Putting a stay on any new marriage might hurt gay people and leave them without the same rights or status as other married couples for an indeterminate amount of time, but this is good for the President.

Well, this is embarrassing for Team Obama: the resident right-wing bomb-thrower on The View, who campaigned alongside Sarah Palin in 2008, has said she supports something called “gay marriage” which I presume is what the rest of us call marriage equality. This puts her to the left of President Obama.

Here’s the actual text from Vaughn Walker’s court.

Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony, the soon-to-be-retired Archbishop of Los Angeles, is of the opinion that Judge Vaughn Walker was wrong in his ruling on Prop 8, because he failed to make his decision based upon religious beliefs that bless only male-female relationships.

Mahony ends up proving Walker’s point, that the only basis for the kind of discrimination that Prop 8 sought to enshrine in law grows out of certain religious and moral positions.

Cardinal, you may be free to discriminate against gays and lesbians within the Catholic church as a matter of faith, but the state of California is not free to do the same as a matter of law.

Sure, it’s a big deal that Judge Walker struck down Prop 8, but it’s sucked up so much blog and media attention that I think we’re missing the dire unintended consequences of another, very similar ruling.

Depending on what study and what definitional criteria one wants to use the number of LGTB citizens is between 4% and 20%. It does not matter at all to me what this number is as I have had gay and lesbian family members, close (best) friends and acquaintances all my life. They were never “my lesbian friend” or “my gay cousin” they were just the people in my life and that they were family or a good friend has always been a hell of a lot more important than who they liked to frolic under the sheets with.

Still the fact of their sexuality was always an issue. Even if I didn’t care, the rest of the world seemed to and this made them have to lead their lives differently for fear of being attacked or just legally discriminated against. It still breaks my heart on a daily basis to see good people who just want to live their lives like every other citizen having to hide or downplay what and who they are because of the irrational prejudice against them.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

Yesterday Judge Vaughn Walker brought down a decision that goes a long way (but not all the way) to addressing one of starkest bits of inequality, namely the denial by popular vote of the right of California gay citizens to marry. The ruling is only the first step as the intent of the lawyers filing it has always been to get to the Supreme Court of the United States and get a firm decision that all such bans are unconstitutional.

Great summary of today’s verdict by the executive director of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which brought the Perry action to the federal courts and hired attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies to win the case.

In a bittersweet victory for gay couples everywhere, regardless of their marital status, Sonoma County settled with survivor Clay Greene days before his case against the county went to trial.

You have this weekend to find your same-sex partner and enter the contest at The Today Show. You spoke up alongside GLAAD — and NBC listened!

The Today Show, NBC’s big morning extravaganza, is having a Modern Day Wedding Contest but only accepting applications for “bride” and “groom.” In a response to GLAAD, NBC has confused a marriage license and a wedding celebration. Take action now to tell NBC to open their contest to same sex couples!