In a shocking move, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to rule on whether constitutional free-speech rights protected anti-gay protests by members of a Kansas church at funerals for U.S. military members killed in Iraq. The group maintains that God hates homosexuals above all other kinds of “sinners” and that homosexuality should be a capital crime.

Virginia college students began to mobilize Monday in response to a legal opinion from Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, II. declaring Virginia’s public colleges have no authority to ban discrimination against gay employees. Students at Virginia Commonwealth University planned a rally for noon Wednesday, with several hundred students committed. At Christopher Newport University, student Republican and Democratic leaders will discuss their next steps at a bipartisan meeting Friday.

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand joined 17 U.S. senators in calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to overturn a ban on gay men donating blood. Many states criminalize gay men donating blood. The senators said that while hospitals and emergency rooms are in urgent need of blood products, “healthy blood donors are turned away every day due to an antiquated policy and our blood supply is not necessarily any safer for it.”

U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts today denied a last-minute request by traditional marriage supporters to stop Washington, D.C.’s same-sex marriage law from taking effect. As a “matter of judicial policy,” Roberts said in an opinion that it has been the practice of the U.S. Supreme Court not to intervene in local matters.

Today, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. which has been battling the District of Columbia government about same-sex marriage since last year when The District proposed same-sex marriage legislation, announced it will stop health benefits for new members and same-sex couples.

Race, sex, age, disability — it’s common knowledge that if you discriminate based on those things, you could face a tough legal battle no matter where you live in the United States. But what if you’re gay? That still depends on where you live. It’s a lesson learned the hard way by one woman who’s speaking out after what she calls a hurtful decision.

In a horrific show of force, and a major blow the the National Organization for Marriage, the New Hampshire House of Representatives killed two measures that would have overturned the state’s new gay “marriage” law. The bills would have simply repealed the same-sex “marriage” law that passed in June and came into effect January 1 of this year. New Hampshire Governor John Lynch signed a same-sex marriage bill into law early June despite his opposition to gay marriage.

In a story that mirrors Kentucky’s history, another Republican Governor rolled back protections for gay and lesbian people that a Democratic Governor ordered. His Excellency (official addressing per the constitution) Bob McDonnell rolled back protections for gay and lesbians in Virginia government, thanks to a little-noticed change made by the new Republican Governor in an executive order. His new order, which includes all previously protected categories including race, sex, religion and age – but not the previously protected category of sexual orientation – is also supported by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

Gordon Dennis Fox has the distention of being the first openly gay speaker of a state lower house, although Assemblyman John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles) was elected to the speakership of the California Assembly several weeks before Fox (Pérez, however, will not be sworn in as speaker until March 1).
Members of the State of Rhode Island & Providence Plantations House of Representatives elected Fox to succeed William J. Murphy in a day of pomp and speechifying, capping months of behind-the-scenes maneuvering.

Don’t ask, don’t tell? Then don’t pay for it, says U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York). U.S. Senator Gillibrand said the quickest way to stop the policy is to cut off funding for its implementation and enforcement. U.S. President Obama could issue an executive order to accomplish the same task, but has yet to do so.