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.
– Appeals have been filed in the same-sex marriage cases in both Oklahoma and Ohio (death certificates).
– Schadenfreude: Duck Dynasty ratings are down upon the show’s return.
– The Utah State Tax Commission has announced that same-sex couples that married before December 31 can file their state taxes jointly.
– Massachusetts will join other states in recognizing Utah’s 1300+ same-sex marriages.
– This married binational same-sex couple has successfully obtained a green card.
– Opheila De’Lonta, the Virginia inmate fighting for gender reassignment surgery, has been granted parole.
– Houston Mayor Annise Parker has married her longtime partner Kathy Hubbard.
– Oklahoma pastor Paul Blair believes fighting marriage equality is the “same thing” as fighting slavery — it’s a Satanic endeavor to destroy America and introduce communism, views Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council was all too happy to promote.
– A church in Danville, Kentucky is trying to block nondiscrimination protections that haven’t even been introduced yet, distributing a flier comparing LGBT people to “thieves, liars, drunkards, or adulterers.”
– A Nigerian gay man has reportedly been punished for the crime of homosexuality with 20 lashings, avoiding a sentence of death by stoning.
– The President of Uganda has reportedly sent the “Kill The Gays” bill back to Parliament, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead yet.
– Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again promised that every athlete will be treated equally at the Sochi Olympics.
– U.S. figure skater Jeremy Abbott thinks Russia’s anti-gay laws are “incredibly unfortunate.”
– The New York Times highlights the marriage of Lewis Duckett and Billy Jones, grandfathers who finally tied the knot after 46 years together: