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]

He had to rethink his wardrobe to fit the L.A. lifestyle.

“I got there and realized I don’t even have the right clothes because I brought suits and ties … there is one challenge during which you’ll find me in a pair of flip-flips,” he says, laughing.

The season kicks off with Lindsay Lohan as a guest judge. Gunn says she was a great fit to the show (airing 10 p.m. Thursdays).

“She was absolutely wonderful. She knows clothes, she knows what she likes, what she doesn’t and she’s able to articulate that.”

It’s been a long wait in between seasons five and six, as NBC Universal and the Weinstein Co. battled it out in court over whether the show could move from Bravo to Lifetime.

Now that the show is on a new network, don’t expect Gunn to be any less of a calming, mentoring presence for the designers.

“I only want them to succeed,” Gunn says. “I have a very particular way of operating which is to believe in them and to believe in their abilities … I’m also respectful of the wear-and-tear that they go through on the show.”

Gunn has been described as the antithesis of “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell, who has no problem giving negative feedback.

“The British have a very different way of operating … `You are nothing and you will never become anything’ and that’s repeated to students over and over … Talk about deflating. I believe in giving individuals opportunity,” Gunn says.

The Rev. John L. Kirkley of San Francisco and the Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool of Maryland will be among six candidates on the ballot when lay people and clergy vote in December, despite a long-standing request from world Anglican leaders for a moratorium on consecrating openly gay bishops.

Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno said in a statement Sunday that he was “pleased by the wide diversity” of the nominees. Separately, the Diocese of Minnesota on Saturday announced that a lesbian was among its three candidates for bishop. That election is set for October 31.

The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States.

The nominations were announced just over two weeks after the Episcopal General Convention voted to effectively drop a pledge that it would act with “restraint” when considering any more openly gay candidates for bishop.

“What happened really is we gave the green light for dioceses to do the right thing,” said the Rev. Susan Russell, president of Integrity USA, an Episcopal gay advocacy group.

Episcopalians caused an uproar in 2003 by consecrating the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Anglican leaders responded by asking the U.S. denomination for a temporary ban on consecrating any more gay bishops while they tried to reach a compromise that could keep the 77 million-member Anglican Communion unified.

No other bishop living openly with a same-sex partner has been consecrated since then.

Each Episcopal diocese elects local bishops. Church leaders must then signal their approval before the winner can be consecrated.

Here’s Chaz and girlfriend Jennifer Elia at 2009 Outfest’s Opening Night Gala of “La Mission” at the Orpheum in Los Angeles.

Chaz is so likeable – and I think it’s great that the transgender community has another public face. The Daily News did a surprisingly warm story about his appearance last night, which is another good sign.

1. I was not the reporter Beau Breedlove tried to get a stalking order against. I’m too lazy and disorganized for the job.

2. No disrespect to my colleague Ruby, but Adam Lambert’s sexuality? Meh.

3. If you get booted out of a gay bar, you should not try to get back in the same establishment 20 minutes later.

4. Number 3 is not advice I need to follow. I’m a low maintenance drunk. Ask my bartenders.

5. Don’t care how passionate you are about abortion, if you defend the murder of a doctor in a church your loon status is set in stone.

6. If the news about Sade’s new album are untrue, I’m eating a gallon of butter pecan ice cream.

7. Steak night baby!

8. Prince Harry is the king of New York City.

9. Because I loathe everything LA (the city, not the state), I’m going for Orlando in the NBA Finals.

10. Need new shoes.

Vote for Equality is working to change that with a bold, smart social science experiment. So many people wailed, “What were they thinking?” after the Prop 8 results that Vote for Equality decided to find out.

Vote for Equality is the organizing arm of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, and with the help of dozens of volunteers, they are organizing a “1,000-hour conversation” – one-on-one conversations with California residents to find out what people really think about gay marriage through door-to-door canvassing and phone banking.

By studying the conversations we have, we can gain insight about what really moves people and learn how to make future campaigns more effective.

The canvassing is combined with a fascinating look at ad campaigns from past ballot initiatives. Taking a hard, honest look at what has and hasn’t worked in the past will help us make more persuasive campaigns in the future.

