Last week, conservative groups held “National Marriage Week,” an attempt to amplify Christian messaging about marriage. Ironically, many of the pieces published for the occasion celebrated the many benefits of marriage, highlighting how the same groups’ opposition to same-sex marriage is in turn a cruel attack on the well-being of gays and lesbians. As part of the week’s messaging, The Heritage Foundation featured a letter from President Ronald Reagan to his son about marriage, then today posted the following graphic on its tumblr excerpting its final quote:

The quote is unfortunately sexist, given that it implies the man is working and the woman is waiting at home. But of course, its use is implicitly heterosexist as well. The Heritage Foundation opposes LGBT equality and regularly publishes arguments against recognizing same-sex marriage, so it would likely not be quick to celebrate the happiness of a gay man who knows he, too, has someone to come home to.

At any rate, however, progressives can agree with conservatives and President Reagan on the essential component of this quote: companionship is a healthy support structure for adults and the core foundation of families and communities.

A new Crain’s/Ipsos Illinois poll shows that opposition to marriage equality in the Land of Lincoln is at an all-time low. While 50 percent support the same-sex marriage bill advancing through the state legislature, only 29 percent are committed to opposing it, while another 20 percent don’t know or have mixed feelings. Supporters also support with more intensity (37 percent “strongly” favor passage) than opponents oppose (19 percent “strongly” disagree with the bill). The legislation passed the Illinois Senate on Valentine’s Day, and proponents are cautiously optimistic about passage in the House.

Two new polls released today show that the national momentum for supporting marriage equality continues.

The first poll, from the Respect for Marriage Coalition, found that American voters strongly support marriage equality, with 75 percent responding that the freedom to marry the person you love is a constitutional right. It seems clear that respondents appreciate the value of marriage equality, with 65 percent agreeing that it reflects offering “equal human dignity” to all people. And while 62 percent believe changing the law will have no impact on them, 83 percent believe that change will happen within the next decade. In sum, marriage equality is the right thing to do, poses no threat to society, and is coming soon.

The second poll, from the Center for American Progress and Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), further clarifies that voters see the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as discriminatory. The poll focused on Section 3 of DOMA, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, even when they’re legal in certain states. When the Supreme Court weighs the constitutionality of that law, the Justices might keep in mind that 59 percent oppose that law, with 62 percent agreeing that it is “discrimination. Though overall support for marriage equality hovers around 52 percent, much stronger majorities (69 – 78 percent) believe same-sex couples deserve the same benefits other married couples receive.

The infographic below features results from the DOMA poll:

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The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition marching for equality.

The Massachusetts Department of Education issued new guidance on Friday for how to respect transgender students and ensure their full safe inclusion in schools. The new directives reflect a 2011 law prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity and take a comprehensive look at the experience of trans people in the education system. Here are some of the recommendations:

• Respect students when they determine their own gender identity.
• Use the names and pronouns students have chosen for themselves.
• Protect the confidentiality of students’ identities in their records, making sure only to disclose a student’s identity when it will benefit the student.
• Adjust gender markers on student records to reflect students’ gender identities.
• Ensure students can access the restrooms, locker rooms, and changing facilities that correspond with their gender identity.
• Provide a safe alternative to sex-segregated restrooms, such as a single “unisex” restroom or nurse’s restroom.
• Work with students who feel uncomfortable having a trans student in their restroom or locker room to help foster their understanding of gender identity and a culture of respect and values.
• Allow students to participate in physical education and athletic activities in a manner consistent with their gender identity.
• Adjust dress codes, including for events like prom and graduation, to be gender-neutral.
• Incorporate education and training about trans and gender non-conforming into anti-bullying curriculum, students leadership trainings, and staff professional development.
• Help families and the community understand what it means to have a school with policies that are inclusive of gender identity.

Conservatives are already complaining that bathrooms need to remain segregated by genetic sex, but education department spokesman JC Considine explained that school restrooms are not public accommodations:

CONSIDINE: We’re talking about the use of school facilities by students who have no choice but to be in a school building. Kids have to have restroom access.

Indeed, kids need to have an environment where they can be respected for who they are, and these guidelines provide for just that.

A Subway sandwich shop in Angers, France shut down on Sunday after it outraged customers with a heterosexuals-only Valentine’s Day deal.

