The Bible and Homosexuality in under 5min, by Matthew Vines (Video Sunday)

Meanwhile in Indiana....

Also from ThinkProgress

U.S. District Court Judge Richard L. Young, a Clinton appointee, ruled Wednesday that Indiana’s state law banning same-sex couples from marrying or having their marriages from other states recognized is unconstitutional. The ruling takes effect today, though will likely be stayed as rulings in other states have been. 

According to Young, “It is clear that the fundamental right to marry shall not be deprived to some individuals based solely on the person they choose to love.” He expects that, “in time, Americans will look at the marriage of couples such as Plaintiffs, and refer to it simply as a marriage — not a same-sex marriage.”

“These couples, when gender and sexual orientation are taken away,” he concluded,” are in all respects like the family down the street. The Constitution demands that we treat them as such.”

Meanwhile in Utah....

From ThinkProgress:

In the first federal appellate level consideration of same-sex marriage since the Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act last year, the 10th Circuit has agreed with the lower court that Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. In a 2-1 decision, the panel ruled that the Constitution guarantees that “those who wish to marry a person of the same sex are entitled to exercise the same fundamental right as it is recognized by persons who wish to marry a person of the opposite sex.” 

The ruling was immediately stayed, recognizing that the Supreme Court had stayed thedistrict court’s original ruling earlier this year.

From the opinion:

We hold that the Fourteenth Amendment protects the fundamental right to marry, establish a family, raise children, and enjoy the full protection of a state’s marital laws. A state may not deny the issuance of a marriage license to two persons, or refuse to recognize their marriage, based solely upon the sex of the persons in the marriage union.

and

As the Constitution endures, persons in every generation can   invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom.” Id. at 579. A generation   ago, recognition of the fundamental right to marry as applying to persons of the same sex   might have been unimaginable. A generation ago, the declaration by gay and lesbian   couples of what may have been in their hearts would have had to remain unspoken. Not   until contemporary times have laws stigmatizing or even criminalizing gay men and   women been felled, allowing their relationships to surface to an open society. As the district court eloquently explained, “it is not the Constitution that has changed, but the   knowledge of what it means to be gay or lesbian.” Kitchen, 961 F. Supp. 2d at 1203.   Consistent with our constitutional tradition of recognizing the liberty of those previously   excluded, we conclude that plaintiffs possess a fundamental right to marry and to have   their marriages recognized.

"I don't approve of your lifestyle"

After the march that nobody attended (NOM's poorly attended anti-gay marriage march in Washington last week), there was the usual effort by NOM and its friends (I'm looking at you, Abp Salvatore Cordileone) to pretend that they aren't against LGBT people, but just trying to defend the specialness of marriage from Teh Gayz.

It's not personal. They just "don't approve of our lifestyle".

But we know what that really means, and this article, 5 things you REALLY mean when you say I don't approve of your homosexual lifestyle nails it.

First,

You assent that nothing else about me is part of my "lifestyle"; not the job I do, not the worship I attend, not the food I eat, not the gardening I enjoy, not the children I am raising, and most certainly not the palpable and inescapable love I have for God and my neighbor. Next time, just be honest and say "I am grossed out by thinking about your sex life."

That's the biggest one, because it all comes down to an obsession with sex (particular sex between men, because we know that most straight men are turned on by the thought of women having sex.)

Second,

You have decided to ignore all social sciences that inform us that human sexuality is on a spectrum and that some people are in fact built (Created) to be attracted to, fall in love with and desire to make a life with people of the same gender. ....Next time, just be honest and say "I don't believe in science."

Because it's perfectly natural to be gay, a normal human variation like having red hair or being left handed, and yes, lots of animals are gay too.

Third

what you are really saying is DO approve of forcing me to live either a dark and dangerous lie or to be completely alone, forever.....Next time, just be honest and say "I don't  approve of you being whole and loved."

#3 particularly applies to the Catholic bishops who are happy to inflict loneliness on complete strangers, whether or not they are Catholic, by demanding that they live celibate and alone.  Funny how it's so easy to lay that cross on someone else.

Fourth

...you approve of me being persistently a second class, slightly fearful citizen living on the same street, shopping in the same community, worshipping at the same church and subject to the stricter laws than you. ... Next time, just be honest and say “I don’t approve of equal rights for all.”

Because really, what effect does my having the right to marry have on anyone else, except my spouse?  Does it hurt any other person that I have full rights of citizenship?

Fifth, for all the believers out there

what you are really saying is you don't trust God to generously create and extravagantly love an amazing array of differently configured children. What you are saying is that God's love is limited to people like you. And sweetie, we can call it blasphemy or we can call it heresy, hell I am happy to call it willful ignorance, but in truth it is just plain old, small-minded, narcissistic religiosity that denies the radical grace and is terrified of the incomprehensibility of God.....Next time, just be honest and say “I don’t believe in your sacred worth."

Abp Cordileone's God is a very small God, don't you think?

The Rainbow Flag (video Sunday)

What if you gave a march and nobody came?

