Eleven-year-old Will Phillips, who last year refused to stand up in class for the Pledge of Allegiance until there was “liberty and justice for all,” received a GLAAD Media Award for his activism on behalf of the gay community. In his acceptance speech he called for President Obama to use the bully pulpit of his office to affect change. Amazing stuff. Watch:

Marriage equality took another hit today as the New York State Senate failed to pass a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage in their state. From the NYT:

The bill was defeated by a decisive margin of 38 to 24. The Democrats, who have a bare, one-seat majority, did not have enough votes to pass the bill without some Republican support, but not a single Republican senator voted for the measure..

In a debate that in many instances was cast in unusually personal tones, many senators delivered emotional speeches on the floor of the chamber, equating the struggle for gay rights to the civil rights movement or the battle women have waged for equality.

One of the bill’s sponsors, State Senator Thomas K. Duane of Manhattan, who is gay, said the bill would finally give him something that as a New Yorker he has never enjoyed.

“This legislation would merely provide me and tens of thousands of other New Yorkers with equal rights in New York State,” Mr. Duane said. “It would make me equal in every way to everyone else in this chamber.”

Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat who represents Manhattan’s Upper East Side and another of the bill’s sponsors, said her grandparents came to the United States to escape persecution against Jews. As a Jew and a woman, Ms. Krueger said her decision to support same-sex marriage was easy to make.

But State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr. of the Bronx made an impassioned argument against same-sex marriage, describing his continued opposition as reflecting the broad consensus that marriage should be limited to a union between a man and woman. “Not only the evangelicals, not only the Jews, not only the Muslims, not only the Catholics, but also the people oppose it,” he said.

Yesterday the NY Assembly had passed the same measure by a 88-51 margin. Unfortunately the Senate vote kills any chance for marriage equality in the state of New York for the foreseeable future.

In a profanity filled tirade in NYC this week, Mickey Rourke lamented the use of the f-word… faggot that is. Warning, NSFW at all…

Pathetic human being. Can I have my money back for the Wrestler? I don’t care how much I enjoyed it. And we soon have to suffer him in the new Iron Man movie.

President Jarrett Barrios of GLAAD was swift to respond…

“This is a slur that, regardless of what Mickey Rourke has convinced himself that it means, is often the last word that gay people, and gay youth in particular, hear before they’re bullied, harassed or assaulted.

Rourke is showing himself to be painfully ignorant of how this vulgar, abusive slur feeds a climate of anti-gay hatred, intolerance and violence. Rourke either needs to figure this out, or media needs to stop giving him a platform for promoting these kinds of slurs.”

Rourke also received a lot of negative press last November when he threatened to break a “faggot” writer’s legs.

Vigils to honor the victims of a shooting spree at an LGBT center in Tel Aviv over the weekend are planned throughout the U.S. this week.

San Francisco
Monday, August 3
5:30pm Gather at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav (290 Dolores St @ 16th St)
6:00pm March to SF LGBT Center (1800 Market Street @ Octavia St)
6:30pm Speakers & Candlelight Vigil
(more)

Washington D.C.
Monday, August 3 at 8:15pm (more)

Los Angeles
Thursday, August 6 (more) and Friday, Aug 7 (more)

Vigils have already been held throughout Israel and in London. Video below is from a spontaneous rally the night of the shooting.