Amy and Sarah Monson have been together for seven years and are raising a daughter together. They co-own a business, have joint finances, and had a commitment ceremony in 2002. They have drafted estate plans for themselves and their daughter, and Sarah changed her last name to Monson.

The Rochester Athletic Club had a policy that only married couples could apply for a family membership package. The courts have said that since unmarried heterosexual couples also cannot get the discounted membership the policy does not constitute discrimination based on sexual orientation. But the Monsons contend that since they don’t have the option to marry, they should not be compared with unmarried heterosexual couples who have the option to marry.

After four attempts to resolve the matter with the club, the Monsons filed suit in 2007, alleging a violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, the 1993 law that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals denied their argument on Tuesday and upheld a previous Olmstead County judge’s decision.

The case highlights another instance of legal discrimination in Minnesota: Because the Monsons cannot marry, they can legally be discriminated against.

Even the judge in the original decision saw the flaws in the system. Judge Kevin Lund called the health club’s policy “anachronistic” and an “unrealistically narrow definition of family” that “fails to recognize the underlying stability and commitment of the Monsons’ relationship,” a relationship that he said functions “as a loving family unit and would otherwise be married or have entered into a permissible legal domestic partnership if allowed by our Legislature.”

The Monson may appeal the case to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Women Against Military Madness and the Anti-War Committee launched a protest at Klobuchar’s Minneapolis office, along with smaller ones at the offices of Coleman and Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum.

“I am not condemning what Israel has done as you have asked me to do,” Klobuchar told them. “We need to work toward a cease-fire and I would like to see a cease-fire in place.”

Coleman responded through his communications director, LeRoy Coleman, “While Senator Coleman strongly believes that Israel has a right to defend itself, he calls on both sides to quickly work towards a lasting cease-fire. However, a cease-fire cannot just be a short term opportunity for Hamas to regroup.”

But probably the strongest voice among the Minnesota delegation came from Ellison.

“If the Bush administration chooses to passively ignore the renewed violence during the waning days of their time in office, then I fully expect to work with President-elect Obama in actively, aggressively and with full purpose, engaging all parties in the pursuit of both a lasting peace, and a secure future. Nothing less is acceptable,” said Ellison.

He outlined a number of strategies to a ceasefire: intervention by the “Quartet,” which is comprised of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia; opening the borders with Israel and Egypt to allow civilians to seek refuge from the violence; and an end to “inflammatory rhetoric and aggressive actions.” Ellison called the Hamas rhetoric “belligerent defiance,” and said the Israeli sanctions made life “increasingly unlivable” for Palestinians in the Gaza.

“The escalation of violence leaves both parties less secure and with a deeper desire to seek revenge,” he said.

The other members of the Minnesota’s congressional delegation have not publicly weighed in on the Israeli-Gaza conflict.

At issue are the scheduled events involving the Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, a prominent civil-rights pastor, and the Rev. Rick Warren, whose statements about same-sex marriage and abortion have created an uproar among progressives.

“Under the Establishment Clause, Plaintiffs have a right to view their government in action without being forced to confront official endorsements of religious dogma with which they disagree. This is especially the case when that dogma stigmatizes them in the process,” reads the lawsuit. “Being forced to confront such religious dogma as the price to pay for observing a governmental ceremony is a substantial burden upon Plaintiffs’ rights of Free Exercise as well.”

The suit says that the planned religious services will impinge on the freedoms of some Americans. “One cannot freely live as an adherent to a religious ideology when the government uses its ‘power, prestige and financial support’ to impose a contrary religious doctrine while such individuals are observing its ceremonies.”

August Berkshire, president of Minnesota Atheists, issued a statement Tuesday, stating the organziation is “pleased to accept a personal invitation from Michael Newdow to be a plaintiff in this lawsuit. The swearing in of a president is a secular event. The oath of office is in the U.S. Constitution and it contains no religious references. It is unfortunate that while Barack Obama campaigned on a theme of unity, the very act of becoming president will serve to divide Americans along religious lines.”

The lawsuit is expected to be filed this week in United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

The agency that runs the airport refused an apparently serious offer to buy the men’s room stall made famous by Craig’s 2007 conviction for disorderly conduct in a sex-solicitation sting operation by the airport police. The Metropolitan Airport Commission (MAC) spurned the $5,000 offer, which arrived by certified mail, according to MAC spokesperson Patrick Hogan.

