The big news of this month, of course is Argentina becoming the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage in spite of fierce opposition in a traditionally Roman-Catholic country, with what's being called a historic vote:

Sen. Juan Perez Alsina, usually a loyal supporter of the president, called marriage between a man and a woman "essential for the preservation of the species."

How long same-sex marriage will have equal status remains to be seen; already there are rumblings in the legislature.

In a hopefully precedent-setting legal decision, last week in Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro ruled in favor of married same-sex couples' rights in two separate challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), that lovely piece of Federal law that overrules the rights of states to legalize same-sex marriage by denying married same-sex couple equal protections, benefits, and taxes as heterosexual couples in federal contexts, like social security, inheritance, retirement benefits, insurance, health care, etc. etc.

According to a July 8th article on The Huffington Post:

The state had argued the law denied benefits such as Medicaid to gay married couples in Massachusetts, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004.

Tauro agreed and said the act forces Massachusetts to discriminate against its own citizens in order to be eligible for federal funding in federal-state partnerships.

Should Judge Tauro's rulings withstand subsequent challenges, the implications of this precedent-setting decision would have much wider ramifications for gay marriage, nationwide. (Think about the effect of millions of queer couples investing in IRAs, for instance, and medical savings plans.)

QLBTBG web zine Queeried reports on the hypocrisy of the National Organization for Marriage, which has long denied any possessing a homophobic agenda. That denial now looks absurd, as evidenced by NOM's social networking tracks, to wit:

Yesterday though Goodasyou.org and Matt Algren proved NOM’s true views are far more homophobic than they would like you to believe by documenting their close association with a man called Louis J. Marinelli III. Describing himself as a “NOM strategist” Marinelli is a man who knows what he doesn’t like… and that’s gay people.

Moreover, he’s definitely not even a little bit shy about letting the world know his true feelings, either, using his Twitter account @OneMan_OneWoman. .  . 

Los Angeles police believe they've found the killer in last year's slaying of a 27-year-old transgender woman, Paulina Ibarra, stabbed to death in her apartment. The LAPD investigated the murder as a hate crime, working closely with the local gay, lesbian, and transgender community.

Requiescat in pace, Paulina.