One of the most important focuses of the messaging trainings is on understanding the point of view of the opposition or the undecided voter. Ads that move us won’t necessarily reach someone outside the community.

A voter who is strongly opposed to gay marriage won’t respond to an ad that just tells her she’s wrong – she’ll probably just dig her heels in even harder. And a voter who isn’t tuned in to the gay marriage debate won’t necessarily be moved by things that are meaningful to those of us who are.

Reaching that tuned-out or undecided voter is tricky. It’s important to have a clear message – and to repeat it. A voter who half-sees a commercial while he’s making dinner and talking on the phone needs to see it five to ten times before the message really sinks in.

And about those messages…

Fleischer and Clemente’s first session focused on contrasting the ads the GLBT community tends to use with the ads of anti–gay marriage activists. Ads for our team tend to be focused on fairness and rationality, because duh: If you really think it out, same-sex marriage bans make no sense.

Unfortunately, the other side bypasses the brain and goes straight for the gut and the adrenal glands. Our commercials sit the voter down for a nice chat over a cup of herbal tea. The other side grabs him by the lapels and starts screaming about how the gays are going legally force him to turn his church into a venue for naked gay circuit parties and there is NOTHING HE’LL BE ABLE TO DO ABOUT IT.

And with a lot of voters, that wins. You can’t think rationally when you’re panicking. It’s like asking someone to finish up her taxes before dealing with the zombie attack.

Ads from anti–gay marriage forces tend to focus on loss of control (“It will be illegal for your church to voice its views on homosexuality”) and wide-eyed children being turned gay by storybooks. In other words, they jab at the voter’s instincts to defend his rights and protect the innocent.

Both of those themes come up over and over, so we need to stop being surprised by them and deliver quick responses. And since the other side is already working of the voter’s emotions, it might be time to be less afraid of using emotional messages ourselves.

We don’t have to whip up the hysteria any further, but getting people in touch with a different set of feelings can’t hurt. In training for door-to-door canvassing, we learned to talk about personal experiences rather than falling back on detached logical arguments. It’s scarier, yes, but it does get the conversation going.

Perhaps the hardest – and most interesting – challenge is learning to empathize the voters who are against gay marriage. As hurtful as they’ve been to the LGBT community, most of them don’t wake up in the morning thinking, “Myoohoohahaha! Can’t wait to get started on the oppressing!” And most would be offended at the suggestion that they’re bigots.

Starting a debate by jabbing a finger in someone’s face and telling that he’s wrong and an awful person will cause him to shut down. It certainly won’t help him change his mind.

As hard as it is sometimes, we need to assume the best and give people credit for being the good people they are sincerely trying to be. That’s when we can get a real dialogue going instead of just a slogan-shouting competition.

There are a lot of questions to be answered – and hours and hours of conversations to go – but Vote for Equality is making some exciting progress toward creating clear, direct, honest messages that can help change minds.

On the other hand, what if we made a really awesome commercial about a storm instead?

To learn more or volunteer for Vote for Equality, contact the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center.

The suit alleges that Jonathan Lopez was midway into his speech in a public speaking class and in the midst of quoting Bible verses when Prof. John Mattson cut him off.

Lopez is represented by the Christian conservative Alliance Defense Fund. The suit says that when Lopez began quoting from the Bible, Matteson halted the speech calling the student a “fascist bastard” and told others in the class they could leave if they were offended by Lopez’s traditional marriage stand.

The lawsuit also alleges that Matteson refused to give Lopez a grade for the speech, writing instead on his evaluation, “Ask God what your grade is.”

The ADF also claims that a week later, after Matteson saw Lopez talking to the college’s dean of academic affairs, the professor told Lopez that he would make sure he would be expelled from school.

The lawsuit additionally claims that after the November election, Matteson had told the class, “If you voted yes on Proposition 8, you are a fascist bastard.”

The ADF claims Lopez’ First Amendment rights were violated.

“Professor Matteson clearly violated Mr. Lopez’s free speech rights by engaging in viewpoint discrimination and retaliation because he disagreed with the student’s religious beliefs,” said ADF Senior Counsel David French in a statement.

