A federal judge has ordered a Missouri school to cease blocking internet content that affirms LGBT people and educates about LGBT identities. The ACLU of Eastern Missouri had filed suit last summer on behalf of PFLAG and other LGBT groups against Camdenton R-III School District for using a website filtering software that blocked access to sites like the “It Gets Better” campaign, The Trevor Project, and the Gay Straight Alliance Network. Sites that condemn LGBT people and promote harmful ex-gay therapy were allowed, however, because they were categorized under “religion” instead of “sexuality.” The judge found that the school’s filter, URL Blacklist, constituted viewpoint discrimination and granted a preliminary injunction. From the ruling:

The record contains direct evidence that Camdenton intended to discriminate based on viewpoint. Superintended Hadfield agreed at the hearing that school board member John Beckett has expressed “concern with students accessing websites saying it’s okay to be gay.” At a public school board meeting, Mr. Beckett stated that “the amended policy may not have gone far enough,” and that he would like to require parental consent before allowing students to access these sites… These statements are direct evidence that Camdenton continued to use URL Blacklist, despite it being ineffective and falling below professional standards, out of an intent to continue to burden websites expressing a positive viewpoint toward LGBT individuals.

Camdenton has 30 days to discontinue its current internet-filter system to comply with the order. As this is only a preliminary injunction, the ACLU’s case against the district will still proceed. In addition, the group’s “Don’t Filter Me” campaign continues to reach out to school districts across the country and encourages them to adjust their settings so as not to censor LGBT-friendly resources.

To say that Maryland Delegate Sam Arora (D) has struggled with marriage equality is an understatement. When he campaigned for office in 2010, Equality Maryland endorsed him because he indicated support for marriage equality, and he even co-sponsored the legislation when it was first introduced last year. But when it came time to vote, Arora wavered and ultimately conceded that he opposed marriage equality and only wanted to support civil unions.

But now the question has come back around, and the stakes are high for Arora. The Maryland House of Delegates is set to begin debate on marriage equality legislation today with a vote by tomorrow, and at last count, the bill is one vote short of passage. Sam Arora could be that savior of marriage equality — and likely be forgiven his trespasses — but only if he is able to realize that he only stands to benefit by doing the right thing.

Jay Hutchins was one of Arora’s Democratic primary challengers in 2010. In an interview with ThinkProgress today, Hutchins — who intends to run again in 2014 —warned Arora that his constituents support marriage equality, which he agreed is a “civil rights issue”:

HUTCHINS: I know people in District 19 very well, and what I’m hearing is that people are extremely supportive, and the sentiment is that the entire Montgomery County delegation should vote for it… I’m ashamed marriage equality hasn’t happened yet in Maryland. We’ll look back and view it the same way we view other discrimination laws in the past and wonder, “How could that be?”

As John Aravosis points out, Arora has a lot to gain politically by collaborating with Gov. Martin O’ Malley (D) and his party, but Arora’s opportunity to side with the future rather than the past extends far beyond Maryland politics. A rising tide lifts all boats, and as LGBT equality advances, every politician has to decide whether to sink or swim with it.  The past year has yielded huge milestones for same-sex couples, including majority support for marriage rights, plus advances in New York, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, and Washington. And supporting the LGBT community has been good for politicians — the Republicans who supported New York’s marriage equality law last year are actually seeing huge increases to their campaign fundraising.

Supporting marriage equality is good for Arora’s constituents, good for his state and country, and most importantly, good for his own career. He has a second chance to make the right choice, and he has everything to gain if he makes it.

Prominent Rick Santorum backer Bob Vander Plaats of Iowa’s The FAMiLY Leader is urging “Gov. Terry Branstad to remove his title from the upcoming Iowa Governor’s Conference on LGBTQ Youth in an open letter Tuesday, and invited Branstad to instead partner with his socially conservative group in hosting a more ‘comprehensive’ anti-bullying conference.”

Vander Plaats pressed his case during an appearance on WHO’s Jan Mickelson radio show last week, where he poked fun at “questioning” LGBT youth and suggested that the moniker is meant to recruit young people into homosexuality:

VANDER PLAATS: I know we laugh at the Q category, the questioning. But to me, somebody who has studied leadership enough, that is their growth agenda!

MICKELSON: I never figured out, now I understand what mom said, mind your Ps and Qs! Where are you going to pee? Not where the Qs are!

VANDER PLAATS: [Laughs] Oh, this has gone way off track. But Jan, you know, the Q/Ps is really one of the disturbing items to me as an educator because it’s a growth agenda. If you’re not lesbian, if you’re not gay, if you’re not bisexual, if you’re not transgender, matter of fact, if you just don’t know who you are. If you’re a Q, if you’re questioning — come to this conference and it’s all about promoting an agenda.

Listen:

The FAMiLY Leader has its own long history of anti-gay and anti-Muslim rhetoric. An early version of the group’s fidelity pledge suggested that children were better off under slavery than they are under Obama, and the document likens homosexuality to polygamy, adultery, or polyandry, attacks gays as a public health risk, and foments the non-existent “Sharia” threat to America. Vander Plaats himself led a successful campaign to oust three state Supreme Court justicies who overturned Iowa’s anti-gay marriage law and played in instrumental part and leading Mike Huckabee to victory in Iowa in 2008.

Vander Plaats’ endorsement of Santorum on the eve of the Iowa caucuses produced a backlash among conservatives in Iowa, some of whom accused the FAMiLY LEADER president of engaging in “pay for play” schemes and selling his coveted support to the highest bidder. Santorum admitted that Vander Plaats approached the campaign with an indirect solicitation of money to help promote his support, but other sources familiar with the talks between Vander Plaats and GOP candidates characterized the tactics as “corrupt.”

Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) is urging young voters in New Jersey to “reach out” to Gov. Chris Christie (R) on the issue of marriage equality, just days after signing legislation legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington State.

Gregoire has written a letter to Christie detailing her own evolution on the issue as a practicing Catholic and asked the New Jersey lawmaker to “please give me a call” to discuss the matter. Christie has thus far ignored the correspondence and pledged to swiftly veto the same-sex marriage bill making its way through New Jersey’s legislature in order to “move on to the things the people of New Jersey say are most important to them.”

“I have not heard from [Christie],” Gregoire told Michael Castner of Wall Street Journal’s The Daily Wrap in an interview yesterday, but suggested that young people could still convince the governor to change his mind:

CASTNER: Do you think you’re going to hear from him? Do you think there is any change of heart he may have?

GREGOIRE: You know, I dont know, now that he has been as adamant as he has been, but I do know what really reached me and that is the younger generation who really have fundamentally come to believe that this is the civil rights issue of their generation. Much like my generation so racial equality as the civil rights issue of my generation, we’re by no means done. So, if the younger generation of the state could reach out to him, I think that that would probably be the most effective way to do it.

Listen:

Gregoire also responded to Christie’s suggestion that the state is too busy with economic issues to focus on same-sex marriage legislation, noting, “We multi-task all the time. And surely we put equality as a priority in whatever legislative session we’re in and whatever time we’re in, but I know that now is the time for us.”

The New Jersey Senate passed the measure earlier this week and the Assembly is expected to take up the marriage bill on Thursday.