Schwarzenegger
snubbed by gay San Franciscans

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been making news lately for his embrace of the gay political group Log Cabin Republicans, who will honor him at a fund-raiser next Thursday in Los Angeles. But gays and lesbians in San Francisco want him to know they are not happy with the governor's veto of a same-sex marriage bill last year. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Schwarzenegger is this year's recipient of the "Pink Brick" award, a raspberry handed out annually by organizers of the San Francisco gay pride parade, which will take place this Sunday. In being considered for the brick, Schwarzenegger scored well ahead of the second-place finisher, the notoriously antigay Christian group Concerned Women for America. The onetime mega-movie star received nearly a third of the 3,043 mail-in ballots cast. Last year's brick winner was U.S. senator Dianne Feinstein, who said that the push for same-sex marriage in 2004 was "too much, too fast, too soon," implying that the issue had cost the Democrats the 2004 presidential election. "It's just another way to put pressure on a leader to look at our community...and take our issues seriously," Lindsey Jones, executive director of the San Francisco pride parade, told the Chronicle. The brick wasn't the only snub Schwarzenegger received for having vetoed the same-sex marriage bill, authored by gay California assemblyman Mark Leno. Organizers of gay pride events in San Diego, Long Beach, and elsewhere declined to publish the greeting and letter of appreciation that Schwarzenegger sent out last month ahead of the pride celebrations. Asked about his refusal to back same-sex marriages during a Web cam conversation with the public on Tuesday, Schwarzenegger--whose chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, is a lesbian--emphasized his support for domestic-partner rights. But he said voters had sent a loud and clear "no" in 2000 when they passed Proposition 22, which reaffirmed the state's definition of marriage as being the union of a man and a woman. (The Advocate)