"A lot of my hair stylists and my beauty team that I work with are gay so I hang out with gays a lot, and I just think they're absolutely thrilling and adorable and hilarious." - Britney Spears

Let the nuptials commence: The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just formally lifted its stay on gay marriage, opening the door for thousands of same-sex couples in California to get hitched.

Barry West, a commissioner for Coffee County, Tennessee, apparently thinks there's only one appropriate way to wink at a Muslim, and it involves a double-barreled shotgun. He posted the above image to his Facebook timeline...where Muslim activists found it. And West's home phone number.

Camping, crafts, and uniforms have always held a special allure for some kids; too bad the main sponsor of those activities, the Boy Scouts of America, excludes gays, atheists, and girls.

Making matters worse, Roger Gorley says he now has a restraining order preventing him from visiting his partner at all.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz made news last week after reportedly telling shareholder Tom Strobhar "fuck you!" - not in so many words - after Strobhar questioned Schultz on the company's support for marriage equality, suggesting that he simply sell his shares if he didn't like Starbucks' stance on the issue.

Looking to grab a piece of pizza with extra "slut sauce" from Mikey's Late Night Slice truck, Joel Diaz and his friend Ethan got in line with the rest of the after-hours set.

The Mayans may not have been too far off predicting the end of the world in just 15 days, because today the Mormon church announced that it is softening its stance on homosexuality.

The Washington state Senate voted 28 in favor (including four Republicans) to 21 against late Wednesday evening to pass a bill legalizing gay marriage. The bill now goes to the House, where it's expected to pass, and Governor Chris Gregoire has already said she will sign it. So basically, the hard part is over and gay and lesbian couples will be able to get married by June unless crabby homophobes can muster around 120,000 signatures before that time to force a referendum.

We truly are living in a new era of sexual equality. Guanabee points us to this VLADTV interview with Fat Joe, who at least began his career as a no-joke hardcore New York gangster rapper. In response to a question about whether he think he's ever done a song with a gay rapper, he responds "Yes," and shrugs off the whole thing: "Niggas is gay. There's millions of gay people in the world. Girls too... I'm a fan of 'Yo, I'm gay. The fuck.' Like, 2011 you gotta hide that you're gay? Like, you know what I'm saying, like, be real, like 'Yo I'm gay, what the fuck.' If you gay you gay. Like that's your preference, you know? Fuck it if the people don't like it."

Holly Van Voast (pictured, center) is a woman with a bold name and an equally bold cause: breasts, breasts, breasts. Holly Van Voast's breasts, specifically. In public! In a courtroom! Breasts everywhere, for all!

In sleepy Raleigh, North Carolina sits Peace College—not a hippie school, as you would suspect, but a women's college, which is basically the same thing. But not for long! Peace has announced plans to let dudes attends. But, as a compromise, they will remain segregated in classes. Way to satisfy no one at all!

For too long, Hispanic Americans have been forced to tolerate a world in which artificial food products were not advertised to them with satisfactory ferocity. No longer. You Spanish-speakin' people want some dang Kool Aid? We gotcher Kool Aid!

Funny thing, about America: we think things should be pretty equal, money-wise. We're not so into huge gaps between rich and poor. But when we learn massive inequality exists, what do we do? Nothing! We're also selfish, in America.

Today Facebook added "in a civil union" and "in a domestic partnership" to its array of relationship statuses that already include "single," "married," and the ever popular "it's complicated." Personally I'm waiting until they add "in a throuple."

Regarding the other ballot measure you were all wondering about: voters in the 3rd Berkshire District in Pittsfield, Massachusetts rejected a proposal to allow women to walk around topless in public. Their reasoning, though, was odd.

Like all great things meant for nerds, Futurama, especially this season, has dealt with a lot of issues of equality and acceptance. On the 100th episode tonight, mutants finally gained theirs (Leela included) with an old fashioned sewer march.

The women of Maine are sick of men being allowed to take off their shirts on hot days, while women must keep their chests, with associated ornaments, hidden. A couple of dozen just staged a topless march about it.

Women will likely be allowed to serve (but not to smoke) on submarines starting in April. That joke—"What's long and hard and full of seamen?"—now goes, "What's long and hard and full of seamen and women?" [LAT]

A nonprofit group called Commercial Closet is trying to persuade the ad industry to be less stereotypical when it comes to portraying LGBT issues (THE GAYS). That would mean not making ads like that one Nike ad with the balls in the face or that other Snickers ad with Mr. T and the gun aimed at the possibly gay individual. Considering how much progress the ad industry has made with the race issue, we'd bet on South Carolina levels of sensitivity for the foreseeable future. Keep your gay cooties out of Bill O'Reilly's mayonnaise, homos. [Ad Age]