This past weekend the fine citizens of Houston elected Annise Parker to be their new Mayor. Ms. Parker was in a tough battle with another Democrat for the position - if he had won he would be only the second African-American to hold the position. But Houston decided to make a little bit of history and by a margin of 6 points it is now the largest US city with an openly gay Mayor.

Ms. Parker has been in elected office for many years. She was elected to city council and most recently she was City Controller. The campaign had it's fair share of homophobic attacks - including an anti-gay mail piece that was funded by two members of her opponents finance committee. Though for the record her opponent - Gene Locke - tried to distance himself from that piece.

Congratulations Houston! We are all so proud of you.

On Saturday, November 15, 2008 activists in every state across the US will be holding peaceful protests to show our anger over the passing of Proposition 8.

In Milwaukee, hundreds of supporters will be rallying at Milwaukee City Hall at 12:30PM. To see more information about this event check out the Facebook event.

And in NYC on Wednesday night thousands of protesters took to the streets and marched to the Mormon Temple in Manhattan. Among the celebrities showing their support was Whoopi Goldberg.

As we go into the final Get Out The Vote weekend before the election on Tuesday I wanted to give a brief update about Prop 8 in California. No on 8 is in the midst of a HUGE fundraising challenge and need to raise $3M by midnight tonight. If you can help out at help please DONATE. James Dobson will be joining the Yes On 8 campaign for a major prayer rally in San Diego on Saturday.

Last night the results of the New Field Poll were released. "A new Field Poll shows Proposition 8, one of the most closely watched state ballot measures in years, is supported by 44 percent of likely voters. Forty-nine percent oppose it, and 7 percent are undecided. "It's certainly closer than it was before the advertising campaign hit," said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo. "A lot of that has to do with the campaigning on the Yes (on 8) side."

The haters over at Yes On 8 have been making all sorts of ridiculous claims to scare voters to cast a "Yes" vote. Among them is that schools will have to teach about same-sex marriage and that schools will be forced to teach sex education with graphic information about "gay sex".

Samuel L. Jackson cut an ad for No On 8 recently entitled "Discrimination".

This election is going to be huge. In so many ways. The biggest of the choices being electing Senator Barack Obama to be the next President of the United States of America. And while there are certainly other great people running for office all across the US the next biggest decision will come from our friends in California. Proposition 8 will be on the November 4 ballot in an effort to alter California's constitution to take away the rights of same-sex couples to marry.

No On 8 - the group that is fighting for LGBT equality - has been WAY outspent on ads (thanks in large part to the Mormon church) and is currently trailing in the polls. No On 8 NEEDS your help now in order to keep marriage equality a reality for ALL Californians. They need your money in order to run their ads and educate voters. They also need your help calling voters - which you can easily do from the comforts of your own living room.

Check out a few of their new ads below.