Joe.My.God. LGBT News

The Guardian reports: The bill to legalise same sex marriages in Scotland has now been published, and while it has arrived later than hoped and expected, Holyrood will introduce a more open, flexible regime than the new equal marriage laws in England and Wales. The Scottish Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) bill, released on Thursday morning, will not introduce the …

Via press release from the Pro-Life Coalition of Pennsylvania: Pro-Marriage Pray-In to Occur at the Montgomery County Register of Wills Office on Friday, July 26, 2013 at 12 Noon: We urge the Register of Wills, Bruce Hanes, to stop issuing marriage licenses to homosexual couples. We urge Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman to charge Bruce Hanes for his violation …

JMG reader Jeffrey writes us: “I’ve attached my marriage license from Montgomery County PA. We were the first couple through this morning. Followed by an older gay couple who’d been together 15 years and a very photogenic gay couple with their toddler. The forms still say bride & groom; Kevin got the bride slot because he spent the morning making …

Speaking to a group of LGBT supporters, yesterday British Prime Minister declared that he wants to “export” his success with same-sex marriage to the world. Thanking the ministers and civil servants who helped to pass the legislation into law despite objections from the Tory Right, he said: It’s been a real pleasure to work with you and to deliver this …

From the Spectrum Human Rights Alliance, which advocates for LGBT rights in Eastern Europe, comes a horrifying report: Infamous Russian ultranationalist and former skin head, Maxim Martsinkevich, known under the nickname “Cleaver” (or “Tesak” in Russian) spearheaded a country wide campaign against LGBT teens using a popular social network VK.com to lure unsuspected victims through personal ads. Mr. Martsinkevich’s numerous …

Talking Points Memo has a recap of the first poll taken since the Carlos Danger flap: Weiner’s standing in the race has clearly slipped due to the scandal, though he’s not entirely out of contention. The poll showed him in second place in the Democratic primary with 16 percent compared to 25 percent for City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and …

Tomorrow it will have been one month since the repeal of DOMA’s Section Three. At the Washington Blade, Chris Johnson looks at the rapid moves taken since then: Almost like a domino effect, public officials and judges in Ohio, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Missouri this week alone have acted to advance marriage equality by drawing on the decision in Windsor …

Man, this thing looks terrible.

Yesterday afternoon President Obama formally nominated Caroline Kennedy to be the US ambassador to Japan. In naming Ms. Kennedy, whose nomination has been rumored for months, Mr. Obama is keeping with a well-established tradition of rewarding important campaign supporters with plum embassies. He recently put forward big-dollar fund-raisers to be envoys in London, Berlin, Copenhagen and Madrid. But Ms. Kennedy’s …