“We would not want to do that to the senator,” Hogan told the Spokesman-Review newspaper of Spokane, Wash., which is just over the state line from Craig’s home state of Idaho. “We’d want to treat this case like we do any other, and we don’t sell fixtures for novelty purposes.”

Read more and see those intact fixtures for yourself in a new YouTube video after the jump.

Craig tried to take back his guilty plea, but – unlike issuing a presidential pardon – copping to a misdemeanor is irrevocable. That’s what the state Court of Appeals told Craig when it rejected his appeal earlier this month.

The revelation about the rebuffed purchase offer is part of a story on Hogan’s claim that sight-seers’ “special interest” in the bathroom has dwindled since Craig’s arrest. The men’s room’s status as a tourist attraction ended the gay cruising activity that the MAC police sting had targeted, Hogan said. That in turn allowed MAC officials to reverse their decision to extend stall walls to meet the floor, a project that would have cost several times the amount of the would-be stall-buyer’s offer.

The airport survived a boycott by Craig supporters only to find the MAC in heavy talks with Delta to renegotiate Northwest’s contracts following the airlines’ merger. The publicly owned and operated airport even faces privatization threats in the state legislative session that starts next month. By not remodeling the mens’ room, the airport commission can argue it has saved enough to afford its high-minded refusal to play-for-pay with at least one well-heeled sex-scandal devotee.

Still, Hogan sounded more like an enthusiastic tour guide than the spokesman for a thrifty public agency when he gushed, “The restroom looks exactly as it was when the senator was arrested.”

Here is a video re-enactment of Craig’s visit to the Minnesota airport men’s room, released Monday by satellite radio talk show host Michelangelo Signorile:

JEHT announced two weeks ago that because of the Madoff scandal they will cease all grant-making and shut their doors at the end of January.

“The JEHT Foundation Board deeply regrets that the important work that the Foundation has undertaken over the years is ending so abruptly,” JEHT Foundation president Robert Crane says in a message on the JEHT website. “The issues the Foundation addressed received very limited philanthropic support and the loss of the foundation’s funding and leadership will cause significant pain and disruption of the work for many dedicated people and organizations.”

Among those programs that benefited from JEHT, the Palliative Care Leadership Center at the Fairview Foundation has a current grant that will likely be terminated. PCLC received $300,000 in 2006 in a three-year grant. PCLC at Fairview provides training to hospital staff nationwide in assisting patients experiencing terminal illnesses.

A topic covered by the Minnesota Independent’s Anna Pratt and Paul Schmelzer got help from JEHT: The Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights received $300,000 in 2006 to conduct the commission that helped Liberian refugees tell their stories of a bloody civil war where civilians were frequently terrorized.

In 2007, the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center received $175,000 to provide legal assistance for the defense of detainees being prosecuted in military commissions.

Also in 2007, the Council on Crime and Justice received $265,310 for an 18 month grant how people who were arrested but no convicted were impacted by those arrests, specifically in terms of employment.

In 2008, JEHT helped Minnesota with voter registration. Minnesota’s Secretary of State’s office received $67,900 in funds to research ways to more accurately update voter registration rolls when people move.

Wellstone Action Fund got $74,000 in 2006 for voter engagement schools that train nonprofits in running voter engagement programs.

A phalanx of riot police ready themselves at the RNC. Photo: Tim Roman

Newswise, it was an eventful 2008, thanks to the Republican National Convention, the historic election of Barack Obama, Sarah “In what respect, Charlie?” Palin, John McCain, Michele “anti-American” Bachmann, P.Z. Myers (and the communion “cracker” incident) and, now, the ongoing recount of ballots in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. MnIndy had a record year: We more than doubled 2007’s readership, welcoming nearly two million unique visitors, and saw nearly 6,000 comments. Here are two gauges of the stories you liked best — top 10s of the most-read and most-discussed stories.

