Sugar's Rainbow - Marriage Equality in Four States!

This is the first in a series of weekly roundups covering items of interest to the gay and lesbian community.  It's called "Sugar's Rainbow" after our youngest kitty.  (You can read Sugar's "coming out" story here.)  She may not be the prettiest cat on the planet, but she's got the balls of a Bengal tiger.  Figuratively speaking.

The most important LGBT story today - and possibly for the entire year - is that Vermont has become the fourth state in the union to recognize same-sex marriage.  In three other states - Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa - marriage equality was granted through the courts.  Vermont's legislature earlier passed a resolution legalizing gay marriage, but Republican governor Jim Davis vetoed that so fast he got a hand cramp.  This morning both the House and the Senate gathered enough votes to override the guv's veto.  New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island are all working to pass similar bills, and there's a chance that California's Supreme Court will overturn Prop 8.

And speaking of Proposition 8, the Very Reverend Rick Warren lied to Larry King (and America) last night.  These were the wurds cummin outta his mouth:  "During the whole Proposition 8 thing, I never once went to a meeting, never once issued a statement, never -- never once even gave an endorsement in the two years Prop 8 was going."  Kyle at Right Wing Watch provides video that shows Warren doing exactly that.   

The highest-ranking openly gay person to serve in the U.S. government’s executive branch is John Berry, who was nominated by President Obama to head The Office of Personnel Management.  The Senate has just confirmed his appointment as director of OPM.

The California Supreme Court has rejected an attempt by defense attorneys to move the trial of Brandon McInerney to juvenile court.  McInerney is the 15-year-old E.O. Green Junior High School student who just over a year ago shot and killed fellow classmate Lawrence King, who identified as gay.  More than twenty students witnessed the shooting.

Former NFL coach and outspoken homophobe Tony Dungy says he won't be joining President Obama's Faith-Based Council cause he's too bizzy.  Dungy will, however, serve as an advisor to Obama on "responsible father initiatives."  (Most gay dads don't need any "initiatives" to make them responsible  They're already involved in, y'know, raising their kids.)  Filling out a 25-person roster that's now part of the expanded Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is right-wing Catholic Bishop Charles E. Blake and Harry Knox, director of the religion and faith program at the Human Rights Campaign.  (At last, some balance!)

Professional presidential candidate and ultraconservative Alan Keyes is predictably outraged by Iowa's gay marriage ruling, calling it "a judicial insurrection."  He's advocating for "all state and local officials to refuse to implement the decision."  So, in Keyes' understanding of Democracy, if you don't like the way a State Supreme Court decides a case, you can just tell them to go fu*k themselves.

On the same day that Vermont became the fourth state to legalize same-sex unions, the Washington, D.C. city council has voted unanimously to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.  Domestic partnerships are already legal in the nation's capital.  But before becoming law, the measure will require a second vote next month - and approval by Congress.  (That should make for some hysterical GOP grandstanding.)