Pastor Bill Devlin, president of Redeem the Vote, a non-profit that engages youth through faith, presented the same tired and alarmist arguments against a new gay marriage bill in a “trainwreck” of an appearance on Good Morning Philadelphia yesterday. State Sen. Daylin Leach who introduced the lesislation, was on hand to defend the bill with sound, unlike Pastor Devlin. Watch:

Pennsylvania Rep. Patrick Murphy appeared on Rachel Maddow to discuss his new role as lead sponsor of H.R. 1283, the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Watch:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lsrn1Xp6qU[/youtube]

A private swim club in northeast Philadelphia refused to allow 60 children to swim in their pool, simply because they weren’t white. Apparently the club does not allow minorities in the water, and there was fear they would “change the complexion and the atmosphere of the club.” I’m not kidding.  Watch:

I continue to read online how surprised people are that this happened. I’m not surprised in the slightest. Racism and the hate that drives it is alive and well. Usually people aren’t stupid enough to come out with it publicly. Most of the time it remains behind closed doors, in living rooms or at kitchen tables. The internet is also a fertile breeding ground for those who purvey hate, racism, and homophobia, safely cloaked in the anonymity of the medium. Just check out some of the comments at NBC10 in Philadephia.

Just a thought… I wonder if the Valley Swim Club would have refused to allow Sasha and Malia Obama access to the pool…

Breaking: Fortunately the children may have found a new place to swim… and the incident has caught the attention of Senator Arlen Specter.

Massachusetts, the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, is now the first state to challenge the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in federal court. The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Martha Coakley, claims that DOMA “violates the United States Constitution by interfering with the Commonwealth’s sovereign authority to define and regulate the marital status of its residents.”

“In enacting DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act], Congress overstepped its authority, undermined states’ efforts to recognize marriages between same-sex couples, and codified an animus towards gay and lesbian people,” the state said in a lawsuit filed today in US District Court in Massachusetts.

The suit said that more than 16,000 same-sex couples have married in Massachusetts since gay marriage became legal in the state in 2004 “and the security and stability of families has been strengthened in important ways throughout the state.”

“Despite these developments, same-sex couples in Massachusetts are still denied essential rights and protections because the federal Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] interferes with the Commonwealth’s authority to define and regulate marriage,” the lawsuit said.

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