As of midnight last night, gay marriages performed in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa, and for a brief time in California, will be legally recognized in the District of Columbia.

Gay activists hailed the development as an historic landmark for same-sex couples throughout the country and noted that it opens the way for the Council to pass a separate law later this year allowing same-sex marriages to be performed in the District.

“I think there’s tremendous significance and opportunity in Americans seeing legally married gay couples treated with respect in our nation’s capital,” said Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom To Marry, a national same-sex marriage advocacy group.

The recognition entitles gay couples to all the same legal rights extended to straight couples, including inheritance, and spousal immunity benefits.

And Maryland may soon follow. Governor Martin O’Malley on a radio program yesterday said he was open to having his state recognize gay marriage as well.

At a meeting with the Catholic media prior to his trip to Italy and audience with Pope Benedict XVI , Obama spoke of the difficulty he is having reconciling his faith with LGBT issues:

“For the gay and lesbian community in this country, I think it’s clear that they feel victimized in fairly powerful ways and they’re often hurt by not just certain teachings of the Catholic Church, but the Christian faith generally. And as a Christian, I’m constantly wrestling with my faith and my solicitude and regard and concern for gays and lesbians.”

For many Catholics and people of faith there is no “wrestling” or struggle. No inner turmoil. Gays are either to repent and abstain from their “lifestyle” or burn for all eternity.

Sure, many will accuse Obama of being two-faced, or criticize him for playing to both sides of the issue. But hopefully some will appreciate his honesty about the struggle. I suspect we would be a lot farther along in the gay civil rights movement if more individuals, more people of faith, also carried that struggle in their heart.

… So it’s perfectly okay to mine for uranium near the Grand Canyon as the earth has already survived most of that time without environmental laws. Ahem. Really? So without further ado, meet Republican state senator Sylvia Allen of Snowflake, Arizona — emphasis on the flake, I think.

And the remark was so offhanded, as if Allen were describing the way the sun comes up every morning… twice. Perhaps she and Sherri Shepard should form a club.

Chad Gibson, who was injured in a raid at the Rainbow Lounge in Forth Worth on the anniversary of the Stone Wall riots, is now out of the hospital and calling for the prosecution of the those involved.

On June 28, Chad Gibson was at the Rainbow Lounge when two TABC and seven Fort Worth police officers conducted a bar check at the newly opened gay nightclub in Fort Worth. Witnesses said the unprovoked officers manhandled Gibson and slammed him to the ground. Police said Gibson was intoxicated and grabbed an officer’s groin.

Now, Gibson said he wants the officers involved in the raid prosecuted. He also called the response by the city of Fort Worth a cover-up.

Although the city has asked the U.S. Attorney General to review the investigation, Gibson said he has lost all confidence in law enforcement.

“You used excessive force and that’s why I got hurt,” he said.

…

Gibson said the city and officers have pointed the blame in the wrong direction.

“They have blamed it on me, that I was drunk [and] that I hit my head,” he said. “I groped the officer. I did this. I did that. You know what, no … Accept responsibility.”

Gibson said he is also frustrated at the city pointing the blame at the TABC.

“Even if the Fort Worth Police didn’t touch me, they watched it,” he said. “They watched other people do that to me.”

Watch Gibson’s interview at WFAA-TV.