Oh, delicious irony. It has come to my attention that News Corp, parent company to virulently homophobic Fox News and NY Post doesn’t apparently hate the gays enough to not make a buck off them, if the opportunity presents itself. Seems Dan Avery over at Queerty got a hold of

New York's Junior Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, made an appearance at an LGBT symposium held in New York City on the future of marriage equality in New York State (video and summary here). An attendee asked her about the right-wing's attempts to walk back LGBT progress made of late. Specifically mentioned

My dear friend Ian Finkenbinder has a question for Presidential Candidate Bachmann:

Do you really want this on your doorstep?

The doorstep Ian is alluding to lies at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC. A hypothetical future scenario so awful it gives us all chills, I know, but bear with me past the fold and I'll explain.

Today the Washington Post weighs in on the dilemma of Bradford Wells and John Anthony Makk, calling it a illustration of the “profound injustices meted out by DOMA” in an editorial today. The Editorial Board’s opinion reads:

[Attorney General] Mr. Holder asked an immigration court to determine whether Mr. Dorman should be considered a “spouse” under New Jersey law and thus entitled to stay in the country. Mr. Makk’s deportation should also be put on hold, as should those involving anyone in legally recognized same-sex relationships whose only infraction involves immigration status.

It is not easy to win a reprieve from deportation based on marriage to a U.S. citizen. All who make such a claim must not only show proof of their lawful relationship but also that removal would cause an “extraordinary and extremely unusual hardship.” But the law at least allows heterosexual individuals to make their cases; that opportunity should be extended to those in same-sex relationships also. Immigration agents enjoy broad discretion and should make it a priority to remove foreign nationals who have committed serious crimes — not those, like Mr. Makk, who are otherwise law-abiding, contributing members of society. Common sense and common decency will go a long way toward avoiding indignities, but true justice will not be achieved until DOMA is wiped from the books.

This is at least the second time the Washington Post has called on the administration to perform this action. Back in May 2011 WaPo, in an editorial implored the administration, “Don’t penalize undocumented gay immigrants in civil unions with U.S. citizens,” saying:

The attorney general has vacated the court decision and asked the Board of Immigration Appeals whether Mr. Dorman’s civil union makes him a “spouse” under New Jersey law and whether, absent DOMA, he would be considered a “spouse” under immigration law. Mr. Holder should erase any confusion by declaring a moratorium on removal of foreign nationals in state-recognized same-sex unions until federal courts determine DOMA’s constitutionality. He should ensure that the government is not focusing on breaking up otherwise law-abiding families.

If the administration were to heed the call of the Washington Post to deprioritize the expulsion of all non-citizens in same-sex marriages, it would reap benefits beyond Wells and Makk. Another couple, Sujey and Violeta Pando of Denver, Colorado, face a hearing this Friday that may determine the fate of their five year relationship.

Sujey and Violeta’s situation has received considerably less attention, but they face a more immediate threat of deportation than John Anthony Makk. A key hearing that may decide their fate is scheduled for Friday. There are only three days left to save Sujey and Violeta’s marriage. Their story after the fold.

At least four people were killed and dozens more injured yesterday at the Indiana State Fair when a storm caused a stage to collapse. CNN has more coverage and video here. Among those lost was Christina Santiago, manager of programming for the Lesbian Community Care Project at Howard Brown Health

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) – Texas Governor Rick Perry's announcement Saturday that he would be seeking the presidency, spurred political insiders to wonder if the Heavenly Father had tipped His hand. The Governor had been on record that he would be consulting God on the decision. Heavenly Kingdom Press Secretary Simon

There’s an old saying in politics, “Give the people a choice between a real Republican and a fake one and they’ll choose the real thing every time.” After Thursday night, we can now update that to, “Give the people a choice between real hot messes and phony hot messes and

I was not feeling so hot yesterday and opted for a Rescue Me episode on my DVR instead of subjecting myself to the GOP debate. Fortunately, Igor Volsky at Think Progress watched so I didn't have to. (Face it, almost none of these people will matter in six months anyway.) Volsky has helpfully compiled this two-minute condensation of the candidate's take on the question of marriage equality.

Thoughts, summary after the fold.

Bradford Wells and Anthony John Makk spoke with guest host David Shuster on Countdown last night to discuss the immigration problem that plagues their family. After 19 years of lawfully residing together in this country, Anthony Makk has run out of options, and will face the choice of illegally overstaying his visa in 13 days or returning to Australia and leaving behind his husband of seven years, partner of 19. His husband Bradford suffers from AIDS and Anthony is his primary caregiver. Wells’ health problems preclude him joining his husband in Australia, though that might be an option legally.

Here, their options are running out, but still, Wells says he loves the country that is tearing his husband from him, and Makk remains hopeful a solution will still present itself.

Teddy Partridge has provided a transcript of the Countdown video here.

I recently discovered a humor columnist at the Washington Post, Alexandra Petri. She has some pretty brilliant humorous but insightful takes on Michele Bachmann’s Newsweek cover, Obama’s fireside chat and others. We could all use some help redirecting our tears to laughs these days, right?

Petri admits with chagrin that she’s enjoying following the Santorum trainwreck of a campaign and although tongue in cheek, her assessment of why the fail is so strong is pretty pretty spot-on. Petri recognizes Santorum faced a fork in the road in dealing with his “Google problem”:

But what can you do? At a certain point you either surrender, call off the dogs, and go sit somewhere wracked with the vague sense that Things Might Have Gone Differently But For Google, or you double down.

Santorum has picked the double down route. It’s profitable enough to keep his name in the news, but it’s not winning him the nomination or the respect of the GOP donor base.

The problem, Rick Santorum is not running against Barack Obama, he’s running against Dan Savage.