Maybe if we don't talk about it…

The National Journal polled some of who they call "political insiders" -- politicians, consultants, and strategists. They asked about 100 from each party. Their responses to the question, "Which statement comes closest to your views on gay marriage?" are quite interesting. 97% of the Democrat insiders say "My party should support it." Yay! It wasn't all that long ago when the response would have been, "My party should avoid the issue."

On to the GOP:
27% -- My party should support it
11% -- My party should oppose it
48% -- My party should avoid the issue
14% -- Other

Yup, more than twice as many want to support marriage equality than want to oppose it. Big progress there. Also interesting, nearly half of them don't think it should be discussed, presumably because they don't think the party is ready to support it yet they don't want to be seen as anti-gay. That they are even concerned about that image is big progress.



Amazingly, a marriage equality bill has been introduced in Wyoming! Yeah, they are also introducing a civil partnership bill, but at this point we'll take what we can get. Another report here.



Last year Tracy Thorne-Begland was nominated to be a judge of the General District Court in Virginia. The GOP legislators, who had to approve him, refused. Not because the nominee was gay, nosiree, but because he was "openly aggressively gay." Thorne-Begland was installed through a recess appointment, annoying the GOP.

That recess appointment must now be reconfirmed. And the GOP is singing quite a different tune. A joint House and Senate panel unanimously voted to send his confirmation to both chambers.

Perhaps they saw the handwriting on the wall?

A comment on this post implies Thorne-Begland was confirmed -- after 12 of 20 GOP legislators walked out. I'd rather have abstentions than no votes.