We're honored to occasionally publish the illustrations and political cartoons by artist Angelo Lopez here. Angelo is a regular contributor to our sister publication, EverydayCitizen.com.

Here's how Angelo explains his inspiration for the cartoon shown above:

In San Francisco this January, a federal trial is taking place to argue the legality of Proposition 8, a proposition that was passed in the California election in 2008 to ban gay marriage. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, the presiding judge in the case, had originally wanted court employees to record the trial for delayed broadcast on the YouTube Web site. Gay rights activists hoped that broadcasting the trial would expose the public to the arguments for gay marriage and act as an education tool. On January 13, 2010, however, the Supreme Court banned the use of cameras to broadcast the trial.

Two gay couples, Paul Katami and his partner Jeffrey Zarrillo, and Kristin Perry and her partner Sandra Stier, are challenging the constitutionality of state bans on gay marriage. The couples' chief attorneys are noted conservative litigator Theodore Olson and liberal litigator David Boies. In a yahoo news article by Lisa Leff of the Associated Press, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker wants the trial to deal with several questions: whether sexual orientation can be changed, how legalizing gay marriage affects traditional marriages and the effect on children of being raised by two mothers or two fathers. Jennifer Pizer, marriage director for the gay law advocacy group Lambda Legal, said in the article that the trial could play an important role in addressing important gay rights issues:

"The case is intriguing, exciting and potentially very significant because it addresses multiple important questions that, surprisingly to many, remain open in federal law. Can the state reserve the esteemed language and status of marriage just for heterosexual couples, and relegate same-sex couples to a lesser status? Are there any adequate public interests to justify reimposing such a caste system for gay people, especially by a majority vote to take a cherished right from a historically mistreated minority?"

On the second day of testimony, Nancy Cott, a U.S. history professor and the author of a book on marriage as a public institution, testified to the evolution of the institution of marriage and said historically marriage has served an economic purpose and was not just about procreation. George Chauncey, a Yale historian who specializes in the subject of 20th century gay life, testified about the negative stereotypes that were used in the Proposition 8 campaign to portray "homosexuals as perverts who pray on young children, out to entice straight people into sick behavior."

Chief San Francisco economist Edmund Egan has testified on the fourth day of the trial that a state ban on gay marriage is costing the city of San Francisco millions of dollars a year in lost revenue and increased services. Egan argued that married people have more wealth and spend more on property and consumer goods, which bolsters the city's tax revenue. He also stated that since same-sex couples are not always covered under their partner's employee health care plans, the city must spend more on health care for uninsured gay workers.

Here are some scenes outside the courthouse of the trial on Prop 8.

One of the most moving testimonies of recent days was of the mayor of San Diego, Jerry Sanders, and his transformation from an opponent of gay marriage to a supporter of gay marriage. Sanders had campaigned two years earlier as an opponent of gay marriage, supporting instead civil unions for gay couples. In the 1970s, early in his 26-year career as a police officer, Sanders saw a gay sergeant driven off the force. In 2003 Sanders' daughter told him that she was a lesbian. In 2007, Mayor Sanders had a meeting with gays and lesbians the day before he intended to veto a gay marriage resolution, which along with his daughter's intervention, helped change Sanders' mind on gay marriage.

During the 2008 elections, several conservative Christian groups lobbied hard to get Proposition 8 passed. Conservative Mormons, Catholics and Evangelicals campaigned for passage of the proposition and several ministers gave sermons on the pulpit against gay marriage. An evangelical friend told me that a week before the 2008 elections, the pastor of his church gave a sermon against gay marriages. A surprising find was that many African Americans supported Proposition 8, and this could be explained by the influence of the church. Jasmyne A. Cannick, an African American lesbian activist, wrote an article called "The Gay/Black Divide" for the November 8, 2008 edition of the Los Angeles Times. She commented:

"White gays often wonder aloud why blacks, of all people, won't support their civil rights. There is a real misunderstanding by the white gay community about the term. Proponents of gay marriage fling it around as if it is a one-size-fits-all catchphrase for issues of fairness.

"But the black civil rights movement was essentially born out of and driven by the black church; social justice and religion are inextricably intertwined in the black community. To many blacks, civil rights are grounded in Christianity- not something separate and apart from religion but synonymous with it. To the extent that the issue of gay marriage seemed to be pitted against the church, it was going to be a losing battle in my community."

Happily, Christians who support gay marriages and gay rights are starting to make their voices heard in the pulpits and in their communities. In Washington D.C. the Reverend Dennis W. Wiley and the Reverand Christine Y. Wiley decided to perform same sex marriage ceremonies in the Covenant Baptist Church after the Washington D.C. city council voted 11 to 2 to legalize same sex marriage. The two reverends wrote an article for the Washington Post that dealt with the possible reasons that homophobia exists in the African American community and the progress that has been made to eliminate it:

"We are sometimes asked what accounts for the homophobia within the African American community. This question seems to assume that the community is disproportionately homophobic compared with other racial and ethnic groups. We are not aware of any credible study that has conclusively proved this assumption. However, our first-hand experience has convinced us that homophobia within the black church and the wider community is real. And the factors that have nurtured these beliefs over the years are complex.

"When issues of gay rights and gay marriage come up, the first question many black people ask is, 'What does the Bible have to say about it?' This seemingly innocent question doesn't acknowledge that when we approach the Bible, our perspective has been shaped by where we were born, by whom we were raised, what Grandma taught us, where we went to school and what our pastor preached in church- usually conservative ideas on matters such as homosexuality. Therefore, we tend to interpret the Bible not objectively, but through the lens of our cultural and historical context.

