[Wounded Iraq war veteran Eric] Alva spoke of his lost leg and how he 'nearly died to secure rights for others that I myself was not free to enjoy.'

My panic was based on another local legislator, Dan White, sneaking a gun into City Hall in November, 1978 and murdering a friend of mine, San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, and Mayor George Moscone, the father of another friend. It was a traumatic day for the entire city of San Francisco but especially for the gay community, Harvey having been the first openly gay man elected to any high profile office in America.

As a Congressional panel hears the case for, and against, repeal of the controversial 1993 military policy preventing gay and lesbian personnel from serving openly, some Republican representatives maintain that the policy ought to remain in place.

Among those supporting the status quo is Senator Larry Craig (R-ID). 'Current policy has served us well,' Senator Craig told CNSNews.com. 'I think we ought to sustain it. I see no evidence that it should be repealed.'

"If we lose California, if they defeat the marriage amendment, I’m afraid that the culture war is over and Christians have lost,” said [The American Family Association's Don] Wildmon, “I’ve never said that publicly until now—but that’s just the reality of the fact."

"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory."

The John McCain campaign scrubbed its website today to remove all references to its Alabama campaign chairman, Attorney General Troy King.

King, who is known for extremist views on religion and who has frequently made homophobic statements, including calling gays the 'downfall of society,' is the subject of rumors that his wife recently discovered him having sex with another man."

Brit Hume, a top anchor and executive with Fox News since the channel was launched 12 years ago, plans to step down at year's end. But he won't disappear entirely.

Sources familiar with the situation say that Hume, 65, will give up his job as Washington managing editor and anchor of 'Special Report,' the 6 p.m. show that has beaten the cable news competition for seven years. They say he is near a deal to continue with Fox in a senior-statesman role, not unlike that of NBC's Tom Brokaw, for roughly 100 days a year.

The principal of a New York Catholic school was arrested Sunday after being caught naked with two other men on a vacant property.

'Two men got out and met a third person on the side of my house,' nearby resident Rich Pacheco told WCBS, 'and they went on that property and that's when I called 911.'

41-year-old Gabriel DeJesus, who heads Sacred Heart School for the Arts in Mount Vernon, is currently being investigated by the New York Archdiocese. Officials said that he 'has been a well-regarded educator,' and he was still serving as the school's principal as of Monday.

In 1982 Nunn summarily removed two openly gay attorneys in his staff because, as Nunn asserted, they posed a "security risk." However, Nunn also told them that a gay staff member "wouldn't go over in Georgia."

In 1984 Nunn backed Senator John Glenn's bid for the White House, citing the candidate's "courage" in expressing the "strongly held moral belief that homosexuals should not be role models for our children."

In 1993 - Don't Ask Don't Tell: Nunn became the leader of the few Congressional Democrats to challenge President Clinton's initiative to allow gay men and lesbians to serve in the military. With television cameras in tow, Nunn led the famous visit to the showers and bunks of a submarine. The damage of Nunn's position extended beyond the LGBT community, undermining the first Democratic presidency since 1980.

In 1993 Nunn said he believed the heterosexual lifestyle was "morally superior to the homosexual lifestyle," followed by "American family deterioration is one of the biggest problems we face in our culture."

In 1996 Nunn voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), despite that he had already announced that he was not running for reelection. ENDA did not pass by one vote. ENDA has not been voted again in the senate ever since.

Same-sex marriage advocates urged travelers Thursday to boycott two hotels owned by a San Diego County businessman who gave $125,000 to a group backing a California ballot initiative to ban gay marriage.

Doug Manchester, who owns the Manchester Grand Hyatt in downtown San Diego and the Grand Del Mar golf resort near La Jolla, donated the money to the National Organization for Marriage in January.

Spaulding, a Durham native, is a bit of a local celebrity these days, recognized in supermarkets and airports by her dirty-blond dreadlocks. And it's all because of her blog, Pam's House Blend, which turns four years old this month.

-My aide will be accompanying me on my honeymoon in case there are any pools that need cleaning or fixtures that need polishing.

-Gov. Charlie Crist announces the formation of his 'exploratory committee.'

-Want to come back to my place?... We can play Governor and Constituent.

-When I said I wanted new shoulders on Florida highways what I meant were these.

It's funny to watch the partisan right out-do each other to declare Obama a cynic while Charlie Crist gets engaged to a woman at the height of McCain's veep search. For the record, from the Broward-Palm Beach New Times:

The rumors about Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and the Green Iguana just wouldn't go away. The story goes that the Florida governor frequented the Green Iguana, a bar in Tampa, back in the early 1990s when he was just starting his political career. He was less careful back then, people say, and during his partying at the Green Iguana, he was openly gay.

With gasoline prices high and rising, a new financial milestone has arrived: the $100 tank of gas.

GMC Denali XL, an extra-large sport utility vehicle with televisions built into the leather seats. But in June, one week after he bought it, he pulled into a station on a near-empty tank and watched the total climb higher and higher — to $109. “It just about killed me,” Mr. Carisone said.

David H. Obelcz, who founded the club in 2002 and is still a member of the board, sold his Avalanche because he could not afford gasoline for it.

But now that Avalanche owners pay more than $100 per tank, the club is lucky to attract 10 members once every two months.

Hummer clubs are hurting, too. In Nebraska, Ric Hines of the Omaha Hummer Owner Group — known as Omahog — stopped doing off-road trips this summer and started riding his recumbent bicycle instead.

Mark R. Price, founder of the Illiana Hummer Club in the Chicago area, owns three Hummer H1s, which get about eight miles per gallon. “A lot of our members won’t travel 70 miles just to support a parade anymore,” Mr. Price said. “People wait for something a little closer.”

...loves packing her three kids and all their soccer gear into her 2000 GMC Yukon XL. But she hates paying $160 to fill the 38.5-gallon tank.

“I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to keep this up,” said Mr. Burtch, 43, who lives in Marion, Ohio.

Former Sen. Jesse Helms, who built a career along the fault lines of racial politics and battled liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during 30 conservative years in Congress, died on the Fourth of July. He was 86.

"ST. PETERSBURG — Florida's most powerful bachelor is getting hitched.

Gov. Charlie Crist, single for nearly three decades, on Thursday morning became engaged to his girlfriend of nine months, Carole Rome.

'She's special in every way. She's brilliant, beautiful and sweet. I'm very, very lucky,' Crist told the St. Petersburg Times in an exclusive interview.

Crist said he picked out the sapphire and diamond ring on Wednesday at the Gold and Diamond Center in St. Petersburg's Northeast Shopping Center."