The notoriously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church plans to protest in Silverton, Oregon after the town elected Stu Rasmussen as the nation’s first openly transgender mayor on Nov. 4.

KATU reports:

Silverton’s mayor-elect, Stu Rasmussen, said the protest is ironic considering he is not gay – he’s been together with his live-in girlfriend for nearly 35 years.

Rasmussen has been a fixture in Silverton politics for more than 20 years and has twice served as its mayor – but that was before his transformation. Now he identifies as a male even though he has breast implants and dresses like a woman.

Rasmussen expects the church from Topeka to protest for about an hour next Monday, adding that the residents of Silverton will show them the city’s usual hospitality and wait for them to leave.

“It’s been controversial everywhere except Silverton, Oregon,” Rasmussen said of his notoriety. “If you’re here it’s ‘Yep, there’s Stu’ because it’s been a gradual change and a known quantity.”

Utah Sen. Scott McCoy introduced the first of six planned gay rights bills today in a coordinated effort with Equality Utah. The bill, which would allow a person to name an unmarried partner as a designee in the case of a wrongful death, will first move to the Senate’s Judiciary Interim Committee.

The bills are part of a campaign to challenge the LDS Church to prove their claim that they support legal recognition of same-sex couples.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports:

Together, the bills make up the so-called Common Ground Initiative, which also includes proposals for a statewide domestic-partner registry, health benefits for gay couples and partial repeal of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The initiative marks a bold move in a state where the Republican-dominated Legislature has fought gay student clubs, stopped gay couples from adopting children and barred any domestic unions that would give same-sex couples rights traditionally granted to married couples.

The movement takes its cue from remarks by the LDS Church in the wake of the passage of Proposition 8, California’s measure to ban same-sex-marriage. The church, which pushed the ballot measure but did not oppose California’s domestic-partner registry, stated it “does not object” to rights for gay couples regarding health care, probate, fair housing and employment.

“The planets are aligned,” said Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake City, who will sponsor laws to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people from being fired or evicted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Utahns have never been more aware that there currently exist no protections for members of the LGBT community.”

But she acknowledged it will be a “challenge” to get all of the laws passed.

The Bilerico Project — a blog devoted to covering LGBT issues — will host a liveblog with three of the leaders against the recently-passed anti-marriage equality amendments that passed in California, Florida and Arizona: Kate Kendell, Nadine Smith and Barbara McCullough-Jones. The chat will take place tomorrow, Thursday, at 7 p.m. EST.

Topics will vary from “what went wrong” to “where do we go from here?” and allow readers to directly ask questions to the leaders. If you’d like to participate, visit The Bilerico Project here.

President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team announced the appointment of seven openly gay individuals to transition panels assigned to review federal departments and agencies.

According to the Washington Blade, the individuals are:

– businessman Fred P. Hochberg
– former San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg
– labor attorney Elaine Kaplan
– former Romanian ambassador Michael Guest
– Rick Stamberger, president and CEO of online publisher SmartBrief, Inc.
– Brad Kiley, of American Progress; and
– Thomas Soto, co-founder of Craton Equity Partners (a “clean techonology” investment fund).

Hochberg, Achtenberg and Kaplan previously held high-level positions in the Clinton administration. Guest became the nation’s second openly gay ambassador when President Bush appointed him to the ambassadorship in 2001.

On ABC’s This Week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told George Stephanopoulos that he believes the California Supreme Court will overturn Proposition 8.

Read part of the transcript and view the clip below.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you think the courts should overturn Proposition 8?

SCHWARZENEGGER: The court has overturned it. And now they went back. And the people have voted for it again, against the gay marriage. So the Supreme Court, you know, I think ought to go and look at that again. And we’ll go back to the same decision, basically.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And you believe they will.

SCHWARZENEGGER: I think that they will. And I think that the important thing now is to resolve this issue in that way.

Via Page One Q.