Montana Republican Party Hopes To Keep Homosexuality Illegal Despite Differing Supreme Court Ruling Over Ten Years Ago, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia Still Believes Constitution Sanctions Anti-Gay And Anti-Gender Discrimination, Derrick Martin Update, Matty Daley And Bobby Canciello Break Guinness Kissing Record, Tom Hardy Hotness Lands In Vancouver, Austin Nichols Surfer Boy

The Associated Press on the Republican Party of Montana and a decision in 1997 by the GOP to adopt an official platform that makes homosexual acts illegal. According to Montana GOP executive director Bowen Greenwood, the amendment, listed under the “Crime” section of the party platform that reads “We support the clear will of the people of Montana expressed by legislation to keep homosexual acts illegal,” has been the position of the party since the Montana Supreme Court struck down a longstanding state law that criminalized homosexual acts when it ruled on the case of Gryczan v. Montana. He added that no one has ever thought to change it, therefore it has remained in the party platform and never been discussed. “There had been at the time, and still is, a substantial portion of Republican legislators that believe it is more important for the Legislature to make the law instead of the Supreme Court” The statement, according to the Montana Human Rights Network organizer Kim Abbot, contends that it does not represent the attitudes of the majority of Montanans, as well as demonstrating how disconnected the GOP is from the prevalent opinion of the people they are supposed to represent. “It speaks volumes to the lesbian and gay community how they are perceived by the Republican Party,” said Abbot. “It would be nice if Republicans that understand that gay people are human beings would stand up and say they don’t agree with that. But I don’t know how likely that is.”

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told an audience at the University Of California Hastings College Of Law that the American Constitution does not outlaw sex discrimination or discrimination based on sexual orientation, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, you have legislatures,” Scalia said, adding that the same were true of discrimination against gays and lesbians. Scalia, the longest serving justice on the current court – an appointee of President Ronald Regan – is an advocate of “originalism,” a belief that the Constitution should be interpreted according to the original meaning of its authors. He believes that court rulings that have found the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of laws can be applied to sex discrimination is erroneous. “Nobody thought it was directed against sex discrimination,” he said. In 2003, when the Supreme Court overturned anti-gay sex laws as a violation of personal autonomy and due process, Scalia dissented, comparing the anti-sodomy laws to the statues against incest and bestiality, saying that the majority of Americans view bans on homosexuals conduct as acting as protections for themselves and families against “a lifestyle that they believe to be immoral and destructive.”

WMAZ-13 has an update on Derrick Martin, whom in April, 2010 petitioned the Bleckley County School Board in Georgia to bring his then boyfriend to prom, successfully, after a three-month battle. Since graduating Martin founded Project Life Vest, a support system for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals in similar sort of anti-gay discrimination that Martin faced. Martin says that “Prom was really a giant catalyst for what I’m doing ... it’s just so great to know that I’m helping people to be who they are and not to be afraid to be who they are.” Martin, now in his first year at Georgia Southern University, says that despite the challenges – which included his parents throwing him out of the house, uncomfortable with Derrick’s actions and the attention it brought – has no regrets, still wearing his high school class ring. “It’s my history, and you can’t just throw away your history,” he says, adding that he attended a football game two weeks ago at his alma mater. “It was awkward ... I could tell people we’re looking at me and saying ‘that’s the kid, what’s he doing here?’ ... It’s easy to become famous in a small town, and it’s even easier to become infamous.”

Matty Daley, 19 years old, an English major and Bobby Canciello, 20, an interactive media major, both students at the College of New Jersey, two very cute friends, not lovers, broke the Guinness World Record for Longest Continuous Kiss Sunday night around 8:00 pm EST, kissing steadily while standing and in a public space – per the rules – for over 33 hours. The two, according their website, broke the record because “After years of fighting bigotry and discrimination, it’s time to put down our words and demonstrate otherwise. When there’s nothing left to say, say it with a kiss.”

A smoking sexy Tom Hardy arrives in Vancouver Saturday, Hardy in town to film This Means War, co-starring one Chris Pine.

The very cute Austin Nichols – who is not now nor ever the boyfriend of Jake Gyllenhaal – partakes in the 5th Annual Surfrider Foundation Celebrity Expression Session in Malibu, the 30 year old looking good enough to eat.