A new Quinnipiac poll finds support for same-sex marriage is inching up and now stands at 47% to 43%, including 54% to 38% among Catholic voters.

Said pollster Peter Brown: “Catholic voters are leading American voters toward support for same-sex marriage. Among all voters, there is almost no gender gap, but a big age gap. Voters 18 to 34 years old support same sex marriage 62% to 30%; voters 35 to 54 years old are divided 48% to 45% and voters over 55 are opposed 50% to 39%.”

Bill Clinton writes in the Washington Post that as the president who signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law, he has come to believe that the act is contrary to freedom, equality and justice.

“When I signed the bill, I included a statement with the admonition that ‘enactment of this legislation should not, despite the fierce and at times divisive rhetoric surrounding it, be understood to provide an excuse for discrimination.’ Reading those words today, I know now that, even worse than providing an excuse for discrimination, the law is itself discriminatory. It should be overturned.”

Andrew Sullivan: “He knew it then of course too. But it’s churlish to cavil. If we can forgive Ken Mehlman, we can surely forgive Bill Clinton. And welcome him to the civil rights cause of our time.”

The Week: 4 signs than DOMA is doomed.

Just as the Obama administration filed a brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down California’s ban on same-sex marriage, a new Field Poll finds that support for same-sex marriage in the state has increased drastically since the ban was passed.

Key findings: 61% say they support same-sex marriage, with just 32% were against. The ban passes in 2008 by a 52% to 48% margin.

“Throwing unprecedented political weight into legalizing same-sex marriage, the Obama administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down California’s ban on gay nuptials,” the San Jose Mercury News reports.

“In a friend-of-the-court brief, the administration for the first time stepped into the four-year legal battle over Proposition 8, arguing that the 2008 voter-approved law violates the federal equal protection rights of gay and lesbian couples and does ‘not substantially further any important government interest.'”

Minnesota state Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen (R) said that homosexuality is a choice and form of sexual addiction, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

Said Gruenhagen: “It’s an unhealthy, sexual addiction.”

“Gruenhagen made the statements after advocates unveiled their proposal to legalize same-sex marriage, which would make Minnesota among nearly a dozen states that allow gays and lesbians to wed.”

“Dozens of prominent Republicans — including top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress — have signed a legal brief arguing that gay people have a constitutional right to marry, a position that amounts to a direct challenge to Speaker John A. Boehner and reflects the civil war in the party since the November election,” the New York Times reports.

The Supreme Court next month will hear back-to-back arguments in a suit seeking to strike down Proposition 8, a California ballot initiative barring same-sex marriage, and another case that challenges the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act.”

“Legal analysts said the brief had the potential to sway conservative justices as much for the prominent names attached to it as for its legal arguments.”

“Jon Huntsman would make a great Democrat.”

— Utah Democratic Party Chairman Jim Dabakis, quoted by the Deseret News, in response to Jon Huntsman’s support of same-sex marriage.

Jon Huntsman writes in The American Conservative that he favors same-sex marriage rights and encouraged other Republicans to join him:

“Today we have an opportunity to do more: conservatives should start to lead again and push their states to join the nine others that allow all their citizens to marry. I’ve been married for 29 years. My marriage has been the greatest joy of my life. There is nothing conservative about denying other Americans the ability to forge that same relationship with the person they love.”

The White House “is quietly considering urging the Supreme Court to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage, a step that would mark a political victory for advocates of same-sex unions and a deepening commitment by President Obama to rights for gay couples,” the AP reports.

“To redefine marriage is discriminatory towards those who hold the sincerely held religious belief that it is a sacred institution between a man & a woman.”

— Illinois state Sen. Kyle McCarter (R), on Facebook, in response to the state Senate approving same-sex marriage in Illinois.

Britain’s House of Commons voted to legalize gay marriage by 400 to 175, the Guardian reports.

“Such a large majority probably increases the chances of the bill being able to get through the House of Lords this year, without the government having to rely on the Parliament Act to push it through in 2014.”

“More than half of the Tory MPs who voted chose to oppose gay marriage. Initial figures suggest that 139 Tories voted against, and only 132 voted for. Technically this is not a rebellion, because it was a free vote. But it is a severe embarrassment to David Cameron.”

NBC News reports that the Boy Scouts of America “is actively considering an end to its decades-long policy
of banning gay scouts or scout leaders.”

“If adopted by the organization’s board of directors, it would
represent a profound change on an issue that has been highly
controversial — one that even went to the US Supreme Court. The new
policy, now under discussion, would eliminate the ban from the national
organization’s rules, leaving local sponsoring organizations free to
decide for themselves whether to admit gay scouts.”

First Read: “Maybe the most striking (and memorable) lines of Obama’s inaugural speech were his remarks on gay rights. ‘All of us are created equal’ is the star that guides us still — just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall,’ he said. He later added, ‘Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law.’ It’s important to remember that Obama was someone who opposed gay marriage in presidential run in ’08, and who later said he was evolving on the subject. Obama’s shift is a reflection of how quickly the politics of gay marriage have changed in this country. (The train was leaving the station, and Obama jumped on board.) And so is the fact that there has been little to no backlash to those remarks — at least so far.”

Illinois GOP chairman Pat Brady “is staring down a revolt from some state party bosses after he bucked the official GOP line last week and urged state lawmakers to approve same-sex marriage,” WBEZ reports.

“It’s unclear whether the party bosses opposing Brady have enough votes to oust him. But even those who stop short of asking for his resignation plan to take him to the woodshed for neglecting to notify party bosses before he publicly contradicted the party’s platform plank on gay marriage.”

The Supreme Court has set aside two days in late March to hear oral argument on the same-sex marriage cases, NBC News reports.

On March 26, the court will take up the fight over California’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. The next day, it will hear the challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages in the states where they’re legal.

President Obama “is urging the Illinois General Assembly to legalize gay marriage in his home state as lawmakers are poised to take up the measure as early as this week in Springfield,” the Chicago Sun Times reports.

Pope Benedict used his annual Christmas message to denounce same-sex marriage, saying that it destroyed the “essence of the human creature” and that it was a “manipulation of nature,” the New York Daily News reports.

Said The Pope: “People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.”

A Public Religion Research Institute poll finds that 59% of American Catholics favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.

First Read: “For the first time ever in the NBC/WSJ poll, a majority of respondents
— 51% — support same-sex marriage. That percentage in support is up
from 30% in 2004, 41% in 2009 and 49% in March 2012, demonstrating how
quickly public opinion on this issue has changed in just eight years.”