Weekend news roundup

It's been a busy week in LGBT news, and it's 100 degrees outside, and all I feel like doing is staying hydrated and watching old movies, so here's a quick rundown of some of this week's top stories.

1. Victory for a gay family in Virginia as the Roanoke Athletic Club ends its exclusion of gay families after Will Trinkle and partner Juan Granados filed a lawsuit against it for revoking their membership after discovering that they were gay. Bravo and congrats to Will and Juan and their 2-year-old son Oliver.

2. New York's marriage equality law is upheld as a New York appellate court rules against an anti-gay group's lawsuit which claimed that some closed-door meetings in the run-up to last year's passage of marriage equality violated that state's Open Meetings Law.

3. Iowa's anti-gay right is losing ground in its fight to overturn that state's marriage equality, due to the pro-gay shift in public opinion. Thanks to state senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal for holding firm against the repealers.

4. The Advocate has endorsed Barack Obama for President.

5. John Becker of Truth Wins Out has a thoughtful piece about double standards and Anderson Cooper's coming out.

6. Right-wing eccentric Rep. Thad McCotter of Michigan resigned suddenly after it was revealed that large numbers of his ballot petition signatures were fakes or duplicates.

7. The U.S. Department of Justice has asked SCOTUS to take two cases on the Defense of Marriage Act, which the Obama Administration considers unconstitutional.

8. MPD's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit has a new sergeant, Matthew Mahl. Welcome, Sgt. Mahl.

9. Blade commentator Peter Rosenstein discusses SCOTUS scourge, Justice Antonin Scalia.

10. Progressive Catholics held a protest vigil outside the National Shrine of Inadequate Contraception (I'm sure I got that name wrong) during the "Fortnight for Freedom" Mass of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, whose idea of religious freedom means their right to use public funds to discriminate, and other such bullying nonsense. I joined the vigil in solidarity; it was a fine way to observe Independence Day.

11. The Presbyterian Church rejects marriage equality 338 to 308. Too many of their leaders are afraid of provoking a schism, so they perpetuate the alienation of gay members and their supporters.

12. A rift is growing in the ex-gay movement after Exodus International President Alan Chambers declared that "reparative therapy" does not work. Jim Burroway of BTB comments here. Oh, dear, what will ex-gay troll Sharon Kass of Silver Spring do now? (I'll tell you: she'll find this reference to her and send me another of her dumb, snarky messages urging me to save myself before it's too late, because I must have been molested as a child, blah blah blah.)

13. Pics of the American men's Olympic gymnastics team courtesy Towleroad.

14. Rising R&B artist Frank Ocean is getting lots of support for his decision to come out, just ahead of his debut album's release. Busta Rhymes stated in support, "I am an extremely huge fan of Frank Ocean. His music is impeccable to me, and as far as I'm concerned, I respect the dude completely."

15. Great film director George Cukor was born on this day in 1899. (Thanks to BTB.)