Tue, Mar 9 marked the first day that same-sex couples in Washington DC could marry.

Three couples got hitched at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters in a big ceremony.

The video is below. All 40 minutes of it. Back-to-back gay marrying action!

  

It's a big day for gay marriage in the United States.

A federal court in San Francisco will test the legality of Proposition 8, a November 2008 referendum approved by California voters which banned gay marriage in the state.

(© 2008 Jupiterimages Corporation)

Follow the American Foundation for Equal Rights' tweets here or in the widget below. You can also track the Twitter discussion through the #prop8 hashtag. Live updates from the trial start at 9am PST.

Read more:

• Canadians rally against Prop 8
• Marriage ruling sparks full day of protests in San Francisco
• First-person: Countdown to the Prop 8 decision
  

Same-sex couples have been able to get married in Prince Edward Island since June 2006, but the CBC reports that it was only this weekend that the province's laws were changed to fully reflect that.

The Domestic Relations Act was proclaimed over the weekend, after receiving royal assent earlier this year. The act changes 29 pieces of provincial legislation to replace references to "man and woman" and "husband and wife" with gender-neutral terms.

The CBC reports:

Now that the legislation has been proclaimed, the government can get on with processing a backlog of requests, said Jessie Frost-Wicks, a departmental solicitor with the Office the Attorney General...

"Vital statistics being one, for people looking for birth certificates and to have their status recognized, I guess, on a birth certificate as a parent," [said Frost-wicks.]

Before the changes, the only option on birth certificates was mother and father.

Whew!  Back after an annoying absence yesterday -- one made all the more unfortunate by being beaten to the punch in posting that wondrously bizarre new Lady Gaga video (yours after this column!)  Yes, this round goes to the mighty Brent Creelman, lightning with the headlines!

Still, I'm glad I had a bit of time to take a shower after reading a National Post column on the lawsuit over the Canadian Blood Services ban on gay men (as always, it's the comments section that really makes a girl feel special). A 32-year ban is ridicuous, says Marion Kilgour, let's just go for five.  Hurry, Marion!  The point went that way but it won't get far on foot!

But personally, I'm delighted I can't give blood.  Needles are icky!  Between government policies like this and organized religions that paint gays as monsters, I have no shortage of people telling me not to waste my time doing anything noble or selfless, like giving away my organs or fighting in a war or caring for children.  More time for mojitos and manicures!

Now I won't have to spend my time turning Disney tunes into activist anthems:

See what I mean?  Activism just seems exhausting!  And being the kind of vapid fag Kilgour assumes I am ("there are gay men out there who are militant about safe sex" -- imagine!) would give me more time to hang out with Scott Herman, YouTubing personal trainer, avowed heterosexual and welcomed blood donor.

But then....well, I don't know.  As much as I want to adore his boyish good looks, his geek-on of comic books and his adorably clumsy attempts at gay-friendliness, can you make it all the way through his "funny story" here?  Or even three minutes in?  Try it and see:

Yeah, mojito or no, I think I'll have to side with Kyle Freeman and keep making noise.  Besides, when the target is that perennially dreadful "traditional marriage" advocate Maggie Gallagher, activism can be fun!  Especially when it involves a wig and buckets of snark:

Genius!  She's no Lady Gaga but hey, give her time!

What, again with this woman???

I know, I know, and I am publicly vowing that this will the Final Carrie Prejean Posting Ever (wellllll....unless she goes and locks two gay parents in a Wal-Mart or something).  Now that her "religious discrimination" lawsuit against her former employers is being dropped after the discovery of her sex tape, I would've been happy to see her drift off into obscurity.

But along comes a feminist blog that suddenly, bafflingly defends the beauty queen who campaigns against the rights of gay people because that's just how she was raised by arguing that Ms. Prejean is the tragic victim of puritanism:

"Prejean is being shamed for being a sexual being in a world in which chastity in women is highly prized.  We may claim to be a sexually liberated but the disciplining and slut shaming of women’s bodies proves quite the opposite...Is it really a good idea for the GLBT community to chastise someone’s sexual behaviour when that is exactly what heterosexism does to create homosexuality as 'other'?"

No. No. No. 

Carrie Prejean is not being shamed for her sex tape or even her "Christian values" -- it's because she's a liar.  That's it.  She used her ridiculous platform at a national beauty contest to disparage millions of gay people, then went on to become a poster girl for the fearmongering National Organization for Marriage. I know that the blogger behind Womanist Musings is on our side here but did she not see this video from September?

This was the true display of immorality.  It's not about Carrie Prejean making a sex tape.  Everyone should make a sex tape*. Sex tapes are fun! (Just don't be surprised when they somehow end up on the internet.)  No, the reason there's something about Carrie is that she merrily became the spokesmodel for people who attack queer people for our sexuality even while she was lying to them about her own.  It's not about being a slut -- sluts are great! -- it's about being a liar and a bigot.

While conservatives panic at the thought that gay rights will usher in some nightmare of widespread sexual depravity, we have always known that that's not the case.  Sexual liberation simply means more honesty about the kind of sex people like Ms. Prejean are having already. 

I mean, for pity's sake, Alfred Kinsey taught us that in the 1950's!