Great news out of California this week! Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on same sex marriage in California, was ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court on Tuesday.

Prop 8 has been very controversial since 2008, when it was narrowly passed by a vote of 52 percent to 48 percent. You probably remember the Yes on Prop 8/No on Prop 8 campaigns. Even though the law only affected California, people from around the country got involved with the issue. And even though countless celebrities and big companies like Google threw their weight behind the No on Prop 8 campaign, it still managed to pass.

Ever since then, activists have been fighting Prop 8 in court, trying to get it declared unconstitutional. The recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals actually upholds the decision of a lower court from 2010. Prop 8 has now been ruled unconstitutional twice, but both sides are looking to decide the issue for good. The only way to do that is to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court, so it looks like that is probably going to be the next step.

So what exactly does that mean? It creates a lot of what-ifs. First of all, the Supreme Court could decide not to take the case at all. That would make this week’s decision final, and Prop 8 would be squashed.

But because marriage equality is such a big issue, the Supreme Court will probably take the case. And if they do, their decision could have huge long-term effects on the entire country. If the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court, Prop 8 would be upheld and same sex marriage would be illegal in California. But if the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court, Prop 8 would be gone for good.

Supreme Court decisions set precedent for other courts, and influence their verdicts. So a Supreme Court ruling on Prop 8 could set the standard for same sex marriage laws and court cases across the country.

It’s a lot to think about, and there’s no way to know what the future of Prop 8 might be. But for now, one more court has ruled it unconstitutional. And that’s one big step in the right direction.

Garnet is a student at Columbia University in New York City. She is “that person” who starts dancing at a party when everyone else is standing around, and if there were a Facebook stalking Olympics, she would be a gold medalist. She also has a love for cheesy 90s music, and almost died of happiness when Vanilla Ice retweeted her. Once. Follow her on Twitter @garnethenderson.

Cities across England turned dangerous as violent riots, spurred by the death of a black man by police, spread throughout the country. Mobs took over the streets, setting buildings and cars on fire, shattering windows, and looting stores. Things were particularly bad in London, where the Prime Minister sent 16,000 policemen on Tuesday to calm things down. It worked- the worst is over- but the cost of clean up is estimated to be in the tens of millions. Even though the riots began because of one man’s death, the social and economic inequality may have been what really heated things up. That’s an issue pretty familiar to those living in the U.S., and now, many are wondering, could the same thing happen in the states?

A  9,000 signature-strong petition got attention this week for it’s forward-thinking idea: Bert and Ernie should get married on Sesame Street. There have been rumors for a while now that the best buds are actually in a relationship, and their constant bickering is reminiscent of an old married couple. The LGBTQ activists who started the petition claim that an on-screen marriage between the two male puppets would teach acceptance and tolerance to children, but the show disagrees, insisting that such a union is impossible- “Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets™ do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.” Wait… what about Kermit and Miss Piggy? You can still sign the petition here!

The 12 Congressmen who will make up the “super committee” have been announced. The group was part of the last-minute, we-must-avoid-the-implosion-of-our-economy deal to raise the debt ceiling last month. Despite their name, they’ll be searching for savings, not evil villains, though that’d be much more exciting. (Can you imagine if politicians were actually superheroes? Hello Hollywood, this is obviously a great movie idea…) To be exact, the committee, which is half Republican and half Democrat (and btw, only includes one woman and one African American- typical!), is charged with finding $1.5 trillion in savings over the next ten years. Maybe they will need super powers for that.

The main stage at the Indianapolis State Fair collapsed on Saturday night, killing 5 and injuring 40. Chaos erupted on the fairgrounds after the huge, metal structure- which was soon planned to hold the country-pop duo Sugarland- came crashing down due to a “freak gust of wind.” Visitors caught the unbelievable, horrifying event on video (here), but as a warning, it’s pretty scary and upsetting. The fair reopened this morning with a memorial service for those lost.

Warren Jeffs, the leader of the 10,000-member polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday. The jury took less than half an hour to decide that Jeffs, 55, deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison for sexually assaulting two underage female members of his church. In court, prosecutors showed evidence that he fathered a child with a 15-year-old and played a recording that was supposedly him having sex with a 12-year-old. For the past 2 years, Jeffs has been leading his followers from inside of a jail cell, and no one is quite sure what will happen to the group now that there’s no way he’s getting out. A former church-member told USA Today that “he will definitely remain a prophet behind bars, and they will be telling everybody that God’s going to tear the prison down and let him loose.”

