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Via social networking sites and word of mouth, an estimated 10,000 people gathered Wednesday night at the Mormon Temple near Lincoln Center in New York City to protest last week’s passing of California’s Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage in the state, and the fact that most of the money for the Yes on Prop 8 campaign came from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - the Mormons.

Civil rights attorney Norman Siegel said, “The spirit of ACT UP is in the air.”

Banners that lead the march proclaimed, “God Loves Gay Marriage” and “Would Jesus spend tax-free dollars to support hate and injustice?” while chants demanding equality were heard from everywhere.

Some protesters say they were motivated by anger over a religious institution using the ballot process  as an attempt to impose religious values in a democracy based on separation of church and state.

Similar demonstrations to denounce Proposition 8 have been held in the last week in California cities like Long Beach, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and in Salt Lake City, where the Mormon church is based.

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In Connecticut on Wednesday same-sex couples began marrying after a judge cleared the way, a partial rebound for the gay community still angered over the vote last week that revoked their right to wed in California. As protests spread all over the country against California’s Propostion 8 pass, in New Haven, smiles and celebrations were abound.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 on Oct. 10 that same-sex couples have the right to wed rather than accept a 2005 civil union law designed to give them the same rights as married couples. A lower-court judge entered a final order permitting same-sex marriage the morning of Nov. 12th, 2008.

Massachusetts is the only other state that allows gay marriages.

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Lindsay Lohan has spoken out again, this time more specifically, about her relationship with celebrity DJ Sam Ronson. In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar magazine, Lohan revealed she does not want her sexuality to be classified as lesbian, bisexual or straight.

“I appreciate people, and it doesn’t matter who they are, and I feel blessed to be able to feel comfortable enough with myself that I can say that.”

She also commented on the intense media interest in her personal life and refused to name Ms Ronson as she worries “it jinxes it.” However, she admitted later that “it’s pretty obvious who I’m seeing. She’s a wonderful person and I love her very much,” she said in the interview.

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Thousands of protesters marched over the city of Los Angeles, California in opposition to the voter’s support for Proposition 8 - a ballot measure that sought to amend the state’s constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. The referendum has provoked several planned protests, and even riots and lawsuits all across the city.

LAPD officials say they were caught off-guard when a tactical alert was called after a few members of the mostly peaceful crowd got out of hand. With the protests, police were forced to shut down some streets and call a citywide tactical alert that required officers from one watch to stay on duty during the next watch.

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Sad News: In Tuesday’s election, the voting majority has likely approved California’s Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriages. This throws into doubt the unions of an estimated 18,000 same-sex couples who wed during the past 4 1/2 months.

A total of $73 million was spent in the race, a record for a ballot measure on a social issue, resulting in incessant television and radio commercials from both sides.

Elsewhere in the country, two other gay-marriage bans, in Florida and Arizona, also won. In both states, laws already defined marriage as an institution between a man and a woman. But backers pushed to amend the state constitutions, saying that doing so would protect the institution from legal challenges.

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Barack Obama came out victorious in the Nov. 4th 2008 election race to become the 44th President of the United States of America. Obama, the first black president of the US, completed an almost 2-year-long election campaign that appealed to a collective desire for hope and change in a time of economic hard-ship and unrest.

Obama had 349 electoral votes to John McCain’s 147, and was winning the popular vote by 52 to 47 percent. Obama was the first Democrat in decades to crack the 50 percent threshold.

During his acceptance speech, Obama said, “If there is anyone out there who doubts that America is a place where anything is possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

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Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joseph Biden says if he lived in California he would vote against Proposition 8. Monday on the “Ellen” show, Biden called Prop 8 “regressive” and “unfair”, and that running mate Barack Obama opposed a similar initiative nationally.

Biden was responding to a question by the show’s host, Ellen DeGeneres, who is gay and has urged California voters to oppose Proposition 8.

The state Supreme Court’s decision to allow same-sex marriages became official Tuesday with its publication in the Connecticut Law Journal. The publication triggered a 10-day period when motions for reconsideration can be filed.

Same-Sex couples can begin picking up marriage license applications sometime on or after Nov. 10. A judge at the New Haven Superior Court, where the case began in 2004, still must decide the precise date.

The state Department of Public Health is ready for the change, having new marriage applications printed now reflect the change in Connecticut’s marriage laws. Couples will see two boxes marked “bride/groom/spouse,” instead of putting one name under “bride” and the other under “groom.”

Maria Shriver, California’s first lady, wife of Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, has publicly expressed her support for same-sex marriage in the state. In an interview with KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, she stated that she is voting No on Proposition 8.

“I believe in people’s right to choose a partner that they love, and that’s a decision that I have come to, and I have felt that way for a long time,” said Ms Shriver, a niece of former President John F Kennedy.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also opposes Prop. 8.

Computer giant Apple has declared Prop 8 a civil rights issue and donated $100,000 to the campaign to defeat it. Google has also publicly backed gay marriage.

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Jerry Lewis is at it again: Lewis, who last year made an anti-gay comment during his annual Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon, spouted yet another anti-gay slur, this time at a news conference in Sydney, Australia this past Friday. When a reporter asked him his opinion of cricket, a popular sport in Australia, Lewis’s response: “Oh, cricket? It’s a fag game,” and mimed swinging a cricket bat effeminately.

The Australian channel Network Ten broadcast the comment and footage of the gesture during a telecast. Mr. Lewis had apologized for his outrageous September 2007 incident; a spokesperson has said he does not intend to comment on this latest episode.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and the Australian Coalition for Equality called for an immediate apology.

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