1. Just say no if you know it’s wrong. Attorney General Eric Holder said on Monday that he believes state attorneys general do not have to defend their state’s constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.
Holder told the New York Times that if state attorneys general see a law, such as the bans on same-sex marriage, as discriminatory, it is appropriate for them to refuse to defend it.
“But Mr. Holder said when laws touch on core constitutional issues like equal protection, an attorney general should apply the highest level of scrutiny before reaching a decision on whether to defend it. He said the decision should never be political or based on policy objections,” the Times reported.
2. Mothers take on Michigan. Two nurses from Detroit are suing Michigan to overturn the state’s ban on same-sex marriage with a 2-week trial beginning Tuesday.
From the Associated Press: “The case began in 2012 when Detroit-area nurses Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer sued to try to upset a Michigan law that bars them from adopting each other’s children. But the case became even more significant when [a U.S. district judge] invited them to add the same-sex marriage ban to their lawsuit.”
3. Out of bounds — there will be touchdowns for this lobbyist. Just when you thought the ridiculous couldn’t become riduclouser, along comes a lobbyist named Jack Burkman. His (field) goal — to introduce legislation banning gay NFL players.
“We are losing our decency as a nation,” Burkman said in a statement. “Imagine your son being forced to shower with a gay man. That’s a horrifying prospect for every mom in the country. What in the world has this nation come to? f the NFL has no morals and no values, then Congress must find values for it,”
Perhaps Burkman doth protest too much with his fear of likely NFL draft pick — and openly gay player — Michael Sam scoring with a good deal from a top team. Or maybe those tight pants and all that butt-slapping in the game makes Burkman wish he was on the field, and in the showers.
4. The gay agenda is no longer “Frozen.” So the anti-gay freaks are working overtime (actually they do this all the time) but now there is a woman named Kathryn Skaggs who wrote on her blog “Well Behaved Mormon Woman” that believes the hugely popular animated flick “Frozen” is actually trying to turn children gay.
Oh, Walt Disney. We’re pretty sure he’s been making kids gay for decades.
5. A California law that gives transgender students certain rights in public schools including the restrooms that matched their gender identities has survived an attempt at a referendum appeal by a coalition of religious zealots, er, conservatives.
From the AP: “At least 504,760 signatures were required to force a public vote on the statute approved by the California Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year. The law’s opponents submitted 619,387, but county election officers determined that just 487,484 of them were valid, according to a final count posted on the secretary of state’s website Monday. The law took effect Jan. 1. It guarantees students in grades K-12 the right to use the school restrooms and to participate in the sex-segregated activities that correspond with their expressed genders instead of their school records.”
“This law gives schools the guidelines and flexibility to create an environment where all kids have the opportunity to learn. We need to focus on creating an environment where every student is able to do well and graduate. This law is about doing what’s best for all students,” Masen Davis, executive director of the Transgender Law Center in Oakland, told the AP.