Why did John Boehner sign up for a protracted legal fight over anti-gay laws without first finding out what it was going to cost taxpayers? Hope is on the way for gay couples facing homelessness due to discriminatory Medicaid policies. Civil unions advance in Delaware but marriage is on the rocks in Rhode Island. And will we see Prop 8 back on the ballot in 2012?

Last month House Speaker John Boehner committed the government to covering the cost of defending the Defense of Marriage Act, but this week he admitted that he still has no idea what that cost is actually going to be. DOMA's a widely unpopular anti-gay law, but Boehner's plan is to just keep paying lawyers indefinitely to defend it, which is easy to do when you're paying them with someone else's money.

Congressional Democrats aren't letting the subject drop. Back in March, Nancy Pelosi asked Boehner's office for cost estimates and still hasn't heard back. Now she's been joined by Michigan's John Conyers, Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin, Colorado's Jared Polis, Rhode Island's David Cicilline, and Barney Frank of Massachusetts.

You can help keep the pressure up. Contact your members of Congress and tell them that if Boehner's going to put taxpayers on the hook for defending DOMA, you want to know the price tag.

Of course, it makes sense that Boehner wouldn't care about DOMA's cost to the government. He's already shown that he doesn't care about its cost to private citizens, from unfair taxes to life-ruining medical expenses to suprise deportations that forcibly separate legally married couples.

But even as Boehner runs up huge legal fees on the taxpayer's dime, other government agencies are taking steps to protect gay families.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is preparing new guidelines for extending equal medical coverage to low-income LGBT couples. Currently, straight couples have what's called "spousal impoverishment protection," which protects them from having to deplete all of their savings and assets before qualifying for Medicaid.

Gay couples don't have those protections. So if one of them gets sick, Medicaid forces gay couples -- and only gay couples -- to spend down half of their joint savings and to give up all the sick spouse's income. If one of them dies and the surviving spouse inherits their home, Medicaid will sue the survivor for back costs, often forcing the surviving elder spouse out of their family home.

When the new protections come, they're likely to be voluntary for each state. That's in part because DOMA specifically prevents the federal government from enforcing uniform protection for LGBT couples.

Nevertheless, in states that do recognize those marriages, new protections could save senior citizens from losing their entire savings and their homes.

This is thanks in large part to an Obama administration directive to the Department of Health and Human services, instructing them to address disparities in LGBT health care. So as we head in the 2012 presidential election, if you hear anyone ask, "What's Obama done for us lately?" you've got an answer.

And that's just one area where DOMA is hurting us. In previous episodes, we've talked about how the country denies spousal green cards to gay couples. But the chorus of voices protesting that policy is growing louder.

This week five congressional representatives and twelve senators criticized the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security for continuing the policy of forcibly separating married binational couples. They're pushing for DHS to use what's called "prosecutorial discretion," a practice that allows them to put deportations on hold until pending issues are resolved.

DHS has said that they'll respond to the requests soon, and this is another area where you can help. Contact your members of Congress now and tell them to join Senator John Kerry and Representative Rush Holt in demanding an end to the deportations until the DOMA situation is resolved.

Turning to states, marriage equality legislation is in jeopardy in Rhode Island this week. We're still just a few votes short of passage in the House, and even shorter in the Senate. If you're in Rhode Island, your state representatives need to hear from you now.

But there's good news in Delaware, where a civil unions bill easily passed the Senate by 13 to 6 and now heads to a supportive House and then to the Governor, who has said that he will sign the bill into law.

Meanwhile, Equality California is taking a closer look at overturning Prop 8 at the ballot box in 2012, and they want to know what you think. They've launched an online survey at EQCA.org, and in late Spring, they'll hold ten town halls around California to gauge public sentiment.

Now, we've been through this before. In 2009, a whole host of organizations did similar outreach and got mixed results. On one hand, the LGBT community tended to want to return to the ballot in 2010. But on the other hand, polling indicated that voters needed more outreach and education than a 2010 campaign would have given us time for.

A small group of activists tried to get on the ballot for 2010, but without any money or the backing of major organizations, they didn't get very far.

We could wind up seeing a repeat of that situation in 2012. But a lot has changed in the last two years. So this is an important opportunity to re-examine what we want, and how voters are likely to respond to a campaign.

And finally this week, you'll never guess who's out of the closet. Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared Prop 8 unconstitutional back in August, has finally started talking about his gentleman friend in public and scoffed at the idea that gay judges should have to recuse themselves from cases involving gay plaintiffs.

So welcome, Judge Walker, to being publicly out. We're looking forward to seeing your It Gets Better video.

You can watch our It Gets Better video, which just topped one hundred thousand views, by clicking over here. You can click here to subscribe and remember to Like us over at Facebook.com/stop8.

And don't forget to contant your congresspeople to demand answers about the cost of defending DOMA, and about keeping families united by stopping deportations.

See you next week.