Another crazy week, with news in the Prop 8 case and major advances in Washington, Maryland, and New Jersey. And yet another court has slapped down NOM's attempts to hide their donors. This week's Marriage News Watch is here...

For nearly three years, people living in the suburban Minnesota's Anoka-Hennepin area have been dealing with not only a rash of LGBTQ youth committing suicide, but a cultural environment that at times seems nearly a war zone as the greater LGBTQ community and its supporters have squared off against the small but well-funded virulently anti-gay conservatives.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) on Wednesday released an analysis of campaign disclosure reports -- made public today in Minnesota -- that reveal the National Organization for Marriage has launched an unprecedented effort to avoid disclosing individual donors as required by law.

Maine, Washington, and Maryland are all closer than ever to marriage equality, but the Governor of New Jersey thinks that civil rights should be put to a popular vote -- whether it's marriage today, or school desegregation in the 1950s. This week's Marriage News Watch report is here...

One leading advocate called 2011 an “epic” year for marriage equality. Was it? While only one state -- New York -- enacted full marriage rights for same-sex couples, it was the most populous state to do so. Five other states also moved closer to marriage equality than ever before. Public opinion shifted dramatically towards supporting equality. And the Obama administration announced that it no longer considers a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act constitutional.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- As far right-wing and so-called Christian "family values" groups continue to insist that same-sex marriage is a force that is destroying the sanctity of marriage, one Minnesota resident “apologized” on behalf of the state's LGBTQ community for causing anti-gay GOP state senator Amy Koch to have an extramarital affair.

DULUTH, Minn. -- In passing a resolution Monday, Duluth became the first city in Minnesota to take a stand against the proposed state constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage, which is slated to appear on the ballot for a statewide referendum vote in November 2012.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., is calling on Catholics in his diocese to recite a special prayer during mass to promote passage of an anti-gay marriage amendment to the Minnesota state constitution.

Minnesota State Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (R) has resigned her leadership post amid allegations of an "inappropriate relationship" with a Senate staffer. Koch, who is is married with one child, has been one of the leading proponents of Minnesota's 2012 ballot initiative aimed at amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

COON RAPIDS, Minn. -- During its meeting before a packed room with a standing room only crowd Monday, the Anoka-Hennepin Minnesota School District's board proposed a new "Controversial Topics Curriculum Policy" to replace the current "neutral policy" that prohibits the district's teachers from talking about homosexuality in the classroom.

ST. PAUL Minn. -- Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has announced he will name a 15-member task force to study the best methods used nationwide as state officials confront the problem of bullying in Minnesota's schools.

A victory for DOMA repeal in the Senate Judiciary Committee, but now it faces even greater hurdles in the full Senate. An election night victory in Iowa means marriage is safe, for now; but polling in Minnesota shows cause for alarm. Activists raise the stakes in Washington, Maryland, Oregon, and Maine.

The group Minnesota for Marriage wants folks to forget that the organizations which comprise it – National Organization for Marriage and the Minnesota Family Council – operate to attack and demonize same-sex families through their various tactics.

The Minnesota Family Council is scum. It is a group devoted to demonizing and stigmatizing the gay community through junk science and ugly propaganda. Yet it is the same group which Archbishop John Nienstedt seems no problem in teaming up with in order to stop marriage equality in Minnesota.

MINNEAPOLIS -- John Nienstedt, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minneapolis and St. Paul, has urged church priests to form committees to help pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota.