Gay rights organizations in Kentucky can breathe a sigh of relief as Senate President David L. Williams (R) leaves office, months after Williams announced that he and his wife are divorcing. Williams was expected to be opposed as President of the Senate during the 2013 legislative session. Some have described this as one of the biggest shakeups in Kentucky government since John “Eck” Rose (D) left office as President Pro Tempore for more than a decade and then president of the Kentucky Senate after Kentucky’s constitutional amendment ousting the Lt. Governor as the Senate President.

Dee Johnson, the mother of Cheyenne Williams says the Kentucky State Police Investigator assigned to investigate the assault of her daughter perjured himself during the preliminary hearing in Jackson County on April 29, 2010. The judge reduced the charges against the three females charged with the attempted murder and kidnapping of Williams to misdemeanors. Johnson told Kentucky Equality Federation, the advocate for the victim, that the police officer testified he spoke to Sheila Clemons at Daniel Boone about the overall mental state and personal appearance of Cheyenne Williams when she arrived for her job interview after the assault. According to Johnson, who contacted Clemons, the police never contacted her about the investigation.

The separation of church and state are even more blurred in Kentucky thanks to a resolution passed by the House of Representatives. The Kentucky House of Representative passed an anti-gay right-wing resolution. The House passed Resolution 232, the Manhattan Declaration, with a 45 member vote; 55 members of the House didn’t vote, mostly Democrats.

In an email to members, the anti-gay, very powerful Liberty Counsel outlines its 2010 priorities. Perhaps this email would have been somewhat inspiring had it not been so misguided. It was Liberty Counsel that first sounded the alarm to dismantle California’s same-sex marriage law. Should the legislation filed by Mary Lou Marzian (D-Louisville), a Senior Representative in the Kentucky House of Representatives to repeal Kentucky’s ban on same-sex marriage, civil unions, and “similar institutions,” make it out of a House Committee, we’ll have one heck of a fight on our hands.

The Kentucky Young Democrats, and the Young Democrats of America (“YDA”) also have their eyes on the Kentucky Senate, as Democrats have an opportunity to retake the upper chamber of the Kentucky General Assembly.

But whether it is the National Organization for Marriage, the Liberty Counsel, the American Family Association, or the Family Foundation of Kentucky, anyone who denies that “American opinion is shifting” inhabits a fool’s paradise. Opposition to gay marriage is shrinking. In 1996, 65 percent took a negative view. Since then, support has fallen by about one percentage point a year. Basically, one (1) out of every eight (8) Americans has gone from opposing the concept to endorsing it.