Hunt's lawyer Julia Graves explained the decision to go to court in a statement: "This is a situation of two teenagers who happen to be of the same sex involved in a relationship. If this case involved a boy and girl, there would be no media attention to this case ... If this incident occurred 108 days earlier when she was 17, we wouldn’t even be here."

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The hacker collective urged Assistant State Attorney Brian Workman to drop the charges and threatened to massive protests, according to a letter released by #OpJustice4Kaitlyn:

This letter is addressed to the Indian River County State Attorney's Office:

You are currently pursuing 2 felony charges against an 18-year-old girl by the name of Kaitlyn Hunt... She was a student at Sebastian River High School before they expelled her...

While in the course of performing your duties we feel that you've lost perspective. Tsk, tsk. The truth is, Kaitlyn Hunt is a bright young girl who was involved in a consensual, same-sex relationship while both she and her partner were minors. She has a big future ahead of her and there are people, thousands of people in fact, that have no intention of allowing you to ruin it with your rotten selective enforcement...

We hope you'll keep all of this in mind because the next petition [for resignation] we put 200,000 signatures on will have your name on it (maybe you Brian Workman), or your bosses name on it, and we will be calling for a resignation.

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After the oil and gas giant failed to adopt a nondiscrimination policy that included protections for sexual orientation and gender identity, Freedom to Work ran a "paired resume" experiment to see if the company actively discriminated in its hiring practices. The LGBT worker advocacy group submitted two fictitious resumes in response to a listing for an administrative position at Exxon's Illinois offices. One of the candidates, the complaint alleges, was a highly qualified LGBT individual; the other was less qualified but had no ties to the gay community.

Exxon never responded to the employment request from the LGBT candidate while it actively pursued the other candidate, a practice in violation of Illinois' Human Rights Act, the suit alleges:

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But, as the New York Times reports, the controversy over the inclusion (or, possibly, the continued exclusion) of gay scouts isn't likely to die down after the final ballot is cast:

Last week the Connecticut Yankee Council promised it would defy national policy in either case, saying it intended to accept gay leaders and would be “open to all youths and adults who subscribe to the values of the Scout Oath and Law regardless of their personal sexual orientation.”

The vote Thursday is expected to be close. Prospects for passage improved when the Mormon Church, the largest single sponsor of scout units, indicated support for limited change, and the Roman Catholic Church, another major sponsor, also said that it would not abandon scouting so long as any new policy applied to youths and not leaders.

Glaad, formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and other rights groups as well as internal advocates said that allowing openly gay youths would be a step in the right direction, but only that. They vowed to continue with a public campaign against any discrimination.

Evangelical conservatives, the public spearhead of opposition, said that even the limited opening being voted on would expose youths to immoral behavior and pro-gay politics, ruining a rare bastion of traditional America.

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Compton’s ex-husband, Joshua, who had once been charged with stalking her (he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge) had asked for enforcement of a "morality clause" in the couple’s original divorce decree, which bars overnight guests who aren’t related by blood or marriage while the children are there. Of course, as a lesbian couple in Texas, they can’t be married. Never mind the fact that their children “are all happy and well adjusted,” according to Price.

Faced with the choice between Compton's children and sharing a home, the couple has said they will reluctantly follow the order, though they believe it to be unconstitutional.

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I would not be surprised if the modern Democratic Party’s strategy is secretly being bankrolled by Eli Lilly as a ploy to sell Prozac to liberals.

In the latest example of this disconcerting trend, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) proposed an amendment to the Senate immigration markup that would arguably harm American workers. In fact, it wasn’t just Democrats and labor unions that opposed this amendment; Republican Sen. Charles Grassley also opposed the amendment. But Democrats nonetheless backed the change in order to woo Hatch’s committee vote. Meanwhile, not only was Hatch’s committee vote not needed to approve the bill but Hatch has explicitly said he may still not vote for the legislation unless other changes are made. In other words, Hatch got to water down the legislation and Democrats got, er, well… nothing.

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An affable Rumsfeld goes on to boast about his "civil rights record," but says he does not see marriage equality as part of a broader civil rights agenda.

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Affeldt discusses his struggle to overcome his anti-gay bias in a new memoir, "To Stir a Movement," and believes the diversity of his adopted city helped him through that process: "There's a chapter in there of me coming to San Francisco and being hesitant because I had homophobia, and now I don't," he told the Associated Press. "I see more San Francisco as a city of love and a city of passion and compassion. It's unbelievable this city. To see that and to have my heart change as a city I didn't ever want to come to, to a city that I'm so thankful I'm going to be part of for a long time, it talks about that. For me, it was an awesome deal."

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It was a very self-congratulatory affair, as each senator congratulated every other senator for their great legislative skill, their deeply held principles and their impressive civility. The markup deliberations were "courageous," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said, in reference to a bunch of people, mostly old dudes, carefully deciding exactly how awful they had to make an immigration bill before it could pass a Congress full of bigots, cynical fake-bigots and wingnuts. Even Ted Cruz was sort of civil as he hectored the committee for not passing his amendments, most of which were designed to ruin the bill. Everyone who opposes the bill, and those proposed amendments designed to sink it, had to say that they deeply wanted immigration reform to happen, it's just that they defined reform as "no citizenship plus a bigger fence." (Also everyone referred to the bill's authors as the "group of eight" and not a "gang.")

