Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans, said Sunday that the choice raised “very serious questions” for the divided church and urged restraint.

The Rev. Mary Glasspool of Baltimore needs approval from a majority of dioceses across the church before she can be consecrated as assistant bishop in the Los Angeles diocese.

Still, her victory Saturday underscored a continued Episcopal commitment to accepting same-sex relationships despite enormous pressure from other Anglicans to change their stand.

“Any group of people who have been oppressed because of any one, isolated aspect of their persons yearns for justice and equal rights,” Glasspool said in a statement, thanking the diocese for choosing her.

The head of the Episcopal Church, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, is scheduled to consecrate Glasspool on May 15 in Los Angeles, if the church accepts the vote.

The Episcopal Church, which is the Anglican body in the United States, caused an uproar in 2003 by consecrating the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Breakaway Episcopal conservatives have formed a rival church, the Anglican Church in North America. Several overseas Anglicans have been pressuring Williams to officially recognize the new conservative entity.

In 2004, Anglican leaders asked the Episcopal Church for a moratorium on electing another gay bishop while they tried to prevent a permanent break in the fellowship.

Since the request was made, some Episcopal gay priests have been nominated for bishop, but none was elected before Glasspool. Last July, the Episcopal General Convention, the U.S. church’s top policy making body, affirmed that gay and lesbian priests were eligible to become bishops.

Williams on Sunday reminded Anglicans that church leaders believed “a period of gracious restraint in respect of actions which are contrary to the mind of the Communion is necessary if our bonds of mutual affection are to hold.”

He said Glasspool’s election “raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole.” But he noted the election has yet to be confirmed and could still be rejected by U.S. dioceses.

The Anglican Communion is a family of churches that trace their roots to the missionary work of the Church of England. Most overseas Anglicans are Bible conservatives.

The Rev. Kendall Harmon of the traditional Diocese of South Carolina, which recently voted to distance itself from the national church, said Saturday’s vote would further damage relations among Episcopalians, their fellow Anglicans and other Christians.

“This decision represents an intransigent embrace of a pattern of life Christians throughout history and the world have rejected as against biblical teaching,” said Harmon, an adviser to the diocesan bishop.

Jim Naughton of The Chicago Consultation, a group of Episcopal and Anglican clergy and lay people who advocate on behalf of gays and lesbians, called Glasspool’s election “a liberation.”

“We’ve been around this issue for 30 years,” said Naughton, an adviser to the bishop of Washington. “It’s unreasonable to expect us to refrain from acting on the very prayerful conclusions that we’ve reached, especially when we think there are issues of justice involved.”

Robinson said he told Glasspool before the election that he was grateful she was willing to put herself in the stressful position of running for bishop.

“One of the reasons she is so the right person for this is that she knows who she is and she knows she belongs to God and she knows everything else falls in place when you keep that central,” Robinson said in a phone interview. “She’s no stranger to people who think she shouldn’t be a priest because she’s a woman, or think she shouldn’t be a priest because she’s a lesbian.”

Glasspool, 55, an adviser, or canon, for eight years to the Diocese of Maryland’s bishop, said in an essay on the Los Angeles diocese Web site that she had an “intense struggle” while in college with her sexuality and the call to become a priest.

“Did God hate me (since I was a homosexual), or did God love me?” she wrote. “Did I hate (or love) myself?”

She said she met her partner, Becki Sander, while working in Massachusetts, and the two have been together since 1988. When a colleague recently asked for permission to submit Glasspool’s name as a candidate in Los Angeles, she agreed because she believed it was time “for our wonderful church to move on and be the inclusive church we say we are.”

Glasspool was elected on a seventh ballot that included two other candidates. She won 153 clergy votes and 203 lay votes, giving her just enough to emerge as the winner.

The election began Friday with six candidates vying for two vacancies for assistant bishops.

The winner for the first vacancy was the Rev. Diane M. Jardine Bruce, rector of St. Clement’s-By-The-Sea Episcopal Church in San Clemente. As the balloting progressed for the second vacancy, two other candidates eventually withdrew.

A graduate of Dickinson College and Episcopal Divinity School, Glasspool was ordained in 1981, and has led parishes in Annapolis, Md., Boston and Philadelphia.

Los Angeles Bishop Jon Bruno, who leads the diocese, urged Episcopal dioceses to approve Glasspool’s election and not base their decision on fear of how other Anglicans will react.

The Los Angeles diocese has 70,000 members and covers six Southern California counties. Jardine and Glasspool, whose titles will be suffragan bishops, are the first women bishops in the Los Angeles diocese.

The selection of one or both of the gay candidates at the diocese’s annual convention would mark the first election of a bishop in a same-sex relationship since Bishop V. Gene Robinson was chosen in New Hampshire in 2003. Robinson lives with his longtime male partner.

Robinson’s win six years ago led dozens of conservative parishes and four dioceses to vote to leave the 2.1-million member U.S. denomination and pushed the 77 million-member Anglican fellowship to the brink of schism.

There are six candidates in this week’s election, including the Rev. John L. Kirkley of San Francisco and the Rev. Canon Mary D. Glasspool of Baltimore, who are openly gay.

It is hard to know, however, what further impact the selection of a second gay bishop would have on the faith.

The majority of Anglicans outside the United States are theological conservatives.

Within the United States, breakaway traditionalists have formed the Anglican Church in North America as a rival to the Episcopal Church.

Episcopalians have made clear to the rest of the Anglican family that they will not roll back their support for same-sex couples.

Last July, the Episcopal General Convention, the church’s top policy-making body, effectively lifted a moratorium on electing another gay bishop. The temporary ban had been requested by Anglican leaders seeking to prevent a permanent break in the communion.

The Los Angeles diocese has 70,000 members and covers six Southern California counties.

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.