We fight hard for our love to be respected equally, but it’s important that we take time to cherish that love too. Happy Valentine’s Day from the entire ThinkProgress team.

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The Department of the Interior is celebrating Valentine’s Day today with a video of various couples proposing marriage at national parks and landmarks across the country. The couple features several same-sex couples, including U.S. Marine Corps Captain Matthew Phelps, who historically proposed to his partner Ben Schock inside the White House. Enjoy this sweet tribute to the country’s public lands and the many lives they’ve impacted:

As expected, the Illinois Senate has sent a very sweet Valentine to same-sex couples by approving marriage equality legislation with a vote of 34-21 (plus 2 voting “present”). Before passage, an amendment was added to the bill carving out an exception allowing churches to not have their facilities used in the solemnization or celebration of a same-sex wedding. The bill now heads to the House where it also has strong support from the Democratic majority. Though the Catholic Church and conservative evangelical groups oppose the bill, polling shows that most Illinois voters support marriage equality. Gov. Pat Quinn (D) is committed to signing the bill into law, which will make Illinois the 10th state granting same-sex couples the freedom to marry.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), lead signature on the letter.

A coalition of 37 U.S. Senators who support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) have signed a letter calling on President Obama to take action now to protect LGBT people from being fired for their identities. Though ENDA faces Republican obstruction in Congress, Obama could still sign an executive order requiring that federal contractors not discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Hopes were high that he would address either ENDA or an executive order in his State of the Union, but he did not specifically mention either.

In the Senators’ letter, they describe the executive order as “a matter of basic fairness”:

Issuing an Executive Order that includes sexual orientation and gender identity is a critical step that you can take today toward ending discrimination in the workplace. According to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation and gender identity would extend equal workplace rights to more than 16 million workers, and would help ensure that they are not forced into the ranks of the unemployed based solely on their sexual orientation or gender identity. But doing so would also serve another important purpose, one that is always on our minds as appropriators of American’s taxpayer dollars, namely, making the most efficient use of federal government resources. [...]

Of course, making this important change is also a matter of basic fairness. Unfortunately, there are many examples of why issuing an Executive Order is so critically needed. Despite advances in many American workplaces, rates of discrimination against LGBT people remain high. Research shows that up to 43 percent of LGB people and 90 percent of transgender people report having experienced some form of workplace discrimination.

The Obama administration has claimed that it would prefer a legislation option, but has not explained why it refuses to act on the executive order.

As the Illinois Senate prepares to vote on marriage equality today, Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute, an anti-gay hate group, has published another screed against same-sex marriage. Her concern, as per usual, is that children will learn gay people exist and have families, but she also writes about how upset she is that gay people are even being hired as teachers:

Public schools will be hiring teachers who are in legal “homosexual marriages.” These teachers will put photos of their homosexual spouses on their desks and talk about their homosexual spouses to their students. Such images and ideas coming from teachers whom children love and admire will powerfully shape the feelings and beliefs of young boys and girls, particularly when such images and ideas are reinforced countless times in other cultural contexts. Such images and ideas will undermine what is being taught at home.

Some will argue that schools are already hiring teachers in homosexual relationships, so the legalization of same-sex marriage won’t change anything. They are only partly correct. Although schools are, unfortunately, already hiring teachers in homosexual relationships, once the government recognizes homosexual unions as marriages, administrators and school boards—particularly in elementary schools—will have the social stigma that makes them reluctant to hire teachers in homosexual unions knocked out from under them. And this, of course, is the chief motivation for homosexuals to pursue same-sex marriage when they already have all the benefits and privileges of marriage through Illinois’ civil union law.

As Jeremy Hooper points out, the question of gay teachers was settled decades ago and even Ronald Reagan opposed the Briggs Initiative to ban gay teachers in California. But given Higgins’ penchant for candid homophobia, her objection to gay teachers is perhaps not as surprising as her delusion that her argument has anything to do with same-sex marriage.

First, there seems to be little foundation for her argument that schools have “social stigma that makes them reluctant to hire teachers in homosexual unions.” There are gay teachers everywhere teaching at all grades without controversy. And even in states that don’t recognize same-sex marriage, surely many of those teachers have a spouse or partner’s picture on their desk anyway. Higgins is arguing that gay people want marriage equality so that they have a better chance at getting hired as teachers. That’s not just wrong and loaded with offense, it just doesn’t even make sense. Refreshingly, she’s at least not arguing that all gays are pedophiles, like most of her conservative allies.

David Crary

Earlier this week, the Associated Press released new style guidance that individuals in same-sex marriages should generally not be referred to as “husbands” or “wives,” but instead of “partners” or “couples.” No explanation has been offered as to why the AP decided that same-sex marriages just didn’t deserve the same language as opposite-sex marriages, but one reporter isn’t tolerating it. New York-based reporter David Crary has said he will happily violate the new rule:

The AP style guidance will have no effect on how I write about legally married same-sex couples. I will continue to depict them on equal terms, linguistically and otherwise, with heterosexual married couples, with no hesitation about using husband and wife in the cases where that’s the appropriate term.

It’s unclear if his editors will follow suit, unfortunately. The guidance presents a tough choice: Should reporters follow the rule or write what is factually correct? A man who is married is his spouse’s husband, and a woman who is married is her spouse’s wife, and nothing AP can say will change that.

This week’s episode of the sitcom Mike & Molly featured an unfortunate “joke” at the expense of transgender people. In the scene, Mike is talking with Carl, his police partner and best friend, about his history of picking up downtrodden women:

CARL: It’s been a long time since I’ve trolled for bus pass ass.

MIKE: (Laughing) Not since the shemale incident of ’08.  You spent the whole night crying and gargling!

CARL: Learned a lot of lessons that night.

Not only is the term “shemale” incredibly offensive, the clear implication of the scene is that being with a person who is trans is both traumatic and disgusting. Humor at the direct expense of a group of people, especially one so targeted for discrimination and violence, is not humor at all.

GLAAD has reached out to CBS, a network that has struggled to depict LGBT people fairly and that often uses trans people as the punchline for “jokes”:

This morning, GLAAD spoke with CBS’s Vice President of Diversity & Communications who is discussing the issues directly with the show.  CBS has also committed to meeting with GLAAD staff to discuss the offensive scene, as well as a number of other incidents on CBS comedies and dramas in the past year that increasingly add up to a disturbing trend.  GLAAD is calling on CBS to put an end to anti-trans content for the sake of a laugh and to treat trans issues with greater sensitivity.

Hopefully CBS offers a thoughtful response and finds a way to incorporate more respectful and authentic portrayals of all LGBT people.