“When students are given open-ended assignments in a public speaking class, the First Amendment protects their ability to express their views.  Moreover, the district has a speech code that has created a culture of censorship on campus.  America’s public universities and colleges are supposed to be a ‘marketplace of ideas,’ not a hotbed of intolerance.”

Neither the college nor Prof. Matteson were immediately available for comment.

The billboard and other ads are cosponsored by the Human Rights Campaign, the California Department of Social Services, and Los Angeles County Adoption Services. The billboard ad will be displayed for 24 weeks. 

Currently there are more than 120,000 children seeking adoptive parents in the United States – many of them in LA County, the second largest metropolitan area in the nation. Throughout California 75,000 children are in foster care.

“This awareness campaign helps make the dreams of thousands of children come true by raising the visibility of LGBT-adoptive families and encouraging prospective parents to learn more about the children waiting in foster care,” said Ellen Kahn, Family Project Director for Human Rights Campaign Foundation. 

“[W]e need to ensure that the LGBT community knows about the opportunity to adopt and to connect them with agencies that truly welcome and support who they are as people.”

This is the first time that the California Department of Social Services has supported effects specifically targeting the LGBT community.

“California’s number one priority is to find stable homes for California’s children in foster care,” said California Department of Social Services director John Wagner.  

“California is home to more than 75,000 children in foster care and gay and lesbian adults can provide loving and permanent homes for these youths.”

Some agencies close the door to qualified families through their practices.  Few recruit LGBT adoptive & foster parents, and many LGBT people feel unwelcome or discouraged HRC said in a media statement.

As a result members of the LGBT community may not be aware of the opportunities in domestic adoption and foster care, or they may not know of agencies that welcome their families. 

A similar campaign is being launched in Alameda County.

The temple in the Westwood area of Los Angeles was evacuated before a hazardous materials crew determined the envelope’s contents were not toxic, said FBI spokesman Jason Pack.

The temple in downtown Salt Lake City, where the church is based, received a similar envelope containing a white powder that spilled onto a clerk’s hand.

The room was decontaminated and the envelope taken by the FBI for testing. The clerk showed no signs of illness, but the scare shut down a building at Temple Square for more than an hour, said Scott Freitag, a spokesman for the Salt Lake City Fire Department.

None of the writing on the envelope was threatening, and the church received no calls or messages related to the package, Freitag said.

Protests in recent days have targeted the Mormon church, which encouraged its members to fight the recently passed amendment banning gay marriage in California.

Authorities are looking into several theories on who sent the letters and why, Pack said.

Anthrax mailed as a white powder to Washington lawmakers and media outlets killed five people and sickened 17 just weeks after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Periodic hoaxes modeled on the anthrax mailings have popped up since then but usually prove harmless.

I had theoretically given myself plenty of time to get to the rumored Prop 8 protest at Los Angeles’s Mormon Temple, but I was watching my impressive lead erode as I sat and sat on the exit ramp off the 405 freeway, tantalizingly close and yet so far.

Still, if there was a traffic jam only on the exit ramp I needed, this was maybe shaping up to be a good rally. Just in case we missed it, those of us patiently merging for civil rights began to hold our signs out our car windows and honk for each other.

As it turned out, we had some time.

I got there only 10 minutes late, thanks to my patented parking technique of going exactly one block farther away from the thing I want to get to than people in L.A. are willing to walk, and things were just getting warmed up. But what a warming! Already we weren’t confined just to the sidewalk – the police had roped off part of Santa Monica Boulevard in anticipation of the crowds, one woman had some mostly-audible inspirational talk going on a bullhorn, and the chanting was in full force.

One of the things I love about the GLBT community is that, sure, we’ll do the traditional “What do we want?” “Equal rights!” “When do we want them?” “NOW!!!” stuff, but the general position is that just because the most liberal state in the nation has voted to make you a second-class citizen is no reason not to have some hilarious chants thrown in there too.

My personal favorite chants of the day were “Tax this church! Tax this church!” and “Just one wife! Just one wife!”

Because: Come on.

NEXT PAGE: The Mormon standoff