Proponents And Opponents Expected Monday In Olympia Washington For Hearings On Two Same Sex Marriage Measures, Rick Santorum Gets Glitter Bombed, Captain Steven Hill Joins Fight Seeking Equal Rights For Current And Former Gay Service Members, Anonymous Hacks CBS And Universal Music, Justin Bieber Hides, Zac Efron

Large crowds are expected for hearings on Monday in Olympia, Washington on two same sex marriage bills. Stand for Marriage Washington — a loosely organized coalition of conservative lawmakers, well-known evangelical pastors, the Tri-City Tea Party and the Constitution Party of Washington — predicts as many as 10,000 people will flood the Capitol for a noontime rally in opposition to gay marriage. "We have to create among these legislators a belief that they will lose their jobs if they vote to redefine this law," said Joseph Backholm, of Washington Family Policy Institute, a member of the coalition. "We have to convince them to be more afraid of us than of the other side." Six other states and the District of Columbia have legalized same sex marriage. But unlike the battles in those places, the debate in Washington is not over providing gays and lesbians benefits such as hospital visitation rights and estate planning. The Seattle Times reports that over several years, gay-rights groups and state lawmakers have built upon a domestic-partnership law that now grants same-sex couples the same rights and benefits as married people. In 2009 they successfully fought off Referendum 71, which sought to repeal the final instalment of that law. Now the only thing left to fight over is the right of gay and lesbian couples to be able to call their relationships marriage under state law. That's a challenge for the opposition, said Matt Baretto, an associate professor of political science at the University of Washington who conducts the Washington Poll. Supporters of the same sex marriage bill will argue that Washington has a system of "separate but equal" when it comes to marriage, he said, adding, We've tried separate but equal; it doesn't work. It will be difficult for the other side to overcome that." But the Rev. Joe Fuiten, pastor of the Cedar Park Church in Bothell, calls gay marriage "one of those lines-in-the-sand issues, and for Christians a clear line has been crossed here." Fuiten was not part of the Ref. 71 campaign to repeal the latest state domestic-partnership law, but he has joined this fight. "They are changing the definition of the relationship that I have, not just granting an opportunity for homosexuals," he said. "It's not like anybody will be better off after this than before, though they will try to confuse it. All they can do is make the equality argument, but it really doesn't stand up to intellectual scrutiny." Senator Craig Pridemore (D-Vancouver), chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, Tribal Relations and Elections, which will hold the Senate hearing, said he's ready for a crowd. In addition to the main hearing room, there will be two overflow rooms and the Senate galleries where people can watch the proceedings on television. Once the hearings are over, the bills could move out of committee by Thursday in the Senate and by January 30 in the House. The chairmen of both committees said they have the votes they need. The House bill is also expected to go through the House Ways and Means Committee. It's not clear if the Senate's measure will go through Senate Ways and Means. Gay-marriage advocates say the earliest the bills could get floor votes would be the first part of February. Representative Jamie Pedersen (D-Seattle), prime sponsor of the bill in the House, worries about what could happen before a vote is taken. For example, "We have a series of controversial issues that are going to be before the Legislature (including budget and tax votes), and legislators have a limited tolerance for taking controversial votes. So one thing that I worry about is what else is going on that interacts with the bill," he said. Still, Pedersen said, "I feel pretty good about where we are in the House." Meanwhile, the bill's sponsor in the Senate, Ed Murray (D-Seattle), remains unsure he'll get the one additional vote needed to pass the measure in that chamber. In fact, Murray said there's a good chance he'll try to bring the bill up for a floor vote without knowing if he has the necessary 25 votes for passage. And there's no guarantee the bill will even make it to the floor for a vote. For controversial bills, each procedural step toward a vote presents an opportunity for opponents to derail or at least stall the legislation, Murray said. Also, some lawmakers are expected to try to amend the bill to include a referendum clause requiring voters to decide whether the measure becomes law. That could be a close vote, but Murray said he has enough support to keep such a clause from being approved. In the end, though, voters may well determine whether Washington becomes the seventh state to legalize same sex marriage. Some of the same groups opposed to gay marriage are those that unsuccessfully tried to overturn the state's domestic-partnership law with Ref. 71. Gary Randall, president of the conservative Faith and Freedom Network, said there will be a challenge at the ballot if the Legislature legalizes same sex marriage. "It will be a different story than Referendum 71," he said.

Saturday night, at The Citadel military college, about 20 demonstrators crashed the Rick Santorum results party in Charleston, South Carolina. According to The Summerville Patch, as Santorum closed his speech focusing on building strong family values, a gay rights activist said, "Except when you're gay" and threw a handful of glitter in the air. Members of the Occupy Charleston group joined in with chants of "Rick, Rick, Rick, bigot, bigot, bigot" and singing "Santorum, Santorum, you're a bigot." As police escorted the group out, they shouted about Jesus preaching love. The police escorted many members of the movement off-campus and would not allow them to retrieve their vehicles parked there. But there were no arrests or incidents. Speaking to Patch, Occupier Adrianna Varedi of Charleston said the party crash was "the people of South Carolina taking a stand against" bigoted behaviour against gays and blacks. Santorum, who finished third in the South Carolina primary, is an adamant opponent of gay rights, opposing same sex marriage and likening gay sex to bestiality with previous remarks.

Captain Stephen Hill says he's been living a lie for 20 years. "I would hide pictures in my house of vacations and stuff when people would come over because I could've gotten kicked out," said Hill, who recently married his partner Joshua Snyder. "So I think it's always been an issue with me and I always felt that it's a hard thing to deal with, fighting for everybody's rights except for my own." In October, Captain Hill, who is from Columbus, Ohio, got an opportunity to fight for his rights. He asked a question during a presidential debate, asking the candidates about their position on the Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal. "When the boos happened, I just thought 'did I do something wrong?'" Hill said. "I really thought this was a legitimate question and I thought it respectfully deserved to be answered. We're going to be soldiers first just like we've always done. The only thing that we want is equal treatment and not to be kicked out." Now, reports 9NEWS, Hill is a part of a federal lawsuit, filed in October of 2001 by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. The suit is against the U.S Attorney general Eric Holder, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki. SLDN wants current and former service members who are gay to have the same rights as the straight members of the military. According to the SLDN website, "the case challenges the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, as well as the provisions in Title 10, Title 32, and Title 38 of the U.S Code, which preclude the military from providing same-sex married couples with the same benefits and family support as their straight, married peers." Hill said, "There is a lot of monetary benefit, things that you can name off - the separation, military separation, family separation and stuff like that we aren't entitled to. We're legally married, we're husband and husband. Why aren't we able to get the same things as other married couples?" Hill asked. "When I get deployed, Josh has to do the same thing that other deployed spouse has to do, he has to take care of my house, he has to take care of the dogs. He has to take care of your family. He has to do all this stuff while you're gone, so someone has to have common sense and say it's the same, no different. Whether you're male or female, it's the same kind of stress, anxiety that you have."

PC Magazine reports that the “hacktivist” group Anonymous has attacked again. Sunday, in an act of retaliation over the federal government’s shutting down of the file-sharing site Megaupload.com, Anonymous took down all of CBS.com, as well as the primary site for Universal Music.

Justin Bieber – wearing a ridiculous outfit – is apparently determined never to show his face again.

Zac Efron is a handy man, stocking a shopping cart full Saturday at a Los Angeles-area Home Depot.