We've Come a Long Way.

Believe it or not, we're commemorating another anniversary this week. And yes, it's another civil rights landmark. 10 years ago this week, the Massachusetts Supreme Court issued a ruling that would forever change the way we view civil marriage policy.

In the last decade since the Massachusetts Supreme Court declared a gay marriage ban unconstitutional on Nov. 18, 2003, marriage equality has made significant gains with public opinion and within state legislatures. Now 14 other states and the District of Columbia allow same-sex marriage. Illinois is expected to join those states Wednesday with Gov. Pat Quinn’s signature to legislation approving same-sex marriage for his state.

“A decade after marriage equality arrived in Massachusetts, support for gay and lesbian Americans continues to rise to historic levels,” GLAAD’s Wilson Cruz told msnbc. “Anti-gay activists said the sky would fall, but the sun has shone; they said marriage would become weaker and that Americans would turn their backs on our nation’s founding principle of equality for all, but we’ve only moved closer.”

Indeed, a September poll this year found that 85% of Massachusetts voters saw a positive or little to no impact from gay marriages in the commonwealth. In the poll, voters in the state support legalizing gay marriage 60% to 29%. Nationally, support for marriage equality has almost doubled since 1996 when a Gallup poll found 27% of Americans thought same-sex marriage should be legal. In 2013, that figure jumped up to 53%.

It's important to look back at our history HERstory to understand what happened, where we are now, and how to move forward. Just 10 years ago, marriage equality was considered "radical" and "dangerous". And just 5 years ago, marriage equality was considered "too controversial" for the mainstream... And even the vast majority of Blue States!

But now, marriage equality has majority nationwide support, is finally recognized by the federal government, and is now the law of the land in 16 states and DC. Just this month, Hawaii became #15 and Illinois became #16. And more are likely on the way.

And let's not forget what's happening in our own state. Here in Nevada, SJR 13 passed Round 1 in the Legislature this year while Sevcik v. Sandoval (Nevada’s federal marriage law suit) has reached the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals. After waiting a number of years and suffering a number of painful defeats along the way, Nevada is finally on the road to equality.

And 10 years ago, none of this was considered possible. Even in Massachusetts, then Governor Mitt Romney (R) requested a constitutional marriage ban! While we've run into plenty of obstacles in the past decade, we've nonetheless experienced a whole lot of progress.

Who would have thought a decade ago that opposition to marriage equality would one day become a political liability? We've come a long way, baby.

FAIL Family Feud

Every so often, this happens. Worlds collide. Feuds erupt. And the "political media" behave like Hollywood paparazzi.

We're seeing it again today. But this time, there's an interesting policy twist. And that's (the only reason) why we're talking about it here.

No, we're not talking about Kanye West's bizarre tirade against President Obama. Rather, we're looking at the fast erupting Cheney family feud.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney and his family are back in the headlines today after his daughter, Liz Cheney, went on "Fox News Sunday" to promote her Wyoming US Senate campaign. When Liz stated her opposition to marriage equality on national TV, that sparked the anger of the Former Vice President's other daughter, Mary Cheney. Even his daughter-in-law and Mary's wife, Heather Poe, joined the fray!

Things erupted on Sunday when Mary Cheney, a lesbian, and her wife were at home watching “Fox News Sunday” — their usual weekend ritual. Liz Cheney appeared on the show and said that she opposed same-sex marriage, describing it as “just an area where we disagree,” referring to her sister. Taken aback and hurt, Mary Cheney took to her Facebook page to blast back: “Liz — this isn’t just an issue on which we disagree you’re just wrong — and on the wrong side of history.”

But then Mary Cheney’s wife, Heather Poe, went further, touching on Liz Cheney’s relocation from Northern Virginia to Wyoming to seek office. (Liz Cheney is already battling accusations of carpetbagging in the race.)

“I can’t help but wonder how Liz would feel if as she moved from state to state, she discovered that her family was protected in one but not the other,” Ms. Poe wrote on her Facebook page. “Yes, Liz,” she added, “in fifteen states and the District of Columbia you are my sister-in-law.”

The feud reveals tensions not just within the family but in the Republican Party more broadly as it seeks to respond to both a changing America and an energized, fervently conservative base.

We never thought we would say this, but Liz Cheney’s "Fox News Sunday" fiasco may be even worse than Governor Brian Sandoval's (R-Dios Mio) Univision Las Vegas interview in April that made news for all the wrong reasons. Governor Sandoval had wanted to use it to celebrate his (late) embrace of comprehensive immigration reform, but it instead grabbed headlines because he reiterated his opposition to marriage equality. Yet as awful as that convoluted statement on civil rights was, it pales in comparison to a TV interview sparking a family feud that's reminding the entire nation of the Republican Party's Culture War full of FAIL.

While the Cheney family feud may be the story everyone is talking about, it gives us a chance to notice what other prominent Republicans are saying about LGBTQ Americans. In Michigan, they're tapping discredited "experts" to lie "testify" in court about LGBTQ families. In Indiana, they're pushing a marriage ban that most voters there oppose. In Illinois, they're planning a massive exorcism in a last ditch effort to stop marriage equality (no, really). And in Colorado & California, they're still attacking transgender youth.

And let's not forget who's setting the example from on top. On Capitol Hill, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Burnt to a Crisp) still leads the way in H8... And in FAIL.

Just a day after House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) claimed the LGBT workplace protections are “unnecessary,” he [made] sure that an anti-gay group has a place to meet on Capitol Hill.

The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an Illinois-based group that believes homosexuality is a “deviation” from sexual norms comparable to pornography, promiscuity, and incest, and it has been directly responsible for exporting American homophobia to countries like Russia, organizing trips for anti-gay leaders like the National Organization for Marriage’s Brian Brown to go speak with Russian lawmakers. They had planned a meeting today in a Senate office building that features three anti-gay voices: Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), Janice Shaw Crouse of Concerned Women for America, and Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute. The session, called “The Family in America,” is specifically geared toward sharing lessons learned from successful anti-gay campaigns in other countries — like Russia.

On Thursday, Republican Sen. Mark Kirk, who represents WCF’s home state of Illinois, realized that his office had booked the space being used for this anti-gay symposium and canceled access to the meeting room. A spokesman for Kirk’s office told BuzzFeed that the Senator “doesn’t affiliate with groups that discriminate.” As of Friday morning, it seemed that the event would not be able to proceed.

That was, at least, until Speaker Boehner stepped in and secured new meeting space for the group on the Hill.

So not only did the House Speaker diss LGBTQ workers while lying about ENDA, but he also intervened to save space on Capitol Hill for a H8 group meeting! He supposedly has no time for comprehensive immigration reform, but he always seems to make time to spread the message of bigotry. How precious (NOT).

And Republicans wonder why Senator Harry Reid (D-Fierce) is telling them to pull themselves together? Their behavior has been sickening, but not in a good way. Perhaps "spreppy" is a better description.

The Cheney family feud is really just the surface of the larger G-O-TEA Culture War FAIL. It remains to be seen how many more Republican politicians embarrass themselves and each other on TV before they realize just how FAIL-o-rific their support for discrimination is.