Marriage Equality

Supporters of same-sex marriage are both pleased and perplexed by the friend-of-the-court brief the Obama administration has filed with the Supreme Court in the Proposition 8 case. They're pleased because Solicitor General Donald Verrilli argues that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional and that the court should examine it with “heightened scrutiny” because  (among other reasons) gays and lesbians have suffered discrimination. They're perplexed because, having massed this heavy constitutional artillery, the brief doesn't insist that same-sex couples everywhere in the country have a constitutional right to marry.

When Meg Whitman ran for California governor as a Republican three years ago, she said marriage was "between a man and woman" and voiced her support for Proposition 8. But after what she called "a period of careful review and reflection," Whitman has joined the legal fight to overturn the gay marriage ban approved by California voters in 2008. She is one of dozens of Republicans who have signed a legal filing making a conservative case for Supreme Court justices to strike down the law. The court is scheduled to hear the case next month.

In voting to legalize same-sex marriage, Britain's House of Commons has proved that a tradition-conscious society can also adapt to social change. Enactment of the legislation, which is also expected to pass the House of Lords after some additional action in the Commons, would put to shame politicians here in Britain's most powerful former colony who continue to resist the legalization of civil marriage for gay and lesbian couples. But it also demonstrates that support for marriage equality is compatible with conservative views on other issues, a reality Republicans in the United States should ponder.

Cabaret fanatics - and you know who you are - invariably suffer a persistent worry: What if there is some amazing live gig out there I don't know about? Well, Monday night your worst nightmare came and went -- unless you were one of some 200 people in Pasadena for an Audra McDonald set. Admittedly, this was a cloistered event, arranged for TV critics and press members in town to preview PBS shows for the network's spring lineup. McDonald is hosting “Live From Lincoln Center” this season.

Emmy-nominated actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson ("Modern Family") and partner Justin Mikita have just added a new neck knot to their wildly successful month-and-a-half-old line of jaunty bow ties -- a formal style suitable for wedding wear. The couple launched their Tie the Knot line, a collaboration with Chicago-based neckwear and accessories e-tailer the Tie Bar, on Nov. 15, with all proceeds going to fund various groups fighting for marriage equality. The inaugural collection of 20 limited-edition ties, which benefited the group Human Rights Campaign sold out by early December.

Amelia Earhart's "prenuptial agreement" with her husband, George Putnam, whom she married in 1931 when she was 32, drew a flurry of attention this week. Los Angeles writer Amanda Hess posted the letter on her Tumblr page after running across it in the online library of Purdue University, which houses Earhart's papers. "On our life together I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any midaevil [sic] code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly," Earhart wrote.

LONDON - Championing a cause eschewed by fellow conservatives elsewhere, the British government said Tuesday it will sponsor a bill to allow same-sex couples to marry, including in churches, synagogues and mosques that look favorably on such unions. Religious organizations against the idea would be legally protected from having to wed gays and lesbians, and the Church of England, as the nation's established church, would specifically be barred. But civil marriage would be available to all couples under the new proposal.

On Nov. 6, for the first time in American history, a majority of voters in a state - indeed, in three states - approved same-sex marriage. On Friday, the Supreme Court decided to weigh in on the issue, granting review in cases challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act and in a case contesting the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8, which barred same-sex marriage. DOMA is likely to prove the easier issue for the court, assuming the justices rule on the merits of either or both cases (there are procedural issues that, depending on how the justices are inclined, could block them from considering the merits)

A U.S. Supreme Court decision to review the constitutionality of laws restricting marriage to heterosexual couples has raised hopes among gays and lesbians in the United States that their right to marry might soon be legally recognized, allowing them to join a widening global community of same-sex couples. The high court decided Friday that it would take up challenges to California's 2008 state constitutional amendment overturning a short-lived right for gays to marry, as well as rulings in Massachusetts, New York and California that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act violates gay Americans' right to equal protection under the law. That federal statute, known as DOMA,  denies even legally married same-sex partners access to federal benefits like government health insurance and surviving-spouse pensions.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court set the stage Friday for a historic decision on gay rights, announcing it would hear appeals of rulings striking down California's Proposition 8 and the federal law denying benefits for legally married same-sex couples. The court could decide in the Proposition 8 case whether the Constitution's promise of equal treatment gives gays and lesbians a right to marry. But the justices also left themselves the option to rule narrowly or even to duck a decision.