Attorneys File Brief With American Supreme Court In Case Against Westboro Baptist Church, Newly Out Senator Roy Ashburn Implores Colleagues To Support Gay Rights, Minnesota Man Charged in Assault Claims Gay Panic Self-Defense, Rafael Nadal Sports $525,000 Watch

Attorneys for Albert Snyder, the father of Matthew Snyder, the American soldier killed in Iraq, filed a 67 page brief with the United States Supreme Court Thursday, the brief challenging the constitutional validity of protests organizing by members of the Westboro Baptist Church. The violently anti-gay quasi- religious group routinely pickets the funerals of American service members, contending that their deaths are God’s retribution for America’s tolerance of homosexuals and homosexuality. In March, the Supreme Court agreed to take the case, to be heard in the next term beginning in October, 2010.

Some surprising, but welcomed news from California, state Senator Roy Ashburn Thursday, who was outed after an arrest for drunk driving, spoke out passionately in favour of gay rights during a legislative session in Sacramento. Ashburn’s political career had historically been anti-gay, but Thursday on the floor on the Senate he spoke of the years he felt forced to hide his sexual orientation. He asked fellow senators to “rise above discrimination” and to support a resolution asking Congress to repeal a ban on gay men and women serving in the military. He also commented on a bill before the Senate meant to protect the rights of religious organizations who refuse to perform gay marriages. Ashburn has consistently courted the conservative vote, so his pro-gay stance is, at the very least, a personal breakthrough.

23 year old Keevin Clarence Otte, from Cannon Falls, Minnesota, has been charged with third-degree assault after he allegedly beat a man for being gay. The victim, who is not named, was treated an area hospital, after he was attacked by Otte who reportedly objected to the man talking in a manner to a friend that made it clear he was gay outside of a bar in Randolph. Otte told officers a different story: he said he was outside the bar when the two men began taunting him and told him he looked “like a 12 year old boy.” According to Otte, one of the men approached him “quickly” and asked if he was gay. Otte told police he reacted out of self-defense.

The watch seen on Rafael Nadal below, competing at this year’s French Open is a $525,000 RM 027 Tourbillion timepiece that weighs a little less than 20 grams. Nadal is reportedly being paid to wear the watch created by Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille.