Uganda bans 38 'gay rights' agencies

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing heightened expectations from gay rights supporters, the Obama administration is considering urging the Supreme Court to overturn California's ban on gay marriage — a move that could have a far-reaching impact on same-sex couples across the country.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is wading into the fight over same-sex marriage at a time when public opinion is shifting rapidly in favor of permitting gay and lesbian couples to wed, but 40 states don’t allow it. The court’s first major examination of gay rights in 10 years begins Tuesday with a hearing on California’s ban on same-sex marriage. On Wednesday, the justices will consider the federal law that prevents legally married gay couples from receiving a range of benefits afforded straight married Americans.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Support for gay marriage has surged in the United States in the decade since it first became legal in Massachusetts, with just over half of Americans now supporting the idea, according to a survey released on Wednesday.

SAN FRANCISCO — With the Winter Games underway in Sochi, Google Inc. quietly but vibrantly added its voice to the chorus of U.S. companies speaking out against Russia’s law restricting gay-rights activities by updating its iconic search page logo to depict illustrations of athletes skiing, sledding, curling and skating against a rainbow-colored backdrop and quoting the Olympic Charter.

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William Whatcott intends to continue his anti-gay activism and pamphleting, knowing the price may be high. “I’m certainly weighing this, because it’s going to be at great personal cost to me,” Mr. Whatcott said Wednesday, after the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the hate speech law under which he was charged, and found he violated it in two of four original cases, pamphlets that described homosexuals as a threat to children.

By Eric M. Johnson