SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Lawyers representing two gay couples trying to overturn California’s gay marriage ban showed videotape Monday of a simulcast in which speakers said gay marriage would lead to polygamy and bestiality.

The footage was shown as an example of the work of San Diego pastor Jim Garlow, who helped organize evangelical Christian support for the Proposition 8 ballot measure in 2008.

In one video rally led by Garlow, an unidentified pastor warned “the polygamists are waiting in the wings, because if a man can marry a man and a woman can marry a woman, the polygamists are going to use that exact same argument and they probably are going to win.”

An unidentified woman later said “a man wanting to marry a horse, brothers and sisters, any combination would have to be allowed.”

The lawyers appeared to be introducing the material to demonstrate the campaign for the ban appealed to religious-based, anti-gay bias to scare voters into voting for the measure.

Proposition 8 sponsors objected to the video, saying the content of the simulcast was not controlled by campaign managers or leaders.

However, Chief U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker allowed the material to be put into the record because the coalition of religious and conservative groups behind Proposition 8 paid for Garlow’s work.

In the six-minutes of footage shown for Walker, various people opined on the negative consequences of legalizing gay marriage. One unidentified speaker compared the potential social impact of “this social reengineering of marriage” to the way the 9/11 terrorist attacks made the world “a fundamentally different place.”

The clips also included people saying that once same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts, public schools stocked picture books that included gay couples as an example of different types of families.

“If same-sex marriage is legalized, then it must be taught as normal, acceptable and moral behavior in every single public school,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

The plaintiffs also introduced clips from promotional videos produced by other groups for distribution to churches during the Proposition 8 campaign.

In one, produced by the American Family Council in Mississippi, the chairman of the California campaign, Ron Prentice, spoke against same-sex couples raising children.

“Children need and deserve the chance to have both mother love and father love,” Prentice said.

Men and women “don’t bring to a marriage and a family the same natural set of skills and talents.” he said.

Nicole Moss, a lawyer for Proposition 8 sponsors, said the defendants might call campaign manager Frank Schubert to the witness stand to dispute the inflammatory messages came from the campaign.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – A one-time lesbian couple will have shared custody of the child they had together and raised before splitting up, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The high court in Frankfort approved the couple’s joint custody agreement and ruled that one of the women, Arminta Jane Mullins, acted as a “de facto parent” with her partner, Phyllis Dianne Picklesimer.

The decision, which Justices Bill Cunningham, John Minton and Will T. Scott partially dissented from, reverses a Kentucky Court of Appeals ruling saying Mullins lacked standing to pursue joint custody of the child, now 5, because she was not a parent.

Picklesimer was artificially inseminated and gave birth to the boy in 2005. The couple filed a joint custody agreement in February 2006 in Garrard County and split up two months later. Picklesimer denied Mullins contact with the boy that September, prompting Mullins to go to court to see the child.

Justice Wil Schroeder wrote for the court’s majority that the women made multiple decisions about the child before and after he was born, with Mullins caring for the boy while the couple was together and for five months after they split.

“This would distinguish the nonparent acting as a parent to the child from a grandparent, a baby sitter, or a boyfriend or girlfriend of the parent, who watched the child for the parent, but who was never intended by the parent to be doing so in the same capacity of another parent,” Schroeder wrote.

Cunningham accused the majority of rewriting the law and casting aside court precedents “without as much as a wave of the hand.” The decision, Cunningham said, opens the door for a host of people to petition for joint custody, so long as they can show shared participation in child rearing, and threatens to destabilize some families.

“If there is one thing the children of our Commonwealth need today it is stability,” Cunningham wrote. “This is a destabilizing decision.”

Eighteen states recognize “de facto parents” over the objections of fit biological parents: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, West Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

The Kentucky Supreme Court previously dealt with the issue of custody between lesbian partners in 2006. In that case, the court ruled against the non-biological parent, saying she was not the primary caregiver for the child. There was no joint custody agreement in that case.

Calls to attorneys for Mullins and Picklesimer were not immediately returned Thursday.

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) – A state senator from western Maryland is defending his choice of a campaign manager who once referred to homosexuality as a “subhuman” act.

Republican Donald Munson, of Washington County, told The (Hagerstown) Herald-Mail Thursday that Ryan Miner’s 2005 Facebook posting was a “youthful indiscretion.”

Munson says Miner’s language was regrettable and doesn’t reflect his own views. He says Miner will continue working for him.

The 24-year-old Miner says his views have evolved since he posted the opinion as a sophomore at Duquesne University. He said Friday he is in no position to judge whether homosexuality is a subhuman act.

Munson faces a primary challenge from Delegate Christopher Shank, who professes to be more conservative than the five-term incumbent.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Cindy McCain, the wife of 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, and their daughter Meghan have posed for photos endorsing pro-same-sex marriage forces in California.

Mrs. McCain appears with silver duct tape across her mouth and “NOH8” written on one cheek in a photo posted Wednesday to the Web site of NOH8, a gay rights group opposed to Proposition 8. The ballot measure passed by California voters in 2008 bans same-sex marriage.

The McCains’ daughter Meghan, who has been outspoken in her support for gay rights, has also endorsed NOH8. She appears with silver duct tape across her mouth and “NOH8” on a cheek in a photo on her Twitter site.

Cindy McCain contacted NOH8 and offered to pose for the photo endorsement, the Web site said.

John McCain’s office said in a statement that the Arizona senator respects the views of members of his family but remains opposed to gay marriage.

“Sen. McCain believes the sanctity of marriage is only defined as between one man and one woman,” the statement said.

John McCain backed an Arizona ballot measure passed by voters in 2008 that defined marriage as between one man and one woman.

The NOH8 Web site praised Cindy McCain’s willingness to publicly endorse a cause that is unpopular within the Republican Party.

“The McCains are one of the most well-known Republican families in recent history, and for Mrs. McCain to have reached out to us to offer her support truly means a lot,” the site says.

“Although we had worked with Meghan McCain before and were aware of her own position, we’d never really thought the cause might be something her mother would get behind. We have a huge amount of respect for both of these women for being brave enough to make it known they support equal marriage rights for all Americans.”

Meghan McCain said Wednesday in a Twitter message linked to her blog: “I couldn’t be more proud of my mother for posing for the NOH8 campaign. I think more Republicans need to start taking a stand for equality.”

Meghan McCain was asked to be the keynote speaker at next month’s National Equality Week at George Washington University in Washington for her advocacy, but her appearance has drawn criticism from Republicans on campus, the NOH8 site said.

McCain’s Senate re-election campaign said Wednesday that his presidential running mate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, will come to Arizona to campaign for him in March. Palin has been a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage.