Minnesota Senate Passes Marriage And 5 Other Things We Learned Today

1. Minnesota's Senate voted 37-30 today to legalize marriage equality there. This comes after the House approved the measure last week. Next the bill goes to Gov. Mark Dayton, he'll sign it (tomorrow most probably( and Minnesota will officially become the 12th state in the Union to allow gays and lesbians the right to marry the person they love. Democracy has never looked so good.

2. Grant Kother, a zookeeper at ZLS London, dropped trou to help raise awareness for an upcoming tiger fundraiser. It worked.

3. Carla Hale, an Ohio teacher fired from a Catholic school for being gay, says her local union isn't supporting her in her fight to get her job back.

4. Vladislav Tornovoi is the name of a 23-year-old Russian man tortured, raped, and murdered for being gay this weekend.

5. Some people are upset that so many gay-themed shows were cancelled. Maybe the days of "gay" being fundamental to a plot are over? Maybe now it's just incidental.

6. NBC's upfront presentation to advertisers brought us all the trailer for their new Dracula drama starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

(Image via Minnesota Public Radio.)