elrhiarhodan

Per the New York Times (too important to go behind a cut tag):

United States: Holder Sees Way to Curb Bans on Gay Marriage

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Monday injected the Obama administration into the emotional and politicized debate over the future of state same-sex marriage bans, declaring in an interview that state attorneys general are not obligated to defend laws that they believe are discriminatory.

Mr. Holder was careful not to encourage his state counterparts to disavow their own laws, but said that officials who have carefully studied bans on gay marriage could refuse to defend them.

Six state attorneys general — all Democrats — have refused to defend bans on same-sex marriage, prompting criticism from Republicans who say they have a duty to stand behind their state laws, even if they do not agree with them.

Kentucy: Kentucky must legally recognize same sex marriages.

A federal judge on Thursday signed an order directing officials in Kentucky to immediately recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states and countries.

U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II issued a final order throwing out part of the state's ban on gay marriages. It makes official his Feb. 12 ruling that Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriages treated "gay and lesbian persons differently in a way that demeans them."

Same-sex couples may change their names on official identifications and documents and obtain any other benefits of a married couple in Kentucky. The order doesn't affect a related lawsuit seeking to force the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Texas: Federal Judge Strikes Down Texas’ Ban on Same-Sex Marriage

A federal judge in Texas struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage on Wednesday, ruling that the laws restricting marriage to a man and a woman violated the United States Constitution and handing gay-rights advocates a major legal victory in one of the nation’s biggest and most conservative states.

The judge wrote that the amendment to the state Constitution that Texas voters approved in 2005 defining marriage as between a man and a woman — and two similar laws passed in 1997 and 2003 — denied gay couples the right to marry and demeaned their dignity “for no legitimate reason.”

“Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose, state-imposed inequality can find no refuge in our United States Constitution,” wrote Judge Orlando L. Garcia of United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, in San Antonio.

While significant, Judge Garcia’s ruling will have no immediate effect on gay and lesbian couples wishing to marry in Texas. The judge issued a stay on his decision while the state appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans.

Illinois: Same-Sex Couples Allowed to Wed in Cook County, Illinois

Same-sex couples in Illinois' Cook County, which includes the city of Chicago, can wed immediately and do not have to wait to tie the knot until a new state law legalizing gay marriage takes effect in June, a federal judge ruled on Friday.

Illinois lawmakers approved same-sex marriage late in 2013, effective on June 1, and several couples had sued Cook County Clerk David Orr for the right to marry immediately.

"There is no reason to delay further when no opposition has been presented to this court and committed gay and lesbian couples have already suffered from the denial of their fundamental right to marry," said U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman in Chicago.

Coleman had ruled in December that Cook County same-sex couples could obtain an emergency marriage license ahead of June if one partner had a life-threatening illness, and some same-sex couples have been issued a license on that basis.

On Friday, she said the Illinois ban on same-sex marriage until June violated the couples' rights to equal protection under the U.S. Constitution, but her finding only applied to Cook County, based on the case brought to her.

And of course, Arizona (although not PRECISELY on marriage equality, but equality in general): Arizona Governor Vetoes Bill on Refusal of Service to Gays

Ending a day that cast a glaring national spotlight on Arizona, Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, vetoed a bill on Wednesday that would have given business owners the right to refuse service to gay men, lesbians and other people on religious grounds.

Her action came amid mounting pressure from Arizona business leaders, who said the bill would be a financial disaster for the state and would harm its reputation. Prominent members of the Republican establishment, including Mitt Romney and Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, also sided with the bill’s opponents, who argued that the measure would have allowed people to use religion as a fig leaf for prejudice.

I saw this last night - apparently if you're gay and you're old, you have NO FUCKING RIGHTS IN SONOMA COUNTY.

This is one of the most heartbreaking news stories I've read in a long, long time. 

(Summary of story ganked from gyzym 's post)

Clay and Howard, 77 and 88 respectively, lived in Sonoma County. They'd been together for 20 years. When Howard fell down the stairs, the county separated them, putting them each in different nursing homes against their will. AND they sold their house and their belongings without permission! BECAUSE APPARENTLY CLAY AND HOWARD ARE NOT PEOPLE, JUST GAYS.

Please follow the link above to copperbadge 's post and both sign the petition and send a letter to the New York Times.  Straight or gay or whatever, this is about YOUR MOST BASIC CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS.  Do nothing, and the same things will happen to you.

Also, please tweet this if you're on Twitter, post it on Facebook and every other social media site you play on.  Repost this on your Journal here throughout the day - as it rolls down everyone's Flist, it needs to reappear at the top.  Feel free to copy this entire entry if you want.

Remember this...

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

THEN THEY CAME for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

(attrib. to Martin Niemöller, circa 1955)