Surely, if we don't have access to all communications made by and between public-servant lawmakers working with compulsory tax money - and we don't, despite sunshine and open-government laws - then there isn't a right to have access to the internal communications of a citizen-led ballot campaign funded with private, donated money.

Los Angeles County saw an overall 4% drop in hate crimes last year, while crimes against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people increased, prompted in part by last November’s highly charged Proposition 8 initiative, the voter-approved [California Marriage Amendment], according to a new report released today.

There were 134 sexual-orientation hate crimes reported last year, up from 111 in 2007, and were more likely to be violent than hate crimes motivated by race or religion, according to the annual Hate Crime Report by the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations.

"I am very sad to be here today because my presence means that my community – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people – were horribly impacted by hate crimes in 2008," Lorri Jean, chief executive of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, said at a news conference.

"Anti-gay and anti-transgender hate crimes do not happen in a vacuum," she said, "they happen in the context of a society that still tolerates and even promotes discrimination against us."

Robin Toma, executive director of the Human Relations Commission, said the data underscored the importance of the recent passage of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which extends federal hate crimes protection to victims of sexual orientation crimes.

Although religious hate crimes rose 14%, that increase is attributed to 15 crimes targeting the Church of Scientology, Toma said. Two thirds of those crimes were similar threatening letters sent to various church branches that were likely from the same individual, he said.

So why didn't the activists put a marriage neutering amendment on the ballot in the first place? I think we have 31 answers to that question, don't we? It will be interesting to see if the vote goes differently in 2010, without Obama voters and increased conservative activity.

Education unions support marriage neutering. The same groups pushing for marriage neutering have long pushed the rest of their agendas in public schools, often deciding to go ahead without parental approval and leaving it up to parents to find out, object, and pull their individual students out of the situation - and even then the parents face hurdles.

Their polling - according to them, anyway - shows that a small majority of California voters are in favor of neutering marriage. Say, didn't the polls that right before the voters adopted the California Marriage Amendment? The poll also shows a stronger sentiment, though, against having the issue back on the ballot in 2010 - in other words, strongly against an attempt to repeal the Amendment.

And though there is little empirical evidence that "families and the institution of marriage" will be "strengthened" by same-sex marriage, those in the "strong grip" of tradition and religion are asked to believe that gay marriage is an inalienable right, benefiting both the institution of marriage and culture itself.

When will there be vigorous dialogue on the efficacy of same-sex marriage as a greater good for the body politic?

Keep your "closely held beliefs" to yourself, and stop enshrining them into law.

Supreme Court stated marriage was a right in Virginia v Loving, over 40 years ago

I was NOT using my morals as the standard for everyone, but here YOU are using YOUR morals as the standard that SHOULD be held by everyone, as if I think something different than you I'm automatically a bigot. How dare you! I have the right to hold my opinion and the right to defend it. It is MY OPINION. You have the right to your opinion as well.

Anything the State licenses, it can regulate.

Many young people start off their adult lives with very liberal notions (I was very liberal in my early 20's). Once they get a little older and start careers (paying taxes), start a committed relationship (slow the party mentality), get married, have kids, send those kids into school, etc., etc., the realities of this world set in and they move more towards a conservative position.

Thus, I wouldn't count on the "next generation" to be anymore helpful than the "counter-culture" generation of the 60's & 70's because they are the ones rejecting homosexual marriage at the ballot box.

To timecronk (or should I say "time warp?"), I have to disagre with you about marriage being defined by god. Your imaginary friend has nothing to do with marriage.

It was, and always has been a LEGAL contract between TWO persons and their government.

Keep church and state separated, as the framers of our Constutition (many of whom were staunch anti-Christians, and believed in Deism) intended it...

By all means start to get real tired of this 'crap'. It'll make it that much easier for those of us who have any sense of justice to run the bigots and fundamentalists over like so much roadkill.

Washington state voters appeared to approve giving gays and lesbians in domestic partnerships the same practical rights as married couples.

Newly approved federal law recognizes that crimes committed because of the victim's sexual orientation are hate crimes

next on the federal agenda is ending employment discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Lifelong marriage traditions and deeply held religious beliefs have a strong grip on many voters.

Gays and lesbians shouldn't have to wait for an entire generation to reach voting age in order to receive equal rights.

More than 200 people are marching north on Vermont Avenue from Santa Monica Boulevard to protest Proposition 8, the measure that banned same-sex marriages in California.