According to a Fox News poll released Wednesday, 37 percent of voters believe gays and lesbians should be allowed to get married legally. While that’s unchanged from 2010, when the question was most recently asked, it’s nearly double the 20 percent who felt that way in March 2004, the first time it was asked.

On the other hand, the poll finds 25 percent think there should be no legal recognition given to gay and lesbian relationships, down from 28 percent in 2010 and a high of 40 percent in 2004.

The remaining one third (33 percent) think same-sex couples should be allowed a legal partnership similar to but not called marriage. While that number has bounced around a bit over the years, 33 percent also favored this middle-ground position in 2004. 

But let us all remember that polls are capricious and often wrong.

TAG TEAM: Chris Christie and Cory Booker get comedic.

KIDS...: Write the cutest music reviews.

FAIL: James O'Keefe pretends citizens are not citizens.

For more Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

Underwear designer Andrew Christian has a potentially NSFW video to sell his wares, though I guarantee you'll be looking at more than just undies.

Here are some updates on the Trayvon Martin shooting case, including a rundown of the dead 17-year old's injuries.

Mariah on Mariah, and only Mariah.

Mary Kennedy, estranged wife of RFK Jr., has died of yet-to-be-determined causes.

Shemar Moore reminds us all why we should miss him whenever he's not in our thoughts.

Howard Dean was on the phone with a Canadian radio station when he was in a car accident. The former Vermont governor and DNC chair is a-okay, though.

DC Comics rejected these products for the forthcoming Before Watchmen series.

A persistent and misleading question: "Will Gay Marriage Divide Black Electorate?"

Analysis of a New York Times and CBS News poll: "A quarter of Americans would like to see some legal recognition for gay relationships, but would also prefer — again, if given the option — that such recognition not be described as a marriage."

Good on you to Hutchinson, Kansas, where the city council has voted to outlaw discrimination against gay and lesbian citizens.

The Obama Administration is not going to let GOP lawmakers push through discriminatory legislation. Zack Ford explains: "In its one Statement of Administration Policy, the White House outlined numerous reasons it opposes the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains a military “license to bully” provision and restricts same-sex marriages or similar ceremonies from being held on military bases. The other Statement of Administration Policy addressed the Violence Against Women Act, from which House Republicans stripped all protections for minority groups"

Ousted Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich will not be running for office in Washington State.

Drinking some hot Joe every morning may be good for your health. "Results show that death rates over a 13-year period among men and women who drank coffee decreased with a greater number of cups per day, up to six. The trend was seen for deaths from any cause, and from specific causes such as heart disease, respiratory disease, stroke and diabetes. This relationship, however, was not seen for those who died of cancer."

An Armenian gay bar was torched in what appears to be an anti-gay attack.

No Mitzvah: "[Israel's] Knesset voted down a bill on Wednesday that would allow same-sex, as well as interfaith couples to wed.  The legislation, by MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) opens the option of civil marriages for those who may not be wed according to halacha (Jewish law), as well as those who choose not to be married by the Chief Rabbinate. It was rejected, with 39 MKs opposed and 11 in favor."

Virginia Sen. Adam Ebbin says he is "ashamed and disgusted" by his state legislature's recent decision to reject openly gay prosecutor Tracy Thorne-Begland for a potential judgeship.

First and foremost, the Courage Campaign is currently calling on Nike to drop Pacquiao as a spokesman.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao himself has clarified his remarks, saying, "I only voiced out my opinion that same-sex marriage is against the law of God. I’m not against homosexuals. I have a relative who is also gay. We cannot do anything if they were born that way. What I do not want is when you disobey the commandment of God."

And the entertainment show Extra will reportedly go forward with their interview with Pacquiao even though the entertainment complex where they shoot, LA's The Grove, has banned him.

The LA Times explains:

Pacquiao spokesman Fred Sternburg told The Times that the boxer will be interviewed by "Extra" host Mario Lopez at another location. The show is usually taped at The Grove.

Sternburg also said the controversy has been blown out of proportion by inaccurate comment's about his position. "[Manny's] not supportive of gay marriage, but he has nothing against gay people," he said.

The Grove announced the ban Tuesday evening.

"Based on news reports of statements made by Mr. Pacquiao, we have made it be known that he is not welcome at the Grove and will not be interviewed here now or in the future. The Grove is a gathering place for all Angelenos and not a place for intolerance," the Grove said in a statement.
...
In an interview with National Conservative Examiner, Pacquiao addressed President Obama's recent endorsement of gay marriage.

"God's words first ... obey God's law first before considering the laws of man," Pacquiao told the Examiner. "God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married. It should not be of the same sex, so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah."

You can be sure that Mario Lopez will have plenty to discuss with the pugilist.

Above you see the recent message sent by St. Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet, Massachusetts. It reads "Two men are friends, not spouses."

The church's director, Steven Guillotte, insists it is a neutral message. "We don't feel that there's anything hateful in it," he said.

Protester Kim Miska, however, sees things differently: "I think it was bigoted ... very ignorant. You can believe in what you want to believe in, but there's no reason to shove it down everybody's throat.”

The church has since removed the message, put up Tuesday, and replaced it with a more neutral message about the upcoming mass, yet deny their decision is over any kind of protest.

The message below the sign, in case you can't read it, says, "You may not be welcome at this church, but all people are welcome in this community. Spread love, not hate."

As LGBT activists lay the groundwork to pass a same-sex marriage initiative in Maine for this November, opponents have launched a new website that offers ill-planned juxtapositions of the "gay blue state 'lifestyle'" with "red and straight state 'America'."

Jeremy Hooper at Good.As.You and I had the same question: why is smoking cigarettes "straight," "manly" or something to celebrate?

Scientists for years have been researching methods to help paralyzed people use their brains to make up for physical loss. Now it seems they have made quite the breakthrough by developing technology that helps disabled people control computers and robotics with their minds.

Via the Washington Post:

Using only her thoughts, a Massachusetts woman [Cathy Hutchinson] paralyzed for 15 years directed a robotic arm to pick up a bottle of coffee and bring it to her lips, researchers report in the latest advance in harnessing brain waves to help disabled people.
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The latest report, which was published online Wednesday in the journal Nature, comes from scientists at Brown University, the Providence VA Medical Center in Rhode Island, Harvard Medical School and elsewhere.

It describes how two people who lost use of their arms and legs because of strokes years before were able to control free-standing robotic arms with the help of a tiny sensor implanted in their brains.

The sensor, about the size of a baby aspirin, eavesdropped on the electrical activity of a few dozen brain cells as the study participants imagined moving their arms. The chip then sent signals to a computer, which translated them into commands to the robotic arms.

The chip, implanted in the motor cortex, could make life far easier for countless people around the world. It will still take about another 5-6 years to perfect and simplify the technology, say researchers.

In the meantime, we can all enjoy watching Ms. Hutchinson do something on her own for the first time in over a decade.

"You could see an enormous grin when she managed it," researcher John Donoghue from Brown said.

Watch Hutchison work her magic, AFTER THE JUMP.

In the study, 129 college students viewed 96 photos each of young adult men and women who identified themselves as gay or straight.

Concerned that facial hair, glasses, makeup and piercings might provide easy clues, the researchers only used photos of people who did not have such embellishments. They cropped the grayscale photos so that only faces, not hairstyles, were visible.

For women's faces, participants were 65 percent accurate in telling the difference between gay and straight faces when the photos flashed on a computer screen. Even when the faces were flipped upside down, participants were 61 percent accurate in telling the two apart.

At 57 percent accuracy, they had a harder time differentiating gay men from straight men. The participants' accuracy slipped to 53 percent – still statistically above chance – when the men's faces appeared upside down.

According to the study's lead author, University of Washington psychology graduate student Joshua Tabak, the reality of gaydar undercuts conservative arguments that keeping sexuality secret will eliminate homophobia.

"Gaydar may be similar to how we don't have to think about whether someone is a man or a woman or black or white," he said. "This information confronts us in everyday life."

In what is an almost miraculous outpouring of support, a number of students at Sacred Heart Academy in Pleasant Hills, Michigan, have released a video supporting Dominic Sheahan-Stahl, the man disinvited from giving the Catholic school's commencement speech after announcing his engagement to another man.

On a related note, Sheahan-Stahl will be delivering a concurrent address at Central Michigan University to counter the homophobia he has faced.

"Through the outpouring of love and support that I've received from family, friends, Sacred Heart students and many people I've never even met, I've come to realize that a majority of Catholics support their LGBT brothers and sisters," he said. "I was always taught that God is love and I hope that that my brother and other students will come away from my speech with the knowledge that all people deserve to be treated equally.”

According to GLAAD, Sheahan-Stahl also invited Joseph R. Cistone, the Catholic Bishop who helped spark his removal as graduation speaker, to hear his speech.

Watch the students' pro-equality message, AFTER THE JUMP...

In a new effort to highlight how the Defense of Marriage Act harms gay and lesbian military families, the group Freedom to Marry and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network have just launched a new campaign called Freedom to Serve, Freedom to Marry.

To mark the occasion, which will include multiple and varied media spots, the organizations have released a video showing the tragic trajectory of a lesbian soldier's relationship, and how her wife was the last to know of her war-torn fate.

"The faces and stories of military families impacted by the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act illustrate the unjust ways this law treats our nation's most courageous patriots. It's unconscionable that we would ask American citizens to put their lives on the line for us in war zones while treating them and their families as second-class citizens at home," said SLDN executive director Aubrey Sarvis in a press release.

"All service members and their families provide the same service, take the same risks, and make the same sacrifices. When it comes to recognition, support, and benefits, they must all be treated equally. There cannot be two classes of service members."

For his part, Evan Wolfson, the founder of Freedom to Marry, remarked: "Many people assume that, with the repeal of 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,' gay men and lesbians serving our country are now being treated fairly and equally, but that’s not the case.  We ended the ban on open military service for gay and lesbian Americans, but there is still federal ban on treating married service members as what they are: married."

Wolfson went on: The so-called Defense of Marriage Act’s ‘gay exception’ keeps the government in the business of discriminating against families, such as those of service members, and burdening employers, such as the military, who are prevented from treating their employees fairly and equally.”

Watch the first installment of Freedom to Marry and SLDN's joint effort, AFTER THE JUMP.

The team from Minnesota United, a group fighting to defeat a state amendment banning same-sex marriage, released a new commercial featuring Republican Rep. John Kriesel's passionate speech about Corporal Andrew Wilfahrt, a late gay veteran, and how it's not okay to believe someone can die for the country but does not deserve the right to marry the person they love. It's very effective.

Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...

Starbucks reported last month that their sales and stocks have not been impacted one bit by the National Organization for Marriage's boycott over the coffee giant's pro-gay policies.

Perhaps Bob Enyart, the pastor at Denver Bible Church, is a reason why: protesters are buying the coffee to pour it into sewers. Jeremy Hooper at Good.As.You writes: "I'm pretty sure Starbucks is okay with one feeding his or her Venti Machiatto to the sewer, just as long as one purchases said frothy beverage."

Watch Enyart's protest, AFTER THE JUMP...

Talk show host Bill Maher appeared on fellow talk show host Conan O'Brien's talk show last night to talk about President Obama's support for same-sex marriage and journalist Andrew Sullivan's claim that the commander-in-chief is the nation's first gay president.

Maher does not understand this proclamation. Listen to him explain why, AFTER THE JUMP.

Oklahoma Rep. James Lankford appeared on his local news last night to hit back at Think Progress for reprinting his comments that gay people do not deserve workplace protections.

According to Lankford, he said nothing of the sort. Rather, he simply believes homosexuality is a choice is that "private behavior" does not warrant "special protections." The entire encounter with TP, he says, was an example of "ambush journalism" and an extension of President Obama's pro-gay marriage agenda.

Watch Lankford's followup, AFTER THE JUMP….