Pic o’ the Week:

The U.S. has been in mourning for the past week after the deadliest day in the war in Afghanistan, when the above 30 U.S. servicemen died in a helicopter attack. The tragedy has come to be known as the Chinook Crash, named after the type of chopper the men were flying in.  This happened over a week ago, but it’s all people have been talking about this week, as more and more details- like the identities of the lost soldiers and the possible identity of the gunman who shot down the plane- have been coming out. In addition to the 30 Americans lost, 8 Afghanis were killed. Among the men who died were 22 members of Navy SEAL Team 6, the same group that took out Osama Bin Laden.

News broke that Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered a child with a family housekeeper almost fifteen years ago. The famous movie actor, body builder and former Governor of California has a history of not-so-savory sexual drama. When he was running for office back in 2003, a number of women came forward claiming he had sexually harassed them. His now-separated wife, Maria Shriver, stood by her man back then, but news that he impregnated their employee at the same time she herself was pregnant must have been too much. Can’t say I blame her.

LinkedIn went from being a privately owned company to a publicly owned one that anyone can invest in. The switch happened Thursday with a bang- it was the biggest company opening on the market in two years. Demand for the stock was so high that less than 5% of people who wanted to buy shares could. The stocks even reached a price three times what had been predicted. (Read more on this.)

For the first time, a majority of Americans polled said they support gay marriage. The survey, carried out by Gallup, asked respondents whether they thought “marriages between same-sex couples should or should not be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriage.” 53% of the people polled thought that they should. This is a huge jump from last year, when 44% of people felt that way. How fast will politics catch up with the changing American sentiment? That remains to be seen.

Last Monday, the U.S. hit the debt ceiling. You might have heard this before, but probably had no idea what it meant. In fact, David Letterman made a joke about that on his program: “Ladies and gentlemen, hate to be the guy, and I’m sorry about this, but we have hit, the United States of America, has hit the debt ceiling. You know what that means? Neither do I.” Well, here’s a quick rundown: basically, Congress set a legal limit on how much money the U.S. can owe, and we hit that number: $14.294 trillion. The Treasury Secretary said he could move money around till August, but Congress has to figure something out by then- either raise the spending limit or cut the budget. (Read more on why this is so important.)

One of Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France teammates accused the cycling superstar of repeatedly using performance-enhancing drugs. In an interview that aired yesterday on 60 Minutes, Tyler Hamilton said that he saw Armstrong use the drugs with his own eyes, and Armstrong even hooked him up with some of the stuff when Hamilton needed it. Armstrong, not surprisingly, denies it all. He tweeted, “20+ year career. 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case.”

Pic of the Week:

Photo courtesy of Akashic Books

The Internet’s been astir over this picture book by Adam Mansbach. It’s been on the top of Amazon’s bestseller list for the past couple of weeks, even though it hasn’t even been released yet. Here’s a quote: “You’re cute as hell and smart as ****, But why in the **** won’t you sleep?”

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Yesterday, two years after Prop 8 – a proposition to ban gay marriage in California – was passed, Federal Judge Vaugh Walker released a 136-page document deeming the proposition unconstitutional. To say it was a big day for the gay and lesbian community in this country is an understatement. In fact, to say it was a big day for this very straight woman is an understatement, too.

Having been raised in a liberal household before attending an extremely liberal college, I literally cannot understand the idea of banning gay marriage. Say what you will about the whole “marriage is between a man and a woman” thing, making it illegal for a gay couple to get married is unfair, unjust and in opposition to the morals and ideals this country was built on.

America is (supposedly) a country that accepts all people, and that includes both straight and gay. We create laws to keep order and safety, but the law proposed by Prop 8 does neither. It is based on hatred, bigotry and ignorance. Will allowing gay couples to get married wreak havoc on our country? Are they more dangerous than straight couples? No and no.

Let’s be real: we have much larger issues to focus on in this country (um, the economy/the war/rebuilding New Orleans post Katrina…) than worrying about who is getting married. And it’s nice to see that someone with a voice has finally realized that too.

While we are still a ways away from having equal rights for the gay community, yesterday’s ruling gives me hope that one day – in my lifetime – we will live in a country that doesn’t ban gay couples from prom; doesn’t oppress millions of innocent people; gives everyone the right to love who they want to love, no questions asked; and has the (obviously fabulous) Neil Patrick Harris/David Burtka wedding televised.

