The first thoughts I have after reading the article about Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg is that the claim that Rauschenberg is the most important artist in the 20Th century after Picasso is pretty far fetched. If R is so important then how come I've never heard of him, I have run across Andy Warhol's name thousands of times. Rauschenberg (R) and Johns (J) are described as being Neo-Dada, pop, or junk artist. It seems that R and J denied that they were a couple. That might be attributed to the homophobic attitude of that time but there seems to be no solid evidence that these two were lovers, and they ended their relationship after six years, not a long time. Much of this article deals with their rebellion against Abstract Expressionism, the Cedar Bar was a gathering place for artist in New York in the fifty's, the A-E's were a macho bunch and to be gay was not sanctioned. The cause of their break-up seems to be conflict between them due to J's more being more successful.
The BBC article Queers and Marriage presents the pros and cons of marriage for the Gay community and our society as a whole. I don't agree with this author's vision of society. I don't agree with gay marriage or some Mormon in Utah's right to live in a cave in the mountains and have three twelve year old girls as wives, I think of marriage as limited to a man and woman only. All of these other combinations of life-sharing are not good for the raising of children. I believe that marriage is like democracy, not perfect but much better than any other system.
The article on Freedom to Marry Day had some complaints from couples wishing to marry but since the number of gay people wishing to marry is probably less than five percent of the population I don't believe enough people care about this issue, they are worried about paying their mortgage and their electric bill.