Among the many political victors yesterday was Ed Murray, the newly elected, openly gay mayor of Seattle Washington.

Murray spent nearly 20 years in the Washington legislature and was a key player in the state's marriage-equality law. Murray, the city's first gay mayor, soundly beat incumbent Mike McGinn, garnering 56% of the vote to McGinn's 43%.

The city's first openly gay mayor, Murray married his partner earlier this summer.

The Employee Nondiscrimination Act scored a major victory this week, but as The New York Times reports, its got a religious exemption so big you could walk through it. Any religiously affiliated institution—from a church to a hospital to a university—could discriminate against LGBT people even if their jobs have no religious component. We're talking nurses, cafeteria workers, janitors.

Earlier anti-discrimination laws protecting African-Americans, women and other groups had no such loopholes. The Times writes:

The exemption — which was inserted to appease some opponents who say the act threatens religious freedom — is a departure from the approach of earlier civil rights laws. And though the law would protect millions of workers from bias, the exemption would give a stamp of legitimacy to the very sort of discrimination the act is meant to end. Any attempt to further enlarge the exemption should be rejected.

Well said.

Savage's 90-minute talk also helped promote SexPositive, a new app designed by the university that educates users about safer sex and suggests inventive sexual techniques and positions.

The app was downloaded more than 4,000 times thanks to Savage, so administrators consider the money well spent: “We are pleased with the activities to educate students about health,” said Keith Van Norman, who reps the University of Oregon health center. “The return a university gets from sponsoring programs where students are exposed to nationally prominent people is in the form of sparking thought and considering new perspectives. This is part of the work of a university."

The Camelot Theater might be popular with gays in Palm Springs and host the Palm Springs Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, but it turns out owner Rozene Supple has been writing checks for a plethora of  anti-gay causes: She's donated to the campaigns of Michele Bachmann, Alan West and John Boehner, and even put money behind California's odious Proposition 8. (And she probably charges an arm and a leg for popcorn.)

When confronted with the hypocrisy of taking money from the LGBT community and then handing that cash over to homophobes, Supple declared "I will no longer contribute to any political entity that does not embrace equal rights."