In a piece that comes absurdly close in tone to Andy Borowitz's satirical "Scalia Furious He Has to Hear About Gay Couples All Week" post from yesterday, Mediaite's TV writer Joe Concha bitches at length about the amount of news coverage gay marriage (and people) have been taking up lately.

When I decided last week that I'd attend Saturday's Black Party—the 34th annual iteration of it, and my first—I reached out to some friends to gauge their interest level or otherwise get their reactions.

Michelle Shocked skipped an Internet radio interview and then freaked out on Twitter. Now things are getting fun!

Earlier this week, we saw reports that someone completely irrelevant (folk singer Michelle Shocked) said something stupid, oh wow. The news was sparse and hazy, something along the lines of "Michelle Shocked told her audience to tweet that she said that God hates fags." Was she being straightforward? Was she being sarcastic? She couldn't possibly be aligning herself with the kooks of the Westboro Baptist Church by invoking one of their dearest slogans, right?

Catharsis: Gay guy chases down man who called him a "faggot," homophobe retreats like a coward.

Racialicious has a piece today about the Macklemore and Ryan Lewis song "Same Love" (featuring Mary Lambert), and people seem to care about it. The gist of "Race + Hip-Hop + LGBT Equality: On Macklemore's White Straight Privilege" by Hel Gebreamlak is that because Macklemore, a white indie rapper based in Seattle, did not say something the way Hel Gebreamlak would have said it, Macklemore is wrong. How internet of Gebreamlak.

A young, gay couple was kicked out of a California mall last Saturday for holding hands and kissing. Jose Guzman, 24, and his boyfriend Daniel Chesmore, 21, were in the Westfield Galleria in Roseville, California for just two minutes before they were asked to leave by a security guard, according to Chesmore.

Illinois' Senate has voted to legalize gay marriage. On Valentine's Day, no less. How sweet. It now moves to the House.

Last month, A.J. Daulerio—my boss and my roommate—stood in one of Nick Denton's giant Soho windows, and addressed the crowd gathered to celebrate his abruptly abandoned term as Gawker editor-in-chief. For about five minutes, he went through a list of people he somehow owed: former Gawker managing editor Lockhart Steele ("He's the only one who taught me how to do everything"); Jezebel's Jessica Coen ("The person who taught me how to blog"); former Deadspin editor Will Leitch ("I couldn't be more indebted to him for supporting me at a time when no one else did"); current Deadspin editor Tommy Craggs ("The best hire I ever made"); his former Gawker right hand, Emma Carmichael ("The person that I'm going to miss working with the most because she's everything about this company that's good"); the owner of it all, Denton ("He's the best guy you're ever gonna work for").

Animated pile of muscle and sideburns Hugh Jackman is the subject of a fawning Hollywood Reporter cover story by Stephen Galloway. The piece most notably touches on the rumors of gayness that are as synonymous with Jackman's public profile as his Wolverine character. Don't expect much probing, however, from an article that refers to its subject as a "complex and far-ranging figure" and "open and immensely likable." Jackman doesn't want to be probed. Can't you hear him?

From the Associated Press today, a bizarre memo that specifies the terms "husband" and "wife" are to be used to refer to heterosexual couples only. The initial memo, posted first by Romanesko Romenesko, reads:

NBA star (and one-time rapper) Kobe Bryant is the latest sports star to take a firm pro-gay stand publicly.

Watching porn helps straight men accept marriage equality, says a study. Thanks for thinking of us, guys.

The suspense is burning. For the first time in the history of the Super Bowl, people who care nothing about football can experience the same level of investment over the outcome of the big day as sports fans. For my money, the halftime show will be the most exciting of the night's offerings: there is so much riding on Beyoncé's performance. Will she stay true to her word and sing live? Will she reinforce her status as her generation's greatest performer during this relatively vulnerable time in her career? Will she deliver something that erases the Inauguration lip-synching/backing-track accompaniment fiasco? Will she fuck everything up?

Yesterday was Portia de Rossi's 40th birthday. So on her daytime talk show today, Ellen DeGeneres paid tribute to her wife of four years.

Republican Rep. Aaron Schock (who is not gay, but definitely has gay fans) from Illinois was recently asked why he doesn't support same-sex marriage. Here's his answer:

This is pertinent.

When I want to explain exactly what shade (as in "throwing shade") is, I refer back to the expert words of Dorian Corey in Jennie Livingston's Paris Is Burning: "Shade is, ‘I don't tell you you're ugly, but I don't have to tell you because you know you're ugly.' And that's shade."

Last night, on the eve of the release of her Remembering Whitney book, Whitney Houston's mother Cissy sat down with and croaked at Oprah Winfrey for a very special episode of Oprah's Next Chapter. Crankily honest, Cissy discussed the longstanding rumor that Whitney was involved in a romantic relationship with her best friend and one-time executive assistant Robyn Crawford. In the book, Cissy alludes to Whitney "experiment[ing]" with this friendship. She told Oprah that she just didn't like Robyn. "She just spoke too much…disrespectful sometimes," she explained. But the real brutality came as a result of Oprah asking Cissy if it would have bothered her if Whitney were gay.

The Boy Scouts of America may be close to ending its long-standing policy banning gay scouts or scout leaders, according to NBC News. The rumors are swirling ahead of a meeting of the Boy Scouts' national board set for next week.