Prop 8, LGBT Legislation Dominated Calif. Headlines in 2011

The year 2011 was eventful for LGBT Californians, particularly in the courts and in Sacramento.

It began with the continued legal saga over the state's ban on marriage for same-sex couples. After U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker found Proposition 8 unconstitutional in 2010, proponents sought to appeal the ruling, but Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris refused to challenge it. Protect Marriage in January asked the courts in an unprecedented request if it could have legal standing to appeal. Same-sex couples were not allowed to resume getting married in the meantime.

While waiting for a decision on the appeal process, Prop. 8 supporters tried to have Walker's ruling vacated because he did not disclose his homosexuality. The motion was denied, but proponents again requested a motion to vacate the ruling earlier this month.

There was also much to do about the release of video footage from the Prop. 8 proceedings, which was barred from being broadcast. A judge's order to make the footage public was eventually put on hold in October. Attorneys who challenged the ban say their case is one of the soundest in American history.

Using transcripts from the trial, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black penned the play "8" that premiered on Broadway in September.

The California Supreme Court in November granted Protect Marriage legal standing to appeal the ruling in the Ninth Circuit Court, where the case is set to return. Soon after, the pro-marriage equality group Love Honor Cherish was given the approval to collect signatures to put a proposition that would repeal Prop 8 on the ballot in Nov. 2012. Equality California announced it would not pursue a ballot repeal initiative in 2012.

In other news, the nation's first LGBT history museum opened in the Castro neighborhood of San Francisco in January.

A San Diego court in April ruled in favor of gay rights activists canvassing in front of Target stores. Target tried to have them banned from canvassing in front of its stores all together. The chain was boycotted this year when political donations it made to groups backing anti-gay candidates became known.

Later that month, the National Basketball Association fined Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant $100,000 for using an anti-gay slur against a referee. Bryant apologized and later appeared in a public service announcement.

Thousands attended Pride festivals during the spring and summer months in cities throughout the state. Corrections officer Andrew Johnson made headlines in June when he filed a discrimination claim after being initially denied a request to march in uniform at Los Angeles Pride. Hundreds of openly LGBT military service members marched in San Diego Pride in July.

Veteran gay rights activist Jean Harris, who helped win domestic partnership rights in California, died in June.

Brandon McInerney went on trial in July for the 2008 shooting death of Lawrence King, a 15-year-old gay classmate in Oxnard. A judge declared a mistrial in September when the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, but McInerney pleaded guilty in November. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Also in July, a federal investigation into the Tehachapi Unified School District found that it violated civil rights law when it failed to respond adequately to the severe bullying of gay middle school student Seth Walsh, who committed suicide in 2010. The school district agreed to implement stricter bullying protocol. Walsh's mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the school district, administrators and specific teachers who allegedly teased her son. A few months later, a law in Seth's name that tightened requirements for school anti-bullying policies passed in the state Legislature.

Brown in July signed the first-ever law to require the teaching of LGBT history in schools: the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act. Shortly after, groups began collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to repeal the law, sometimes misleading signers, but they failed to collect enough to make the ballot. They have now have their sights set on removing LGBT references from the law or letting parents opt their children out of instruction.

San Francisco couple Bradford Wells and Anthony John Makk made headlines over the summer when they were denied immigration benefits despite having a marriage license from Massachusetts. Wells could not sponsor Makk, who is from Australia, for residency despite his meeting several criteria considered by immigration officials, like being Wells' sole caregiver. The case was one of several this year that put a spotlight on the continued enforcement of the Defense of Marriage Act despite the White House's announcement in February that it would no longer defend it. The Obama administration has intervened in some cases.

In the summer and fall, a string of unrelated anti-gay attacks occurred in Long Beach, prompting rallies and a community forum.

In October, a lesbian couple was voted Homecoming King and Queen at San Diego's Patrick Henry High School.

In the latter half of 2011, a coalition of activists including the AIDS Healthcare Foundation collected thousands of petition signatures to get a citywide initiative on the June 2012 ballot that would require the use of condoms in adult films with permits from the city of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reports that porn performers are ten times more likely to contract STIs than the general population, but the Los Angeles City Attorney is suing to block the measure on grounds that it would be a waste of taxpayer money because state laws already address workplace safety.

Laws making it easier for transgender people to petition for changes to their birth certificates and including them in gender non-discrimination policy passed the state legislature in 2011. They were among 10 bills pertaining to LGBT rights that were signed into law this year, the most in any legislative session in the California's history.