Golden State Gay Rodeo Association presents Hot Desert Country, a charity benefit to provide much-needed financial assistance to the animal rescue efforts of Noah’s Wish in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The fund-raiser will be held at Toucans Tiki Lounge in Palm Springs, located at 2100 N. Palm Canyon Dr., and is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 24, from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. This special show will feature a variety of guest performers and hot country divas. DJ Galaxy will spin music after the show.

Noah’s Wish is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing and sheltering animals in disasters. For more information, visit http://www.noahswish.org.

Cash donations will be received at the door. Funds raised through prize drawing, a 50-50 raffle and entertainer’s tips will be sent immediately to Noah’s Wish to help rescue and shelter animals displaced by the recent Hurricane Katrina tragedy.

Openly gay Democratic National Committee Treasurer Andrew Tobias will be in San Diego to address the 2005 Freedom Banquet on Saturday, Sept. 24, at the Holiday Inn on the bay to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the San Diego Democratic Club (SDDC).

Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins is serving as honorary chair of the event.

Tobias has appeared on such shows as “Today,” “Good Morning America,” “Face the Nation” and the “MacNeil-Lehrer Report.” His books include three New York Times best-sellers, and he created the financial software Managing Your Money. Tobias also worked at New York Magazine, where he covered the world of finance, and later at Esquire. He has had columns in Time and Parade magazines.

Tables at the Founder’s Circle are $1,250 for 10, and tables of Friends are $750. Tickets to the Founder’s Circle are $125, with priority seating and special recognition at the reception. Tickets are $90.

The Freedom Banquet is SDDC’s largest fund-raising event. With the upcoming elections for mayor, City Council and propositions, the need for money to support GLBT-friendly candidates and issues is strong.

For information and reservations, contact 2005 fund-raising co-chairs Larry Baza, (858) 405-9903, or Karen Goyette, (619) 301-4393.

The fourth annual Living Out Loud gala, a benefit for Stepping Stone of San Diego, will be held from 4:00 to 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 25, at the Joan Embery Institute for Wildlife Conservation at Pillsbury Ranch. This animal’s paradise covers 50 acres and will include some 50 horses, from miniature to draft, foals to retired show horses, personal pets, wildlife ambassadors and native wildlife. Antiques also will be plentiful, from windmills, water tanks and wagons to forges, tools and an historic 100-year-old barn filled with artifacts. It will be an alcohol-free event.

“Stepping Stone is about helping the LGBT people in our community recover from the destruction caused by drugs and alcohol, and teaching them how to live life on life’s terms, one day at a time,” said Stepping Stone Executive Director Cheryl Houk. “Part of doing so is for them to learn how to experience fun in sobriety. Living Out Loud gives you an opportunity to do this while also giving back to an agency dedicated to helping people and saving lives.”

The evening’s entertainment will include humor from critically acclaimed actor Leslie Jordan, who has appeared in several top TV shows and received numerous awards for portraying the character of Peanut Leroy – a sodden, aging homosexual – in the film Southern Baptist Sissies.

Stepping Stone operates a 28-bed, long-term residential recovery program, a day treatment program and sober living housing in addition to providing homeless outreach, referrals, recovery education, and prevention and social support programs.

A special donor-sponsored Jungle Safari VIP party takes place from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 24, and will feature food, auctions and entertainment by musicians Nathan Fry and Andy Anderson, as well as an appearance by Stephen Sloan of Sleeveless the Magician. The event takes place at the Marston Point estate of Jim Urbina, Jeff Johnston and Robert Hunt.

Stepping Stone is funded in part by County Alcohol and Drug Services; Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS; United Way; Family Health Centers of San Diego; the HIV, STD and Hepatitis Branch of the San Diego Health and Human Services Agency and California Endowment.

To purchase tickets for the Sept. 25 main event or the Sept. 24 VIP party, call Michael DaSilva at (619) 971-5757, or visit www.livingoutloud.info.

On Sept. 27 the Current Issues Forum of San Diego will present a panel entitled The Changing Face of Marriage. Panelists will include Maggie Gallagher, president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy and editor of marriagedebate.com, and Jonathan Rauch, correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and senior writer and columnist for the National Journal.

For the first time, San Diego welcomes two of the country’s most widely-read commentators on the controversy of marriage to conduct a heated debate on the political and social significance of same-sex marriage. The event is sponsored by the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts at San Diego State University, and takes place at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa park from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Hors d’oeuvres will be served from 6:15 to 7:00 p.m.

The moderator will be Dr. Jeffrey McIllwain, associate professor at the school of Public Administration and Urban Studies at SDSU.

To RSVP, call (619) 594-3095 or e-mail CIFSD@mail.sdsu.edu by Thursday, Sept. 22.

The San Diego Natural History Museum is located at the intersection of Park Boulevard and Village Place in Balboa Park. Parking is available near the north entrance of the building.

The Family Pride Coalition will honor Capital One Financial with its second annual Corporate Community Responsibility Award. The presentation will take place at Family Pride’s second annual national awards dinner on Saturday, Oct. 8, in Los Angeles.

Capital One Financial will be honored for its commitment to equality for the GLBT community, its family-friendly workplace practices and its commitment to Family Pride Coalition’s mission. Marge Connelly, executive vice president of corporate partnerships at Capital One and a lesbian mother, will accept the award.

In addition to a non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation and gender identity, Capital One Financial also offers domestic partner benefits for same- and opposite-sex couples. The company’s parental leave policy includes domestic partners, adoption and foster care leave, and adoption reimbursement. Capital One also has an active GLBT associate network.

For the past five years, Capital One has been a presenting sponsor of the Family Pride Coalition’s Family Week event in Provincetown, Mass.

In addition, Family Pride will also honor actor, activist and author B.D. Wong with the Family Tree Award.

Tickets for the event are $175 per person and $250 for VIP tickets. There are a limited number of seats available. For more information or to purchase tickets, call (202) 331-5015.

Corporate sponsors of the event include Family Pride National Presenting Sponsors IBM, Volvo Cars of North America and Capital One; Platinum Sponsors Q Television and Growing Generations; Gold Sponsor Crew Creative Advertising; Silver Sponsor Wells Fargo and Bronze Sponsor the David Bohnett Foundation. Other corporate support comes from the Law Offices of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, PlanetOut/Gay.com, Absolut, (800) Flowers and Brady Klein Weissman LLP.

Scouting for All (SFA) will hold its sixth annual rally to protest the Boy Scouts of America’s membership policies, which exclude gay and atheist youth and adult leaders. The rally will take place in front of the Boy Scouts’ Balboa Park headquarters, located at 1207 Upas St., on Sunday, Oct. 9, at 11:00 a.m.

After a kickoff performance by the San Diego Women’s Chorus, local Eagle Scouts and San Diego community leaders will share their views on the BSA’s policies of exclusion. Howard Menzer, Eagle Scout and southwestern regional director for Scouting for All, will emcee the event. The speaker lineup includes: Ernie McCray, retired school principal; Pat Washington, scholar and activist; Mick Rabin, school teacher and Eagle Scout; Brenda Watson, transgender Eagle Scout; Jennifer Schumaker, journalist; Bob Leyh, Eagle Scout; Rev. Keith Ramsey, minister; Ben Cartwright, SDSU LGBT resource center director; and Allen Acevedo, high school student and president of his school’s Gay Straight Alliance.

“While the BSA should represent the very best in us as a nation, it now represents the very worst in us as a society – discrimination and bigotry,” said Scott Cozza, co-founder of Scouting for All. “The BSA hurts straight, gay and atheist kids through its harmful message of exclusion.”

The city of San Diego has a standing 1990 ordinance that forbids the city to do business with organizations that discriminate. In April 2004, U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones, Jr. ruled against the Boy Scouts on all issues in the city lease case, Barnes-Wallace v. Boy Scouts, including the BSA camp in Balboa Park and the BSA Fiesta Island facility in Pacific Beach. The Boy Scouts still use both facilities and have not vacated either property.

The rally, which typically attracts more than 200 protestors, will continue every year until the BSA changes its membership policies to include gays and atheists. For more information, visit www.sdscoutingforall.org/ ralyanc.html, or contact Menzer at (858) 268-2853; howmen@sbcglobal.net.