On the upside, President-elect Barack Obama included gay Americans in his victory speech last night as he spoke of the country uniting for change.

But in California, gay citizens are fairly sure to lose their right to marry as Proposition 8, a bill that seeks to change the very language of the state's constitution to discriminate against same-sex marriage, is almost certain to pass. And in Arizona and Florida, voters passed anti-gay ballot measures to ban same-sex marriage in their states.

Congratulations to all who voted in favor of these propositions. I hope you can sleep better tonight knowing that you've denied your gay friends, family members, neighbors and fellow citizens the basic right to marry the person they love.

This is sad, infuriating, downright disgusting news, and our thoughts are with gays and lesbians in these states whose civil liberties have been compromised in the shadow of last night's historic victory. Change can't come soon enough. 

 
Eric Hyman and Max Mutchnick and their daughters

Yesterday's New York Times gave two (three, actually) weddings between gay men high-profile coverage in the crucial last days before voting on California's Proposition 8 takes place.

In a lengthy spread in the Fashion & Style section, the paper covered the wedding of Will & Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick and his husband Eric Hyman, including a picture of the couple and their two daughters.

And in the traditional Weddings & Celebrations section, the paper announced the double wedding of GLAAD's Damon Romine and Charles Robbins (executive director of The Trevor Project) and Romine's father David and his partner Larry Barrett, who have been together for over 16 years.

Recently-wed George Takei and Brad Altman were among the guests of the tandem Romine wedding, and both newlywed couples celebrated by taking in Leslie Jordan's show after the ceremony.

Warmest wishes to these couples, and to all those Californians (and otherwise) who have exercised their rights since the change in legislation regarding same-sex marriage this summer. (Including my own pals Pietro and Brent, who flew from NYC to San Fran to get married over the weekend. Congrats, guys!)

The Presidential hopeful recently took questions from MTV viewers, one of which asked him to clarify his stance on Proposition 8. As he has said before, he is opposed to gay marriage but does not support Proposition 8, which seeks to change California's state constitution to redefine marriage as between a man and a woman.

It's good that he's standing in clear opposition to the bill, but not necessarily the most encouraging way to kick off what is going to be two days of hang-wringing for many of us, huh?

Out writer/producer Greg Berlanti looking adorable at a recent Eli Stone event

Following this assortment of carefully-selected news items, interested readers can find a refreshing pic of a hot man in underwear after the jump. Yes, we're serious.

• Australian gay mag DNA wrongly outed a straight X Factor contestant, leading Austin Drage to have to come out as heterosexual to his gay fans. At least he was appreciative, and I hope he returned the toaster oven.

• TIME has a rather sobering article on the fight for gay marriage in California ... and beyond!

• Kevin Smith says that when he asked Brandon Routh if his Superman contract wouldn't allow him to play Justin Long's lover in Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Routh apparently replied, "What is this, 1940?" Okay, now I almost wish I didn't hate Superman Returns.

• Since it's the season ... the always-campy Elvira (Cassandra Peterson) will close the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival with drag personality Peaches Christ. For more info, check out the fest's site.

• And if you're in NYC tonite, be sure to stop by SPLASH for Patti Labelle's record release party, where the sould legend and her Labelle ladies (above) will be signing CDs for her gay fans. You go, Miss Patti!

And today's Briefs are brought to you by...

Huge news in the land of Martha Stewart: The Connecticut Supreme Court just handed down a ruling that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is "unconstitutional".

This makes Connecticut the third state in the country whose highest courts have ruled in favor of same-sex marriage (following Massachusetts and California, whose rights are under fire from Proposition 8) and will likely give gay New Yorkers (whose marriages will be recognized if they take place in states where gay marriage is legal) a much-abbreviated drive to wedded bliss.

Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell released a statement disagreeing with the ruling but stating her intention to honor it:

"The Supreme Court has spoken," Rell said. "I do not believe their voice reflects the majority of the people of Connecticut. However, I am also firmly convinced that attempts to reverse this decision -- either legislatively or by amending the state Constitution -- will not meet with success. I will therefore abide by the ruling."

While she's not exactly throwing rice, the acknowledgment that gay marriage is ultimately a reality not worth fighting is worth noting. Times are changing, people. Let's make sure they keep changing. 

Watching these debates is really a masochistic exercise, especially if you're like me and find yourself hypnotized by those insipid line graphs at the bottom of the CNN screen and the speaker's voices start sounding like the adults in the Peanuts cartoons.

But watching the Vice-Presidential Debate tonight I did hear a few things. I heard Sarah Palin make a cheap personal attack at Joe Biden regarding the Iraq exit strategy. I heard her flat-out not answer several questions and try to talk her way around answering several others. I also would have pulled my hair out, had I any, whenever the Undecided Voters Gauge swept upwards when Palin turned on her folksy charm and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING OF SUBSTANCE CAME OUT OF HER MOUTH.

But that's neither here nor there. What I really have to talk about here is the fact that moderator Gwen Ifill did throw a question at the two candidates regarding same-sex benefits and gay marriage. Just listen to the difference in the language that Biden and Palin used, despite the fact that they were essentially (so claims Palin, anyway) saying the same thing.

When Joe Biden spoke about ensuring basic Constitutional rights regarding hospital visitation, property ownership, spousal insurance coverage, etc., he spoke of support, of civil rights, and of every American being guaranteed what is promised to them in the Constitution regardless of sexual preference. He said, "it's only fair".

What did Palin speak of?

"Tolerance."

Yes, the extent of her support of our basic human rights is that she is tolerant of us and "our choosing". She tolerates our existence. She tolerates our whining for the abilities to see our partners in the hospital or buy houses together. She's tolerant of our preposterous demands that our relationships be protected and our loved ones be provided for as hers are.

