WASHINGTON --The National Organization for Marriage, the nation’s leading anti-gay group whose stated mission is to stop same-sex marriage, is actively working to defeat the passage of the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act (SB 1716) in Illinois.

This bill would allow same-sex couples to enter into a legal civil union in the state; it does not provide for same-sex marriages. A vote on the bill is expected soon in the Illinois legislature.

LOS ANGELES -- Equality California (EQCA) is looking for people to brave a pool of freezing water in the dead of winter - all in the name of equality.

On Jan. 15, 2011, teams of people devoted to full LGBT equality will take the Polar Plunge for Equality.

The participants' mission will be to jump into a pool of freezing cold water, right after they wow the audience and judges with a creative, unusual or goofy routine.

Brian Brown’s hate mail is divided into two categories: messages that go straight to the police and those he dumps into a growing computer file labeled OPPOSITION. One riled caller threatened to hang him from a tree “and burn you while your children watch”; someone else sent an e-mail offering to “donate” a pipe bomb to his office. The majority, however, simply vent frustration at Brown, who has emerged as the nation’s fiercest crusader against gay marriage.

NEW YORK -- Lambda Legal today launched the "Thank you Iowa Judges" pledge. Antigay groups spent nearly $1 million on a campaign successfully ousting three Iowa Supreme Court Justices for their role in striking down as unconstitutional Iowa’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples.

Excerpt from the Pledge:

Thank You, Iowa Judges.

I PLEDGE TO STAND UP FOR OUR COURTS SO THAT THEY CAN STAND UP FOR JUSTICE. I WILL:

- GET INFORMED ABOUT JUDICIAL ELECTIONS IN MY STATE

- SPEAK UP AND FIGHT BACK WHEN ANTIGAY EXTREMISTS ATTACK THE COURTS