We got some slightly-encouraging news this week in the form of a new survey showing that 51% of California voters support gay's freedom to marry. But don't get too worked up over it: for one thing, a study last month showed that surveys like this tend to overstate support for gays. And for another thing, that's exactly the same level of support that we saw right before we lost the Prop 8 vote.

But there is definitely value to collecting this kind of data: another study released this week shows us which religious communities have grown more accepting of gays. For example, Latino Catholics have warmed to same-sex couples at a faster rate than Latino Protestants -- one observer suggests that this might be due to the communal style of Latino Catholic worship.

Meanwhile, an Arizona judge ruled that the state can't save money by arbitrarily withholding benefits from gays; and a proposed new law to ban divorce moved one step closer to the ballot.