SCOTUS Denies Kansas Request For Stay On Marriage Equality Ruling

The Supreme Court denied a last-ditch effort by Kansas to prevent marriage equality from coming to the Sunflower State on Wednesday. As you can see from the order, only Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia would have granted the stay. There had been some question whether the Suporeme Court would continue allowing same-sex couples to get married in states after the 6th Circuit broke the string of appellate court rulings in favor of marriage equality last week, making it likely that the court will have to issue a ruling with national impact sooner rather than later.

Hat/tip to Chris Geidner

The 7 Most Anti-Gay Republican Congressmembers

LGBT Think Progress has produced a list of the seven most anti-gay Republican Members of Congress by noting which of them have sponsored multiple pieces of anti-gay legislation from the following list:

H.R. 337, the Restore Military Readiness Act

H.R. 875, the Marriage Protection Act of 2011

H.R. 958, the We the People Act

H.R. 3828, the Military Religious Freedom Protection Act

H.J.RES. 45, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage

H.RES. 143, directing the Speaker, or his designee, to take any and all actions necessary to assert the standing of the House to defend the Defense of Marriage Act

H.CON.RES. 25, expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the Obama administration’s discontinuing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act

H.AMDT. 573 to H.R.2219, to prohibit the use of funds to enforce the directive of allowing chaplains to perform same-sex marriages on Navy bases regardless of any applicable State law requirements

H.AMDT. 546 to H.R. 2219, to prohibit the use of funds in contravention of section 7 of title 1, United States Code (the Defense of Marriage Act)

and H.AMDT.1096 to H.R.5326, to prohibit the use of funds to be used in contravention of the Defense of Marriage Act

The most anti-gay members of Congress is Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) who sponsored 6 of the above pieces of legislation (while authoring 3 of them). There are six Republicans who have co-sponsored 5 of the anti-gay bills and resolutions: Dan Burton (R-IN), Phil Gingrey (R-GA), W. Todd Akin (R-MO), Vicky Harzler (R-MO), Doug Lamborn (R-CO) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL). There are fourteen other Republican congressmembers who sponsored at least 4 of the pieces of legislation from the list.