Thanks to Jeremy Hooper at Good As You for catching this at NOM’s blog: “Our job is to make sure there is an unshakable 10 percent willing to stand up for the great truths of Genesis: we are made male and female and called to come together in love so

Lots of news today. New York's Attorney General, Eric Scheiderman, filed a friend of the court brief supporting the ACLU's constitutional challenge of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act in Windsor vs. United States. The summary of arguments reads: By refusing to recognize for federal purposes marriages that are valid

Among the 1,200+ of New Yorkers who finally got to tie the knot on Sunday were Rod and Ricky who met during production of the popular, Tony Award winning show Avenue Q, now playing off-Broadway. Above, the stars discuss love, family and equality for the Family Equality Council. There's more over

As Maggie Gallagher Mrs. Srivistav of National Organization For Marriage makes the rounds selling her “nutty” “Let The People Vote” campaign, I though we should take another look a legislative mastermind Brian Brown’s brilliant 4-year plan for undoing marriage equality in the Empire State. 

Here it is:

Oh wait, that’s not it. That’s the Underpants Gnomes’ get-rich scheme. 

Maggie Gallagher Mrs. Srivistav and Brian Brown’s own get-rich scheme fleecing ignorant and hateful people of New York after the fold. 

It it a plan even the The Wall Street Journal called “a case of deceptive advertising” yesterday.

Updated to include video:

I dare you not to laugh.

Gay barbarians stormed the Christian counseling clinic Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann owns with her husband Marcus Bachmann.

Chanting, “You can’t pray away the gay — baby, I was born this way!” the group glittered the waiting room, in a attempt to draw attention to discredited “Pray The Gay Away” practices that have gone on there. Also under scrutiny are questions about upwards of $130,000 in Medicaid funding the clinic has received.

New York City, expecting unprecedented demand for marriage services this Sunday has set a cap at 764 and a lottery system to avoid “chaos,” as they have already been besieged by 2,661 requests. New York Times:

Mr. Bloomberg said the city would hold a lottery to determine which couples, gay or straight, will be allowed to marry at the five borough clerks’ offices. He said the 764 marriages would be the highest number ever performed by the city in a single day.

The city said it was imposing the cap in an effort to avoid chaos on Sunday. The clerk’s office has already received 2,661 applications for licenses since it started accepting online applications from same-sex couples. City officials estimated that 1,728 of those applications were from same-sex couples. Most couples do not apply online for licenses before showing up at a clerk’s office, so the number seeking to marry on Sunday would probably be much higher.

“The last thing we want is for couples to wait on line for hours and hours, only to walk away upset on what was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement. “The fairest way to determine who gets the chance to wed on Sunday and ensure everyone can properly plan for their own big day is through an evenhanded lottery system.”

July 24th is the first day that the new marriage equality law takes effect. It is also a Sunday. Ordinarily, state and city offices would be closed that day. It’s heartwarming to see state and city governments bending the rules a little and opening up on a day off, just so the gays don’t have to wait an extra day. Let’s hear it for our government employees for working on the weekend.

A City press release is here. It explains how to participate in the lottery system, if you’re interested in doing so. The highest previous number of marriages performed in a single day was 621 for Valentine’s day, 2003.

On July 6, the Ninth Circuit Federal court ordered the Department of Defense to stop enforcing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law, as a result of the Log Cabin Republican’s successful challenge on the law’s Constitutionality. Shortly after, the Department of Justice filed a motion to reinstate it.

The Department of Justice was dealt a partial victory on Friday. The Ninth reinstated DADT partially and temporarily. The military could continue to enforce it in regards to new recruits, admissions to military academies, and ROTC program (which are ironically, returning to the campuses, even as they continue to enforce DADT, and trans recruits will continue to be denied). Their order did prohibit “investigating, penalizing, or discharging” servicemembers under DADT.

Today, the Department of Justice said “not good enough.” They filed another appeal for full reinstatement.

Presidential Candidate Michele Bachmann is still silent on the topic of whether the clinic she owns with her husband is practicing discredited and harmful gay reparative therapy. The clinic has billed as much as $137,000 in taxpayer funds.

Marcus Bachmann has denied he called gay people “barbarians” and claimed that the recordings were doctored. An MSNBC Hardball segment look at that defense and found it laughable.

The Tea Party Nation doesn’t think that should matter anyway. It’s perfectly OK to call gays “barbarians” says the group’s president Judson Phillips. The Tea Party Nation is rushing to the Bachmann’s defense, urging their followers to “stand with the Bachmanns” against a “liberal freak show [that] is coming after Michele Bachmann.”

<a href="http://s1039.photobucket.com/albums/a479/scottwooledge/?action=view&amp;current=819thunnaturalREV492.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a479/scottwooledge/819thunnaturalREV492.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> 

Nick Westrate (center) plays the corrupting Congressman's son, Ethan Roberts.

I had an occasion to take in an extraordinary piece of theater last night. The play was the Classic Stage Company's Unnatural Acts in the East Village of New York City. If you have an occasion to get there before it closes on July 24th, I highly recommend you make the effort to find the time.

The play revolves around a bit of real life history recently unearthed from Harvard University, concerning its "Secret Court of 1920." The Harvard student paper The Crimson dug up the story from trial transcripts it found in 2002, and there was initially something of a row with the school about making the files public. They were eventually published. The Crimson performed remarkable feat of investigative journalism to bring the story to light, Harvard redacted names, and they connected the dots with other public records.

What happened was, it seems in the 1920s, Harvard's administration had itself a little gay witch hunt. And find gay witches they did, they expelled 10 students for "homosexualism."

Photo by Rex Wockner.

From Karen Occamb at LGBT POV come this report from about 350 active duty servicemembers who joined a movement to appear in San Diego Pride's event held today.