Don’t look now but the marriage equality snowball is gaining momentum. Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act allowing legally wed gay and lesbian couples access to the federal rights and responsibilities of marriage, LGBT rights groups have wasted no time using the momentum to push for more changes.

Couples in states like Kentucky, Virginia, Arkansas and Pennsylvania have filed lawsuits challenging those states’ laws against marriage equality.

At least one county official in Pennsylvania is joining the fight. Montgomery County’s register of wills, D. Bruce Hanes, began issuing marriage licenses in the state.

On the church side of the equation, in a little-noticed move by much of the media (and even hard to find on their own website), The Disciples of Christ voted at its general assembly in Orlando, Florida this month to affirm LGBT people as members and leaders in the denomination.

On the heels of that move, 85 retired United Methodist clergy announced they would defy their denomination’s ban on performing same-sex weddings. “We will refuse to treat people as inferior, second-class citizens of God,” Fado said

– more at Religion Dispatches (Candace Chellew Hodge)