Members of the queer community expressed frustration with Home Box Office’s omission of a sermon given Jan. 18 by gay Bishop Gene Robinson as part of President Obama’s inaugural events.

“Robinson’s remarks were newsworthy and much anticipated because they were viewed as an attempt to mend fences with the gay community after Obama chose anti-gay evangelical pastor Rick Warren to give the main invocation,” said Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out.

Jeff Cusson, who is senior vice president of corporate affairs for HBO, said he did not control scheduling decisions. Josh Earnest, a spokesman for the Presidential Inauguration Committee, attributed the snub to an error in execution.

“We had always intended and planned for Rt. Rev. Robinson’s invocation to be included in the televised portion of yesterday’s program,” he said Jan. 19. “We regret the error in executing this plan but are gratified that hundreds of thousands of people who gathered on the Mall heard his eloquent prayer for our nation that was a fitting start to our event.”

Obama’s inauguration committee later admitted that technical difficulties prevented the crowd of hundreds of thousands present at the inauguration from hearing the speech because Robinson’s microphone failed.

Friend-of-the-court briefs were filed Jan. 21 by petitioners and respondents in the lawsuits challenging Proposition 8. The briefs were filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union in conjunction with the more than 60 previously filed amicus briefs.

Meanwhile, those with a stake in the outcome of Prop 8 met Jan. 24 to discuss and strategize about its past and future during an Equality Summit at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The amicus briefs highlight the breadth of support for petitioners’ argument that Prop 8 is invalid. The supporters represent the gamut of California’s and the nation’s civil rights organi-zations and legal scholars as well as state legislators, local governments, bar associations, business interests, labor unions and religious groups.

In 43 amicus briefs filed Jan. 15, the nation’s leading legal scholars argued that Prop 8 is invalid because it seeks to eliminate a fundamental right only for a targeted minority, which cannot be done through the initiative process. The briefs argue that Proposition 8 drastically alters the equal protection guarantee in the California Constitution and that the rights of a minority cannot be eliminated by a simple majority vote. Professors from the most prominent universities and law schools in the country authored briefs urging the court to invalidate the proposition, including scholars from Harvard University; Stanford University; Yale University; University of California at Berkeley, Los Angeles, Hastings, Davis and Irvine; University of Southern California; University of Pennsylvania; Rutgers University; University of San Francisco; Loyola Law School; Santa Clara Law School; Chapman University; and Pepperdine University.

A brief authored by Hastings law professor Donna Ryu and joined by 20 constitutional law experts argued: “Proposition 8 represents the first time that the California initiative process has been wielded to abolish a fundamental freedom for an unpopular minority group and to alter the constitution so as to mandate governmental discrimination against that group.”

Another brief authored by professor Karl Manheim, one of the foremost authorities on California’s initiative process, said the proposition “improperly attempts to revise the constitution by taking the unprecedented step of singling out a suspect class and depriving that class—and only that class—of a fundamental right.”

Other briefs supporting the legal challenge to Prop 8 were filed on behalf of 65 current and former state legislators and dozens of bar associations, legal aid organizations and California municipal governments.

Martin Delaney, a longtime activist for the HIV/AIDS community, died Jan. 23 at his home in San Rafael, Calif.

Delaney, the founder and longtime director of the HIV advocacy/education organization Project Inform, received the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director’s Special Recognition Award on Jan. 19 for his contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS.

“Martin Delaney was one of the pioneers of AIDS activism. While not HIV-positive himself, Delaney dedicated much of his life to shaping our nation’s public policy on HIV/AIDS legislation and worked on the local level to promote education and a greater understanding of HIV/AIDS issues,” said Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese. “He worked with the drive and hope to one day find a cure for HIV/AIDS, and while it did not happen in his lifetime, we’ll continue the important work of lobbying Congress for additional HIV/AIDS funding to find a cure.”

In 1985 Delaney founded Project Inform, a leading national HIV treatment and public policy information and advocacy organization based in San Francisco, and served as its director until 2008.

“Millions of people are now receiving life-saving anti-retroviral medications from a treatment pipeline that Marty Delaney played a key role in opening and expanding,” Anthony S. Fauci said. “Without his tireless work and vision, many more people would have perished from HIV/AIDS. He is a formidable activist and a dear friend. It is without hyperbole that I call Marty Delaney a public health hero.

Evangelical leader Ted Haggard, formerly a senior pastor at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, added fuel to his gay sex scandal when an ongoing relationship with a young male church volunteer came to light Jan. 23.

The man was paid $180,000 in a legal settlement for mental health care and college tuition in exchange for his silence about his relationship with Haggard.

According to The Associated Press, the man came forward to church officials in late 2006, after it became known that Haggard had a three-year sexual relationship with a prostitute. Senior pastor Brady Boyd said the relationship with the young man began after he was of legal age and continued in his early 20s.

“It wasn’t at all a settlement to make him be quiet or not tell his story,” Boyd said. “Our desire was to help him. Here was a young man who wanted to get on with his life. We considered it more compassionate assistance—certainly not hush money.”

Compiled by Jaymee R. Cuti