Week of February 12

Feb 17th, 2012 5:42 PM EST

On Monday, Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire (D) signed her state’s marriage equality bill. Washington State is now the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage.

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The New Jersey State Senate passed a marriage equality bill on Monday in a 24-16 vote. Passage in the Senate was quickly followed by passage in the State Assembly on Thursday. The legislation passed in a 41-33 vote.

On Friday Governor Chris Christie (R) kept his promise and vetoed the bill. He also reasserted his belief the issue should be decided by a ballot measure.

The veto comes only days after Washington State Gov. Gregoire (D) signed marriage equality into law in her state.

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Lart Friday, the San Fransisico Police Department released an ‘It Get’s Better’ video. Watch it below.

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The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday it would no longer defend federal law that bans same-sex couples from receiving military and veterans benefits.

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehnar (R-Ohio), Attorney General Eric Holder wrote:

“The legislative record of these provisions contains no rationale for providing veterans’ benefits to opposite-sex couples of veterans but not to legally married same-sex spouses of veterans. Neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veterans Affairs identified any justifications for that distinction that would warrant treating these provisions differently from Section 3 of DOMA.”

Holder is referring to Title 38 of the U.S. Code. Title 38 governs veterans benefits and defines ’spouse’ similar to the definition in DOMA; ‘a person of the opposite sex who is a wife or husband.’

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On Thursday, The Baltimore Sun reported former Vice President Dick Cheney is part of lobbying efforts in Maryland to convince at least one of it’s state lawmakers to support the marriage equality bill currently pending in the House of Delegates. The full extent of his involvement is unknown.

Since leaving office in 2008, former Vice President Cheney has become increasingly vocal in support of marriage equality.

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Jury selection has begun in the trial of former Rutgers University student Dharun Ravi. Ravi was roommates with Tyler Clementi

Ravi is facing 15 charges including invasion of privacy and bias intimidation. Bias intimidation is a hate crime and punishable by 10 years in prison. However, he has not been charged in connection to Clementi’s death.

When jury selection will conclude and when opening arguments will be held are unknown.

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Canadian lawmakers introduced legislation this week to close the loophole in the Civil Marriage Act. The loophole brought into to question thousands of same-sex marriages performed between non-residents in Canada by claiming they may not be legally valid if the marriage is not recognized in their home country or state.

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The Maryland House of Delegates delayed consideration of a marriage equality bill on Thursday amid fear they do not have enough votes for passage.

The bill, introduced by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), had already been delayed earlier in the day.

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The controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill passed its first hurdle on Wednesday in the state’s House of Representatives. The bill was approved by the House Education subcommittee in a voice vote. The version accepted by the subcommittee is the same as that passed by the state Senate in last year’s session.

The legislation limits all sexually related instruction to “natural human reproduction science” in kindergarten through eighth grade, the Associated Press noted.

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Lart Saturday, ‘White Collar’ actor Matt Bomer came out in an acceptance speech at the Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards. In his speech he thanked his partner Simon Halls and his three children.

“I’d really especially like to thank my beautiful family: Simon, Kit, Walker, Henry,” he told the crowd. “Thank you for teaching me what unconditional love is. You will always be my proudest accomplishment.”

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Australian actress Magda Szubanski came out this week on an Australian television show.

Szubanski is known to audiences in the U.S. as Mrs. Hoggett, the farmer’s wife in the ‘Babe’ movies, and as the voice of Miss Viola in ‘Happy Feet.’

“I absolutely identify as gay … and it must be hard for people who don’t experience it to know what the pressures of being gay are,” she said.

Week of February 5

Feb 11th, 2012 9:07 AM EST

This week the Washington State House of Representatives passed a marriage equality bill 55-43. The bill has already been passed by the State Senate and now awaits Governor Chris Gregoire’s (D) signature. Gov. Gregoire has already voiced her support for the legislation. Once signed Washington becomes the seventh state in the U.S. to pass marriage equality.

Read the Matthew Shepard Foundation’s thoughts on this historic moment here.

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In Washington, DC a suspect was arrested in the murder of a transgender woman. Gary Montgomery, 55, is being charged with second degree murder after allegedly stabbing JaParker Jones in the head while at a bus stop. Jones later died at a hospital as a result of the stabbing.

NBC News is reporting the suspect has not been charged with a hate crime but notes it is still a possibility.

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California’s Proposition 8 was declared unconstitutional by the Federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. The three judge panel decided to up hold the ruling reached by Judge Walker in 2010. The 9th Circuit held the law “serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.”

The court also held that there was no evidence that Judge Walker was biased in his decision or that he should have disclosed his sexual orientation and relationship status. This was a key issue in recent months, as those defending Prop. 8 leveled claims that Judge Walker was biased in striking down Prop. 8 because he himself is gay and in a long term relationship.

Read the court’s full holding here.

Week of January 29

Feb 3rd, 2012 4:52 PM EST

The Washington State Senate passed a marriage equality bill on Wednesday. The bill is now in the State House of Representatives, where it is expected to pass. Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire (D) has publicly supported the bill and said she will sign it.

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Lawmakers in Virgina passed a controversial adoption bill on Friday. The bill stipulates that private adoption agencies can refuse placing a child in a home if it goes against their religious ideology. This includes not placing children in the homes of same-sex couples.

Governor Bob McDonnell (R) is expected to sign the legislation.

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) says he is offering marriage equality advocates the ‘bargain of their lives’. He says they should work with members of the legislature to have the issue put on the November ballot as a referendum rather than support the bill that is currently in the state legislature.

“I’ve called upon every Republican in the state legislature to vote to put it on the ballot. Well, you need three-fifths to put it on the ballot. The Republicans have two-fifths in the legislature. So that means the Democrats only need to come up with one-fifth of the legislature,” Christie said at a town hall meeting in Denville, N.J. “This is the bargain of their life. I’m giving you two-fifths! And the polls they show me say that if it goes on the ballot, it will lose. How much more magnanimous can I be? What else do you want me to do? Go campaign for it too? Look, I’m doing the best I can here!”

Christie has previously stated that it is not the government’s responsibility to handle social issues.

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Up and coming hip-hop artist Azealia Banks, 20, came out as a bisexual this week in a new interview with the New York Times. The admission itself took up only two lines at the end of the interview:

“Ms. Banks considers herself bisexual, but, she said: “I’m not trying to be, like, the bisexual, lesbian rapper. I don’t live on other people’s terms.’”

Banks has been pegged ‘the next big thing’ in the hip-hop world.