A new poll conducted by the University of Washington Center for Survey Research found voters in Washington “would support a state gay marriage law if it’s approved by the Legislature.” “Of voters surveyed, 55 percent indicated they would uphold a Legislature-approved same-sex marriage law if it were challenged by referendum,” while 38 percent said they would oppose the law. Similarly 44 percent agreed that “gays and lesbian couples should have the same legal right ot marry as straight couples.” Some of the results:

Several lawmakers have said that they might pursue marriage equality legislation in January of 2012.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) was booed during a speech at the Gerold Ford School of Public Policy, at the University of Michigan this afternoon for opposing marriage equality. Asked how he reconciled his advocacy for states rights with support for the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act — which prohibits the federal government from recognizing marriages performed in states that allow same-sex unions — Cantor replied, “I just believe in traditional marriage between a man and a woman.”

Some audience members booed the Virginia Republican and shouted, “what about liberty?” and “none of your business!” One man engaged directly with Cantor:

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I’m gay, you’re not for my family, am I in your bedroom?

CANTOR: Well, I would again say that, we all no matter what we are — who we are, what the background of this country, should allow for equal opportunity to earn the success that we’re after.

The audience pressed, “answer the question,” but Cantor just moved on. Watch it:

Several Occupy Wall Street advocates also protested Cantor’s speech by turning standing up and turning their backs to the podium as he spoke. Several wore LGBT-equality T-Shirts.

Our guest blogger is Crosby Burns, special assistant for the LGBT Research and Communications Project at American Progress.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) implemented a new policy that “strongly encourages” companies that contract with the agency to implement and enforce comprehensive nondiscrimination policies on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. While this policy change is not mandatory, it sends a strong signal to existing and prospective USAID contractors to adopt workplace protections that would shield the LGBT workforce from employment discrimination. This administrative move comes at a time when the LGBT population continues to face high rates of discrimination at all levels of employment.

USAID is likely the first agency to encourage federal contractors to include sexual orientation and gender identity in their nondiscrimination policies, building on existing regulations that require nearly all federal contractors (not just USAID contractors) and subcontractors to have employment nondiscrimination policies that include race, religion, color, sex, and national origin. Sexual orientation and gender identity are currently absent from this list of requirements — and should not be.

Fortunately, American voters and businesses support these protections. Earlier this year, a CAP poll found that 73 percent of likely 2012 voters would extend federal employment protections to the LGBT workforce, including 74 percent of Independents, and 66 percent of Republicans. The same poll concluded that 63 percent of small businesses back the effort and the overwhelming majority report that the cost of compliance is minimal. As a result, 89 percent of Fortune 500 companies have already adopted policies that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and 43 percent protect their workers on the basis of gender identity.

In this economy, nobody should be forced out of a job for non-work related factors such as sexual orientation and gender identity. Policy changes that seek to protect LGBT employees are no longer just a civil rights concern, but should also be included in any pro-jobs legislative agenda.

A new report from Equality Matters shows that Fox News has repeatedly favored coverage of those who are anti-gay or who oppose anti-bullying efforts, all but ignoring stories about actual anti-gay bullying. In fact, Fox News only ran one segment discussing the recent suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer,  who was bullied for being gay, while CNN and MSNBC dedicated extensive coverage to his story:

The network has regularly ignored LGBT news, including thepassage of marriage equality in New York, the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and the its implementation.

Richard Cohen demonstrated some of his ex-gay therapy techniques for CNN.

Richard Cohen is one of the most public purveyors of reparative ex-gay therapy, promoting and lecturing about the scientifically-unsound belief that gays and lesbians can change their sexual orientation. The American Counseling Association permanently expelled Cohen in 2002, but his bizarre reparative techniques have attracted mainstream media attention from outlets like CNN and MSNBC.

On Friday, Cohen’s counseling organization, the International Healing Foundation (IHF), announced that it was offering a “sincere, heartfelt apology to everyone in the LGBTQ community,” and shifting its focus from “Change Is Possible” to “Coming Out Loved”:

Beginning today, IHF’s doors are wide open to everyone in the LGBTQ and straight communities. The new mission, “Coming Out Loved,” is the catalyst of true tolerance, real diversity, and equality for all. IHF staff will assist anyone who is conflicted about their sexuality and other challenging issues that arise for many in the gay community. [...]

Cohen asserts everyone should be loved and accepted for who they are. “By opening our doors to everyone in the LGBTQ and straight communities, we are expanding upon our mission and broadening the scope of our services,” he says.

Unfortunately, nothing at IHF seems to have actually changed. In fact, despite the sugar-coated rebranding, the organization is still promoting services geared toward people with “unwanted same-sex attractions,” citing NARTH guidelines and Cohen’s absurd mythology about the “causes” of same-sex attraction. NARTH is the National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, a disavowed organization of mostly religious leaders that promotes the idea sexual orientation can be changed, in defiance of all reputable research.

If IHF is still promoting these harmful ideas to clients, then the organization is perhaps more dangerous than ever with its new duplicitous branding. The fact that Cohen’s apology did not specifically address the harm done by reparative therapy is telling. Ex-gay survivor Peterson Toscano has been recently wrestling with the “apology” of another ex-gay leader, John Smid. He suggests that if these individuals wish to recant the harm they’ve done to the gay community and make amends, “they need to speak to their own people and leave queer folks alone.”

Rick Perry endorsed efforts to repeal New Hampshire’s same-sex marriage law on Friday, during an awkward and uncomfortable address to the anti-gay group Cornerstone Action. “As conservatives we believe in the sanctity of life. We believe in the sanctity of traditional marriage,” Perry was quoted as saying. “And I applaud those legislators in New Hampshire who are working to defend marriage as an institution between one man and one woman, realizing that children need to be raised in a loving home by a mother and a father.” Watch some moments from the speech:

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to approve a measure that would eliminate the law and enact civil unions. The full House is expected to take up the issue in January, despite overwhelming public opposition to repeal.

Cornerstone is leading the charge against marriage equality and is closely linked to anti-gay groups like the Alliance Defense Fund, the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, and the National Organization for Marriage. The group has also “endorsed discredited ‘ex-gay’ therapy groups such as Exodus International, Love Won Out, PFOX, and the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH).”

The self-described “education reform” group StudentsFirst, headed up by former Washington, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, has recently forayed into pro-LGBT and anti-bullying activism. It filmed its own “It Gets Better” video and also opened up its blog for anti-bullying activism. The four most recent blog entries on its site are all about these issues:

StudentsFirst’s pro-LGBT activism is both welcome and needed. The bullying of LGBT youth is a national shame and it will take as diverse a movement as possible to battle it. However, as Daily Kos’s Laura Clawson and AMERICABlog’s John Aravosis point out, Rhee’s group is spending $70,000 to defend GOP Michigan Rep. Paul Scott against a potential recall election, and Scott is rabidly anti-gay. Scott even campaigned on making it a “priority” to stop transgender individuals from changing their sex on their driver’s license:

While running for State Representative, Scott criticized his opponent for accepting donations from gay rights groups. He called those groups “far left and radical homosexual groups.” While running for Secretary of State, the Republican was criticized for gay baiting by the Log Cabin Republicans. He emailed supporters listing his top four priorities which included: “I will make it a priority to ensure transgender individuals will not be allowed to change the sex on their driver’s license in any circumstance.”

Yes, that should help get the economy back on its feet. During the same Secretary of State race, according to Log Cabin, “Scott touted the support of Former Bush 2004 Michigan Social Conservative Outreach Chair, Bill Voorheis, who hunts people down at conventions and other GOP functions to confront them about their supposed homosexuality.”

It is outrageous that StudentsFirst would, on the one hand, engage in positive LGBT rights activism, and on the other hand, sink tens of thousands of dollars into a legislator who openly derides LGBT people and uses anti-LGBT rhetoric as a political weapon.

A day after the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) filed suit upon behalf of gay troops whose partners do not have access to spousal benefits, the Pentagon has released a memo identifying 14 benefits that gay servicemembers can access. Six of these benefits are “new” since the guidelines originally released upon the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, including allowing same-sex partners to attend Yellow Ribbon Reintegration events. The full list includes:

– Service Members Group Life Insurance beneficiary;

– Post Vietnam-era Veterans Assistance Program beneficiary;

– All-volunteer Force Educational Assistance Program – Active Duty Death Benefit beneficiary;

– Death Gratuity beneficiary;

– Final Settlement of Accounts;

– Wounded Warrior Designated Caregiver;

– Thrift Savings Plan beneficiary;

– Survivor Benefit for retirees;

– Casualty Notification;

– Escorts for Dependents of Deceased or Missing;

– Designation of Persons Having Interest in Status of a Missing Member;

– Veterans’ Group Life Insurance beneficiary;

– Person Eligible to Receive Effects of Deceased Persons; and

– Travel and Transportation Allowance: attendance at Yellow Ribbon Reintegration events.

Notably missing from the list are central issues in the Defense of Marriage Act lawsuit, including the extension of health benefits to spouses, allowing non-military spouses access to health services for their children, and the ability for same-sex families to live together on base. In fact, Aubrey Sarvis, SLDN’s executive director, points out that “the benefits outlined today were, in fact, available even before the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) vehemently opposes LGBT equality at every turn, but today went so far as to call marriage equality “a threat to the nation’s survival.” This fear-mongering rivals that of Oklahoma state Rep. Sally Kern (R), who has repeatedly compared the LGBT community to terrorists. In his comments today to the Family Research Council, an anti-gay hate group, he suggested that marriage is a “special right” just for heterosexuals and that somehow marriage equality would eliminate the “launching pad of the next generation,” insinuating that society would die out as a result. Right Wing Watch has the full account:

FRANKS: We understand that when we’re granting the rights of marriage, that that’s a special right Tony, that’s something we have suggested is clearly the best possible way to see children raised through the best possible environment to launch the next generation, we believe that with all of our hearts as a society, I think most people understand that. So we’ve set aside this special area of the law that says we’re going to respect traditional marriage of a man and a woman because that is the launching pad of the next generation. Let’s face it; we have made a special exception in the law that gives special consideration and recognition to that.

And when people would come along and blur that distinction and say ‘well that should apply in every way’ it not only is a complete undermining of the principles of family and marriage and the hope of future generations but it completely begins to see our society break down to the extent that that foundational unit of the family that is the hope of survival of this country is diminished to the extent that it literally is a threat to the nation’s survival in the long run.

Listen to it: