"Men and women — women want all the rights of men, but they're not asking to be called men… do you think… is it the word [marriage] is more important than the rights?" Portia, who is married to Ellen DeGeneres, was measured, confident, calm and clear in her answer: "Of course it's not the word." (I would have added, "Dumbass.") Portia went on to say, "Without the word, we don't have equal rights." Then she explained that a "lesser" term would imply that gay couples are lesser. Applause.

If you're wondering "Why on earth is she going on The Today Show, out of the blue, with apparently no show business to promote, to announce this?" you're not alone, but it turns out Meredith was drawn out of her private life by tabloids who threatened to reveal her "secret," and decided to own the story herself. After three failed marriages, she realized seven years ago that she was a lesbian; she told her kids and friends, and was living openly with her partner, Nancy, without feeling any need to announce it publicly until the tabloid situation arose. So basically, it's really no big deal. But Meredith did say that she hopes that people who remember her from her Family Ties days (aww!) will think of her when issues of gay rights and social equality come up, and have a more open mind. In a week full of scandals and famewhores, Meredith's lack of sensationalism and matter-of-factness is refreshing. Below is the segment in its entirety (don't miss the weird part where Matt asks her if she had a "B-movie moment" in which she ran to the mirror screaming "I'm gay! I'm gay").

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

• The Australian Bureau of Statistics has reported that more babies were born in that country 2008 than ever before. They also found that the trend of mothers giving birth later in life "seems to have stalled," and that there were slightly more newborn boys (51%) than girls. •  A 28-year-old German man has been found guilty of stabbing a pregnant Egyptian woman during a court hearing in Dresden. Al-Sherbini was going to testify against Alexander Wiens, who allegedly harassed her at work with taunts of "terrorist" and "Islamist" when Wiens attacked her in the courtroom. Wiens has been sentenced to life in prison. • Jewish activists are anticipating Obama's announcement of a special envoy to monitor anti-Semitism. Rumor has it that the candidate is female, with Chicago connections. • A Hungarian man convicted of using a camera to peep up women's skirts has been banned from filming in public for the next two years. Apparently, the women who he filmed were unaware and have not been informed of the violation. • Jaycee Dugard's family has brought in a publicist to help "clean up" the mess made by several greedy middlemen. Unfortunately, the family is still in looking for donations to help pay for everything from medical bills to food. •  A recent spate of suicides among housekeepers working in Lebanon has lead to a campaign for better conditions for the often overworked immigrant women. A recent survey found that more than one migrant domestic worker was dying in Lebanon each week, usually from either suicide or falling off a balcony in attempts to get away from an abusive employer. •  For the first time ever, the Mormon church has announced support for gay rights legislation in Salt Lake City. Although the Church is still against gay marriage, officials have come out in support of legislation that would prohibit discrimination against gays in housing and employment. • Cynthia Stewart, a 17-year-old junior at Tharptown High School in Alabama, is on her school's prom planning committee and personally raised $200 for the event. But when Stewart asked her principal if she could bring her girlfriend to the prom he said no and told her to take off a sticker that read "I am a lesbian," because, "You don't have that much freedom of speech at school." Her family appealed the decision to the school board, but it upheld the principal's decision. • The Tate Gallery has announced the appointment of Penelope Curtis as the new director for the museum in London. Other good news for women in art comes from Venice, where the Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima has been named director of the Venice Architecture Biennale. • Scottish widow Mona Webster, who died in August at the age of 96, loved opera and birds so she left most of her $16.6 million fortune to New York's Metropolitan Opera and the British charity Windfowl and Wetlands Trust. • Brits are some of the ugliest people in the world, according to the dating site BeautifulPeople.com. The site lets existing members rate applicants' attractiveness to decide if they should be let on the site and only one in 8 British men and three in 30 British women have been accepted. Swedish men have the most success, with 65 percent accepted, and Norwegian women were voted the most beautiful with 76 percent accepted. • People are criticizing Pittsburgh's recently unveiled Mister Rogers statue because they say the 11-foot tall, 7,000 pound statue looks nothing like him. Jimmy Kimmel said it makes "the nicest man in the world look like a mud monster." •

When Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig was ordained, 1984, there were few female rabbis - let alone gay ones. As she tells the New York Times,

I played a significant role in the change toward gay rabbis. I saw how long that process took. In '85, I submitted a resolution to the Central Conference of American Rabbis to open doors to gay men and lesbians. It was not changed till 1990.

While Wenig may represent the reform fringe, she can take credit fpor paving the way for significant changes in even the more conservative community: for two years the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary has admitted openly gay students. And only a few weeks ago, Poland saw its first openly gay rabbi, a move controversial enough to make international headlines.

Wenig might well feel , cautiously, optimistic - despite the opposition to gay marriage in more conservative Jewish communities - but it's questionable if her 1990 declaration of God's sex will be met with the same level of acceptance. She explains now, "Jewish texts are replete with anthropomorphic images of God. I don't say God would ever die. I fudged that. Whatever else, I would say God is eternal."

A rabbi's struggle: To allow gay clergy or not? [USA Today]
Conservative Jews Allow Gay Rabbis and Unions [New York Times]

RABBI SCHOOL GAY-OK [NY Post]
Amid Jewish revival, Poland Gets Openly Gay Rabbi [Newsvine]

According to a story by Katie Thomas in today's Times, families are more likely to travel with their daughters to sporting events than with their sons. "There are far more people who will travel with 12-year-old girls than even 12-year-old boys," explains Don Schumacher, executive director of the National Association of Sports Commissions, "And vastly more people will travel with 12-year-old girls than 18-year-old boys." This may have to do with families being more protective of girls, or with moms being more likely to attend girls' events.

Whatever the cause, the phenomenon translates into money. Families who travel with their kids stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, and buy things. Mika Ryan, president of a sporting commission in New Jersey, says she considers the often more lucrative nature of girls' sports when booking events. And now that it has built a new softball complex, the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee is enjoying a boost in revenue from girls and their families. At least one naysayer doubts that girl athletes buy more than boys. Bobby Dodd, president of the Amateur Athletic Union, says, "I have three granddaughters. They love to shop. But I can tell you my boys darn near love to shop as much as the girls." Dodd's words notwithstanding, it's clear that girls' sports are getting attention from families and businesses alike.

Though it's a little sad that families feel they have to "protect" their girl athletes more than their boys, it's nice to hear that the days of ignoring girls' sports are over. Not so, however, for women's sports. On NPR, Frank Deford examines the financial difficulties of many women's pro leagues. The Women's United Soccer Association folded in 2003, the WNBA's Houston Comets are the only major sports team so far to go out of business in the recession, and the LPGA recently fired its commissioner amid a loss of sponsorship contracts. According to Deford, women just don't want to pay to watch women's games.

The solution: sex! Reacting to a Wimbledon official's comment that it's often the hottest female players who are chosen to play on show courts, Deford writes,

Everybody was aghast at such overt chauvinism, only the harsh reality is that until women start stepping up and buying tickets for women's games, then - like it or not - sex may simply be good box office.

Ten years later, what do most people remember about the 1999 World Cup - that Brandi Chastain scored the winning goal? No, that Brandi Chastain took her shirt off.

But apparently teams think only the "right" kind of sex sells tickets. According to Mike Wise of the Washington Post, the WNBA's Washington Mystics don't have a kiss-cam at their games because they're worried about displaying lesbian fans kissing. Lindsey Harding, the team's point guard (pictured, right), says, "We wouldn't broadcast on our Jumbotron about abortion issues because of the religious and political conflicts it would cause. It's a similar, sensitive subject. We don't want to put anything out there to turn down certain fans." A lesbian kiss similar to abortion? Apparently, if all you're thinking about is the box office, yes. Wise writes,

This is a seminal, scary time for women's professional sports. Ten years after Brandi Chastain's ab-crunching moment in the women's World Cup ushered in a new era of empowerment, less than half of the LPGA Tour's 29 events have secured sponsorship for next year. Though attendance numbers are up in Washington, the league can barely pull in an average of 8,000 people per game and many of its arenas hold 20,000.

In a time when TV networks stay silent about male athletes' rape allegations, how come women's teams have to curry favor with bigoted fans? Is it really true that women don't want to pay to watch women play? Or are women's professional sports just too new — and as yet too under-marketed — to capture the kind of audience that men's sports have? Just because we live in a culture where women are more often celebrated for their looks than their athletic prowess doesn't mean all women athletes have to take off their shirts. It just means we need to train audiences to follow women's sports with the same rabid passion they've long had for the Dodgers or the Lakers. And given the fact that families seem to turn out in droves to watch their girls compete, that shouldn't be so hard to do.

Girls' Sports Pack Economic Punch [NYT]
Deford: 'That's No Lady, That's An Athlete!' [NPR]
Mystics Give Big Issue The Kiss-Off [Washington Post, via Pandagon]

Rashad Robinson, senior director of media programs for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation tells the Times: "Some people in our community may like this movie, but many are not going to be O.K. with it. Sacha Baron Cohen's well-meaning attempt at satire is problematic in many places and outright offensive in others."

Aaron Hicklin, the editor of Out magazine, is not as concerned: "The movie does something hugely important, which is showing that people's attitudes can turn on a dime when they realize you're gay. The multiplex crowd wouldn't normally sit down for a two-hour lecture on homophobia, but that's exactly what's going to happen. I'm excited about that."

Except Brüno is not a lecture. Sacha Baron Cohen lies in order to land interviews, disrupts events and infiltrates situations. Cohen is being sued by one California woman who claims she was injured at a bingo tournament he hijacked.

The Telegraph points out that from Zoolander to Absolutely Fabulous to Ugly Betty, the image of the silly, shallow fashion industry as freak show has been done. So Brüno is not breaking ground there. It's the depiction of an aggressively gay character that's the point.

From the Times:

The filmmakers wanted to play [an Elton John] song during a scene in which the title character, participating in a cage-fighting match, pulls down his opponent's pants and kisses him on the mouth, prompting a horrified crowd to throw garbage at him. The answer was no… But then Mr. John reversed himself - kind of. He didn't want to be associated with the provocative scene, but he ultimately agreed to perform part of another song that functions as a coda to the film.

If your movie makes an openly gay man pause, are you treading as carefully as you should? Does kissing a man in a cage-fighting match expose the audience's homophobia? Or tap into the stereotype that gay men are lascivious, libidinous, promiscuous and wild?

While Cohen prances in lederhosen, California and other states are banning gay marriage. In a world where civil rights are at stake, does Brüno — played as a "limp-wristed, sex-crazed queen" wearing hot pants, leopard bikini underwear and riding nude on a unicorn — shatter or reinforce stereotypes?

A Plea for Tolerance in Tight Shorts. Or Not. [NY Times]
Sacha Baron Cohen's Brüno: Why fashionistas Are Beyond Parody [Telegraph]

• Iran has consented to review the 8 year prison sentence, but judiciary officials deny that Saberi is on hunger strike. • Yesterday hundreds gathered in Philadelphia to march for gay rights. It is reportedly the first national rally for equality held outside Washington, DC. •  Ugh: Swiss authorities are investigating the appearance of a condom in a 7-year-old's Happy Meal. • New research has found that men with mental health problems are at an increased risk of passing their issues on to their sons. • A British mother was nearly killed while birthing her abnormally large son. Her child weighed 13 pounds, 10 ounces, which is almost double the average birth weight. • A recent study has found that the brothers of women who are fertile late in life tend to live longer, but their wives (sisters-in-law to the older mothers) do not. • Researchers have found that African-American women face a much greater risk of dying from breast cancer than white women, regardless of socio-economic status, the age at which they are diagnosed, the type of cancer, or type of treatment. • This fascinating report compares the leisure habits of different countries. Findings include: men in Italy have 80 minutes more of down time per day than women, and the French spend more time sleeping and eating than any other country included in the study. Fuckers. • Doctors have found new ways to identify autism in infants, which they hope will lead to better treatment of the disorder. • A new study from the Children's Hospital in Boston indicates that kids who watch adult-targeted TV are more likely to be sexually active at a younger age than those who stick to Saturday morning cartoons. • A woman in Dubai has been convicted of accidentally killing her fetus in a traffic accident and has been ordered to pay blood money to compensate for the (possibly) resulting stillbirth. • The Sleepy Eye Police Department is investigating the theft of Snoopy's nose. • Bear trapping is big business in China, where bears are held captive in order to collect their valuable bile. The bears are often held in cages no bigger than their own bodies. •  Following the case of the 8-year-old girl who was married to a man 40 years her senior, Saudi Arabia has begun to consider banning marriage for girls under the age of 18. • A 17-year-old girl who dialed 911 when her father had a seizure was berated by the cop who answered the call because she began swearing. Click here to hear the full tape. • Silvio Berlusconi has demanded an apology from his wife, Veronica Lario, for her recent comments about their possible divorce. •

Some Iowans think of gay marriage as an extension of a long progressive tradition — Iowa was a safe haven for utopian societies and, as Marilynne Robinson showed in Gilead, a little-known hotbed of abolitionism. But for many, the State Supreme Court's decision speaks more to "an Iowa attitude" of live-and-let-live. Iowans may not be fans of gay marriage per se — in a poll last year, 62% thought marriage should be reserved for heterosexual couples. That doesn't mean, though, that they're clamoring to start the amendment process necessary to override the Court's ruling. Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat who has historically opposed gay marriage, says he will not push for a ban.

Iowa State University sociologist Paul Lasley says this grudging acceptance is typical of Iowa: "People may think of us some other way," he tells the Times, "but in the main, it is tolerance - not always support, but tolerance - that has really been the weave and warp of Iowa culture." Iowan Jeni McCubbins bears out this view. She says,

I don't think it's right. But it's a little like getting married itself, you know? If you think you're going to change someone, you're wrong. So I'm better off to leave well enough alone on this.

Many liberals in Iowa (myself included) wish our fellow Iowans offered support as well as tolerance to the gay couples now beginning to marry in our state. At the same time, there's something kind of hopeful about a culture committed to leaving well enough alone. Americans on the coasts sometimes deride the midwest as a backwater full of bible-thumping fundies. The truth, though, is more complicated. Lasley points out that many Iowans "are descendants of people who were once denied liberties in their home countries," and, in a Times editorial last month, Samantha Chang attributed some of Iowa's character to its harsh winters. She quoted mechanic Gary Dunne, who said, "you watch the seasons happen and you learn how to make a steady life with all of the change happening around you." Much as I might wish everyone in the country shared the same liberal values, I know that's not going to happen soon. And in a country that has seen so much hate, the capacity to weather change — with tolerance, if not always with support — is a lot better than nothing.

Same-Sex Ruling Belies the Staid Image of Iowa [New York Times]
Iowa Issues Marriage Licenses To Gays [CBS News]
Volvos From Florida [New York Times]

Blocked sites include the Human Rights Campaign, Marriage Equality USA, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, the Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and Dignity USA. Some sites not blocked: National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, People Can Change, The Americans For Truth Against Homosexuality and the Traditional Values Coalition. The schools claim their filtering service, Education Networks of America, is responsible for the block. An attorney for ENA counters: "The decisions on whether to block certain websites are made solely by the school districts. ENA does not participate in these decisions in any way and is instead simply told which websites to block."

The fact that no one's willing to take responsibility here seems pretty cowardly. On the other hand, it does show that blocking gay-rights websites is now a source of public embarrassment, rather than applause, which is a step in the right direction. As we saw from the Internet furor about Amazon's de-ranking of gay and lesbian books, people who try to gay-wash the Internet now get shit for it — if they get caught, and if it makes the news. If Amazon and the Tennessee schools get enough bad press, maybe people will think before they try to "protect" kids by limiting their access to sites about human rights.

Pro-Gay Sites Filtered From Tennessee Students [Wired]

Challengers have leveled two major legal criticisms at Prop. 8. The first is that the proposition is not merely an amendment to the state constitution, but a more severe "revision." Amendments can be made through the proposition system, but revisions can only be enacted by the state legislature or by constitutional convention. California Chief Justice Ronald George seemed to find this argument dubious, asking anti-Prop. 8 lawyers whether they felt that the right to gay marriage could be given by a proposition, rather than taken away. "Are you saying it is a one-way street," he asked, "that you can extend rights by way of initiative and take them away only by revision, the same rights?" And Justice Joyce Kennard argued that to call Prop. 8 a revision was to underestimate the legal power of California voters. "I think what you are overlooking is the very broad powers of the people to amend the Constitution," she said.

The second criticism of Prop. 8, advanced by State Attorney General Jerry Brown, is that the proposition repeals an "inalienable right" without sufficient justification. But justices countered that there was no obvious way to identify such inalienable rights. George mentioned the right to amend the state constitution, asking, "is that an inalienable right?"

Protesters from both sides gathered in San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza for the hearing. One supporter of Prop. 8 carried a sign reading, "Those who hate real marriage should not have the right to pollute it." On the other side were messages like, "The gay agenda . . . our hope . . . our prayer . . . our dream" and "The gay agenda: 1) Equality. 2) Shopping. 3) See #1." But if Prop. 8 is upheld, the real next step for its opponents will be campaigning for the recognition of existing gay marriages — and perhaps trying to get the state "out of the marriage business" entirely.

On the first point, it's hard to tell how the Court feels. Kennard said that Prop. 8 "said that only a marriage between a man and a woman would be recognized regardless of where or when performed," but that this requirement "was buried in the middle of the rebuttal argument." George said the language of the proposition might have been intentionally vague. And Justice Ming W. Chin questioned the ethics of revoking once-legal marriages, asking, "Is that really fair to the people who depended on what this court said was the law of the land?"

The second point, supported by an editorial in the LA Times, hinges on questions also posed by Chin:

What if the state merely licensed or just recognized private, contractual civil unions with all the benefits of marriage, and couples went to the religious or private institution of their choice to sanctify their vows? Would that resolve the legal differences between Proposition 8 and the state Supreme Court's 2008 ruling that gay and lesbian couples were entitled to the same marital rights as heterosexuals?

The Times thinks it would, and that since marriage is changing for both gay and straight people, it's time for the state to reevaluate its role. However, the editorial notes that such a reevaluation wouldn't be easy: "by the time Californians are ready to embrace such a seemingly novel idea, they will probably also be ready to vote for same-sex marriage."

California Supreme Court Looks Unlikely To Kill Proposition 8 [LA Times]
Loudly And Colorfully, Opposing Sides Debate Proposition 8 [LA Times]
A Way Out Of Prop. 8 [LA Times]
Gay Marriage: Is California's Supreme Court Shifting? [Time]

Because, really, what's an inauguration about if not some public same-sex buttsecksing and rug-munching? LaBarbera explains:

“I think most Americans would be put off if they knew what went on at these parties," LaBarbera said. "Every special interest group has a ball of some sort, but this is not just any special interest group. More than half the country considers their behavior immoral.”

From LaBarbera's in-depth research watching literally loads of gay and lesbian orgiastic pornography, he just knows that all gay people every do is take their clothes off and shag when ever possible. Hanging out with other gay men and lesbians is just an excuse to get naked and have other men suck his, I mean, their dicks and engage in the anal sex and watch women make other women writhe in orgasm with only their tongues! And it's going to be going on this weekend. In plain view of the Capitol! At parties! LaBarbera has some other weekend plans besides exposing himself to the gay inaugural orgies: he's going to infiltrate the Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend, a leather daddy festival. You know, to expose it. He's going to get pictures and everything, which he might publish when he's done with them.

Giroux is equally concerned:

"It’s not a day where a group that feels like it has some payback coming should be putting its decadent lifestyle on display.”

See, Giroux has devoted her life to making sure that those big, mean lesbians don't get equal rights and keep their sultry tongues away from the clitori of all the good, moral, totally straight women of the United States, and she's afraid they might punish her. You know, because she's been soooo naughty, she's really, truly worried that if all the lesbians got together in one place in their mannish suits and glamorous gowns and saw her, they might just have to tie her up and punish her while taking all their clothes off and enjoying it nearly as much as she would.

Anyway, it's just sort of curious to me that instead of assuming that a bunch of people who paid upwards of $350 for tickets to a formal event and concert featuring a number of top entertainers in the Mayflower Hotel — made famous by the heterosexual shenanigans of a certain Democratic former governor — would go, dance, drink and enjoy the music like at every other party in D.C. on Tuesday night, these stalwarts of the anti-LGBT movement would think that LGBT life is all one crazy orgiastic porno. But, perhaps that's all of being a LGBT individual they've ever experienced.

Gay America Prepares To Party at Obama Inauguration [Fox News]

• Johannes Mehserle, the Bay Area police officer who shot a restrained, unarmed man in the back, has finally been arrested (on a murder warrant) as part of the investigation into the horrific New Year's Day shooting that left 22-year-old Oscar Grant dead. • Despite popular belief that pheromones play an important role in our sex lives, scientists say that no pheromones have ever been identified in humans, and that we simply may not have them. • A new study suggests that self-help groups are the most effective way to treat survivors of sexual trauma. • Micheal S. Smith, 44, has been named the official White House decorator. In a statement released yesterday, Michelle Obama said: "Michael shares my vision for creating a family-friendly feel to our new home and incorporating some new perspectives from some of America's greatest artists and designers." • A flier reading "Why I hate Black History Month" was sent home with St. Louis-area schoolchildren, much to the dismay of their parents. The flier, which was designed to promote Black History Month, has since been changed. • Recent changes in Iraqi law have weakened the quota of seats set aside for women. • A report released by The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery indicates that the cosmetic surgery industry has been negatively effected by the economic downturn. • A newspaper in North Carolina notes that a record number of obituaries have mentioned pets as the surviving relatives of the deceased. • Breaking News: Girls like to play video games, too! Unfortunately, this means more companies are coming out with games like "Party Babyz." • Unboxing videos are the newest craze in "geek porn." Oddly enough, this is exactly what it sounds like: videos of people taking shiny, expensive items out of boxes. • A new study has found that race and gender are two factors that can influence the way politicians speak. • A new bill introduced by state Senator Denis Damon may make Maine the third state to legalize same-sex marriage. • The Afghan girls who were attacked with acid two months ago while walking to school say they refuse to be intimidated out of an education. •  Prolific (and young)  16-year-old Australian author Alexandra Adornetto has announced plans to release a fourth novel before she turns 18. • Research released last spring that connected eating cereal to the likelihood of giving birth to a baby boy has just been disproved. • A task force created to investigate the problem of online sexual solicitation of minors claims that there is not actually a significant problem. • Wendy Brown, the 34-year-old Wisconsin woman who stole her teenaged daughter's identity to try out for high school cheerleading, may spend up to three years in a mental institution. • Tampa Bay residents be warned: a feces-throwing monkey is on the loose! He may be armed, but is "not considered dangerous." •

• The Bushes spent about $3.7 million dollars on real estate in a pricey Dallas neighborhood, and boy, are you going to seethe with jealousy when you see the house the Presidency can buy you. [Washington Post, The Smoking Gun]
• Italy is struggling with a rise in puppy smuggling due to a love of specific breeds and a declining economy. More than 70,000 puppies are smuggled into Italy every year, despite the fact that nearly a quarter of them die on the way and half die within a few months of arrival. There's a video. [BBC]
• Pastor Rick Warren says the Bible calls us to invade Iran. I don't think it says what he thinks it says, but that might be because I read it for my own edification and not to use it to make zillions of dollars or justify my existence. [Washington Independent]

• The recently-published jury instructions in the Lori Drew case make it more clear why she didn't get convicted of any felony counts. [Wired]
• Fred Thompson recently promised that he was getting out of politics and going back to acting. He lied to you. [Time]
• Conservative scribe and Earl of Minor Despair Bob Novak would totally out Valerie Plame again because the media was mean to him after his did so the first time. [Think Progress]
• Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee doesn't think enough LGBT people have been beaten or killed while seeking equality in this country to qualify as a civil rights movement. Also, he thinks if they would just quit choosing to have teh buttsecks, they could have all the rights they ever wanted. [Think Progress]
• Some wacky Republicans who probably spend a portion of their time bitching about tort reform and vexatious litigation are filing lawsuits upon lawsuits about Barack Obama's birth certificate because blah blah blah crazytown nonsense. [Honolulu Advertiser]
• Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, she of the horror of women who don't always wear stockings, is going to challenge Texas Governor Rick Perry in the 2010 gubernatorial primary because she doesn't think he's Republican-y enough. [Dallas Morning News]
• Sarah Palin is totally snubbing Oprah, because Real Americans would definitely go talk to Larry King first. [Huffington Post]
• Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, with an assist from Governor General Michaëlle Jean, has shut down the Canadian Parliament to keep from being thrown out of office. And here you were all worried that George W. Bush was going to be the one to try to upend the democracy he supposedly serves. [NY Times]

Whereas, Czyzselska says, there are an increasing number of openly gay male role models in various walks of life, the comparable women can be listed on one hand — and a few of those are probably assumed to be gay, but haven't actually come out publicly. As a result, she says, lesbians face a very different set of prejudices and a more difficult coming-out process. As she says, "an established community of other gay men at work helps gay men to come out, because there's often a formal or informal club for them to join." Well, I'm sure plenty of young gay men would be delighted by this blithe assessment of their circumstances! But no one can argue that the challenges for a lesbian coming out at work aren't unique: "Think about it — as a woman, you've already got one strike against you in terms of a diversity box to check. As a lesbian there's the second one as well." She points out the hidden minefields of discussing one's personal life, the elaborate deceptions that can fill a workday with a hundred small stresses and undermine the trust of a work dynamic.

What she says next seems in some ways to confuse her argument:

Happily, those who were confident about their sexual orientation generally felt being a gay woman gave them a distinct advantage in the workplace. Some participants who had been open about being gay found the experience empowering, because it had raised their profile, facilitated networking opportunities and helped them to feel more equal with men in their place of work.

While these results are certainly encouraging, this does feel in some wise reductive; doesn't it stand to reason that those women so "confident about their sexual orientation" are already more prone to healthy work relationships — or that perhaps they're already in more supportive work environments? "People can't be confident enough to come out in this environment but if they come out they'll be confident which will improve the environment" for others, this seems to say — and glosses over a lot of potentially painful variables. That said, at the end of the day, change probably does need to come on the heels of just such simplistic change — a giant step for woman, a small step for womankind. Sometimes we need someone to coin the cliches for us before we can use them.

The Invisible Women [The Guardian]

Is it good or bad to have a girly-girl politician?

Our version of "Talk Me Down" on Sarah Palin and gay rights

(By the way, if you watch the entire video, Anna makes a special appearance in the background.)