I can’t wait for that day.

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As a generation of Facebookers, Twitterers, bloggers, BBMers, iPhone-ers, GPS users, and so on and so on, we are often viewed by the older I-went-to-the-library-to-do-research generation as lazy and dependent.  We have the world at our fingertips and we don’t have to use our brains for virtually anything, or so they claim.

Yes, we can access Google at any moment, and no we do not need White Out to correct our papers, but to the contrary, it is our 24/7 connection that makes us anything but lazy when it comes to fighting for what we believe in.

Take for example, the heated debate of gay marriage.  While an older generation calls the shots in Congress, in most states, it is still illegal.  According to a study by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, 65 percent of college freshman surveyed were in favor of gay marriage.  The findings revealed that even a large majority of students classified as far-right were also supporters.

With such a large percentage of college students in favor of gay marriage, there is an obvious disconnect between this generation and the older generation who make decisions on our country’s behalf.  Many influential people of the older generation are still taking action to deter gay rights.  Even some school system officials can be categorized this way.  Just last week, a lesbian high school senior was denied permission to bring her girlfriend to her prom.  Because of our networking capabilities, through Facebook, YouTube, blogs (including this one) etc, the news spread like wildfire.  The incident stirred uproar amongst our generation and discussion of outrage was consumed through every outlet.  Although an unfortunate event, perhaps it is appalling decisions like these that motivate our generation to stay open-minded and fight to make a change.  If it weren’t for our Internet dependency that may classify us as “lazy,” we would also be blind to incidents such as this one and consequently just as closed minded as those who dictate the fate of our country today.

It is refreshing to observe the findings of this study and to know that change is on its way.  With so much hate still circulating in the World, news like this gives us hope that our generation has potential to make massive strides towards the good of mankind.  Researchers found the results so highly in favor of gay marriage, they deemed the future legality of it practically inevitable.  Yes, we have officially re-written the question from “if” to “when.”

So what do you think? Is gay marriage inevitable?

OK, I can already feel this one’s gonna get messy, so hold on tight folks.

I admit, I’ve put off talking about gay marriage here for a while, in part because, well, I went to a liberal arts school in NYC – I have way too many gay friends to really be impartial here. Then last week, the assistant managing editor of the Notre Dame student newspaper resigned during the controversy over an anti-gay joke that appeared in the paper’s comic strip and I realized that this is an issue that still affects us all, and we need to talk about it.

Now I’m not going to get into a moral argument here – I doubt that I could change anyone’s opinions one way or another about that particular issue; my questions instead are logistical – is gay marriage inevitably going to become legal and if so, what’s the point of fighting it?

Right now, five states allow gay marriage and several other have passed bills allowing it only to have them repealed. Regardless of your moral standpoint, the legal (and yes, marriage is considered a legal institution, not a religious one in the US) arguments for gay marriage are persuasive. Now, admittedly, there’s a lot of strange and old-fashioned laws still on the books that just hang around (did you know that it’s illegal to let a donkey sleep in a bathtub in Arizona?), but that’s mostly because people forget about them. Same-sex marriage is one issue that people are fighting for and are probably going to continue to fight for, so why not just let it go?

On one side, we’ve wasted enormous – like huge, gigantic – amounts of money fighting about gay marriage in the courts. Plus all of the money that’s been spent on propaganda on both sides is way up there too, which seems ridiculous given our current economic climate. Why not put all of that cash toward social programs and just admit that the battle is lost? Same-sex marriage would mean equality (supposedly the most American of all virtues) and it could also help clarify a lot of sticky legal situations about partnership rights and help ease up the burden with the foster system by allowing gay couples to adopt more easily. After all, 70% of Americans believe that the LGBT community deserves the same rights as straight individuals, so it just makes sense, right?

But at the same time, (and this one shocked me) the same percentage of Americans are opposed to gay marriage. And we have always been a country where, if nothing else, your opinion matters and you fight for it. So if that much of America – the “by the people, for the people” nation - doesn’t believe in same-sex marriage, should we really make it a law? I mean, ultimately we Americans have always been about doing what we believe is right – sometimes that has led to bad things, but it’s also the spirit that pushes us to pitch in and help big time with things like the disaster in Haiti.

OK, you tell me, same-sex marriage – yay or nay?
Should we go with the flow, or keep on fighting?
What would you vote for?
Keep it clean people, but duke it out!

That seems a little bit backwards, no?