Governor Palin, "tolerance" just doesn't cut it, and if you expect that the LGBT people of this country are going to settle for your tolerance, you're even crazier than I thought. 

When asked about gay marriage, Biden was adamant that he and Obama support full civil unions for gay couples, but then made it clear that he does not support gay marriage, as he feels that is a definition best left up to local governance and faith communities. I disagree, but I appreciate his putting it simply and clearly and making that distinction.

When it came to Palin, she said that she does not support gay marriage. Full stop.

Aside from that, if this woman gains office I'm going to drown a kitten. She is literally transforming into Tina Fey's impression of her as the debate progresses. She winked at the camera. She said "doggone". She gave a shout-out to a class of third-graders. I'm shocked that she didn't drag that baby out again. Someone please stop the insanity.

To watch the video of the candidates discussing this topic, click through the jump. 

In the first full episode of The Mocha Lounge, host Rob Smith introduces his new co-host Ramon Johnson (whom you may know as About.com's gay lifestyle writer) and kicks off the vlog's features.

This week's Must List discusses the fellas of Shirts & Skins, which cause Rob to Catch a Case. In What's New With Us the guys discuss the black men behind the developments regarding gay marriage in Washington DC, Massachusetts and New York (go Governor Paterson!) and tip off an upcoming panel for black gay men in NYC.

And finally the guys kick off What's the Q?, where they ask questions that they want you, the viewers, to answer. Shoe's on the other foot, fellas!

Check it all out after the break!

As though we needed any more reason to love this woman, last night Ellen DeGeneres took the opportunity while guesting on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to urge the audience to vote against Proposition 8, which would take away the right of gay Californians (like her and new wife Portia) to marry. And Jay chimed in, noting that there's been gay marriage in his home state for a while and nothing terrible has happened, and asks if we don't have more important things to focus on right now as a country aside from taking away the rights of gays and lesbians.

It's all totally awesome until Jay dips into some pretty shecky humor with his dead-in-the-water joke about Gay Divorce Court, but hey ... you can't ask a zebra to change his stripes, right?

IF COMIC STRIPS WERE DRAWN BEFORE A STUDIO AUDIENCE THIS IS WHEN YOU'D HEAR THEM GO 'AWWWWW':
The Concord Monitor recently ran a delightful little autobiographical comic strip by Clay McCuistion about his civil union to his partner, Max. (You can check it out as a JPEG or as a PDF file), "How We Got Gay Married". McCuistion's strip is so mundane, it's adorable.

A panel from "How We Got Gay Married"

Yeah, it did get the expected grumpy readers writing:

One woman said she didn't want to be confronted with "this garbage" and said she would canceled her newspaper subscription. Another said that the cartoon format seemed intended for children - but that the subject matter was inappropriate for kids. A third caller said he had no trouble with gay people but didn't want the issue of civil unions "pushed on me" by his morning newspaper. In a letter to the editor, the minister of a local church accused the newspaper of promoting "sodomy."

I should be a little bothered about the anti-gay crowd getting worked up (or the racist anonymous comment at the end of the article) but McCuistion's comic has me in too happy a mood.

WHEN THINGS ARE BETTER BEHIND THE SCENES:
Gay advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign recently released its 2009 Corporate Equity Index and gaming sites were quick to note that three gaming companies recieved a prefect score -- Microsoft, EA and GameStop. The HRC says their index measures anti-descrimination policies.

However, as comment threads at sites like GayGamer have noted, how does the way a company treat its LGBT employees match up with how they treat their LGBT customers? Microsoft still has gay gamers frustrated with their banning of "gay" as an X-Box Live gamertag, as well as the declaration that identifying yourself as gay is "inappropriate sexual innuendo".

Where do you find the balance? Does seeing Microsoft's employment practices make up at all for any frustration their X-Box Live policies may have created?

METAPHORICALLY, SHE'S STILL WEARING THOSE SATIN TIGHTS:
When she first hit the national radar, pop culture fans were quick to notice the resemblance Gov. Sarah Palin held to a number of celebrities, including TV Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter. Some people have also called Palin a Wonder Woman and it turns out the still-fabulous gay geek icon had a few words to say about that comparison:

Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman

Don’t get me started. She’s the anti-Wonder Woman. She’s judgmental and dictatorial, telling people how they’ve got to live their lives. And a superior religious self-righteousness … that’s just not what Wonder Woman is about... Doesn’t mean that I’m godless. Doesn’t mean that I am a murderer. What I hate is this demonization of everybody but one position. You’re un-American because you’re against the war. It’s such bullshit. Fear. It’s really such a finite way of thinking about God to think that your measley little mind can know the mind of God. It’s a very little God that way. I think that God’s bigger. I don’t presume to know his mind. Or her mind.

Let me join Dorthy Snarker in swooning... though, I guess we're swooning for different reasons.

And going on a nerd tangent, am I the only one who sees those signs calling Palin "Superwoman" and gets nostalgic for time-traveling superhero historian Kristen Wells? Yeah, I figured it was just me. Y'know I don't think Marvel would let a trademark like that laspe...

Sigh, not that Superwoman...

Speaking of the Amazon Princess, MTV's Splash Page blog asked if we'll ever see a Wonder Woman movie.

Sadly, it sounds like we're as likely to see Emma Peel return to the big screen just as soon as we see Diana, with producers Leonard Goldberg and Joel Silver lamenting a lack of good ideas, even when Joss Whedon was attached to the project. That seems a shame, considering Wonder Woman's iconic nature... is there another superhero who appears on so much merchandise without appearing on the big or small screen?

AFTER THE BREAK: Best. Rock Band addition ever and nostalgia for the adventure game