The decision last week against Ang Ladlad (Out of the Closet), a group representing lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders, sent shock waves through the gay community.

In issuing its decision, the commission said the group “tolerates immorality which offends religious beliefs” and exposes young people to “an environment that does not conform to the teachings of our faith.” The ruling cited passages from the Bible and the Quran condemning homosexuality.

Homosexuals are generally accepted in the Philippines, despite the dominant Roman Catholic religion’s rejection of same-sex relations.

Leila de Lima, chairwoman of the Commission on Human Rights, denounced the Election Commission’s ruling as “retrogressive” and said it “smacks of discrimination and prejudice.”

She promised to support Ang Ladlad’s efforts to gain recognition as a party.

The group’s leader, Danton Remoto, a prominent gay activist and English professor at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University, filed a petition Wednesday asking the commission to reconsider its ruling, which he said was based largely on religious, not legal, grounds.

There are no laws in the Philippines against homosexuality or against sexual discrimination. If his group is allowed to run and wins a congressional seat, Remoto said he hopes to push for the adoption of a proposed anti-discrimination bill that has been languishing for nine years because of insufficient support.

“The law is just silent,” he said. “We are just invisible in the law.”

He said his group’s platform does not include same-sex marriage, but pushes for nondiscrimination in the workplace and schools. He cited instances in which companies allegedly refused to hire gays and schools required parents to sign a document certifying their children were not gay.

Candidates and political parties planning to run in the May 2010 national elections have until Dec. 1 to apply with the Elections Commission, which must give its approval.

The head of the commission’s legal department, Ismael Rafanan, said Ang Ladlad’s petition will be reviewed by the seven-member commission. If it reaffirms the rejection, Ang Ladlad can bring the case to the Supreme Court for a final ruling.

Both teens were brutally slain in separate instances last week.

These are the vigils we could find – please add others or additional information in the comments. 365gay will attend the NYC vigil and report back here on Monday (or you can check the live Twitter coverage at http://www.Twitter.com/JenniferVanasco).

Abilene, TX – 5:30PM, ACU campus, next to GATA fountain [Facebook link]

Amherst, MA – MONDAY 11/23 – 6:30PM, Food For Thought Books [Facebook link]

Boston – 7PM, Trinity Church, Copley Plaza [Facebook link]

Chicago – 4PM, Division and California, procession to Humboldt Park Boat House [Facebook link]

Durham, NC – 6PM, Corcoran St, CCB Plaza [Facebook link] (Event previously said Saturday, this will occur with the others on Sunday)

Los Angeles – 8PM, Santa Monica and San Vicente [Facebook link]

New York – 5 p.m., Christopher St. Pier 45

Oakland – 3:30PM, MacArthur and Lakeshore/Grand Ave [Facebook link]

Philadelphia – FRIDAY, Nov. 20.  6:30 PM, Church of St. Luke & The Epiphany, 330 South 13th St.

San Antonio, TX – 8PM, Crockett Park

San Francisco – 7PM, Castro and Market [Facebook link]

Terre Haute, IN – FRI 11/20 – 6:30PM, Indiana State, DeDe Plaza [Facebook link]

In 2006, China banned Lou Ye from shooting movies for five years after he screened “Summer Palace” at the Cannes Film Festival without government approval. In the film Lou tackled the Chinese military’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy student protesters at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in June 1989. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people are believed to have been killed.

But he defied the ban, secretly shooting the love story “Spring Fever” with small, digital cameras in the eastern city Nanjing last year. He also entered it at Cannes this year, where it won best screenplay in May.

In “Spring Fever,” he takes on homosexuality – another taboo in China – with graphic gay sex scenes. The 115-minute movie is about a private investigator hired to spy on a married man having a gay affair. But the investigator falls into a love triangle with his own girlfriend and the boyfriend of the husband he is investigating.

Commercial distributors have bought “Spring Fever” for release in Russia, South Korea, France, and the U.S., but not so in China. It was only screened in four showings at an independent film festival in Nanjing last month.

On Friday it screened as one of the two opening movies at this year’s Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. But a Chinese distribution deal is unlikely, given Lou’s status.

Lou said, however, that Chinese film officials have turned a blind eye to his supposedly illegal activities, including for shooting “Spring Fever” and showing it at the independent film festival in Nanjing.

He has also been allowed to travel freely in and out of China, but he wants the ban lifted so his films can be screened more widely in China.

“It’s regrettable that this film won’t be released in the Chinese market,” Lou told The Associated Press in an interview before the Hong Kong screening.

Lou, whose credits also include “Suzhou River” and “Purple Butterfly,” urged the Chinese government to shorten his ban.

“Everyone should be able to make movies. I hope this ban will be canceled earlier and I hope the government won’t impose any more bans on other directors,” the 45-year-old director said.

Lou arrived in Hong Kong on Friday from Paris, where he was preparing for his next project, his foreign-language debut – a French film about a Chinese student’s romance in Paris.

Judge Yves de Montigny said Friday the board erred last February when it rejected Bethany Smith’s bid.

Smith says she fled the army instead of going to Afghanistan with her unit because she was harassed and threatened by fellow soldiers over her sexual orientation.

The U.S. military has a policy of discharging openly gay members but Smith says she was denied a discharge because soldiers were needed for the Afghanistan mission.

The judge says the board unfairly dismissed evidence suggesting that gays face harsher treatment in the American military justice system.

Smith says she would fear for her life if she were returned to the army.

The 4,700-word document, called “The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience,” sounds familiar themes from political and social debates over the health care overhaul and gay marriage battles.

While acknowledging that “Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage,” the group rejects same-sex marriage. The declaration states that opening a legal door for gay marriage would do the same for “polyamorous partnerships, polygamous households, even adult brothers, sisters, or brothers and sisters living in incestuous relationships.”

President Barack Obama’s desire to reduce the need for abortion is “a commendable goal,” but his proposals are likely to increase the number of elective abortions, the document contends.

“The present administration is led and staffed by those who want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and who want to provide abortions at taxpayer expense,” it says.

Obama has said he wants to strike a balance on abortion coverage in the health care overhaul.

The declaration also cites threats to health care workers’ conscience clauses and anti-discrimination statutes it argues impinge on religious freedoms.

Signatories include 15 Roman Catholic bishops, including New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl; Focus on the Family founder James Dobson; National Association of Evangelicals president Leith Anderson; seminary leaders, professors and pastors.

Equality California has had a rough go of it over the past few years. First, they were accused of messing up the Proposition 8 campaign, then they were chastised for deciding to wait until 2012 to challenge the marriage ban. But they certainly made the right decision when they chose to accept Miss California’s offer of 30 seconds of free ad time during the televised pageant this Sunday.

The group will be airing a touching little montage of a teenage girl and her two moms. It’s not too cheesy, won’t bring a tear to your eye, but it gets the job done.

The point is not really the ad, though.

Pageants are a phenomenon in all sorts of places where being gay is a serious problem. Beauty contests are important to parts of the country that never are exposed to the issue of homosexuality. We saw this during the first Prejean uproar – people were outraged that the pageant even addressed issues of sexuality at all. And that controversy did raise awareness, but it did so without much control over the message. We had Perez Hilton on our side ( not exactly a veteran gay rights spokesperson) and they had Miss Prejean (a complete dud as far as anyone can tell and certainly after the Larry King incident).

This time, that same audience (and maybe more given the news coverage) will see the issue of gay marriage as presented by a large, experienced advocacy organization. Finally, a spokesperson we can beleive in.

Sunday will be a moment, as in any campaign, where control is taken back, the issue is reframed and the agenda is refocused. If we are going to have that moment, best to have it in front of an audience that is more conservative, more sheltered and less supportive than the general population of San Francisco.

Against the pleadings of my better angels, I’m ending the week on the war of words between Adam Lambert and Out editor Aaron Hicklin. The “American Idol” silver winner and Hicklin are having a minor public disagreement. For the moment I’ll leave alone how Lambert, in his brief career, is suffering from diva-itis or how for the editor manufactured outrage is a boon for sales. The whole thing leaves me tired because once again it shows how much we yearn for heroes when they are useless.

You all read the web and newspapers. You know the struggle for gay rights. From marriage to school safety,  the times we live in are serious. Yet we all go ga-ga when someone on the fame machine comes out as a member of the tribe.

Suddenly the newly minted fame queen gets courage awards, gala dinners, magazine covers, requests to expound on the political struggle. She is asked to be a spokesperson for a diverse tribe,  and we give her the microphone and clap with tears streaming down our faces. Does she speak for us because she is an expert on the vagaries of political power?  Knows how to form coalitions? A great fundraiser? No.  Her only claim is talent, appearances on the big or small screens, and sexuality.

That’s not enough. More sizzle than substance. If Lambert wants to sing as if the only gays who exist are the ones he brings home to bed down, good for him. He’s not required to be a spokesperson and his opinion would not have protected the two youngsters we recently lost. What keeps them alive, and the 16 year old Houston boy from a vicious beat down,  are the nameless ones. The folks who never grace Entertainment Weekly or get to share coffee chat with Regis and Kelly. The anonymous who make it known through action and word gay citizens have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

If Lambert wants to steer away from anything gay, it’s all good. He and the other fame queens out there are not going to save us or make us feel better about our lives. Those “austere and lonely offices” belong to us.

Equality California announced Thursday that it would be airing a spot featuring a teenage girl with two mothers during the Nov. 22 contest, which is airing on the CW and My Network TV.

Keith Lewis, the pageant’s executive director, says he would give Prejean the same amount of time if she wanted to provide a pre-taped message.

Lewis, who is gay, accused Prejean of violating her contract when she ignored his advice on how to handle the intense publicity after she said during this year’s Miss USA pageant that she was opposed to same-sex marriage.

Rachel started us off with the news that we are perilously close to actually getting some health care reform.

Or at least to the Senate getting to vote on whether they can debate and then vote on health care reform, with maybe another vote or two thrown in for good measure.

(People from other lands who are following this process and are wondering why the hell we seem to be doing this again after we just did this, only with the other, more entertainingly wacky bunch of reps, I am sorry. This is how we’re set up to do things here. I know the process is slow and insane. But remember what happened when we had a President and Congress who liked to just ram stuff through? P.S. Sorry about that.)

The Conservadems are getting pretty much everything they threatened to hold their breath until they turned Republican over, including some reasonable stuff like making sure we don’t increase the deficit, and then some of the exact kind of dumb-ass stuff I was worrying about yesterday, like restoring funding for abstinence education when we all know full well that it doesn’t work.

If we’re going to fund stupid religion-based health care measures people would like to be true even though they don’t actually work, why don’t we just throw $800 billion into faith healing?

(NOT REALLY, CONGRESSWOMAN BACHMANN. Settle down.)

There’s also some water-down language that makes the public option nearly nonexistent and may ensure that the scraps that are there will have premiums that won’t really be cheaper than private insurance premiums, which was only the entire freaking point of health care reform.

So if you’ll excuse me, I have to go whack my head against the wall until my neighbor complains to my building manager again.

OK, I’m back. Ow.

A surprisingly optimistic Senator Amy Klobuchar (D – Minnesota) checked in to talk about the bill and whether the Conservadems will nard up and vote yes.

Did you hear that, lawmakers? It hurts Rachel’s feelings when you don’t call her back. Don’t make her do Sad Pundit puppy eyes.

Which Hunt

Oh, dear, I seem to have missed a memo from the Office of Good and Evil again. (Probably because the Office of Good and Evil closes at midnight and I’m usually too busy to wait in the garden out back.)

Anyway, Rachel reported that apparently it’s now Good to be a vicious bigot about Muslims again. Being completely uninformed except for your own paranoia and hatred is not only sensible and safety-conscious, it’s downright Christian. Who knew?

I can’t tell if political “leaders” have really allowed themselves to become frightened literally beyond all reason of if they’re just playing on the fears of the ignorant to score political points, but either way they should be ashamed of themselves.

Suhail Khan of the Institute for Global Engagement managed not to call Pat Robertson and Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R – Michigan) idiot racist sphincterheads, which makes him two up on me.

Man-Made Disaster

Rachel took us for a closer look at Wednesday’s district court ruling that the Army Corps of Engineers caused the New Orleans levees to fail and thus caused the flooding of the city.

Michael Grunwald of Time joined Rachel to talk about how Mother Nature will whomp you if you’re an idiot about these things.

Not that we seem to be applying any of those lessons in the rebuilding process.

Ms. Information

Rachel noted that Sarah Palin, always a stickler for accuracy, simply did not have the time to put the exhaustive index that she doubtless would have insisted on into her book.

Fortunately, people on the Interwebs will research and catalogue absolutely anything, and at this writing there were already five handy Going Rogue indices.

Rachel, naturally enough, pointed us to Goingrogueindex.com, but you should not click on that link unless you can deal with VERY LOUD music that will come tumbling into your world whether you want it or not, much like the former Governor herself.

Rachel also gave us an update on the vile merchandise that reminds people to pray for President Obama’s death. Gosh, that’s heelarious.

Online sales outlets have had crises of conscience with varying results. Zazzle.com found the merchandise threatening in intent, so it took it off the site, and Café Press took it down, decided it was intended as a joke, and put it back up.

If you go looking for this charming line of products, be warned that another thing that may not stay down is your breakfast.

Pardon the Interruption

Welcome to a Touch of Geek that the folks at TRMS were, according to the Twitter machine, jazzed about all afternoon. And rightly so.

The National Archives is starting a project of trying to reconstruct Nixon chief of staff H. R. Haldeman’s missing notes in an attempt to figure out what was “accidentally” erased in the famous 18 ½ minute gap in the Watergate tapes.

By way of introduction, you will get to see Rachel do the Rose Mary Woods stretch. Try it today!