Members of No Longer Silent Clergy for Justice, PFLAG, Arizona Stonewall Democrats, and Human and Equal Rights Organizers (H.E.R.O.) staged a protest this morning to bring attention to this all-day meeting.

More photos and video after the jump.

That's after the jump.

With the help of the Arizona ACLU, Caleb successfully fought to have his Willow Canyon High School's discrimination policies revised. But he didn't stop there.

A child of the Internet age, on December 1st in a 12-hour non-stop barrage of 3,000 emails Caleb put all individual schools and school districts in our state on notice. He didn't stop there.

Notices were also sent to local city councils, county commissioners, legislators (state and federal) within each district, along with the State Department of Education, Attorney General's office, and the Office of the Governor. So that no one in the state was missed, at the same time he sent a press release to all news outlets in the state.

(Clinton wants a family so badly that he has spent the past two weeks in San Diego with a surrogate mother making sure that the implanted embryos get a good start in life. We wish you all the luck in getting the family you so desperately want, Clinton. We know the home you provide will be a good one for them. Hurry home to resume your activist role.)

As an activist in the Phoenix, Arizona area it is always hard to get a good crowd out to an event. People give all kinds of reasons for not coming, and there are probably too many to count...with size being our biggest obstacle. As the fifth largest city in the nation, we are now over 100 miles wide from valley edge to valley edge. It's not like the Castro in San Francisco. You can't just walk out of your home and be in the middle of the event. You have to fight traffic and distance to be involved. It's difficult...but it's also worth it.

We talked about the recent General Conference address of Boyd K. Packer, President of the Mormon Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the affect he thought those hateful words would have on his clients.

Lest we forget - Packer called same-sex attraction 'impure and immoral,' claiming that it can be corrected and characterizing same-sex marriage as immoral. His talk was watched by 13,000,000 members of the church, and although corrected somewhat in the written record, there were millions in the worldwide satellite broadcast who could watch him as he spoke them. They have a visual that will never be erased. It is a form of bullying from the pulpit, and especially in the Mormon Church, his words are taken as if God himself spoke them. Each of the Apostles in the 15-member governing councils of the Church are sustained as "prophets, seers, and revelators." He is next in line to be the Prophet to all the world.

The route this year (Equality Walkers' Route) started in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and ends with the final miles this Saturday from Cesar Chavez Plaza at 201 W. Washington in downtown Phoenix to the State Capitol, where there will be a rally and speeches from those who walked. Temperatures that day will hover around 108 degrees so wear your cap and some sunscreen. Unlike the last two years, when they walked the Greater Phoenix area, for most of their trip this year they will be in Arizona's high country, which is much cooler.

They've been sharing stories with churches, town councils, mayors, business owners, and everyday people in Lake Havasu, Kingman, Prescott, Jerome, Sedona, Flagstaff, Winslow, Holbrook, Eager, St. Johns, Springerville, Globe and Payson. For all of those in Arizona who are reading this, come out on Saturday and walk the last miles with them. We must stand up proudly and declare that we will not be treated as second-class citizens - not in the US - and not in AZ. It is also your chance to celebrate the Walkers and their 98 mile pilgrimage for your equality.

One little guy, Luis, about five years old, grabbed a hard hat and a bullhorn and marched up and down the sidewalk chanting phrases in Spanish. I am convinced that this SB1070 has created youth who will be active their whole lives in fighting to right wrongs. I see Luis' counterparts in the young high school students who organized ten high schools in a protest walkout this past month. They walked all the way to the Capitol and surrounded it by the thousands in a human line of protest.

It brought tears to my eyes that many, many of the marchers yesterday could not communicate with me in English but did communicate with smiles and friendly waves as I stood and took pictures. They were hot and tired but determined to make their point.

This law requires the arrest and detention of all people in the state of Arizona who are not legally in the United States.

Estimates put their number at 400,000 to 460,000.

Never before has a law been passed that instantly creates such a large number of criminals and requiring their arrest.

If law enforcement were actually successful in arresting them, or is sued to do so as this law allows, this would mean incarcerating a number that is 10-11 times the entire state's current prison population. (40,431 inmates were in custody as of Sept. 30, 2009.)

What would this do to the Arizona budget? Find out after the jump.

Pilgrim's Rest Baptist Church, a predominantly Black congregation, was filled to capacity with a huge overflow crowd perhaps numbering in the thousands. Inside a comprehensive cross-section of Arizonans were joined by Al Sharpton, the featured speaker. His dramatic speech fired up the emotions and when the meeting was over, the streets were filled with thousands of lighted candles as they marched and chanted the three miles to the Capitol Mall.

Earlier in the day actor/director Danny Glover met with Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon to lend his support for the Latino community in Arizona.

Both men expressed their approval of the Phoenix Suns for wearing their LosSuns jerseys in the game with the Spurs. They are now 3 wins and 0 losses while wearing LosSuns jerseys.

I admit that I have come late to the protest arena, but let me tell you what I see happening after the jump.

I attended the press conference yesterday morning at the Capitol Mall in Phoenix where the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), ACLU, and National Immigration Law Center (NILC) announced a legal challenge to the Arizona racial profiling law. In a city that turned out over 100,000 Latinos to fight discrimination in years past, it could barely muster a few thousands last Sunday, and only the media today. There is much fear in the community about any kind of gatherings of Hispanics. There is a lot of misinformation and fear spreading in the Latino community regarding this law.

It seems apropos that the 'Winged Victory" statue on top of the Capitol dome was blown so that its back was turned to the proceedings in the mall below.

These documents show that leaders of the Church know that they will always lose in the Courts, because our cause is right and supported by the U.S. Constitution.

Thomas S. Monson is the Prophet and President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is the multi-billion dollar megachurch (it has the largest religious auditorium in the country seating 22,000 in SLC) that pretty much runs Utah and, as we're finding out, has reached into the constitutions of many of the United States to deny equal rights to LGBT folk everywhere.

He and the other 14 men (no women in the Priesthood) who run the Presiding Councils of the Mormon Church have together experienced over 1,000 years in leadership positions at the General Authority level (they start mostly in their 40's and live to be very old men). Gives them a kind of know-it-all attitude. They think they've seen and experienced everything there is to experience in the far flung church Joseph Smith dreamed up in the early 1800's. And because they speak for God, or so they believe, 13 million members in more than 160 countries fall in line with orders from the headquarters of the Church... or they leave. There is no middle ground.

Arizona Stonewall Democrats reached out last September and October to Equality Arizona and HRC in Arizona to explain what our goals are for the upcoming election cycles and offered to work together in a united effort to elect progressives to the Legislature. Both have now responded, and, together with the Arizona Log Cabin Republicans, we have formed the Arizona LGBT Political Coalition. Each organization will take the part of the whole that we have historically taken, and working together where possible to share resources and information, we are united in the common goal of promoting overall agenda of equality for all.

That is the slogan and logo for our upcoming campaign.

With 12 grandchildren, including six grandsons so far, all in 'active' Mormon families, I have an overwhelming wish to protect them from their parents and the LDS Church, in case one or more turn out to be like Grandpa...gay. Statistics being what they are, there's a good chance one of them is gay. Abhorrently, gay Mormon boys in Utah commit suicide at a higher rate than anywhere else in the country. Their families and the Church generally leave them with what they believe is no other option. So sad.

Whenever I'm interacting with Mormons, like my kids, old friends in the church, and Mormons in positions of power and authority, it is vitally important to me that I keep giving them the message to listen to their children. What influence I have may save the life of one of my precious little ones someday.

To that end, I wanted to publish for your edification an exchange of emails I had with a member of Mesa's City Council. It's important, because a basic strategy of the Mormon leadership in America is to put Mormons in office wherever they can. The problem is they can't separate their religion from their governing...and that is bad for us gay guys/gals. Do you know where Mitt Romney is these days? He'll be baaack!

(Note: The last part of this post is something you might want to copy and send to a Mormon friend.)