Queen Elizabeth II swiftly gave her royal assent to marriage equality legislation after lawmakers formally adopted the bill last night. It cleared its last major hurdle in the House of Lords on Tuesday with a 390 to 148 vote.

Gay and lesbian couples will be able to get married in England and Wales as early as next summer. Couples were previously able to enter into a civil partnership since 2004.

A key proponent of the marriage legislation was longtime supporter Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron. In 2011 he said this is a speech to the Conservative Party:

“To anyone who has reservations, I say: Yes, it’s about equality, but it’s also about something else: commitment. Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us; that society is stronger when we make vows to each other and support each other. So I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I’m a Conservative.”

Gay and lesbian couples can now get married in thirteen other countries: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, as well as certain jurisdictions in Mexico.  Marriage equality will begin in Uruguay on August 1, and in New Zealand on August 19.

Briefs in the Prop 8 and DOMA cases provide a sneak peak into next month’s Supreme Court arguments. Plus, more surveys show a surge in public support for marriage, and a rally in Colorado as the House prepares to vote on civil unions.

Last week the plaintiffs in the Prop 8 case filed their brief before the US Supreme Court. The brief is a record of the case so far and a preview of the argument they’ll make next month when they appear before the court. It’s an amazing distillation of the entire four-year process of fighting Prop 8.

You can watch a special episode of Marriage News Watch that explains the background and goes into more detail on the arguments. And visit AFER.org to read the brief, and to sign up to support the case.

The main point of AFER’s brief is that Prop 8 violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the Constitution. It does that by denying gay men and lesbians the right to marry, and by creating an unequal status without protecting any legitimate government interest.

We’re now just a month away from oral argument before the court on March 26.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration filed a brief in the other major marriage case before the court, a lawsuit challenging DOMA. The Justice Department brief calls DOMA unconstitutional on the basis of equal protection. They have until Thursday of this week to file a brief in the Prop 8 case as well.

Also this week the Respect for Marriage Coalition released a brand new ad. The video features Republican Marine Corporal Craig Stowell, who wants to be the best man at his gay brother’s wedding.

Public opinion is moving fast on the freedom to marry. A new survey by Goodwin Simon shows that 59 percent of Americans oppose the Defense of Marriage Act. The same poll shows that just 43 percent oppose marriage equality.

And there’s an even bigger advantage in Illinois, where a marriage bill is backed by 50 percent of voters and opposed by just 29. But a big margin of 20 percent is still undecided.

Finally this week, Colorado is moving rapidly towards passage of a civil union bill. The House Judiciary Committee will vote this Thursday. One Colorado is organizing a noon rally for supporters at the Capitol in Denver.

Those are the headlines, remember to share this video with family and friends — it’s the most effective way to win supporters over to our side. And head over to AFER.org to sign up for news alerts and to support the case.

Big news coming this week from Rhode Island, where we may see the year’s first hearing on marriage equality. New lawmakers in Illinois and Colorado express eagerness to pass marriage and civil unions bills. Two lawsuits join forces in Hawaii and Nevada, plus one unlikely country that saw support for marriage double over the last decade.

In this week’s video: Obama endorses marriage equality and we look at what that means for LGBT Americans and for the future. Colorado’s civil unions bill looked dead in the water last week, but this week the Governor’s found a way to give it one last shot at passing in 2012.

The Republican-controlled Colorado House of Representatives is close to passing a civil unions bill approved last month by the State Senate.  One Republican lawmaker, Rep. Don Beezley, explained why he decided to support the measure:

“I think it’s been an evolutionary process of respecting and learning to appreciate the fact that, regardless of whether an individual understands the nature of the relationships and the situation, that it really comes down to basic equity and fairness for a human being.”

Supporters of the civil unions bill have until midnight Wednesday, when the Colorado House of Representatives adjourns, to pass the legislation.

Twenty years ago, Colorado made national headlines when it adopted Amendment 2, an anti-gay state constitutional amendment that the United States Supreme Court struck down in the landmark 1996 case of Romer v. Evans.  Romer played a central role in the recent decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Perry v. Brown, AFER’s constitutional challenge to Proposition 8.