California’s Supreme Court overturned the state’s gay marriage ban Thursday, joining Massachusetts as the only U.S. states to allow same sex marriage.

Given the historic presidential race taking place, the timing of the ruling on the most divisive issues in politics can’t be ignored.

Is this still a so-called “wedge” issue - and will it play a role in the campaign?

With those questions in mind, here are the three remaining U.S. presidential candidates’ positions on same sex marriage.

Barack Obama

Opposes same-sex marriage but supports civil unions that confer the same legal rights that married couples have. Voted against the proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as heterosexual.

On the California ruling, his campaign said in a statement: “Barack Obama has always believed that same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights under the law, and he will continue to fight for civil unions as president. He respects the decision of the California Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage.”

Hillary Clinton

Opposes same-sex marriage but supports civil unions that confer the same legal rights that married couples have. Voted against the proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as heterosexual.

John McCain

Committed to “the unique status and sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman.” Voted against a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as heterosexual. Supports individual states’ rights to regulate and determine the status of marriage within those states.

Massachusetts has company.

The California Supreme Court struck down the Golden State’s ban on same sex marriage Thursday in a broadly-worded, landmark ruling that invalidates virtually all laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

The 4-3 ruling declared that the state Constitution protects a fundamental “right to marry” that extends equally to same-sex couples.

The majority opinion, by Chief Justice Ronald M. George, declared that any law that discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation will be treated the same way as laws that discriminate by race or gender.

The decision was a surprise from the moderately conservative, Republican court that legal scholars have long dubbed “cautious.”

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger “respects” and says he will not attempt to overturn the state supreme judicial court’s ruling.

It’s not over, however - the scope of the court’s decision could be thrown into question by an initiative heading toward the November ballot.

Continue reading this article …

She had tough competition this week, what with Eliot Spitzer thinking it’s okay to sleep with hookers while serving as Governor of my native State of New York.

Hypocrisy and moral issues aside, how do you not think you’ll get caught? Sigh. Anyway, regardless, Sally Kern wins our first Moron of the Week honors!

This deep-thinking, esteemed member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives apparently believes gays are the biggest threat to our society. Really. There was no context for this to be taken out of. That was pretty much verbatim.

A recording was leaked of her comparing gays to terrorists and telling fellow Republicans the “homosexual agenda is destroying this nation.”

Meet Sally Kern, Oklahoma State Rep. and Grade A moron.

The recording and accompanying YouTube video have sparked outrage, but Kern defends her words, telling the press that she didn’t say anything that wasn’t true, and that: “What I’m saying, I believe in.” Stunning.

“According to God’s word, that is not the right kind of lifestyle. It has deadly consequences for those people involved in it,” the lunatic continues.

Kern accuses gays of pushing of trying to “indoctrinate” children as young as 2-years-old through tolerance education and gay-straight alliances.

“This stuff — it’s deadly,” Kern says, “and it’s spreading, and it will destroy our young people. It will destroy this nation.”

Mercifully, Sally Kern will be booted out of office by 2016 thanks to term limits, but here’s hoping the imbecile gets the heave-ho far sooner.

Like yesterday.

The war on terror has reached new heights depths in Oklahoma.

Just last week, Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern was firing up the Republican base by targeting the terrorists. In other words, gay people.

In a disturbing speech delivered to a conservative Christian group that she likely wasn’t expecting would be taped or released, Kern expressed her belief that gays and lesbians were the biggest threat our nation has ever faced.

Yup, even more than terrorism or Islamic fascism. Or gun violence or the decline of civil liberties or even global warming. Blame the gays!

Kern added that the homosexuals are already “infiltrating” city councils and states like VER-mont. That’s actually how she pronounced it.

This lunatic believes such humans are responsible for the demise of world societies and effectively a “cancer” that apparently needs to be cut out.

Not only does the “lifestyle” have “deadly consequences” (!?) for those involved in it, but “no society in the world has embraced homosexuality for more than a few decades,” according to the brilliant political mind that is Kern.

She’s right. The United States of Cher Fans never had a chance.

Despite the negative response once the speech was leaked (imagine that), Sally Kern has refused to apologize, saying the remarks were “taken out of context.”

We can see that. She must have simply meant that gays are a bigger threat at Nieman Marcus during a big sale than terrorists would be.

So you can see just how “out of context” this is, here you go …

Fortunately, this woman is so over the top and ridiculous that it’s almost funnier than it is sad or horrifying, but let’s put kidding aside for a moment.

Free speech is free speech, but when it incites hate and violence - coming from an elected official, no less - that tells you a lot about our country’s values and why millions of ignorant people actually accept these stupid lies.

We dismiss Sally Kern as a joke, but this type of garbage fosters prejudice and hate crimes ranging from name calling to the unthinkably worse.

Equality should be a moral imperative, and few things more infuriating to us than gay issues… specifically the fact that such issues even exist.

As we’ve seen in our nation’s history, backwards-ass thinking takes generations to reverse - and that’s without shameful hate-mongering from public figures like this hack reinforcing it. Way to help out, Sally. Enjoy the unemployment line.

NOTE: You can write Sally at sallykern@okhouse.gov.

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama sent an open letter to the gay community this week. The Obama campaign will also taking out full page ads in GLBT newspapers in Ohio and Texas beginning Friday.

Some may say this letter doesn’t go far enough, and maybe it doesn’t, but Barack proposes some bold initiatives. We aren’t holding our breath for an open letter from John McCain to the same group of Americans, let’s just leave it at that.

As the candidate offering our best chances for legitimate change, we’ve come to expect as much from Barack. The real challenge will be backing it up.

Here’s Obama’s letter to the LGBT community …

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m running for President to build an America that lives up to our founding promise of equality for all - a promise that extends to our gay brothers and sisters.

It’s wrong to have millions of Americans living as second-class citizens in this nation. And I ask for your support in this election so that together we can bring about real change for all LGBT Americans.

Equality is a moral imperative.

Throughout my career, I have fought to eliminate discrimination against LGBT Americans. In Illinois, I co-sponsored a fully inclusive bill that prohibited discrimination on the basis of both sexual orientation and gender identity, extending protection to the workplace, housing, and places of public accommodation.

Continue reading this article …

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he considers homosexuality “immoral” and the military should “not condone it” by allowing any gay personnel to serve openly, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports.

The extremely open-minded Gen. Peter Pace, of the U.S. Marine Corps, likened homosexuality to adultery, which he said was also immoral, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune Monday.

“I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is okay to be immoral in any way,” Pace stated.

Pace, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a 1967 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, said he based his views on his upbringing.

Pace supports the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in which gay men and women are allowed to serve in the U.S. military as long as they keep their sexual orientation private.

The policy, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, prohibits commanders from asking about a person’s sexual orientation.

“I believe homosexual acts between two individuals are immoral and that we should not condone immoral acts,” Pace said.

Pace did not address concerns raised by a 2005 government audit that showed some 10,000 troops, including more than 50 specialists in Arabic, have been discharged because of the policy.

With Democrats now holding a majority in Congress, Democratic Rep. Martin Meehan has introduced legislation to reverse the military’s long-standing ban on openly serving homosexuals.

One would think, given the fact that any man or woman in the military is serving under the knowledge they may die for the United States, that they could do so openly, without fear of being unreasonably kicked out.

It seems that according to the highest-ranking military officer, committing crimes and being an ex-convict is a-o-k for service, but being attracted to your own gender - a personal issue that’s beyond irrelevant?

Well, we can’t be allowing that.

This during the quagmire that is the Iraq war, with numbers of new recruits plummeting and respect for American abroad hitting the skids as well.

We’ve seen Mitt Romney do an about-face (pun very much intended) on gay rights already in this campaign. How about one of the supposedly progressive candidates stepping up and slapping Peter Pace down? Anyone?