(POP NEWS) Served; Silver; Vacated; Paranoia; DOMA; Pioneer; Low Key;Bieber LIVE; K-Land; Razzies: Inclusion!

• SERVED: Manning Wins 112-Day Reduction in Any Sentence!

• ANALYZED: Nate Silver Questioned About Gay Identity!

• VACATED: National Stonewall Democrats Closes Office, Announces 'Hiatus'!

• PARANOIA: Alex Jones Follows Up Insane Piers Morgan Attack Interview with Paranoid YouTube Clip!

• EXAMPLE: Army Staff Sergeant Tracy Dice Lost Her Wife to War, and is Being Shut Out of Benefits Due to DOMA!

• PIONEER: PFLAG Founder Jeanne Manford Dies at 92!

BLOCK: NOM Pledges $250K to Stop Marriage Equality in Washington State!

NOM is reaching into its coffers as Washington prepares to vote on a marriage equality bill.The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the nation's leading pro-marriage organization, today announced that it will spend $250,000 to help fund primary challenges to any Republican legislator who crosses the party platform and votes in favor of same-sex marriage. NOM will also work with pro-marriage grassroots organizations to ensure that the people of Washington have the chance to vote on marriage in November 2012.

WARMING: Obama Says He is 'Still Working on' Supporting Same-Sex Marriage!

President Obama was asked by George Stephanopolous about his "evolving" position on marriage equality. He said he's still "working on it", ABC News reports: Obama, who was praised this weekend in the gay community, said his position on gay marriage was "evolving," but refused to say whether he would support gay marriage by Election Day 2012.

"I'm still working on it," he said of whether he would move from supporting civil unions for same-sex couples to supporting gay marriage.

(Marriage News Watch): You're making things up again, Senator Forrester!‏

by Matt Baume
Marriage News Watch

President Obama's doing everything right for the LGBT community -- except marriage. An anti-gay senator from North Carolina is things up again. And Senators in Rhode Island and Maine need to hear from you.

TALK OF TOWN: President Obama's Speech at the HRC Dinner!

Video streaming by Ustream

WELCOMED: Obama Addresses Binational Couples, DOMA At Latino Roundtable!

President Obama sat down with Latino news outlets today for a roundtable. In addition to discussing topics such as immigration reform and Puerto Rico's federal future, the commander-in-chief addressed binational gay couples who want to petition for legal status for their foreign-born partners, something prohibited by the Defense of Marriage Act.

Obama appears optimistic about the issue, telling reporters that he thinks courts will soon decide on DOMA, legislation he calls unconstitutional and refuses to defend, and he believes that his stance will help persuade judges toward the side of right.

(Marriage News Watch): Marriage Bans Even Worse than we Thought!

by Matt Baume
Marriage News Watch

Holy cow. Where to begin? Dustin Lance Black's play about Prop 8 hit Broadway for an incredible night. The tapes of the Prop 8 trial might actually get released. Florida's working on domestic partnerships, North Carolina's marriage ban is even worse than we thought, New Hampshire might repeal marriage, and Missouri -- yes, Missouri -- favors legal recognition for gay couples. All that, plus the first Republican co-sponsor for the repeal of DOMA. Wow.

STRUGGLE: Gregory and Guillermo, a Gay Bi-National Couple, Chronicle Their Immigration Battle

Gregory and a Guillermo are a gay bi-national couple chronicling the immigration challenges they face, in a project called The Other Half of the Orange.

Here's their first video, which deals with a forced separation in Sweden after Guillermo was denied a visa to come back into the U.S.

Writes Gregory: "He'd been approved for an O-1 by the dept of homeland security here in the states, but the next step is to re-enter the country and have this validated. His lawyer advised he go through a western European country (as the embassy in his home country of Colombia has a bad rep for mistreating Colombians) but this was a huge mistake. They look down on that, and he wasn't gven the visa. Had our partnership been validated federally, considering that hetero Americans can secure a visa for their fiances(!), this would not have been as long and painful as it has".

GONE: Maggie Gallagher Replaced as Board Chair of NOM!

Associated Press reporter David Crary tweets that NOM's Maggie Gallagher has been replaced as the organization's chair by Chapman University Law professor John Eastman.

 

NOM announces. Brian Brown, President of NOM, stated, "John Eastman is one of America's foremost constitutional scholars and has distinguished himself as a fierce advocate for families and religious liberty. As a legal scholar, he has participated in dozens of cases before our nation's highest courts, including the United States Supreme Court. When important constitutional principles are on the line, people frequently turn to John Eastman to advocate a conservative, pro-family position. He will be a great asset to NOM."

John Eastman stated, "Marriage has quite correctly been described as a bedrock of civilization. Protecting the institution of marriage is a critically important issue, and I'm honored to join such distinguished company on the Board of such a phenomenally effective organization as the National Organization for Marriage."

FLIP-FLOP: Rick Perry Signs NOM Pledge Opposing Same-Sex Marriage!

Rick Perry has joined Michele Bachmann, Tim Pawlenty, Rick Santorum, and Mitt Romney in signing an anti-gay marriage pledge drawn up by the National Organization for Marriage.

In signing the pledge candidates promise to:

Support and send to the states a federal marriage amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman; Defend DOMA in court; Appoint judges and an attorney general who will respect the original meaning of the Constitution; Appoint a presidential commission to investigate harassment of traditional marriage supporters; Support legislation that would return to the people of D.C. their right to vote for marriage.

 

Has Back tracked from supporting State-approved Marriages. Is he desperate?

