Welcome to The Morning Pride, ThinkProgress LGBT’s daily round-up of the latest in LGBT policy, politics, and some culture too! Here’s what we’re reading this morning, but please let us know what stories you’re following as well. Follow us all day on Twitter at @TPEquality.
Margaret Miles and Cathy ten Broeke were the first same-sex couple to marry in Minnesota at midnight.
CREDIT: @StribRoper
– Marriage equality officially takes effect today in Minnesota and Rhode Island. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (DFL) has declared it “Freedom to Marry Day.” BuzzFeed has a round-up of photos from the midnight marriages in Minnesota.
– A new bipartisan campaign has launched to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
– A nearly decade-old case challenging Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage is now advancing.
– Wednesday’s “Ex-Gay Pride” event drew less than ten people, but that didn’t stop them from cheering, “Hip hip hurray for ex-gays.”
– Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office has informed Gov. Tom Corbett (R), “It is not your job to tell the Office of Attorney General… what its duties and obligations are.”
– Pennsylvania state Sen. Daylin Leach, an outspoken supporter of marriage equality, solemnized one of the same-sex marriages offered in Montgomery County this week.
– The Patriot-News investigates the challenges of being transgender in central Pennsylvania.
– How do smells impact people’s perceptions of homosexuality?
– Tim Gunn talks about his experiences being bullied: