Social conservatives are calling on Congress to reject several of President Obama’s picks to the Department of Justice, including the No. 2 position of deputy attorney general, because they support gay and lesbian equality and the right of a woman to have an abortion.

Republicans on Capital Hill grilled David Ogden, nominated to be the deputy attorney general, at length about those issues at his Thursday confirmation hearing, reports The Associated Press.

Ogden filed a brief in support of the gay defendants at the center of the 2004 Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas which declared sodomy laws unconstitutional. Ogden has also defended organizations that support the right of a woman to seek an abortion.

“You’ve taken some very extraordinary positions, some left-leaning and unorthodox positions,” Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican from Arizona, told Ogden.

Evangelical groups, including the ardently anti-gay Focus on the Family and the American Family Association, have objected to Ogden’s nomination.

Similar concerns are being expressed over the nomination of Elena Kagan to Solicitor General. Kagan, who is openly gay, is being denounced for her support of open service for gay military personnel.

 See Fury Over Obama’s Gay-Affirming Justice Picks
On Top Magazine, OH

Winston Johnson of Atlanta, who was a longtime friend of Coretta Scott King, will take part in a discussion with Dave Hayward of the gay Atlanta history project Touching Up Our Roots at YouthPride tonight. A reception begins at 6:30 p.m. with Johnson speaking at 7:30 p.m. The program is part of Atlanta’s numerous MLK Weekend events.

Johnson, who is gay, met Mrs. King right after the assassination of her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They became close friends and he eventually helped her begin her vocal gay advocacy after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in in 1986 in  Bowers v. Hardwick — a case that arose from Atlanta — that it was within a state’s right to arrest gay people who violated the state’s sodomy law.

Numerous parties are also taking place tonight as part of MLK Weekend, including an appearance by “Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Sheree Whitfield at Vita.

 See Friend of late Coretta Scott King to discuss her gay activism
Southern Voice, GA -

Three suspects in the alleged gang rape of a lesbian woman in Richmond pleaded not guilty Thursday and were likely to remain jailed until a judge decides whether there’s enough evidence to put them on trial.

Lawyers for Humberto Hernandez Salvador, 31, Josue Gonzalez, 21, and Darrell Hodges, 16, entered the pleas to charges that included kidnapping, carjacking, gang rape and sodomy in the Dec. 13 attack. See Suspects in alleged gang rape of Richmond lesbian plead not guilty

A doctor sentenced to six months by a Kurdish judge for writing an medical article about sodomy has been pardoned and released.

Adel Hussein was convicted under the 1969 penal code of offending “public customs” with his article in newspaper Hawlati and sentenced on November 24th in the city of Arbil, the capital of Kurdish-controlled Iraq.

Massoud Barzani, President of the Autonomous Kurdish Government in Iraq, granted the pardon on Sunday, one day before the Muslim celebration of Eid, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

 See Eid pardon for Kurdish journalist imprisoned for writing about gay sex
PinkNews.co.uk, UK