Read the U.S. government's brief asking the Supreme Court to allow gay couples to marry

From the White House:

STATEMENT BY ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER ON THE U.S. GOVERNMENT’S FILING IN HOLLINGSWORTH v. PERRY
 

WASHINGTON – Attorney General Eric Holder issued the following statement today on the U.S. government’s filing in Hollingsworth v. Perry:
 
“In our filing today in Hollingsworth v. Perry, the government seeks to vindicate the defining constitutional ideal of equal treatment under the law.  Throughout history, we have seen the unjust consequences of decisions and policies rooted in discrimination. The issues before the Supreme Court in this case and the Defense of Marriage Act case are not just important to the tens of thousands Americans who are being denied equal benefits and rights under our laws, but to our Nation as a whole.” 

Click here to read the brief

President Obama to urge Supreme Court to overturn California's gay marriage ban

BY JULIE PACE AND MARK SHERMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration on Thursday will ask the Supreme Court to overturn California's ban on gay marriage and take a skeptical view of similar bans, according to a person familiar with the government's legal filing in the case.

The brief in the California Proposition 8 case does not call for marriage equality across the United States, but it does point the court in that direction.

The justices should subject laws that discriminate on sexual orientation to extra rigorous review, according to the filing. Such a standard of increased scrutiny would imperil other state bans on same-sex marriage.

The administration also contends that denying gays and lesbians the right to marry violates the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.

Click here for updates.

2017 World Outgames to be in Miami Beach/Miami

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, [email protected]

The 2017 World OutGames will be held in Miami Beach/Miami, the Gay and Lesbian International Sport Association (GLISA) announced Thursday.

"We did it!" local committee member Cindy Brown posted on her Facebook page from Antwerp, Belgium, where the 2013 games will be played July 31-Aug. 11.

Brown and several other South Florida representatives traveled to Belgium for the GLISA announcement.

"We won!" committee member Jerry Torres boasted on Facebook.

Five cities applied for the 2017 games: Miami Beach/Miami; Reykjavík, Iceland, which came in second place; Denver; Rio de Janeiro; and Rome.

The World OutGames, an international event, could attract tens of thousands of LGBT visitors to South Florida, organizers predict. According to the GLISA website, OutGames expects to attract up to a quarter-million athletes, attendees and visitors during a 10-day period.

Organizers have said the plan to hold the event in South Florida during the 2017 Memorial Day holiday week, overlapping busy Urban Beach Weekend, if it’s still around.

The group is working with University of Miami to provide sporting faculties and dormitory space, organizers say.

Gallery and video | 'Les Mis' cast members hold 'Guns of the Barricade' boot camp at Steel Gym

• View a gallery of photos from the workout

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, [email protected]

Even if you're a Broadway dancer in top shape, it's not easy looking good and staying fit when you're on the road with a show like Les Misérables.

"Touring is a difficult life because you’re constantly moving," said Trinity Wheeler, production stage manager for the Les Mis touring company, playing through Sunday at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami.

"It's not like you can go to a grocery store and have a kitchen and cook the foods that you want and have a consistent workout schedule. We created something that is consistent for the cast," said Wheeler, who is also a certified trainer. "Eating out every meal and stuff can be challenging to stay healthy. Being healthy and on tour is a goal we all try to accomplish."

Thursday morning, Wheeler held a “Guns of the Barricade” boot camp at Steel Gym in Wilton Manors. The workout session allows cast members and others to stay in shape while they're on the road, Wheeler said.

The Les Mis touring company has 89 people who travel with the show: cast members, crew and musicians.

"It’s a large group of people that have this nomadic lifestyle," Wheeler said. "Having fitness incorporated into it, you feel better, you wake up, have more energy. It’s been really great for us as individuals, but also for the show."

Among the touring cast members: Wheeler's partner, Alan Shaw, who plays Joly. The couple own a house in Fort Lauderdale's Poinsettia Heights neighborhood.

"Les Mis is three hours long and we do eight shows a week. I realized early on because I’ve been with the show over two years now that if I don’t take care of my body and if I don’t eat right and if I don’t really stay on top of it, I can’t do eight shows a week," Shaw said. "We’re onstage in front of 2,000 people on average every night. You have to look your best. It’s part of our job."

Click here for a gallery of pictures from the workout session.

Poll: California gay marriage support at 61 percent

ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO -- A new poll shows that a record 61 percent of Californians now approve of allowing same-sex couples to marry.

The Field Poll found 78 percent support among people 39 and younger and 56 percent of middle-aged residents now back gay marriage. Even among senior citizens there is 48 percent support.

The overall results represent a reversal in views in the 36 years the Field Poll has been taking surveys on gay marriage. When the first survey was conducted in 1977, only 28 percent approved of gay marriage, while 59 percent were opposed.