"The conservative strand of black religion is evident in what Harvard professor Peter Gomes calls 'bibliolatry'- the practice of worshiping the Bible rather than worshiping God. It is also found in a 'literal' interpretation of the Bible that focuses more on the letter of the text than on its spirit, and concentrates on passages about domination, oppression, hierarchy, elitism and exclusion rather than on the major themes of love, justice, freedom, equality and inclusion that run throughout the Bible.

"A more complicated element of black homophobia is the lingering influence of sexual stereotypes that originated during slavery. According to theologian Kelly Douglas, the myth of over-sexualized black bodies portrayed black men as violent 'bucks' who posed an ever present threat to white women, and black women as 'Jezebals' who seduced white men.

"These stereotypes served to justify the whipping, lynching and castration of black men, and to excuse the sexual violation of black women by white men. They were just one element of what blacks had to struggle against to gain acceptance and respectability in white society, especially during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th. On this matter, religion has often been a vehicle of suppression, accommodation and control. While the church was a refuge from the horrors of racism and played an empowering role in African American history, it also taught black people to repress behaviors- especially sexual behaviors- that might attract unwanted attention, appear uncouth or seem threatening to white people.

"A final piece that shapes black attitudes toward same-sex marriage is the preoccupation with racism in the black community. This obsession, although justifiable, has led to a failure to appreciate how racism is inextricably connected to all other forms of oppression. Those who fail to see this connection may resent the comparison of gay rights with civil rights. But as Martin Luther King Jr. once said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'"

Some evangelicals have come out in favor of gay rights. In an October 8, 2009 edition of Newsweek in the internet, evangelical Brent Childers writes about the journey that he took that led him to the National Equality March in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 11, 2009 to demand full and equal treatment for gays under the law and to speak out against the harm caused by religion-based bigotry. At one time, Childers had a traditional conservative Christian view of homosexuality, until his mother challenged him by asking whether his attitudes towards gays and lesbians was truly Christlike. This challenge led to much soul searching on Childers' part, and it led him to change his views and become the executive director of Faith in America. Childers wrote in his article:

"During the past four years I have looked into the faces of those I once caused harm to with religion-based bigotry and prejudice. And while I may have never inflicted a physical blow, I know today that my words indeed caused deep wounds--perhaps at some point deeper than I care to dwell upon.

They are the faces of individuals like young Sean Kennedy, who died in Greenville, S.C., in 2007 after being struck by a person who considered Sean a "faggot"; Pat and Lynn Mulder of Auburndale, Fla., whose gay son also died as a result of a hate crime; Jared Horsford of Texas who carved derogatory words into his flesh because he thought it would help control the demon he was told lived there; Nicholas White who was relentlessly berated by fellow 4-H peers at camp this summer as other 4-H campers stood behind the tormentors in silence; or the mother I met recently in North Carolina who grieved over her dead son--a child that had been rejected because he was gay and thought peace could only come through suicide.

There are many, many others I have met in my work with Faith in America, as we try to bring awareness and understanding to the pain and trauma caused to LGBT people, especially youth, when church teaching is misused to justify and promote a societal climate of rejection, condemnation, and discrimination. This environment fosters suicide, hate crimes, an epidemic of antigay bullying in our schools against all kinds of children gay and straight, legal workplace discrimination against LGBT citizens in 20 states, military service members forced to serve in silence or discharged for being honest about who they are, lesbian and gay parents unable to protect their children without the legal structure of federally recognized civil marriage, and lesbian and gay couples unable to provide security for their partners in the absence of federally recognized civil marriage. This is what we march for on Oct. 11 and every day. Every person coming to Washington--whether they are religious or not--does share one faith, and that is faith in America. We can and must do better. As the progress of history has shown, Americans will prove themselves able to see beyond religion-based bigotry to the promises of equal treatment for all. Those who use religion-based bigotry to persecute and discriminate against LGBT people are on the wrong side of history, just as they were with slavery, interracial marriage, the treatment of women, and so many other issues."

When I attended an evangelical church, I noted that there was a great diversity of opinions within the church. There were gay Christians, Christians who supported gay rights, and Christians who had close gay friends or family members. They would often be quiet in the face of their more conservative parishioners, but their silence did not mean that they agreed with their conservative church members on the subject of homosexuality or how they treated gays or lesbians. There are Catholics and Mormons as well who support gay rights. I'll end this post with a list of some Christians who are gay, some from the website Soulforce:

Fr. Henri Nouwen is a gay priest and an author whose books have inspired and touched millions. Probably one of the most admired spiritual authors in the world, he kept the secret of his sexual orientation fearing that this fact might somehow make his amazing writing less acceptable.

Fr. Mychal Judge was a NYC Fire Chaplain who died during 9/11 when he entered the twin towers to minister to the injured. Fr. Judge lived his entire life supporting the struggle for justice and was deeply loved, admired and respected by firefighters.

Bayard Rustin was a Quaker and an influential civil rights leader. He organized the March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. had his "I Have A Dream" speech, and Rustin's tactics of nonviolence was taught to activists as diverse as Grace Paley, Stokely Carmichael, and Martin Luther King Jr.

If you enjoy this cartoon, take a look at these links for more of my political cartoons at Everyday Citizen:

• Jasper Finds His Way Home
• Jasper Escapes the Detention Center
• Jasper At A Detention Center
• Jasper Meets a Poet
• Jasper's Day
• Jasper Tackles Health Care
• Jasper Protests the War
• Jasper and the Economy
• Jasper Sings a Protest Song
• The Road To Health Care Reform Cartoon
• A Cartoon about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• A Cartoon about My Experience in an Evangelical Church
• A Cartoon about Political Debate
• A Cartoon On Gay Marriage