Being unnecessarily litigiousness can cost you. Just ask Reverend Grant Storms.

The anti-gay preacher man filed a defamation lawsuit against gay rights group Action Wisconsin after they highlighted his homophobic sermons, which they claim advocated offing gays.

A court dismissed Storms' suit back in 2005, but the tenacious pastor wouldn't quit and took his case all the way to the state's Supreme Court. The court, however, wasn't having it and upheld the 2005 ruling.

Storms, who had preached about shooting gays, must now pay about $87,000 for what the court described as a "frivolous" lawsuit.

Hot on the heels of California's gay marriage victory, a Wisconsin court will hear a case hoping to abolish that state's ban on same-sex nuptials and civil unions.

The gay marriage argument, set for a week from Friday, will hinge on the amendment's language:

University of Wisconsin-Madison professor William [McConkey] originally said the ban violates the equal protection clause in the U.S. Constitution – an argument Dane County Circuit Judge Richard Ness rejected last fall. The judge did leave the door open to McConkey’s claim that the state amendment illegally addressed more than one issue.

McConkey’s lawyer said the 2006 ballot question actually asked two questions: whether gay marriages should be banned, and whether anything “substantially similar” to gay marriage should be banned.

But the state Justice Department defended the amendment’s language, saying it was all meant to do the same thing.

Because, duh!, constitutional procedure doesn't matter when you're coming down on the queers!

Some Wisconsin parents are bent out of shape after a health teacher told her students she's bent:

Some parents of middle school students in Eau Claire are complaining about a teacher's decision to talk about her sexual orientation during health classes.

School district officials confirm South Middle School teacher Stephanie Rowe told her five health classes last week that she is gay.

Parent Karen Peikert says Rowe is an outstanding teacher, but shouldn't be discussing her sexual preference with her students. Peikert says Rowe should stick to the curriculum.

God forbid kids get some real education. Don't these people have lives?!

Social conservatives have no sense of fun! Or, really, sense.

The Christian Right in Wisconsin raised a stink last week after hearing that Reedsburgh's Pineview Elementary had encouraged kids to cross-dress as party of a special "Wacky Week," during which the kids dressed in various costumes. Apparently dressing as a member of the opposite sex crossed a line, because radio program Voice of Christian Youth America interrupted its Friday shows for a special announcement decrying Pineview and its "error." Said station manager Jim Schneider:

We believe it's the wrong message to send to elementary students. Our station is one that promotes traditional family values. It concerns us when a school district strikes at the heart and core of the Biblical values. To promote this to elementary-school students is a great error.

Pineview principal Tammy Hayes pointed out that parents had been informed of the special day long before the radio hysterics, while administrator Tom Benson justified the school's shenanigans: "The promotion of transgenderism — that was not our purpose. Our purpose was to have a Wacky Week, mixing in a bit of silliness with our reading, writing and arithmetic." Silly Benson, don't you know silliness has no place in the classroom? If we were to let all of our young Americans dress in drag, well, we'd have an entire generation of Rudy Giulianis. And nobody wants that!

By the way, it was the kids who suggested cross-dressing as part of the "wacky week." We're not sure if that's a good or bad thing…

Mary Jean Smith and her husband are sick and tired of wing nuts trying to cure gay people. "Regardless of what the "experts" say, there are no "former" homosexuals… They cannot live a lie. Our lesbian daughter cannot change her sexual orientation any more than our four heterosexual daughters can change theirs."

He may be a convicted killer, but Stuart Ellanson sure is honest!

The Wisconsin convict plead guilty to holding a dental assistant hostage last November. He also admitted in 1991 to murdering a man simply because he was gay. Ellanson's hostage drama earned him 15 more years in prison - he was previously sentenced to life.

So, what, they just keep him in a freezer for the next term?

Father knows best in Wisconsin. Straight gay marriage defender Bill McConkey garnered more press for his fight against the Badger State's ban on same-sex nuptials. The Associated Press recently talked shop with McConkey, whose lesbian daughter birthed his activist spirit.

Q: You've described yourself as a Christian, straight, married, father of seven. You're kind of an unlikely figure to be leading the charge on gay rights.

A: I've also been a Republican all my life, and people have said, that's certainly a conflict but I don't think so. The reason I don't is because it's consistent with my view of human dignity and human rights as opposed to government and the power of government. This is really an overreaching amendment.
…
Q: What remedy would you like to see if your suit is successful? Do you want gay marriage to be legal or do you simply want another vote on two separate questions?

A: That is one that I struggle with. I think ultimately I would say under the U.S. Constitution, the way it's written, we cannot constitutionally deny the right of gay people to be married. Neither can the government order a church and say you have to marry gay people. That's an important difference to me. With that caveat, I would say I think that gay marriage should be allowed. It makes me kind of uncomfortable when I say that because I've been raised differently. But that's where I've come after prayer and after thought - a great deal of hard thought - there is no constitutional way to do that.

If only more Republicans were as rational…

Wisconsin's ban on gay marriage may be dissolved. A county judge ruled that Bill McConkey can sue the state for their allegedly unconstitutional 2006 referendum that prohibited same-sex nuptials.

[McConkey's lawyer Lester] Pines said McConkey is trying to prove that the constitutional amendment, as it was submitted to the voters, violated Article 12 Section I of the Wisconsin Constitution.

Article 12 Section I states, according to Pines, that the Legislature must submit referendums to the voters separately. The amendment passed last fall posed two questions, Pines said.

The amendment says that marriage only between one man and one woman would be recognized in the state. It also states that legal status similar or identical to marriage would not be recognized. The amendment passed by 59 percent last year…

Wisconsin's government can still appeal the decision, but haven't said whether or not they will. If they do, well, this shit could be going on for years.