Officials from Imperial County  California filed an emergency motion yesterday to join with ProtectMarriage.com to defend Proposition 8 in the upcoming court case led by Ted Olson and David Boies. Located at the southeastern tip of the state, the largely conservative county supported Proposition 8 by an overwhelming 69 percent of the vote in 2008. From SFGate:

The Imperial County Board of Supervisors voted in favor of an emergency motion Tuesday to intervene in the case. Supervisors say the county’s participation is needed because Attorney General Jerry Brown supports overturning the voter-approved measure, while Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken a neutral position on it.

The board approved the motion by a 3-2 margin.

Imperial County also voted for the Briggs Initiative back in 1978 by the same margin, 69 percent. The measure which would have barred gays and lesbians from teaching in public schools, ultimately went down to defeat thanks to gay rights pioneer and icon Harvey Milk.

It’s interesting that the supervisors felt it necessary to file an “emergency” motion to intervene in the case. Did they also take similar dramatic action when they found out Imperial County has the second highest teen pregnancy rate in the state?

The more things change… the more they stay the same.

By a vote of 11-2, the Washington DC Council has passed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009, which would make gay marriage legal in our nation’s capital. From the NBC Washington affiliate:

The bill sponsored by openly gay Councilman David Catania had been expected to pass easily. Ten of the 13 council members supported its introduction. Only Councilman Marion Barry, Ward 8, and Councilwoman Yvette Alexander, Ward 7, voted against it Tuesday. Both have said their vote reflects the wishes of their constituents. Catania expressed regret that these colleagues would not be voting with him but noted their support of GLBT issues in the past.

Even with the dissent of Alexander and Barry, Tuesday’s vote was a very cheerful, cordial event, with council members thanking and congratulating each other and patting each other on the back, many expressing pride for being part of this historic vote. Councilwoman Mary Cheh, the first on the roll call, playfully voted “I do,” as did Councilman Jim Graham. Later, Barry voted “I don’t.”

In anticipation of the bill’s passage, marriage equality opponents  vowed to fight the measure.

“The city council’s action today is not the final word. The issue is far from over,” Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, said in a statement Monday.

Jackson has aligned with Robert King, a longtime Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in Northeast, the Rev. Walter Fauntroy, a former civil rights leader who was a longtime pastor at New Bethel Baptist Church, and several other religious leaders to try to force a referendum to outlaw same-sex marriage.

Mayor Fenty is expected to sign the bill before Christmas, which will go into effect Spring of 2010, provided Congress does not intervene during a congressional review period.

A long-time proponent of criminalizing homosexuality, Dr. Scott Lively, president of Abiding Truth Ministries (classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group), released a statement today praising the intent of  Uganda’s anti-gay bill, and commending the courage of the Ugandan people.

Let me be absolutely clear. I do not support the proposed anti-homosexuality law as written. It does not emphasize rehabilitation over punishment and the punishment that it calls for is unacceptably harsh. However, if the offending sections were sufficiently modified, the proposed law would represent an encouraging step in the right direction. As one of the first laws of this century to recognize that the destructiveness of the “gay” agenda warrants opposition by government, it would deserve support from Christian believers and other advocates of marriage-based culture around the world.

As has been reported on Rachel Maddow and throughout the gay/progressive blogosphere, Lively wielded considerable influence in the creation of the anti-gay bill, having testified before Ugandan leaders earlier this year. Earlier this week Rachel Maddow aired some pretty damning audio of Lively speaking in Uganda:

In a recent interview with LifeSiteNews, Lively describes the impetus for the bill as “… external interference from European and American gay activists attempting to do in Uganda what they’ve done around the world – homosexualize that society,” and cites a fear that homosexuals are entering their country and abusing boys on the streets.

So in Lively’s reality we are to blame for the anti-gay law in Uganda. Just as we were to blame during the holocaust.

If you would like give Dr. Lively a piece of your reality, you can contact him  at 1-951-834-5933, or via e-mail at [email protected].

Below, some more Lively video prior to his testifying against a transgender hate crimes bill in Massachusetts, where he proceeds to blame us (in part) for the inevitable infrastructure collapse of the United States… roads, bridges that sort of thing. Just incredible.

In an interview with DC Agenda (formerly the Washington Blade), Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) did not expect to take up his  “Respect for Marriage Act” until 2011, after other LGBT-focused legislation had been voted on, including the ENDA, DADT and UAFA.

“The Respect for Marriage Act comes up after that, maybe at the end of the next Congress, maybe afterward,” he [Nadler] said.

Nadler’s legislation would overturn DOMA, allowing the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages. It also has a “certainty provision” that would allow same-sex couples to marry in one state and still receive federal benefits even if they move to another state where gay nuptials aren’t recognized.

In lieu of passage in this Congress, Nadler said the task for supporters is to find more co-sponsors for the bill. As of Tuesday, the bill had 105 co-sponsors. Nadler predicted support would grow.

“And I think if some of these other bills pass, it’ll become more — the idea becomes less avant garde,” he said.

Nadler also introduced the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) earlier this year, which would allow gays and lesbians to sponsor their foreign-born partners for citizenship, and is pushing for that legislation to be a part of larger immigration reform in 2010.

“I don’t know what the final comprehensive immigration reform will look like, but I remain optimistic that it will include lesbian and gay families,” he said.

In the event that comprehensive immigration reform legislation doesn’t include UAFA when it debuts, Nadler said he’s working on making sure there are votes in the House Judiciary Committee to amend the bill to include such a provision.

Nadler said he’s “hopeful” there will be enough votes for an amendment, but added “that’ll be a big fight, if necessary.”

“I haven’t taken any votes or whip counts or done any kind of that work, but certainly it will be something that we’ll have to work at and the gay community and everybody will have to be pressuring the individual members of the committee,” Nadler said. “A lot of the members of the committee, the Democratic members especially, say they’re very great friends with the gay community … and this’ll be an opportunity to show that they are, bar none.”

When asked if he would support immigration reform without a UAFA or similar provision, Nadler reponded “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

So do we.