From Slate:

Four of the five stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, and depression—were on full display today at the March for Marriage, a rally outside the U.S. Capitol organized by the National Organization for Marriage and other co-sponsors. NOM President Brian Brown had promised attendees the chance to be a part of “showing that there still exists in this country deep and wide support for the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman," but, judging by photos of the event that revealed a shallow and thin crowd that seemed to gradually disperse as the two and a half hours of repetitive speeches wore on, the rally may have shown just the opposite....

It’s in the constant invocation of persecution, which positively soaked the day’s proceedings, that bargaining comes into play. Many of the speakers seem to be wagering that if they can just convince people...that, in the most religious First World country in the world, Christians are more oppressed than LGBTQ people, they will finally see how mean and hurtful this marriage equality stuff really is. According to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, things are basically as bad now as they were for the early Christians in pagan Rome....

News reports show that religion was the primary justification given by the attendees for their opposition to equality. But it's just one type of religion. Polls show convincingly that majorities of (lay) Catholics, Jews, mainline Protestants, as well as religiously unaffiliated folks all support marriage equality.

And on the same day the Presbyterians voted overwhelmingly to allow same sex marriages.

The march4marriage

The anti-equality troops are marching today in DC. Let's be clear on what they want. They want to forbid LGBT couples from marrying. They want to forcibly divorce my wife and me, and deny any recognition of our marriage. They want children of LGBT families to have no legal rights. They want to prevent The Episcopal Church, The UCC, the Lutherans, etc exercising their religious freedom to marry LGBT couples. They want the right to discriminate against us, to fire us from jobs, and to refuse to serve us in restaurants and shops. They may claim they do this out of "love", but they do not. Listen, and you will hear the words of fear.

And over and over again, although they are a minority, they are given prominent opportunities by the media to spread their hate.

NOM & Bishop Sal in new group to attack equality

Jeremy Hooper at NOM Exposed has found that NOM, its ardent defender, Salvatore Cordileone, Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco, and a spattering of other  anti-gay activists have formed "The Princeton Group" to plot their efforts to stop the advance of equality and play up this whole religious freedom meme

over in Princeton, NJ, Maggie Gallagher (NOM cofounder and past president), Robert George (NOM cofounder and chairman emeritus), Brian Brown (current NOM president), John Eastman (NOM's current board chair), and a number of other individuals who were responsible for creating NOM back then (like founding board members Luis Tellez and Chuck Stetson, for instance) and are responsible for maintaining NOM now (like Sean Fieler, a key funder, and Diego Von Stauffenberg, NOM's current development director) were holding a secret, invite-only meeting focused on "developing and deploying an action plan to protect marriage and preserve religious liberties." It certainly seems like some sort of secret, shadowy version of NOM (Super NOM?) is going on behind the scenes.

Is this the post-NOM identity, to continue to attack equality?  Is this a cynical way to rebrand to keep the money flowing?  Do they honestly think they can hold back the tide?

Incidentally, Abp Cordileone is going to speak at NOM's anti-gay rally tomorrow.

Video Sunday: Jim PArsons on getting married

Why Marriage Equality is going to start losing

Important analysis from Think Progress:

Currently, six federal appeals courts, the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Circuits, face marriage equality cases. Though it is fairly likely that equality will prevail in most of these circuits — the legal arguments for marriage equality are very strong, especially after the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision, and supporters of discrimination are left with a questionable states rights argument that no judge has yet embraced — it is unlikely that appellate court judges will show the same unanimity as their counterparts on the trial bench. Among other things, appointments to federal circuit courts have historically been much more politically charged than appointments to the lower-ranking district courts, so litigants are far more likely to encounter a judge who was selected for their loyalty to a particular ideology.

They go on to enumerate where the problems are most likely to be: the 5th,6th, and 7th. THis is because Appeals Court judges are appointed by the president and are often appointed for ideological grounds. It's why the presidency really matters, because the President appoints the judiciary.

Voices of Faith at LA Pride

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Voices of Faith

From the LA Times,

Before the parade, a transgender preacher, Dr. H. Adam Ackley, led a morning Holy Eucharist service on the street for the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Ackley, a former theology professor at Azusa Pacific University, was asked to resign from his position after announcing that he was a transgender man, according to the advocacy group GLAAD.

"We praise you for being who we are, who you created us to be — gay, trans, bi, lesbian, gender-queer and in so many other ways — with greater beautiful diversity than we can ever imagine," Ackley said in prayer.

The diocese has been leading a service before the Pride Parade for two decades, said the Rev. Susan Russell, a priest at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena. In the first few years, there was suspicion of the group, she said.

"We're here to undo the damage that the religious right has done to Jesus when they portray him as homophobic," she said. "We're here to undo that damage and tell the good news that God loves everybody."

Video Sunday: Invisible Parents

50% of Americans agree marriage equality is a Constitutional right

From the Washington Post:

A full 50 percent say gay marriage is protected by the Constitution’s Equal Protection clause, an argument repeated by judge after judge in a string of federal rulings against state bans since a pivotal Supreme Court decision last summer. Some 43 percent do not believe gay marriage enjoys constitutional protection. Support for gay marriage overall — regardless of views on whether it is constitutionally protected — enjoys broader support, with 56 percent saying they back the right for same-sex couples to marry and 38 percent opposing it.

Ads reflect culture (video Sunday)

yes, it's an ad.   And it's why we're winning.