150 Game Changing Wins that Made 2012 the Gayest Year Ever

A remarkably short four decades ago, the Stonewall Revolt of 1969 opened the flood gates for LGBT rights. The closet, so sturdy for so long, started being swept away in a rush of pride. Still, LGBT Americans lived in a culture of "tolerance," a popular euphemism for enduring.

There have been momentous years since then — both Barney Frank's 1987 coming out and the 2003 Supreme Court ruling overturning anti-sodomy laws come to mind — but when we look back in twenty years time or ten or even five, 2012 will be remembered as quantum leap for LGBT rights in the United States of America. It's the year that equality went from being a far-off dream to becoming an inevitable, immutable and irreversible reality. Even Newt Gingrich agrees!

This was the year of equality, the year the American dream came into sharper focus and the nation crossed from begrudgingly tolerating gays, and sometimes even acknowledging their relationships, to demanding our inclusion in the greater American family. Coming out is for the large part no longer a big deal, which is a big deal in and of itself.

There have never been as many out and proud elected officials; never before has Wall Street embraced us with such force; never before have so many conservatives admitted they need to shift gears on marriage equality and embrace change. This was a year of "never before" and "never again."

AFTER THE JUMP, 150 reasons why 2012 was a year of permanence for LGBT Americans, a year that the next wave of rights began its swoop across the purple mountain majesty and above the fruited plain.

And for more of our 2012 Year in Review, be sure to read "I'm Gay: 50 Most Powerful Comings Outs of 2012" HERE.

Rachel Maddow Interviews Ted Olson and David Boies About the Future of Marriage Equality: VIDEO

As part of a Law and Social Change symposium, Rachel Maddow sat down to interview Prop 8 litigators Ted Olson and David Boies at NYU Law School on Friday.

NYU reports:

Olson and Boies said they would aim for a unanimous decision, but they acknowledge that in a realistic worst-case scenario, the Supreme Court may deny same-sex marriage as a constitutional right and rule that states must decide the issue. In conclusion, said Boies, we all have a lot of work to do to undo the "pain and evil" of this discrimination against gays and lesbians.

“I love talking to old, straight white guys about this issue,” quipped Maddow.

Watch the interview, AFTER THE JUMP...

Olson, Boies And Allies Ask SCOTUS To Ignore Prop 8 Appeal

Ted Olson and David Boies, the attorneys most recently famous for their work to fight prohibition on same-sex marriage in California, joined their colleagues at the American Foundation for Equal Rights today in calling on the Supreme Court to push a Proposition 8 appeal back to a lower court. Doing so would effectively nullify the marriage ban in The Golden State.

Chris Geidner at BuzzFeed reports:

The case challenging the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 is "an attractive vehicle" for determining "whether the States may discriminate against gay men and lesbians in the provision of marriage licenses" — but the Supreme Court should pass on the case, lawyers challenging the law say, and let stand an appeals court ruling that strikes down the 2008 amendment on narrow grounds.

If the Supreme Court takes the advice of Ted Olson, David Boies and the other lawyers representing the plaintiffs in Perry v. Brown, then Proposition 8 would remain unconstitutional, as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held, and same-sex couples in California would regain the right to marry that they had been able to exercise briefly in 2008.

Read the request AFTER THE JUMP.

George Clooney: 'Who Does It Hurt if Someone Thinks I'm Gay?'

George Clooney talks to The Advocate's Brandon Voss about playing attorney David Boies in the upcoming one-night-only staged reading production of Dustin Lance Black's dramatization of the Prop 8 trial. Clooney says he chose to portray Boies because he though "that was the part he could best serve".

Voss also asks him about rumors that he is gay:

"I think it’s funny, but the last thing you’ll ever see me do is jump up and down, saying, “These are lies!” That would be unfair and unkind to my good friends in the gay community. I’m not going to let anyone make it seem like being gay is a bad thing. My private life is private, and I’m very happy in it. Who does it hurt if someone thinks I’m gay? I’ll be long dead and there will still be people who say I was gay. I don’t give a sh*t."

Clooney also says more on marriage equality:

"It’s always been this albatross that stood out to me as the final leg of the civil rights movement. It really came to a head during the 2004 elections, when it was used as a wedge issue, and it was a very effective tool to keep the Republicans in office and to avoid talking about other issues. Well before Prop. 8, I’ve made the point that every time we’ve stood against equality, we’ve been on the wrong side of history. It’s the same kind of argument they made when they didn’t want blacks to serve in the military, or when they didn’t want blacks to marry whites. One day the marriage equality fight will look as archaic as George Wallace standing on the University of Alabama steps keeping James Hood from attending college because he was black. People will be embarrassed to have been on the wrong side. So it’s encouraging to know that this too will seem like such a silly argument to our next generation."

George Clooney Speaks Out for Marriage Equality, Will Play Attorney David Boies in Prop 8 Play

George Clooney tells E!'s Marc Malkin that he'll be playing AFER attorney David Boies in the L.A. production of Dustin Lance Black's '8'. Clooney's participation was announced in December, but until now it was unclear what role he would be playing.

Said Clooney to Malkin: "I think the world is changing and it's becoming less and less of an issue and I think it shouldn't be long now," Clooney said. "I think younger people are looking at this like, 'Who cares?' I do believe it's generational, much like the civil rights movement. Young people started taking to the streets and things changed. This really is the final leg of the civil rights movement."

Clooney told The Hollywood Reporter in December: “It is astonishing that gay and lesbian Americans are still treated as second-class citizens. I am confident that, very soon, the laws of this nation will reflect the basic truth that gay and lesbian people -- like all human beings -- are born equal in dignity and rights.”

'8' will run one night only at Los Angeles’ Wilshire Ebell Theatre on March 3.

Here's VIDEO of Last Week's Prop 8 Hearings

Miss last week's hearings in the Proposition8 case? They were likely the last ones before the Court rules on the case, and dealt with the unsealing of trial videotapes and efforts to vacate Judge Vaughn Walker's decision overturning Prop 8, because Walker is gay.

Watch full video of the hearings, AFTER THE JUMP...

And in case you missed it, our legal expert Ari Ezra Waldman's analysis is HERE.