Dan Savage and his partner Terry Miller were among the first couples in King County, Washington to get a marriage license.

I love weddings, and I can't imagine a world where you weren't allowed to marry the person you loved. Thanks to the states that set that straight this year:

Hundreds of King County residents made history early Thursday by getting some of the state's first-ever marriage licenses for same-sex couples.

Lined around the county's downtown Seattle administration building, snaked through a winding queue and, finally, crammed into a processing room, the couples cried, shared love stories and passed around flowers.

Just after midnight, they rejoiced.

"I am so glad this night has finally arrived," County Executive Dow Constantine said of Washington's official recognition of same-sex marriages. "This has been a long struggle nationally and in our state."

Constantine, a longtime gay-marriage supporter, signed the first license at 12:01 a.m., when the voter-approved Referendum 74 formally took effect around the state. Recorder's Office staffers planned to stay open throughout the night and until 6:30 p.m. Thursday to accommodate as many gay and lesbian couples as possible.

More than 200 couples were in line to get licenses at midnight.

The first to actually receive them was a group of community leaders, including the acknowledged matriarchs of the movement in the state, West Seattle residents Pete-e Petersen and Jane Abbott Lighty.

"It's very humbling to be chosen first. We feel like we're representing a lot of people in the state who have wanted this for a long time," said Petersen, 85, who has been with Lighty for 35 years. "It's hard to explain the thrill that we are really going to get married."

A great new project started by Dan Savage that urges LGBT adults to pick up a video camera and tell LGBT teens to hang in past high school, because it gets better. You might know a kid or parent who needs to see this, so spread it around. From Dan's column:

Another gay teenager in another small town has killed himself—hope you're pleased with yourselves, Tony Perkins and all the other "Christians" out there who oppose anti-bullying programs (and give actual Christians a bad name).

Billy Lucas was just 15 when he hanged himself in a barn on his grandmother's property. He reportedly endured intense bullying at the hands of his classmates—classmates who called him a fag and told him to kill himself. His mother found his body.

Nine out of 10 gay teenagers experience bullying and harassment at school, and gay teens are four times likelier to attempt suicide. Many LGBT kids who do kill themselves live in rural areas, exurbs, and suburban areas, places with no gay organizations or services for queer kids.

"My heart breaks for the pain and torment you went through, Billy Lucas," a reader wrote after I posted about Billy Lucas to my blog. "I wish I could have told you that things get better."

Continue reading »

Here's a little light reading that will give you a good laugh -- which, of course, you'll need if you're going to allow the thought of President Rick Santorum into your brain. Just remember, though: Every time you click the link, you make the Baby Jesus cry:

Rick Santorum would very much like to be president. For the past few years, he has been diligently appearing at the sorts of conservative events—the Values Voters Summit, the Conservative Political Action Conference—where aspiring Republican candidates are expected to show up. But before he starts printing "Santorum 2012" bumper stickers, there's one issue the former GOP senator and his strategists need to address. You see, Santorum has what you might call a Google problem. For voters who decide to look him up online, one of the top three search results is usually the site SpreadingSantorum.com, which explains that Santorum's last name is a sexual neologism for "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex."

Santorum's problem got its start back in 2003, when the then-senator from Pennsylvania compared homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia, saying the "definition of marriage" has never included "man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be." The ensuing controversy prompted syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage, who's gay, to start a contest, soliciting reader suggestions for slang terms to "memorialize the scandal." The winner came up with the "frothy mixture" idea, Savage launched a website, and a meme was born. Even though mainstream news outlets would never link to it, Savage's site rose in the Google rankings, thanks in part to bloggers who posted Santorum-related news on the site or linked to it from their blogs. Eventually it eclipsed Santorum's own campaign site in search results; some observers even suggested it may have contributed to Santorum's crushing 18-point defeat in his 2006 campaign against Bob Casey.

Savage says his site hasn't been updated for years, yet it remains entrenched in the Google rankings. Not even Santorum's ascent as a Fox News contributor or his early campaign swings through the key primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire have managed to bury it. With Google results like this, what's an aspiring presidential candidate to do?

I wanted to ask Santorum whether he had a strategy for scrubbing his Web presence, but he didn't return my calls. So instead, I asked a few experts. "This is an unusual problem," says Michael Fertik, CEO of ReputationDefender, which specializes in helping individuals maintain a positive Web presence. "It's devastating. This is one of the more creative and salient Google issues I've ever seen."

I'm in. It's time that DADT is abolished for good.

Besides us, these blogs are also participating: Pam Spaulding, Pam's House Blend, Michelangelo Signorile, Sirius OutQ & the Gist, Markos Moulitsas, DailyKos. Andy Towle, TowleRoad, Joe Jervis, Joe My God, Bil Browning & Phil Reese, Bilerico, Taylor Marsh, TaylorMarsh.com, David Mixner, DavidMixner.com, and Dan Savage, Slog

We need leadership from the White House to get the repeal of DADT. The President can include repeal language in the Defense budget he sends to Capitol Hill. There's still time for that. In addition, Servicemembers United have crafted a repeal plan that would meet the needs of all the key players. If Obama wants the repeal in his budget, the Senate Armed Services Chair, Carl Levin, can include the language in his Committee's Defense Authorization bill. That way, the repeal can be moved in a way that doesn't require overcoming a 60-vote filibuster. It can be done. It should be done.

Here's some contact info:

HRC Front Desk: (202) 628-4160

TTY: (202) 216-1572

Toll-Free: (800) 777-4723

HRC Web site comment page.

General membership email at hrc: membership@hrc.org