The Mormon Church has agreed to pay a $5,539.00 fine to the state of California for failing to file the proper paperwork during an anti-gay fight two years ago. Prop. 8, which restricted the definition of marriage couples to straight couples, effectively overturned the California Supreme Court’s ruling that gay couples should be allowed to marry.

For the first time in nearly 50 years, a Republican will hold the seat left vacant by the death of U.S. Senior Senator Ted Kennedy. Kennedy, one of the most powerful U.S. Senators in U.S. history, was a strong ally to the gay community. Republicans in Washington, D.C. and around the country said Scott Brown’s victorious U.S. Senate campaign in Massachusetts is a harbinger of a broader party surge, calling it a repudiation of President Obama’s agenda that gives them renewed confidence for the 2010 midterm elections.

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.

Until the politicians who take our community for granted realize that they can no longer count on our votes unless we can count on theirs, things will never change for Kentucky’s LGBTI community. A Democratic majority in the Kentucky Senate could also mean a school bullying bill would be passed, in addition to a statewide equality law prohibiting discrimination in employment, housing, and credit for Kentucky’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. Both measures have passed the Democratic controlled House of Representatives in the past, but died in the Republican controlled Senate.