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Meme: Marriage Equality Offends Rand Paul, "SNL" Skewers Ben Carson, Army Edges Towards Open Transgender Service

Chris Pratt and Chris Pine hit Seattle Children's Hospital, Pink quotes Ayn Rand, Oscars in search of new producers

People are always bugging Tim O'Leary for things to do in New York City, and he's now got a recommendation for us all: My F#*ked Up Valentine, from director Eric Ulloa and music director Nate Patten. The show is one night only March 19 benefiting The LGBT Center, and tickets are available now.

A staffer for notoriously anti-gay Rep. Tim Huelskamp has been arrested on child sex charges. Matthew P. Pennel was arrested on Thursday after an investigation by the Oklahoma Internet Crimes Against Children task force. He's being held on $75,000 bond, and has been "suspended without pay" by Senator Joseph Silkthe Congressman's office. Can't they just fire him? And aren't these the type of people that say gays can't be trusted around children?

Also in Oklahoma, state Senator Joseph Silk made headlines this week when he said that gay people don't have an inherent right to be served in a business. Now he's doubling down. "Yes I did say that homosexuals do not have the right to be served in every store, just as I do not believe that I nor my family have the right to be served in every private business. The right to provide services should be the decision of the business owners. We need to keep our country free and stop this radical, intolerant, movement."  I really don't think he's thought through how this can play out. LGBT people own a lot of businesses, and his photo is probably going up in a lot of them as unwelcome.

The Army has taken the first step towards allowing open service from transgender members by moving the decision to discharge transgender service members up to the Assistant Secretary of the Army. Previously local commanders could make this decision. The move doesn't allow for open service, but similar steps were taken during the runup to the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Transgender service isn't prohibited by law, only policy, and so Congress isn't involved in allowing it.

SCOTUSblog has posted their analysis of the Justice Department brief to the Supreme Court on the marriage equality cases before it. The notable parts are that it argues under an equal protection standard and avoid calling marriage a fundamental right under due process. It then goes on to argue that the case should be decided under heightened scrutiny. The court has avoided setting a bar for scrutiny in past cases on LGBT equality, sometimes drifting towards a rational-basis-plus argument. The government brief laws out arguments for heightened scrutiny under all four tests the court has set for other groups. The brief also takes aim at Baker, the 1972 court case the Sixth Circuit relied on in upholding the marriage bans in four states, Senator Rand Paulnoting that the case isn't binding on the Supreme Court (really, nothing but the Constitution is binding on the Supreme Court), and the language predated all the recent rulings the Court has made in favor of LGBT rights.

Rand Paul, who likely is going to run for president in 2016, says that marriage equality "offends" him. Of course, his libertarian nature leads him to discuss the idea of getting the government out of marriage entirely. “I’m for traditional marriage. I think marriage is between a man and a woman. Ultimately, we could have fixed this a long time ago if we just allowed contracts between adults. We didn’t have to call it marriage, which offends myself and a lot of people.” You sir, have every right to be offended. You do not have the right to govern to your personal offenses.

Saks Fifth Avenue has settled the discrimination lawsuit brought against it by transgender former employee. Saks caught everyone's attention, including the Justice Department, by originally claiming that transgender discrimination wasn't protected under Title VII. Once the feds weighed in, it dropped that claim, and prepared to fight the case on its merits. Now a settlement has been reached, and the case has been dismissed with prejudice.

Everyone should work retail once in their lives.

Sesame StreetSesame Street says that it knows that the Twitter handles for the characters on the show are for adults, as are the parodies of shows like Homeland. "For us, it’s a great way to communicate with the audience. We’ve got a lot of followers and they’re really important to us. It’s still not for kids, that’s for adults, and so I think on all platforms you need to know who your audience is and cater to that. We’ve made jokes before about “tweeting” on the show just for the “pun” of it, but you need to know what your audience is and everything that we do — even if it’s in an adult forum — it’s always kid friendly. But, those forms are really for the adult families than for the kids. It’s a way to keep them engaged and stay relevant and have some fun with that dual-level of humor that we do." Whew! I thought I was just immature.

Conservative Australian columnist Andrew Bolt is wondering why there was no anti-ISIS float in the Sydney Mardis Gras parade. “The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras had 150 floats last night, not one float protested about the killing of gays by Islamic State, which I thought was rather more serious than Catholic church problems." His fellow panelist Gary Johns then called gays "self indulgent" evidently because we like to have some fun once a year. “It’s all about them and their job prospects. So there’s no solidarity with gays and women around the world and essentially, they’re anti-Western." Hey, when we're still fighting for equality against dolts like you, we've got our hands full.

Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update took aim at Ben Carson's comments about prison turning men gay, and the style was a little different than what I'm used to. The delivery was blunt and simple, almost like The Daily Show. That probably made it more effective.

It even got the attention of CNN's Reliable Sources, which comments on the media, and they used to to do the introduction for Dan Savage on how he'd responded to Dr. Carson. I really used to have an issue with Savage switching back and forth between the profane and serious commentary on the LGBT rights movement, it felt like one undermined the other. But I've either gotten used to it, or more likely I feel his voice is more a part of the chorus of voices that gets heard when something happens, so I'm less concerned with how it's presented and I'm not going to fret over the explosive impact he achieves with his antics.

During the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardis Gras, some real sad group aired this ad against marriage equality. It's basically something that would have aired in the U.S. in 2008. At least they know their audience, since everyone that would respond to this dreck was in their shelter until the gays left the streets and it was safe to come out.

The producers do know how to promote Texas Rising

After spilling candle wax on himself (including his beard you pervs), Official Gaymer was told to put his clothes in the freezer, leading to this

A superhero size THANK YOU to @prattprattpratt & @ChrisEvans for visiting our patients today! #TwitterBowl pic.twitter.com/qgo0kKC1AV — Seattle Children's (@seattlechildren) March 8, 2015

Meanwhile, the other Chris was getting ready to host Saturday Night Live, and he joined Twitter

— Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth) March 8, 2015

I can't get used to the blond hair

About to sing with the 29 piece orchestra for #kingandibway for the first time! @KingandIBway pic.twitter.com/dvSFLkrV8K — conrad ricamora (@conradricamora) March 8, 2015

I can appreciate the sentiment on International Women's Day, but I really wish she'd gone with a different author. Thinking she's an Ayn Rand fan really tarnishes her music for me

— P!nk (@Pink) March 8, 2015

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