Lisa Keen

WASHINGTON — President Obama continued his trend of including references to LGBT people in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Even the most jaded political pundits were stunned by the four stunning victories for marriage equality on the ballot Tuesday.

On its first official day of the 2012-13 session, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday did not include the Proposition 8 case on the list of cases it would or would not review.

Perhaps the most historic U.S. Supreme Court session ever for the LGBT community gets underway officially October 1, with a record nine gay-related cases seeking review, all involving same-sex marriage.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday included no same-sex marriage cases in its first announcement of what lower court decisions it will review during the 2012-13 session. Legal activists will almost certainly begin speculating now whether the high court is preparing to refuse to hear an appeal to preserve California’s same-sex marriage ban, Proposition 8. That action could come as early as Monday, October 1, or be pending for weeks.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A jury in New Jersey has found Rutgers student Dharun Ravi guilty of a hate crime against his gay roommate, Tyler Clementi, for using a web cam to spy on Clementi’s intimate encounters with another man.

The seven-member California Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed troubled, in much the same way a federal appeals panel was troubled last January, to find which power should prevail on whether the “Yes on 8” group should be granted standing to defend the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

On Tuesday, Sept. 6, the California Supreme Court will hear arguments as to whether there is any authority under California law that gives Yes on 8 the right to appeal a ruling that struck down the state ban on same-sex marriage when state officials decided not to.

First, there was a federal court trial. Then, there was a hearing on whether to sequester videotapes of the trial; Monday, there will be a hearing on whether to release the videotapes of the trial.

In the third nationally televised GOP presidential debate, none of the eight candidates on the stage strayed from their already stated positions on marriage for same-sex couples, but there was some pushing and prodding for several of the candidates to move even farther to the right.