Yes, folks, it is official: the majority of Americans now support marriage equality. Even in the states where gay marriage remains illegal, the vast number of those polled believe that the right-to-marriage is guaranteed by the Constitution, regardless of sexual orientation.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer ended months of speculation about her political future on Wednesday when she announced that she will not seek a third term in office. The Arizona Constitution limits governors to two terms, but the Republican governor and her advisers have kept alive a scenario in which she might mount a longshot legal challenge to seek another four years in office.
The Family Institute of Connecticut – a stridently conservative lobbying group focused on family issues – has fallen on hard time. Their candidates no longer win public office; their views are marginalized. The humiliating defeat of the tea party's Steve Mullins might have been the nail in their coffin.
A Vatican cardinal has criticized Uganda's anti-gay law and called for the repeal of its severe penalties. Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said Tuesday that "homosexuals are not criminals" and shouldn't be sentenced for up to life in prison.
A state senator from Missouri is introduced an anti-gay "religious liberty" bill similar to the one causing national outrage in Arizona and then upped the ante by responding to a critic on Facebook. Free speech is also a guaranteed liberty, even when the state senator in question calls his detractor a "faggot." Maybe he thought no one would see it.
A referendum to overturn California's bill that guarantees equal rights for transgender students has failed to acquire sufficient signatures for placement on the ballot this November. However, the fight to keep AB 1266 as the common sense, decent law of the land is far from over. There's big industry in hate- and fear-mongering.
An anti-gay marriage proposal that roiled Kansas politics is dead, the chairman of a state Senate committee assigned to review it said Tuesday. But the declaration from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jeff King didn't appear likely to end the debate over providing legal protections for people and organizations refusing for religious reasons to provide goods and services to gay and lesbian couples.
Minority Leader Paul Davis, the head of the House Democrats and candidate for governor, was lackluster in his opposition to the deplorable Kansas bill that enshrines discrimination against gay people, said LGBT-rights advocates. In a press release Davis made no mention of the civil rights violations, only briefly mentioning "critical challenges" for families.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned attacks and discrimination against homosexuals on Thursday, touching on the gay rights issue in Russia that has overshadowed preparations for the Sochi Olympics.
