an outside culture that, though intensely homophobic, is in transition toward greater acceptance. We caught up with Kadlec, a former Fulbright Fellow, and asked a few questions about the documentary.

L.A. Weekly: Why did you make a documentary about gay Cameroon?

Shaun Kadlec: It started with meeting a compelling person. My directing partner Deb Tullmann and I met Steave Nemande, a Cameroonian physician who founded the first gay and lesbian center in his country. He was here in LA where he was honored by Human Rights Watch. I hadn't realized that Cameroon has one of the most aggressive programs to prosecute gay and lesbian people in Africa, but that it is on the verge of positive change. A vibrant and brave LGBT community has formed there, and they are beginning to come out publicly.

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John O'Connor

It took one year and ten days to find a new, full-time executive director, but the gay rights group Equality California has hired a super-connected fellow named John O'Connor.

"John is a bold leader with a history of leading nonprofits into the next phase of their journeys," said Clarissa Filgioun and Cary Davidson, board presidents of EQCA and EQCA Institute respectively, in a joint statement.

We'll see about the "bold" part, but O'Connor does have an interesting resume. He worked with Maria Shriver to create a hall of fame at the California Museum, he was national director at the pro-gay, politically influential Gill Foundation, and he was program director at The David Geffen Foundation. In other words, he's got A-list connections.

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Tony Nelson

SoCal native Chris Kluwe is a punter for the Vikings -- and an outspoken advocate of marriage equality for gays.

Walking across the Macalester College campus, Chris Kluwe passes unnoticed. As usual, the 30-year-old Vikings punter is dressed down: a pair of brown flip-flops, black basketball shorts and a baggy zip-up sweatshirt. A backward World of Warcraft hat pins back his shaggy brown surfer haircut, a giveaway to the Southern California boy's roots on this cool autumn afternoon in Minnesota.

Kluwe climbs a staircase to the second floor of a glass building, where an LGBT group called "No H8" -- an offshoot of the campaign against California's Proposition 8 -- holds a promotional photo shoot. No one is expecting him.

"Are you here to have your picture taken?" a woman asks as Kluwe approaches the check-in.

He nods modestly. "I'm Chris Kluwe, by the way."

"Oh, Chris Warcraft!" she swoons, calling him by his well-followed Twitter handle. "I could fall over!"

Kluwe demurs bashfully, somewhere between cool and uncomfortable.

Two young photographers whisk him away to a white backdrop and toss him a plain V-neck. Kluwe peels off his sweatshirt and an anime T-shirt, exposing his muscular torso, the product of a workout he calls "Operation Adrian Abs" after the Vikings' running back. The photographers stamp his cheek with a "No H8" logo, slap a strip of duct tape over his mouth and begin posing him: Cross your arms. Now hold them out like this.

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ilga.org

Bisexual women and gay men face higher rates of domestic violence, the Williams Institute, a UCLA gay think thank, has reported.

"Binge drinking and a history of psychological distress predicted intimate partner violence," a UCLA press statement reads, "but these factors did not explain disparities between bisexual and heterosexual women or between gay and heterosexual men."

L.A. Weekly recently addressed the state of health and well-being among gay men in the cover story "Gay Happiness, the New Frontier."

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@sandymazza

Is Chick-fil-A now pro-gay?

Well, last week's reports that Chick-fil-A is succumbing to LGBT activists by halting its contributions to groups that oppose same-sex marriage might have been overblown.

L.A. has been a hotbed of anti-Chick-fil-A activism: Should the boycott be called off? One blogger points out that, despite the reports, it doesn't appear anything has changed at the chicken chain:

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Paris Hilton

A lot of folks were jumping on the anti-Paris Hilton bandwagon last week, slamming her for saying "most" gay men have AIDS, among other things. The one-time grand marshall of the Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade eventually apologized.

It wasn't the smartest stuff coming out of Hilton's mouth, and obviously ill-informed -- most gay men lead healthy, productive lives and make solid contributions to society. But in her own flippant way, she was hitting on issues that are most definitely present in the gay world.

Interesting enough, the same day the Hilton story broke on Radaronline.com, L.A. Weekly ran a cover story titled "Gay Happiness, the New Frontier." Hilton should read up before she gets into another conversation about gays -- and her critics should take a gander, too.

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Ludwig Wittgenstein

Throughout history, the world has been shaped and influenced by the vast contributions of gays and lesbians. We don't always know or remember these important role models. Welcome to the "Queer Town Icon" series.

Known as one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century, Ludwig Wittgenstein has influenced nearly every field of the humanities and social sciences.

"Death is not an event in life," Wittgenstein once stated, "we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present."

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Last year, the Institute of Medicine published a landmark study titled "The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding." Many gay health experts hailed the report, but little notice was given to a finding in the "Early/Middle Adulthood" section.

In it, the expert panel, which took over a year to examine numerous LGBT health studies, concluded that "the assumption of a universal positive link between coming out and mental health appears unwarranted."

Whoa! That's something the gay rights movement would not want a whole bunch of people to hear.

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Sandy Mazza.

Manny Castro, the gay artist and provocateur who proudly publicized the work he did on the side of a Torrance Chick-fil-A (he painted "Tastes Like Hate" in response to the chain's stance against same-sex marriage) is getting off.

Sort of.

The L.A. County District Attorney's office late yesterday declined to file a felony charge:

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Alfred Kinsey

Guess Alfred Kinsey -- the famous sex researcher who said approximately one out of every 10 people is gay -- was right...

The National Stonewall Democrats, an LGBT political organization, announced today that 8.15 percent of the delegates at next week's Democratic National Convention in North Carolina are gay -- and most of them live in California.

Stonewall Democrats are hailing that fact as a "record-smashing" event, although it's pretty much what it should be if you go by Kinsey. But, hey, why not celebrate?

"What an amazing and inspiring convention this will be," says Jerame Davis, executive director of National Stonewall Democrats, in a press statement.

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Dalai Lama

The other day we saw a quote from the Dalai Lama who said that developing a concern for others can help create a calm mind. It made sense to us, so we shared it on Facebook, hoping someone would find it useful.

We got a few "likes," but then a good friend of ours wrote an interesting comment. He said that the Dalai Lama isn't completely accepting of homosexuality, so our friend shuns all "spirituality."

The last part of our friend's comment stopped us in our tracks -- and got us thinking about a few things.

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Dustin Franz

Cast of "Corpus Christi"

We always love a good play that gets our brains thinking and hearts pumping. Corpus Christi, the passion play by Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally that depicts Jesus as a gay man living in modern-day Texas, is exactly that.

Highly controversial when it was first produced in 1998, Corpus Christi tackles issues of issues of equality, spirituality, and separation of church and state. The play is incredibly relevant today, and a local production will take place at the Metropolitan Community Church-LA in Los Feliz on August 25.

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Federico Garcia Lorca

Throughout history, the world has been shaped and influenced by the vast contributions of gays and lesbians. Unfortunately, we don't always know or remember these important role models. Welcome to the "Queer Town Icon" series.

Born in Spain in 1898, Federico Garcia Lorca was a renowned poet, dramatist, and theater director. He was also a key member of the "Generation of '27" -- an avant garde group of Spanish poets and artists.

Lorca is widely hailed as Spain's most important poet and playwright of the twentieth century.

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