Morning Sweep

Celibacy will no longer be required for gay clergy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, after a vote of the Church's leaders on Friday did away with a discriminatory rule that forbid gay ministers in committed relationships from being ordained.

Iowa's top civil rights panel--a bipartisan six-member group--unanimously supports the state's same-sex marriage law and the State Supreme Court decision that enacted it. This comes as efforts by some GOP gubernatorial candidates have announced support for putting a constitutional amendment banning marriage for same-sex couples in front of voters.

Wisconsin's attorney general is refusing to defend the state's domestic partnership law, claiming that it goes against the state's constitutional amendment banning marriages or any "substantially similar" legal recognition for same-sex couples.

The Advocate's White House reporter, Kerry Eleveld, has been getting a lot of (deserved) attention lately. Her smart reporting holds the Obama Administration accountable to promises made to the LGBT community on several key issues.

The legislative battle for same-sex marriage in New Jersey will be heating up in the next few months.

Ithaca College's LGBT Center starting next week (8/31) will screen a series of films throughout the fall about being openly LGBT in the developing world.