Since the passage of California's Prop. 8, which reversed a State Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, a potentially poisonous debate has sprung up over whether the California African-American community, who turned out in record numbers to vote for Obama, bears special responsibility for passing the measure. For perspective, we turned to Chad Goller-Sojourner, a local writer, poet, and performance artist whose work has explored his own struggles growing up black and gay. A guest......

Westlake Center, 2:16 p.m. to 3:10 p.m.......

For today's Prop 8 march and protest, the weather cooperated nicely. Obviously, God loves a civil rights parade.......

In fact, they've arrived nice and early. Westlake Center, 11:11 a.m.......

Speaking of the gay, in case you haven't heard, tomorrow's the National Day of Protest Against Prop 8. Here in Seattle, the protesting festivities start early, with people gathering in Volunteer Park beginning at 10:30 a.m. and starting the march down to Westlake Center at noon. If you can't do that walk hungover, meet up at Westlake for the rally at 2 p.m. Please, make an effort to represent at some point tomorrow. For such......

Dan Savage, on CNN yesterday, debated the Prop 8 debacle with smug asshat Tony Perkins. We really think Savage did a good job arguing with this waste of space. On why he interrupted Perkins so much, Savage explains: And, yes, I did interrupt Tony Perkins—quite a lot. I've been on TV with Mr. Perkins before, and his MO is never shut up, and run out the clock, and interrupt. And I just wasn't having it......

Photo by AP Photo/Hector Mata LAist celebrated the first days of gay marriage by showing up to the first celebrations in Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and Los Angeles. And yes, Star Trek's George Takei was there. Bostonist covered the Celtics' NBA championship in many ways, writing about the game, the post-victory peeing, internet buzz, and the victory parade. Chicagoist helped try to stop the Kool-Aid Man's path of destruction. While same-sex marriage raised but......

Photo by anitakhart/Flickr SFist asked, since it was National Pigeon Day this past week, one simple question about the urban winged creature: love 'em or hate 'em?As California prepared for legal gay marriage, which begins Monday evening, and also watched as Los Angeles celebrated equality during last week's Pride celebration.Torontoist featured photos from Woofstock, the city's festival for all things pooch—and the largest and most adorable event of its kind on the continent. The......

While we don't know if Mayor Greg Nickels' latest proposal to ban concealed weapons on city lands will ever become law (we imagine a little thing called the Constitution and this little group called the NRA might have some problems with that one), hundreds of new laws will take effect in Washington this Thursday. At midnight this Thursday, 280 new laws will be on the books. Over a hundred of the new laws will......

Our TiVo cut off immediately after Kristy Lee Cook rocked her swan song on Idol Wednesday, so we missed the part where her boyfriend Andy stormed the stage, got down on one knee, and proposed. There go our chances (not that she'd ever "play for our team" anyway). According to E! Online, Mr. Kristy Lee originally proposed to her after her first foray into the bottom three. How romantic. The fella really knows how......

Woot! Slowly, but surely this Seattlest is starting to see some semblance of equal rights for ourselves and others like us, as a bill has passed the state legislature granting us over 100 more rights. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign it, no problemo. Last year, we were awarded a handful of rather morose rights that mostly had to do with the death of a partner. Very important rights, mind you, but a little......

It's been quite a debacle, but last year, Oregon gained on Washington in the diversity column by announcing, come the New Year, same sex couples could enjoy full domestic partnerships. Starting today, gay folks in Oregon get access to 500 rights, like making health care decisions, suing for wrongful death, being buried next to their partner, accessing their partner's death certificate, and obtaining "personal effects from their deceased partner's body." It's absurd that there......

As of this morning, queer couples in the state of Washington have about three new rights, which include, but are not limited to: 1. The right to spend time together. 2. The right to talk to each other's doctor. 3. The right to call each other "partner." Whoopdeedoo. We're not as excited about the new domestic partnership law that goes into effect today, as we are that, when you sign up, you get a......

The clock is ticking down on statewide ballot initiatives that hope to throw themselves into the field of vision of voters in November, and an article in Sunday's Olympian has a good rundown on who's going to make it and who's a laughable crank. The article mentions the boring-but-important initiatives that are likely to appear on ballots as well as all of the hilarious hits like the initiative that would apply the death penalty in......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

At least, his Myspace page claimed he supported it for a while this morning. A McCain staffer swiped a template page from Seattle-based news-sharing site Newsvine and when Newsvine CEO Mike Davidson figured out that the template was directing a lot of traffic to an image hosted by Newsvine he swapped it with his own message of tolerance. Instead of a generic list of links McCain's site began displaying an announcement of his support for......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

--We know the Weekly is cutting its editorial staff, but this is ridiculous. --Tuesday's election through the eyes of a poll watcher. --Tuesday's election through the eyes of a librarian. --Tuesday's election through the eyes of 18 bajillion pundits, via PoP. --We have some very important information concerning this link, unfortunately we are forbidden from ever revealing it. --Not everyone is onboard (ugh) with turning the rail corridor into a recreational bike trail, it seems.......