The most recent survey found broad-based support, with the majority of most subgroups within the survey saying they favor gay marriage - men and women, all racial and ethnic groups, and each major region of the state.

Mississippi town stunned by slaying of gay mayoral candidate Marco McMillian

BY HOLBROOK MOHR, ASSOCIATED PRESS

JACKSON, Miss. -- Whatever his prospects for winning the coming mayoral election in his hometown of Clarksdale, Miss., Marco McMillian was considered by many to be a man on the rise. So word spread fast when his SUV was involved in a wreck this week, and he was nowhere to be found.

The discovery of the openly gay candidate's body near a Mississippi River levee Wednesday stunned residents of Clarksdale, a Blues mecca in the flatlands of the Mississippi Delta.

Authorities were investigating McMillian's death as a homicide, and said a person of interest was in custody, but released few other details.

Click here to read more.

Famed classical pianist Van Cliburn dies at 78; Times reports he lived 'a discreet homosexual life'

Famed American classical pianist Van Cliburn died Wednesday at age 78, at the home he shared with Thomas L. Smith, according to The New York Times.

From The Times obit:

As a young man, Mr. Cliburn was briefly linked romantically with a soprano classmate from Juilliard. But even then he was living a discreet homosexual life. His discreetness was relaxed considerably in 1966 when, at 32, he met Thomas E. Zaremba, who was 19.

The Times then reports how in 1995 Zaremba sued Cliburn for millions of dollars in palimony. The suit was dismissed because the former couple had nothing in writing to support their domestic partnership, according to
The Times.

The Associated Press obituary doesn't mention Cliburn's sexual orientation or his partners:

BY ANGELA K. BROWN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Van Cliburn, the internationally celebrated pianist whose triumph at a 1958 Moscow competition helped thaw the Cold War and launched a spectacular career that made him the rare classical musician to enjoy rock-star status, died Wednesday after a fight with bone cancer. He was 78.

Cliburn died at his home in Fort Worth surrounded by loved ones, said his publicist and longtime friend Mary Lou Falcone.

Click here to read more.

Grindr for Equality promotes upcoming documentary about LGBT people in Jamaica

Posted to Facebook by Grindr for Equality:

Common Good Productions needs help telling the important story of GLBT citizens in Jamaica and their daily struggles. Stories like this can have the power to change a social dialogue and could help people that deal with extreme hatred daily. Watch the trailer for yourself and if you are able, please donate.

Businesses including Apple, eBay, Facebook, Morgan Stanley support big push for gay marriage

BY MARK SHERMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- Prominent Republicans, retired military leaders and U.S. businesses are among the factions ready to ask the Supreme Court to support marriage equality in two cases up for argument next month.

The effort is being coordinated by gay rights groups and is designed to show the justices the rapid and widespread evolution of views about same-sex marriage, now legal in nine states and the District of Columbia. Religious leaders, labor groups and gay people who live in states that prohibit them from marrying are also weighing in.

The justices will hear the dispute over California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage on March 26, followed a day later by a challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act provision that denies legally married gay couples a range of federal benefits available to heterosexual married couples.

Mary Bonauto, the director of the Civil Rights Project at Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders who is coordinating legal briefs that are due at the court later this week, said that the military, business, labor and other filings will have a "truth-telling function" about the reality of life for gays and lesbians, and they will share a common theme. "Gay and lesbian families and their children are here to stay," Bonauto said.

Businesses who already have signed onto the brief in the California case include Apple, eBay, Facebook, Intel, Morgan Stanley, Nike and Xerox. "We file this brief to add more voices to the growing chorus that Proposition 8, and similar laws barring equal access to marriage for same-sex couples, are unconstitutional and should be invalidated," the companies say, according to a draft of the brief provided by the Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe law firm. California is among 30 states with constitutional provisions that prohibit same-sex marriage, Roughly 10 others do so by statute.

Click here to read more.

Ros-Lehtinen on gay marriage ban: 'We’re calling on the Supreme Court to correct this injustice'

• Republicans sign brief in support of gay marriage, reports The New York Times

From U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, one of about 75 leading Republicans now supporting marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples:

“I have joined many other Republicans in signing a legal brief demonstrating that the right to marry should be constitutionally supported for all Americans. It isn’t correct to unfairly restrict the rights of equality and justice upon which our great nation was founded. We’re calling on the Supreme Court to correct this injustice and to bestow constitutional freedoms for all. We have taken a historic stride toward equality with the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’. I have also supported other pro-equality legislation such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Student Non-Discrimination Act, and the Every Child Deserves a Family Act. It should not be constitutional that we continue to deny to LGBT Americans rights enjoyed by others. We must act now to ensure the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution are applied to all Americans.”