As the French legislature considers the merits of passing same-sex marriage equality, the owner of a local Subway franchise put his two cents into the debate by giving a 14 euro special to “H/F” — male and female — couples. The deal sparked so much anger the the shop actually closed its doors:

Also on the poster was an asterisk that read: “Discrimination (?) No, the marriage for all law has advanced, but has yet to be ratified by the Senate. Until then, I’ll use my freedom of expression.”[...]

A slew of angry customers responded to the ad on both Facebook and Twitter, and the official Twitter account of Subway in France responded on Friday saying: “We have been made aware of this poster and it has been immediately removed from the Subway in Angers.”

In an effort to calm the outrage, the company later tweeted: “We are committed to diversity/integration, we are working with the owner of the restaurant to reinforce our values/politics.”

France, as a nation, has turned its focus intensely toward marriage equality since French President François Hollande announced that it would be a major initiative of his administration. And the people of France clearly seem to side with Hollande over the Subway restaurateur; a recent poll showed that 63 percent of French people supported changing the law.

Mexico Minister Arturo Zaldívar Lelo de Larrea

In December, the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled that banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional and that decision was finally published on Monday. Writing on behalf of a unanimous court, Minister Arturo Zaldívar Lelo de Larrea actually cited two decisions by the United States Supreme Court, Loving v. Virginia and Brown v. Board of Education, to highlight other forms of discrimination that have been rebuked in law (translated from Spanish by BuzzFeed):

The historical disadvantages that homosexuals have suffered have been well recognized and documented: public harassment, verbal abuse, discrimination in their employment and in access to certain services, in addition to their exclusion to some aspects of public life. In this sense … when they are denied access to marriage it creates an analogy with the discrimination that interracial couples suffered in another era. In the celebrated case Loving v. Virginia, the United States Supreme Court argued that “restricting marriage rights as belonging to one race or another is incompatible with the equal protection clause” under the US constitution. In connection with this analogy, it can be said that the normative power of marriage is worth little if it does grant the possibility to marry the person one chooses. [...]

It can be said that the [other] models for recognition of same-sex couples, even if the only difference with marriage be the name given to both types of institutions, are inherently discriminatory because the constitute a regime of “separate but equal.” Like racial segregation, founded on the unacceptable idea of white supremacy, the exclusion of homosexual couples from marriage also is based on prejudice that historically has existed against homosexuals. Their exclusion from the institution of marriage perpetuates the notion that same-sex couples are less worthy of recognition than heterosexuals, offending their dignity as people.

This particular ruling will only apply to the three couples who filed suit, because the Mexico Supreme Court can only strike down a law after ruling the same way in five separate cases. Two more same-sex couples from the state of Oaxaca will have to file a similar suit, and then the process may also have to repeat in other states. Mexico City already offers same-sex marriages and the Supreme Court has also ruled that those marriages must be recognized in other states.

The Washington Blade notes that same-sex couples can already marry in Argentina, and progress is also being made in Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, and French Guiana.

Legendary music producer Clive Davis has come out as bisexual in his new memoir, The Soundtrack of My Life. The revelation was first reported by Rolling Stone and USA Today, but he expounded on his identity in an interview Monday night with Cynthia McFadden on ABC’s Nightline:

DAVIS: It’s not that the heavens opened up, but I realized in my case the most important thing — I’m relationship-oriented, and I would open my perspective, my life, my emotion, to have a relationship with a man as well as a woman. So when it comes to the pure subject of sex, when our marriage was over, I did through a period of having sex with two different women, and with a male. So for me, this very maligned, misunderstood subject of bisexuality came up.

MCFADDEN: It’s been said that people are either gay, straight, or lying.

DAVIS: Correct I’m not lying, and it exists. For over fifty years, I never had sex with a male. It wasn’t repressed, I had very good sexual relationships with women… I never felt shame, no, I never felt shame. I felt puzzled. The subject of bisexuality really needs much more discussion because the answer is it’s a status that does exist.

Watch the interview:

Davis has been in a relationship with a man for the last seven years, though he keeps his partner’s identity private.

Contrary to skepticism among both gay and straight people, studies have confirmed that bisexuality very much exists. In fact, bi people have experiences unique to their identities, but it’s that doubt in the validity of their identities that creates many challenges, which are often identified as “biphobia.”