Sarah Palin steps down as Alaska governor

(Fairbanks, Alaska) At times, it seemed like a to the 2008 .

stepped down as on Sunday with a reminiscent of her days as to Republican - when she frequently revved up while attacking and the news …

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Shanghai Journal Gay Festival in China Pushes Official Boundaries New York Times

— It was shortly after the “ body” contest and just before a painted of took the stage that the police threatened to shut down ’s first festival. The had already forced the of a play, a and a , so when an irritated plainclothes officer arrived at the Saturday afternoon gala and flashed his badge, feared the worst.

After some fraught negotiations, Miller, an American teacher who helped put together the , agreed to limit the , keep the noise down and, most important, “not let anything happen that might embarrass the government,” she explained after returning from the impromptu meeting. “That was a close call,” she said.

Crisis averted, the party continued.

And so it went for Shanghai Pride week, a delicately orchestrated series of private that revealed how far ’s community had come, and how much further it had to go. In the 12 years since was decriminalized in , there has been an unmistakable blossoming of life, even if largely underground. Most big cities have bars, and sites ease the of those living in ’s rural hinterland. is virtually unheard of.

But official has its limits. publications and are banned, Web sites are occasionally blocked and those who try to for greater for and men sometimes from the police. For years, in have tried, and failed, to get permission for a film festival.

This month, public security officials forced Wan Yanhai, a prominent on issues, including , to leave for a week because they feared he might cause trouble during the of the .

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Gay New Yorkers Head to Greenwich for Weddings

, . — They wanted a New . “Our lives are here; our are here,” said Janis , 56, who lives in with , the she married on May 21.

But New York has not approved same-sex marriage. “It got to the point where it doesn’t look 100 percent good right now. When you have , ., 20 minutes away, I said, ‘Why are we waiting?’ ”

And so another couple from outside made what is becoming a familiar pilgrimage to this town of wealth and privilege, the first municipality over the state line by Interstate 95 or -North.

From Nov. 12, 2008, the day same- marriages became legal in , through the end of May, 139 same- applied for a license and wed in . All but three of them were been from out of state, most from , according to Barbara Lowden, the town’s assistant .

The town has the most same- marriages in ; statewide figures through February, the most recent available, showed as the for one in every five , though it has only 2 percent of the .

Best known for its old- and new- families stretching from the Sound to its fabled back country, has been vexed in the past by its proximity to the . In 2001, the of buying tickets for the , not available in New York, grew so big that town officials suspended sales for a day.

These days, by contrast, local businesses would like ’s of toe-dippers to stick around a little longer than they have been. Most have a brief ceremony in a meeting room or outside on the grounds, then leave immediately for receptions back in New York or honeymoons elsewhere.

Thomas C. , the general manager of the , said the hotel had advertised on some and Web sites in hopes of attracting more business. The Hyatt averages 70 a year, he said, but this summer only two same- are scheduled so far. “We’d like to have a more,” he said.

June, the traditional month for wedding bliss, is coinciden

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When asked, this gay soldier told

TUSTIN In a calm corner of his garage, a soldier rummages through reminders of the of his life. . A Middle . An . Only a few of the souvenirs in Dan Choi’s will fit into his travel duffel.

As he packs, his walks in. She reaches around her son’s boulder-sized for a hug.

“Are you staying for dinner?”

“I’m not sure.”

By , though, Choi will surely be gone. He’s getting out of Tustin, maybe for good.

has unsettled the 28-year-old combat and his family. In March, on national , he said, “I am .”

That was news to a of , including his bosses. And, the three short words thrust Choi into the limelight, booked his calendar with equal-rights – and earned him a slip from the military.

But all the cameras and microphones that have trailed Choi since then have captured only part of the story. They haven’t been privy to his ’ distress, his past or his of liberation.

Thousands of other troops have gotten booted for outing themselves (or being outed) as or . But, like clockwork, most have disappeared from public view. Choi figures he will too at some point.

But he’s not going away now, and he’s not going away quietly.

LOWS

Over loudspeakers, he ranted.

It was 1998, and Clinton was getting grilled by national media for his then-alleged affair with a 22-year-old intern. At Tustin , Choi, 17, took on the role of Clinton scold. He locked himself in a room and commandeered the public system to decry the commander-in-chief’s weakness and offer what he saw as a cure-all: in Christ.

Choi’s sister, Grace, then a , her ’s as “surprising, but not embarrassing.”

Their , a who fought in the , helped raise his to battle against and . Years later, that duty to speak out would inspire Choi to talk about his – and throw a crimp in their father-son .

“I always think of the story of a of telling Christ to his disciples,” Choi says, adding: “And Christ said, ‘… if they keep quiet, the rocks will cry out.’”

But, in at least, Choi’s bold talk came with a cost. The acne-faced student body his as morning news announcer, and was forced into a sabbatical from student government.

Graduation cleaned his . Reinstated as , the straight-A student gave a parting to his . And, for the U.S. at , Choi left a rousing, two-page letter in the back of his own yearbook.

“Leave your kingdom,” he wrote to himself, “to be a lonely plebe down in the dump.”

STANDING UP

In a forest near the academy, Choi smeared earth-tone paint on his and hunkered down with his rifle. Energy-sapping practice , he says, were key to his college experience.

On campus, Choi studied environmental engineering. Critically, he also began mastering Arabic.

And he held onto his . He studies in the dorms and recited the “Cadet ” every Sunday with the choir. “Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong,” he prayed, “and to never to be content with a half when the whole can be won.”

Still, Choi concealed a . Since fourth grade, he had begged to take away his attraction to other males. In college, he says, he remained unwilling to “explore” his .

In 2003, the War kicked into gear. Choi, now clear-faced and brawny, was soon sent to serve in the Persian Gulf.

There, he says he “greased hands” with elder Sheikhs, patrolled the Triangle of Death and designed a reverse-osmosis water plant for . He also passed on his knowledge of Arabic, as a teacher to thousands of American troops.

Throughout it all, compelled by the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Choi kept mum about his sexual .

His final wartime task, delivering backpacks full of cash to contractors, kept him awake at night. It was around the time of that mission, sleepless in the desert, that he started asking a tough question:

Do I really want to keep lying?

When his tour ended, he wanted to boomerang back to . But that dream was brought to a halt in March when, on behalf of scores of alumni and active-duty servicemembers, he went public with his .

WAR IN PEACE

On his last afternoon in town, rice steams in the kitchen as, upstairs, Choi sorts through a box of accolades.

“Who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be one of those stodgy old veterans wearing all his stuff,” he says, laughing, clutching a of medals.

Proud but tired of the half-, the highly decorated soldier returned from in 2008 and ditched reenlistment. Instead, he became a leader in the . Stationed in New York, he someone, parked down the street and lived in his car to be close to his first boyfriend.

Then Choi came home to Tustin to come out to his and – 19 times in fact, to show he wasn’t bluffing. He handed his a copy of the book “Loving Someone .” A later he discovered it unopened on the floor of his closet.

“They don’t accept it,” Choi says. “And I don’t think they will anytime soon.”

Neither will the military. After his first of several TV appearances, Choi, the rare Arabic-speaking serviceman, received an ultimatum from his employer – accept discharge or stand trial.

His chances before a judge seem slim, based on the dismissal of 12,500 past soldiers.

But he believes the fortunes of an estimated 65,000 and of the armed forced could be changed if were to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a move favors. So, Choi keeps talking to news and shouting to , which his home life – and, recently, compelled him to pack up and move.

is not a right,” Choi says.

is an unacceptable, inexcusable wrong.”

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OCRegister

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3000 Mainers debate marriage

flooded the for a on .

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3000 Mainers debate marriage

flooded the for a on .

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3000 Mainers debate marriage

flooded the for a on .

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NH Senate takes up gay marriage

(Concord, New Hampshire) Supporters and of same- filled a New Wednesday as the began hearings on .

Nearly 500 showed up for the hearing, with spilling out into a .

Among the in favor of the bill was Gene …

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Crowds line up to get into Prop. 8 hearing

— Scores of lined up this morning outside the California building in , hoping for a seat in the chambers as the justices hear arguments on whether the voter-approved state banning same- marriages should be overturned.
Some arrived outside the building on McAllister Street at the at 4:50 a.m., more than four hours before the arguments began at 9 a.m. The grew as the hearing approached.
Motorists honked their , mostly in support of those who want the ban overturned.
First in line was of , 54, an attorney who married her last June after the court ruled that same- marriages were constitutional - a decision that voters overturned five months later in approving Proposition 8.
“This court made the in the first place declaring that have the right to marry,” Taylor said. “For me, it’s a gift to be sitting in front of them.”
On the other side of the issue was , a 60-year-old printer who traveled from Los Angeles for the arguments.
Holding a banner that read, “The says the wages of is death,” Warner said he was standing outside the court because, “I want to give our side, ’s side.”
Another Prop. 8 supporter, Thomas Koors, a 63-year-old self-employed window and from , said he had spent the night in his Subaru near the courthouse and was there to “uphold democracy.”
“If we’re going to have democracy, we have to abide by the will of the majority of the voters, whether we like it or not,” said Koors, who waved an American flag and held a sign that read, “In we trust.”
The Rev. Amy , 40, who is in a same- and is a at a , countered, “It’s just crazy to think that should be able to take away a .”
By 8:15, the line waiting to get into the courthouse took up two-thirds of the block. Others were gathering in Plaza, where the three hours of arguments on the legality of Prop. 8 were being televised on a JumboTron set up directly across from . See
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Robinson Invocation Supposed to Be Included in HBO Broadcast

attending the concert at the Memorial
(/ )

Late last night AfterElton.com reported that , which had The at the Memorial — a
concert organized by the Committee to start the — said they were not to blame for …

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