Wednesday, November 8 >>>UW Forum for Science and Ethics Policy, 5:30pm. Dr. Dennis Schatz, VP for Education at the Pacific Science Center, cheerleads for “Making Science as Pervasive as Sports in Society.” His ulterior motive? It can only be to pack the Sonics off to Oklahoma and build our very own Exploratorium right here in Seattle, to which we say “Be Aggressive, Be Be Aggressive!” Free. UW Health Sciences Building, T-478. >>>Pacific Science Center......

Forget gay marriage. The greatest threat to that holiest of institutions is Mariner manager Mike Hargrove. His idiotic bullpen management this weekend, summed up in this post at USS Mariner, caused at least one marital breach we know of. There must be others. Says a USS Mariner commenter: My wife is not talking to me because instead of driving I was pounding the wheel screaming to get “Gas Can” Mateo out and Putz in…shut it......

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say......

The first weekend of summer is here and Steve Pool told us last night that we're actually going to have some weather that befits the season. We got us a second opinion today that verifies it! It's pretty nice outside right now at 74°, but tomorrow the high is listed at an incredible 82° and even gets a few degrees warmer for Sunday (and Monday also at 85° if you want to stretch the......

We are good Seattle liberals. We feel that there should be much more concern over bears roaming Ravenna (next to none) than gay marriage (at none). This is what we do, it is who we are. However, we understand that one can't help but find humor in the world’s problems. It is what separates us from the guy who we were stuck standing near on Saturday night, bemoaning to anyone who would listen that we......

It's common knowledge that every seemingly-local media organization actually belongs to a vast network of similar outlets in other geographic areas. It's for suppressing stories, congratulating each other on liberal bias and conspiring against politicians and celebrities and other things along those lines. For example, every once in a while Seattlest will say, "Hey, SFist, way to stick it to the religious right last week. Let's not report on that story casting gay marriage in......

Today at 11:00am, KUOW 94.9 will air the gay marriage debate between King County Executive Ron Sims, and Eastside bigot, Rev. Ken Hutcherson. According to the P-I, the debate is centered less on whether or not gay marriage is morally right, and more on whether or not the gay-rights movement is an issue of civil rights. “Simply put, Sims, who is the state's highest elected black official, believes discriminating against a person based on sexual......

The self-proclaimed “Mexican Elvis” -- El Vez -- is making yet another Seattle appearance this weekend, this time starring in the much-anticipated script reading of Vanpool. Señor Vez plays Alex Torres, a Seattle corporate drone who unexpectedly finds both personal and professional support in the diamond lane. Stranger scribe Nate Lippens and Von Piglet Sister Angie Louise are among the local talent playing his co-commuters. Vanpool was written by Sean West, mastermind of DTM Filmworks......

Behind perhaps only Andrew Sullivan (or Michael Musto if you live life through VH1) Dan Savage is our country's most prominent gay. From time to time in Seattle we may think of him merely as "that dude from The Stranger" but the guy is syndicated in a hell of lot of papers around the country, writes a decent book, and generally makes a lot of sense when he appears on television to discuss serious subjects.......

Apparently, the secret to our Canada bender is out. Federal agents busted "three to five" people related to an underground tunnel connecting the US to Canada just outside the Lynden border crossing. The tunnel was apparently very well finished, replete with wood slats and electric lights. Komo had this to report: The exact length of the tunnel was not known. It ran from a building on the Canadian side to a house on the U.S.......

Late last night Seattlest was mingling with the post-concert crowd in the Founders Room at Benaroya Hall. We'd just had our socks knocked off by an Erwin Schulhoff piece in the Music of Rembrance concert commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day. (Which makes Schulhoff's death one more thing we have against Nazis.) According to our notes, try the cheese plate, skip the house Pinot. We ran into Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz, who'd written a startlingly neo-Romantic......

After a failed run for governor last year (or perhaps he won, we're still going through old voting rolls) Ron Sims will be seeking his third term as King County Executive this fall. In 2001 he easily defeated Kirkland City Councilman Santos Contreras, however this year the GOP thinks that they can reclaim the position that was last held by a Republican in 1993. They feel that Sims is vulnerable because of the problems he......