CORNERED: Gay Man Confronts Pawlenty 'You Are Discriminating Against Me"!

Friday at the Iowa State Fair, presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty was challenged on his anti-gay positions by a gay Minnesota resident in the audience, Igor Volsky at Think Progress LGBT reports.

Said the man: "I want to know know — when will you stand up for me…because you are discriminating against me and it hurts, it really does...I support that you have your moral values, but that is something that is hurting my future and how I get to live my life…why does government get involved in our marriages?"

AUDITED: Married Gays Grapple With IRS!

The Internal Revenue Service is refusing to recognize gay marriages, causing headaches for couples who have won the right to wed in their home states, BusinessWeek finds. The Obama administration has urged federal agencies to extend benefits as far as they can to same-sex couples under existing law, but analysts say the IRS has little scope for stretching the rules without running afoul of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. Same-sex couples are left with no option but to fill out a "dummy" federal return as well as joint returns, says a lawyer specializing in estate planning for same-sex couples.

"You just spent decades getting your marriage recognized, and now the feds say, ‘No, you’re not,'" he grumbles. Under current IRS policy, same-sex partners inheriting large estates are forced to shell out up to 35% in estate taxes which heterosexual spouses would not have to pay.

OPPORTUNIST: NOM releases anti-gay pledge, Bachmann jumps on board!

Political pledges are popular this election season with Republicans, with presidential hopefuls Michelle Bachmann, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum signing the National Organization for Marriage’s “marriage pledge.”

Bachmann previously got press for clamoring to sign another conservative, anti-gay pledge, “The Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family.”

The pledge includes the following stipulations:

Support and send to the states a federal marriage amendment defining marriage as one man and one woman, Defend DOMA in court, Appoint judges and an attorney general who will respect the original meaning of the Constitution, Appoint a presidential commission to investigate harassment of traditional marriage supporters, Support legislation that would return to the people of D.C. their right to vote for marriage.

DICK: Santorum says "States Do Not Have The Right To Destroy The American Family" !

Presidential candidate Rick Santorum blurred the line between fiction and reality during a speech at a right wing event last night.

During remarks on gay activist Tim Gill's successful efforts to derail the former Pennsylvania Senator's 2006 reelection campaign, Santorum claimed never to have compared gay sex to incest ahead of the 2003 Supreme Court decision to overturn anti-sodomy laws.

Of course we all know that's not true, because Santorum indeed said, "The Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery." That sounds like a comparison to me.

BACKTRACK: Gay Marriage is NOT Fine with Rick Perry!

Texsa Governor Rick Perry, who made headlines over the weekend for his comments regarding states' rights and the passage of marriage equality in New York, has clarified those remarks in an interview with hate group leader Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

Said Perry to a group of donors in Aspen, Colorado last Friday: "Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex. And you know what? That's New York, and that's their business, and that's fine with me," said the Governor. "That is their call. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business."

Said Perry to Perkins today: “I probably needed to add a few words after that ‘it’s fine with me,’ and that it’s fine with me that a state is using their sovereign rights to decide an issue. Obviously gay marriage is not fine with me. My stance hasn’t changed.”

You can listen to the full interview at the hate group's website.

MESS: NOM's Maggie Gallagher on Marriage Appeal!

OUTRAGE: Anti-gay marriage rallies as NY ceremonies begin!

(AP) Thousands of opponents of gay marriage took to the streets in loud and sometimes tense protests Sunday, the first day that legal same-sex weddings were performed.

The National Organization for Marriage held rallies in New York City, Albany, Rochester and Buffalo, saying Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers redefined marriage without giving voters a chance to weigh-in, as they have in other states. Protesters chanted “Let the People Vote!” at rallies across the state.

A rally in New York City that started with several hundred people crowding the street across from Cuomo’s Manhattan office quickly swelled to thousands of people out in loud opposition to the new law, as NOM brought in over a dozen busloads of their supporters.

CLUELESS: Maggie Gallagher needs to actually read the First Amendment!

Maggie Gallagher, Chuck Grassley, heck, maybe all conservatives (including Sarah Palin!) and anti-equality fear-mongers need to actually read the First Amendment. I’m sure if you’re reading this, you have, but for Gallagher’s sake, writes David Badash for 365Gay, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

So why is it that Maggie Gallagher – certainly a learned woman – felt the need Thursday to pen, “The Chilling of Our First Amendment Rights,” over at the National Review, in response to Senator Chuck Grassley’s mistaken testimony? 

CROSSED: Al Franken Rips 'Focus on the Family' Witness at DOMA Hearing!

At yesterday's DOMA hearing, Senator Al Franken took Thomas Minnery, Senior Vice President for Public Policy, Focus on the Family, to task for misusing an HHS study in his argument that children are better off with a mother and a father.

Said Franken: "I frankly really don't know how we can trust the rest of your testimony."

HOPE: Obama Backs Repeal of Marriage Law!

President Obama's "evolving views" on gay marriage appear to have evolved even further: The president has endorsed a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as a legal union between one man and one woman. The bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, is thought unlikely to pass Congress this year, but is facing its first Senate committee hearing today, the New York Times reports. Obama earlier called the act unconstitutional and ordered the Justice Department to stop defending it in court. 

Feinstein plans to argue that the law should be repealed because the issue should decided at the state level, reports the Los Angeles Times. "Family law has traditionally been the preserve of state law. The single exception is the Defense of Marriage Act," she told reporters. "This is not a cause which we are going to drop. We are not faint hearts about this."