VIDEO: General Mills Anti-Gay Protest Goes Awry As Man Lights Lawn On Fire

Video footage of a gay rights opponent's protest gone awry is going viral in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) blogosphere.
Originally reported by Good as You blogger Jeremy Hooper, the clip shows an unidentified man attempting to light a box of Cheerios cereal on fire in protest of General Mills' proclaimed pro-marriage equality stance.
"One out of every eight boxes of cereal in this country is Cheerios," the man states. "This is really the treat now for the homosexuals! And this is our protest of General Mills, because they're advocating same-sex marriages. So we are gonna torch some cereal!"
Things don't go exactly according to plan, however, as the fire quickly spreads to the lawn below as the man struggles to extinguish it.
Meanwhile, the National Organization For Marriage (NOM) recently launched a "Dump General Mills" campaign. "Your decision to pander to same-sex marriage activists has forced me to choose between your food products and my conscience," a petition, which has so far drawn over 24,000 signatures, states. "As long as food is produced by other companies my conscience is going to win out over the desire for another bowl of Lucky Charms."

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Navy plan to allow same-sex marriage on bases draws opposition

 
Washington (CNN) -- A preliminary U.S. Navy plan to allow its chaplains to perform same-sex marriages in military chapels after the end of "don't ask, don't tell" has fired up congressional opposition.
All services are moving forward with the transition from the present ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in uniform. Top Pentagon officials are expected to sign off on the new rules and the progress of training in coming weeks.
An April 13 memo from the Navy officer in charge of chaplains says they "may" officiate at same-sex marriages or civil unions, depending on both local laws and their religious organization.
It is not clear if the other services would have a similar provision.
"Regarding the use of base facilities for same-sex marriages, legal counsel has concluded that, generally speaking, base facility use is sexual orientation-neutral," Rear Adm. Mark Tidd, the Navy's chief of chaplains, said in the memo. "This is a change to previous training that stated same-sex marriages are not authorized on federal property."
After the pending rule change was reported in the Navy Times and Stars and Stripes newspapers, it drew criticism from dozens of members of Congress.
A letter from Rep. Todd Akin, R-Missouri, to the secretary of the Navy asking him to block the change has been signed by 63 members of Congress, according to Akin's website.
Akin says the Navy's permission for gay weddings in military chapels, once the current policy formally is ended, would violate the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
"While a state may legalize same-sex marriage, federal property and federal employees, like Navy chaplains, should not be used to perform marriages that are not recognized by federal law," Akin said on his website. "My colleagues and I are calling on the secretary of the Navy to make sure that the Navy actually follows the law. As we state in the letter, 'It is not the place of any citizen of this country to pick and choose which laws they are going to obey. We expect citizens sworn to defend those laws to set the example in their application.'"
The Pentagon said in a statement Monday that the Defense of Marriage Act "does not limit the type of religious ceremonies a chaplain may perform in a chapel on a military installation." However, while the Defense of Marriage Act still stands, the Defense Department would not recognize those unions as valid marriages even if they're performed in a state that recognizes same-sex marriages.
Cmdr. Danny Hernandez, the Navy's assistant chief of information, told CNN that under the same-sex marriage proposal, each chaplain would be bound by his own religious beliefs. "A chaplain can conduct a same-sex ceremony if it is in the tenets of his faith," Hernandez said.

And he said the policy would have no impact on military benefits. When Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others announced that the Pentagon would end the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, they made it clear that benefits for spouses and survivors are a complicated issue that would require more study and planning.

Gay Marriages On Hold In Calif. During Court Appeal

A federal appeals court on Wednesday refused to allow gay marriages to take place in California while it considers the constitutionality of the state's voter-approved ban.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris had joined gay marriage proponents in urging the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift a stay that had been placed on a lower court's ruling to strike down Proposition 8.

Lawyers for two same-sex couples had sought again to lift the stay after the California Supreme Court recently said it would take at least until the end of the year to consider a legal question asked by the appeals court in the case.

They argued that the U.S. District Court ruling overturning the ban should be honored while the appeal, which they believe is unlikely to succeed, slowly make its way through the courts.

"We felt then, as we do now, that it is decidedly unjust and unreasonable to expect California's gay and lesbian couples to put their lives on hold and suffer daily discrimination ... while their U.S. District Court victory comes to its final conclusion," said Chad Griffin, board president of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, in a statement.

However, Proposition 8 supporters said the ban should stay in effect to honor the voters' wishes until the legal questions are settled.

"The voters deserve for their votes to count even while the lawsuit is pending" said Andrew Pugno, general counsel for the Proposition 8 campaign.

"Both sides are well aware that this issue will not be finally decided until it reaches the U.S. Supreme Court, and it helps no one for the law to shift back and forth prior to that time," he said.

In a letter to the court earlier this month, Harris said sponsors of Proposition 8 were unlikely to prevail in their appeal. Keeping it in effect, therefore, was a fruitless violation of gay Californians' civil rights, Harris said.

"The public interest weighs heavily against the government sanctioning such discrimination by permitting it to continue," she wrote.

Once the state's high court makes its decision, the case will resume in the 9th Circuit. Once a decision is rendered there, the case is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.