The year’s most-read stories:

10. “Boot print on his back: Photographs, video of 17-year-old RNC protester after run-in with police,” Paul Schmelzer, September 2

12,433 views

9. “Crackdown begins: Food Not Bombs house among Saturday raids,” Jeff Severns Guntzel and Paul Schmelzer, August 30

12,483 views

8. “Youth in iconic RNC protest photo was later beaten by police, according to his mother,” Paul Schmelzer, September 2

14,670 views

7. “Bachmann controversy upends views of her re-election prospects,” Paul Demko, October 21

14,649 views

6. “Police seize ‘propaganda literature,’ staples, curtain rods, and caltrops from raided home on 17th Avenue,” Molly Priesmeyer, August 30

15,571 views

5. “Alcohol, Tobacco and Firecracker?: ‘Explosion’ in St. Paul leads to rounding up anyone with a backpack,” Molly Priesmeyer, September 3

15,739 views

4. “Franken campaign decries frivolous challenges,” Paul Demko, November 21

16,080 views

3. “RNC DIY: Plant this in your yard,” Paul Schmelzer, June 30

16,093 views

2. “Crowd control at the RNC: Fifty million unanswered questions,” Jeff Severns Guntzel, September 7

17,712 views

1. “Norm Coleman: ‘I’m a winner’ and ‘most challenges will be dismissed’,” Chris Steller, November 21

52,110 views

Most-commented stories:

10. “Letter from Alaska: Palin a maverick? Please,” David Noon, September 16: 60 comments

9. “October Surprise: Bachmann raises more than $120,000 for Tinklenberg,” Paul Schmelzer, October 18: 61 comments

8. “DCCC Poll: Bachmann’s lead in the Sixth is down to four points over Tinklenberg,” Andy Birkey: 63 comments

7. “Bachmann controversy upends views of her re-election prospects,” Paul Demko, October 21: 81 comments

6. “Bachmann calls critics of her ‘anti-America’ statements ‘liars,’” Andy Birkey: 81 comments

5. “Boot print on his back: Photographs, video of 17-year-old RNC protester after run-in with police,” Paul Schmelzer, September 2: 88 comments

4. “New McCarthyism: Bachmann calls for investigation of ‘anti-American’ Congress members,” Andy Birkey, October 17: 94 comments

3. “MnIndy interview: Unrepentant science-heathen PZ Myers still intends to prove ‘this cracker is nothing,’” Paul Schmelzer, July 14: 100 comments

2. “Crackdown begins: Food Not Bombs house among Saturday raids,” Jeff Severns Guntzel and Paul Schmelzer, August 30: 100 comments

1. “Youth in iconic RNC protest photo was later beaten by police, according to his mother,” Paul Schmelzer, September 2: 151 comments

Special thanks to our many current and past staffers and freelancers who made 2008 such a success, including: Abdi Aynte, Ken Avidor, Andy Birkey, Joe Bodell, Karl Bremer, Paul Demko, Mike Dvorak, Jeff Fecke, Tom Elko, Dan Haugen, Robin Marty, Jefferson Morley, Tony Nelson, David Noon, Nancy Olsen, Steve Perry, Anna Pratt, Molly Priesmeyer, Britt Robson, Tim Roman, James Sanna, Jeff Severns Guntzel, Peter S. Scholtes and Chris Steller.

More of MnIndy’s Best:

Top 10 photos of 2008
Top videos of 2008

Best RNC tweets

I’d met Rowley in 2006, at her campaign fundraiser at my parents’ house. At the time, she seemed fierce and friendly, with a somewhat prim persona akin to her plaid-skirted appearance on the cover of TIME four years before. Now, a comfortably rumpled Rowley sidled into a courtroom seat with the more relaxed bearing of a street-level activist and occasional blogger. She had a stack of “Defend the RNC8!” postcards to pass out, and a lot to say.

Rowley recently submitted data requests about law enforcement during the 2008 Republican National Convention to the FBI (via the Freedom of Information Act) and to the Ramsey County Sheriff’s and St. Paul Police departments (through the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act). She expects to learn whether the surveillance and policing of 60 to 70 political organizations in St. Paul last September to protest the Republican National Convention (RNC)– as well as the surveillance of another 80 or so legal aids, independent media and artistic performance groups — was overly broad.

If it wasn’t, Rowley said that news will come as a relief to people like those she knows in CODEPINK who say they were pulled over repeatedly around the time of the RNC. But if the wide net she’s cast does snare examples of extra-constitutional overreaching, they’ll go into a book she’s working on with author William John Cox.

Rowley regaled me and Minnesota Public Radio’s Laura Yuen, who sat nearby, with stories about her early days as an FBI agent in the early 1980s. Hoover had died almost a decade (and several reform efforts) earlier, but his ghost still hovered over the Bureau. It was Rowley’s job to respond to the very sort of data requests she now has pending about the RNC. As we watched the defense attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild kibitz at the front of the courtroom, Rowley recalled that as an FBI agent she sat among stacks of files on the Guild’s members — a throwback to Hoover’s conviction that the Guild was a communist organization.

