In Atlanta, Georgia, the mayoral race is heating up, with candidates vying for the title of “gayest candidate eh-verr!” According to the LA Times, City Councilmember Mary Norwood and former State Sen. Kasim Reed are looking to the city’s LGBT community for a little electoral KY to help them widen the tight race. It helps that the community represents 12.8% of the city’s population of 537,958, or around 69,000 citizens. Both have turned up at anti-Prop 8 rallies and are touting their support for LGBT rights — Norwood promotes her support for same-gender marriages, while Reed (who supports civil unions instead of marriage) holds up his role in pushing for the inclusion of sexual orientation in Georgia’s hate crimes law. (h/t Towleroad)

Elsewhere…

China – The Peoples’ Republic of China is funding a gay bar in the southern province of Dali to help HIV prevention. It’s called the “Good Friend Center”, and will be operated by a gay men’s non-governmental organization. (Towleroad)

California – Celebrated LA Times’ sportswriter Christine Daniels, known as Mike Penner before she transitioned in 2007, has taken her own life. (Towleroad)

California – While downplaying his anit-LGBT past and claiming to be a “friend” of the community, Rick Warren still refuses to condemn a draft law in Uganda that would make homosexuality a capital offense. Warren, the pastor of the southern California-based Saddleback Church, and other American religious conservatives have had strong ties to the religious right in Uganda, and has been a major force in pushing the recent upswing in homophobia across many parts of Africa. (The Advocate, The Box Turtle Bulletin, Religion Dispatches)

Missouri – Three gay men were assaulted Saturday night at a St Louis nightclub, by assailants shouting homophobic slurs. (Back2Stonewall.com)

New Jersey – Catholics in New Jersey are being exhorted by their bishops to pray the gay (marriage) away. Whether it’s the power of prayer, or just feckless politicians, the efforts by New Jersey’s lame-duck Governor John Corzine and New York’s deeply unpopular Governor David Paterson seem to be stalling. Meanwhile, Massachusetts marches on as the state’s Episcopal Bishop Thomas M. Shaw III told his priests that they may start presiding over same-gender marriage ceremonies. (The Advocate, The Associated Press, Towleroad)

Illinois – Queer black youth are flocking to a prominent LGBT community center in Boystown, the city’s gay neighborhood, but get a chilly reception from residents who see them as thugs. (The Chicago Tribune)

D.C. – Activists trying to push the Employment Non-Discrimination Act think it’s stalling, and have announced an open conference call Tuesday to plot a new strategy to save the bill in its current, trans-inclusive form. (Pam’s House Blend)