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The illustrated posters feature slogans like, "We won our right to marry, now it's time to defend our right! And we sure as hell aren't going to take shit from homophobes in the process!" and, "Some people dislike gays. Others dislike guns. We should not base our laws on personal dislikes."

A QR code on the ads directs curious readers to an anti–gun control website that calls armed self-defense a human right and offers quizzes with questions like:

The proper response to an arson is ...

1) prohibit you and other law-abiding citizens from buying gasoline.
2) prohibit you and other law-abiding citizens from buying any flammable fluids, matches and lighters.
3) prosecute the perpetrator of the crime.

As the Stranger reports, the campaign's origins remain something of a mystery:

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After analyzing census data, researchers found that 1 in 4 gay couples in Salt Lake City are parents.

The data isn't all that surprising if you put it into context, as researcher Gary J. Gates told Emily Alpert at the Los Angeles Times:

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Kaitlyn now faces two felony counts of "lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12 to 16 because of her consensual, same-sex relationship with a high school classmate, a freshman she met while both played on the varsity basketball team.

On Monday, her father, Steven Hunt Jr., wrote about the experience of having his daughter become the target of anti-gay discrimination and the very real possibility that Kaitlyn could go to prison simply for dating in high school:

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The latest, from FRC's Cathy Ruse, is a real doozy. In an editorial for Real Clear Religion, Ruse defends the ban by arguing that gay scouts are already welcome in the organization. That is, as long as they stay in the closet:

[An] important distinction has been lost in the current debate. The Boy Scouts’ long-standing policy does not, by its terms or in practice, exclude people who experience same-sex attraction. Rather, the prohibition is on “open and avowed” homosexuality, and it is that prohibition which will be lifted if the resolution passes.

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Keep setting an example for what it means to be a man. Be the best husband to your wife or your boyfriend or your partner. Be the best father you can be to your children. Because nothing is more important.

He went on to urge the students to "care about justice for everybody":

As Morehouse Men, many of you know what it’s like to be an outsider, know what it’s like to be marginalized, know what it’s like to feel the sting of discrimination. And that’s an experience that a lot of Americans share. Hispanic Americans know that feeling when somebody asks them where they come from or tell them to go back. Gay and lesbian Americans feel it when a stranger passes judgment on their parenting skills or the love that they share. Muslim Americans feel it when they’re stared at with suspicion because of their faith. Any woman who knows the injustice of earning less pay for doing the same work -- she knows what it’s like to be on the outside looking in.

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And yet Georgian police and government officials have been slow to condemn, and hold accountable, those responsible for the violent mob attack, as the New York Times reports:

On Friday evening, with crowds of men still roaming downtown Tbilisi in search of gays, [Georgia’s prime minister, Bidzina] Ivanishvili promised a quick response to the violence. Yet on Sunday, at a parade for a local police force, he made no mention of either arrests or an investigation. Instead, his comments celebrated the role of the police in preventing worse injuries to the marchers...

Zviad Koridze, a veteran local journalist at the Tbilisi-based Council of Ethics for Journalists, called the slow pace a reminder of the church’s influence.

“The government is acting very carefully, one could say ineffectively,” said Mr. Koridze in a telephone interview. “Everyone is simply waiting. Because in three days they should have made arrests and given some sort of answer to the events in Tbilisi.”

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Why? Because, in addition to coupons for Outback Steakhouse and discounts on prescription refills, the retiree organization's website has a page to provide "resources, news, and other topics of interest to older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, their family and friends."

As Zack Ford at ThinkProgress notes, LGBT adults and seniors face unique challenges later in life, like navigating Social Security benefits, estate taxes and other issues; AARP's resource center addresses those needs.

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Erin Hanson and Katie Pugh asked Pam Regentin of Fleur Cakes to provide the cake for their Mount Hood wedding, but were turned away after Regentin realized they were gay, as Pugh told KATU News: "I mentioned Erin in passing, and said a 'she' in passing too, in the email. A few days later she called back ... and verified it was a same-sex wedding."

Shortly after, Regentin told the couple she would not bake the cake.

Oregon law mandates that businesses provide "full and equal accommodations without any distinction on account of race, color, religion, sex, or sexual orientation," and a similar case is still being investigated by the state Labor Bureau.

As Salon has previously reported, bakeries have become an unlikely battleground in the equal marriage debate:

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The surgery was performed while the child (now aged eight, and who identifies as male) was in the state's care. The lawsuit, filed by the his adoptive parents Mark and Pam Crawford in partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center, accuses the Department of Social Services and others of performing a "dangerous and mutilating surgery" to "radically restructure [the child's] reproductive organs in order to make his body appear to be female" without medical justification.

As reported by NBC News affiliate WSFA:

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The victim's battered body was found in an apartment building Friday morning, with signs of having been burned and sexually assaulted.

Natalia Kunitskaya, a spokeswoman for the Volgograd branch of the Investigative Committee, told Agence France Presse that her agency believed the crime was motivated by the victim's sexuality. A 22-year-old and 27-year-old were detained in connection with the brutal assault.

As reported by AFP:

The Investigative Committee's tersely-worded statement said investigators had opened a murder probe, without commenting on possible motives for the killing.

The attack comes at a time when rights groups are already worried about growing discrimination against homosexuals as President Vladimir Putin seeks to play up traditional values in a bid to rally support during his third term in office...

Russian parliament is considering passing a controversial national law banning "homosexual propaganda" among minors. Critics say the bill's wording is so vague that it could be used to justify any kind of repression against gays.

The law is already in place in several regions including Saint Petersburg.

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