Back then, every new lead meant a new file, Rowley said. If folksinger Burl Ives threw a party, the next day everyone in attendance had an FBI file. She suspects that won’t be the case with the 150 groups about whom she’s requested records.

Rowley said she was always proud that the FBI fought public corruption as its top priority (it’s now the agency’s fourth priority, according to an FBI spokesman I talked to separately). I asked her about reports that the FBI is looking into allegations that businessman Nasser Kazeminy funneled money to U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman through a business he controls in Texas and Coleman’s wife’s employer in Minnesota. Does the FBI really open different levels of cases with some (like the Coleman cash question, reportedly) termed mere inquiries while others are full-fledged investigations? Rowley, who retired in 2004, said that in her day two levels of investigations did exist but the lesser was rarely used, and in any case the difference between them was nominal at best — you either had a case worth pursuing or you didn’t.

Rowley spoke in an elevated whisper — this being a courtroom, although the judge never appeared — that later put me in mind of the lower, hoarser whisper that actor Hal Holbrooke used in the “All the President’s Men” film to portray of Mark “Deep Throat” Felt, who had been Hoover’s second-in-command at the FBI. Felt died Thursday, having revealed himself as Deep Throat but taking with him any key to the internal contradictions of a man who helped engineer both the illegal surveillance on dissidents and the downfall of a president who put such dirty tricks to his own political ends. Next time I see her, I’ll ask how Rowley — who put her own livelihood at risk to root out wrongdoing within the FBI — how she felt about Felt.

The postcard Rowley was handing out this week.

This month, after a long national search, Johnson has been hired as the new executive director of OutFront Minnesota, the state’s largest public policy and advocacy group for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. I recently met with Johnson, a longtime lawyer who’s helped countless GLBT families navigate the confusing world of family law, at her office in the fittingly named Rainbow Building in Minneapolis to discuss the future of the GLBT movement in Minnesota, the sense of grief and urgency California’s Proposition 8 has evoked in the community and how technology might impact OutFront’s future.

Andy Birkey: What experiences do you bring to OutFront Minnesota?

Amy Johnson: My background has a lot to do with where I am today. For the last 20 years I have been representing GLBT families and individuals in their businesses and in their family planning. Alongside that is my very active volunteer life. I’ve done vol work at the Minnesota AIDS Project, with National Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association and, more recently, as president of the PFund Foundation. I have really enjoyed working in this movement.

On the professional side, I’ve been working family by family, helping them ensure stability and trying to plan against the discrimination that can come down the pike. And so now to be able to combine my volunteer and professional life.

I get to plan with an amazing team of talent how to make the entire state safe for families.

Birkey: How did you become an activist?

Johnson: I grew up in St. Paul, and I started my volunteer career at 5 years old. My mom stuck a placard in my hand and did a little counter-protest at the Planned Parenthood clinic on Ford Parkway. When it first went in, it was really controversial and there were all these [anti-abortion] protesters and my mom said, “Come on, honey!” and an activist was born.

I just really do feel that it’s uncanny how my professional and volunteer life, how it has prepared me for this job. I think OutFront Minnesota has really exciting possibilities, and I hope I can help OutFront realize those possibilities.

Birkey: The marriage issue is a big one, and as I’ve reported a number of times, there are members of the community who don’t want to wait to get married. Already for 2009, there is a lawsuit and a piece of legislation planned for marriage equality. Is it the right time? How do you see the timing and strategy?

Johnson: The timing issue. There’s a difference in philosophy between the lawsuit and legislation. I don’t think it’s one of timing. I think it’s the political realities and legal realities, so that’s sort of on a macro level of those two different tracks.

Looking at the [upcoming bill proposed by Sen. John Marty to equalize Minnesota's marriage laws], OutFront Minnesota is not against him bringing that bill and having a hearing at the judiciary [committee]. The more this issue comes up, the more that people hear “gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender” and understand that we are talking about regular families and dignity and stability and respect.

We think it will take three to five years. If John Marty’s bill gets through, gets heard, gets passed and if the governor signs it? Hallelujah! I mean, that … would … be … phenomenal. Unfortunately, realistically, it’ll take a few more times than that.

Birkey: Proposition 8 passed in November, effectively removing the right for same-sex couples to marry in California. What was your reaction?

Johnson: (Heavy sigh). That is such an interesting and tragic case study. My first reaction was to cringe because I really felt, and I do feel, that the entire country was watching. And I think our detractors could say, “See? The courts were ahead of the people,” and thereby [our detractors] could stop other legislative efforts across the country. I think it will take a little more education because of Prop 8.

I think that that’s an OK thing because we really want this to happen organically. We believe that the people of Minnesota want stable families with all communities living free from discrimination, and the work that we are going to do is really just to make sure that that grows organically and to show the legislators that all the constituencies are there with us.

It also had the funky outcropping of a younger generation who might have been complacent. Well, complacent is the wrong word … unaware of the subtle, more subtle discrimination that really does exist out there.

Birkey: Definitely. Being out in the community and talking to folks I encounter people who’ve never been to the Capitol, never signed up for an advocacy organization or talked to a legislator — some haven’t even voted. This year has been the year they’ve showed up to the marriage rallies, sent out e-mails about marriage equality to friends and family. Is this a great time to take advantage of that energy?

Johnson: Absolutely. I was surprised. I’ve gotten a lot of calls … this is my first official day. More people left messages on my Facebook than called or e-mailed.

Birkey: The Internet is certainly a big part of my work, and we saw how effective social networking was in the 2008 elections. Is OutFront harnessing some of that organizing power?

Johnson: Absolutely. I think we are for sure and excited to take a page out of the president-elect’s book and communicate and bring people, engage people through different means: texting and Facebook and MySpace. I’ve already started some research on that and there are some other organizations doing that and we are going to be careful not to duplicate efforts. It’s a wonderful common goal that a lot of the GLBT organizations have, and it’s a really great background for us to be working together on.

Birkey: There are some parts of the GLBT community that are less interested in marriage rights. They don’t see it as very important to their lives. How do you respond to those community members?

Johnson: I think OutFront Minnesota’s approach is a little bit unique in that we are committed to a legislative approach, and so this isn’t something that is coming from the top down and all we are getting is marriage and an intellectual debate. This is coming from the bottom up. So all of the community organizing we do, all of the education, all of the engagements that we make are going to reduce discrimination and normalize relations between GLBT community and our allies and we are going to build allies. And so everyone is going to benefit whether you choose to get married or not.

Birkey: What are some of those issues that might be coming up in the next few years?

Johnson: I do know that there is a safe schools initiative coming up, but today’s my first day and we haven’t finalized our legislative agenda (set to be released next week).

Communications Director Jo Mariscano added: Some other issues … expanding our organizing efforts with communities of color. We are going to be doing much more work in that area and doing more work with the transgender community. I don’t think anyone can be in this community and not know about the organizing importance of the transgender community, and we saw that with the united [Employment Non-Discrimination Act] campaign.

We will also be working on broader issues that affect the GLBT community. Reproducive rights, health care and working with unions on labor issues.

Photo: Lauren Victoria Burke

On ABC News Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney acknowledged knowing about and approving of the torture technique known as waterboarding.

“I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared, as the agency in effect came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn’t do,” Cheney said. “And they talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it.” (Back in April, George W. Bush admitted as much, as well.)

Replaying the tape on MSNBC last night, Rachel Maddow asked Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committe, “Did he just admit to condoning torture?” His reply:

“As far as I’m concerned, that’s exactly what he admitted,” Levin said after a pause to shut his eyes, and shake his head as if still in disbelief.

“Now he’ll say that he doesn’t admit supporting torture,” Levin added, “but facts are that the policies which were approved, the legal opinions authorized these harsh techniques, and when the Vice President of the United States says that he believes — and he said that what, just a few nights ago — that waterboarding is ‘appropriate,’ there is no other conclusion that I can reach other than I know it’s a form of torture, it’s been acknowledged as a form of torture I think since the Inquisition. Senator McCain who was the subject of torture is absolutely clear on it, but I think every authority on waterboarding and torture will say that waterboarding constitutes ‘torture.’”

George W. Bush famously told CBS’ Katie Couric, “I’ve said to the people that we don’t torture, and we don’t.” But his administration has long danced around the definition of torture and whether waterboarding, a forced simulation of drowning, qualifies.

Both George W. Bush and Condoleeza Rice have commented that the incident with al-Zaidi is represents progress — a “sign of freedom that people feel,” as Bush said — in Iraq. No word yet on how and if the U.S. will look into the allegations.