Lyle Denniston writes for SCOTUSblog: The same-sex marriage constitutional controversy reached the Supreme Court on Monday in its simplest form, testing the constitutionality of a state’s denial of a right to marry for same-sex couples. That is the sole issue raised in a new petition filed by a Michigan lesbian couple who want to marry and want the right for …

Same-sex marriages commenced yesterday in Kansas following the three-day waiting period that began on Thursday. However nearly 100 of the state’s 105 counties continue to refuse gay couples as state Attorney General Derek Schmidt presses his claim that last week’s ruling only applies to two counties. Therefore, Wikipedia’s marriage map monitor has regressed his map and applied the red stripes …

From the Family Research Council: Are you ready to make your voice heard to the Arkansas Supreme Court about the sanctity of marriage? Are you tired of judges running roughshod over the will of Arkansas’ voters? If you are, then I want to invite you to an important rally on the Capitol Steps in Little Rock. On Wednesday, November 19, …

Via CBS Miami: Rodrigo Lehtinen grew up in a household grounded in Republican politics. His mother, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, was the first Cuban-American elected to Congress and has served in the House for the last 25 years. His father, Dexter Lehtinen, is the former US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida who oversaw the indictment of Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega. …

John Smid, former leader of the “ex-gay” group Love In Action, married a man in Oklahoma on Sunday. Via the Memphis Flyer: Smid has been living as an out gay man for several years now, and he’s been in a relationship with [Larry] McQueen for one year. Gay marriage just became legal in Oklahoma last month. The couple live in …

“This is something the people of the state of Mississippi voted overwhelmingly to support, and now a judge is saying it’s unconstitutional. It’s in the courts and we certainly turn to the Attorney General to put up a vigorous defense and appeal.” – Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, on the likely overturn of his state’s ban on same-sex marriage. The ruling …

The American Family Association, which says it wants corporations to “remain neutral” in the culture wars, has launched a boycott of PetSmart for remaining neutral. For years, PetSmart has refused to use the word Christmas on its website, in television commercials, newspaper ads and in-store promotions, despite tens of thousands of consumer requests to recognize Christmas and in spite of …

UPDATE: Swaggart has had the clip pulled via a copyright claim. Here’s how Right Wing Watch recapped the clip: During the show, Swaggart asserted that, like ISIS, gay rights activists in America would publicly behead Christians if they could get away with it. “All of this is to shut the Bible up,” Swaggart declared. “They want the Bible gone. And …

Via CBS News: Of the many, many words that editors at Oxford Dictionaries review which have newly come into the language lexicon, only one has had enough of an influence in society to make it as 2014’s International Word of the Year. This year it’s “vape.” The Oxford Dictionary defines it as follows: v. Inhale and exhale the vapour produced …

Jeremy Hooper writes at Good As You: Here’s the scene at Day Two, where participants (including Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, Tony Perkins, Ryan T. Anderson and a whole host of anti-gay political activists) were greeted with a video that claims sexual orientation is nothing more than a political construct, followed by a lengthy clip of a gay man insisting that …

Via the Advocate: Leslie Feinberg, who identified as an anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist, died on November 15. She succumbed to complications from multiple tick-borne co-infections, including Lyme disease, babeisiosis, and protomyxzoa rheumatica, after decades of illness. She died at home in Syracuse, NY, with her partner and spouse of 22 years, Minnie Bruce Pratt, …

Via the Guardian: A lesbian and gay choir staged a mass singalong on Manchester’s tram network after homophobic thugs attacked two young gay men who were singing songs from the musical Wicked on a night out. The event – entitled Safe to Sing – started with about 80 singers boarding trams in the city centre on Monday evening to belt …

Via press release from Freedom To Marry: Freedom to Marry, in partnership with Equality Texas, today launched a public education campaign to amplify the bipartisan momentum for the freedom to marry in the Lone Star State. The campaign, called Texas for Marriage, will highlight that support as well as the continued harms that committed gay couples face everyday until the …

(Tipped by JMG reader Ken)

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe yesterday announced that his state has formed a task force to pursue LGBT tourism. Speaking to a crowd of 400 tourism industry professionals, McAuliffe said the creation of the task force continues upon his campaign theme of openness and equality for all Virginians. “I’ve been very vocal on the topic,” McAuliffe told the Times-Mirror. “As I …

Bearforce 1 is back and this is their contest entry to represent Switzerland at Eurovision 2015. The group broke up in 2009 after landing several minor European chart hits including the 2007 disco medley, Christmas Is Here. Only original lead singer Robert Brown is part of the new lineup.

Via the Wichita Eagle: Despite vocal opposition and freezing temperatures, Monday was a day for Kansas history textbooks. On the front steps of the Historic County Courthouse in downtown Wichita, 15 same-sex couples proclaimed their love for one another and were legally married. There were cheers of affirmation, but there also was opposition. At the beginning of the mass ceremony, …

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