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Rainbow-colored Santorum. Ick.

​The streets of Minnesota are running rainbow with glitter!

In the waning hours before Tuesday night's caucus, the glitterati struck one last time at a Rick Santorum event in Blaine, showering the famously anti-gay former senator in sparkles.

"I think he just felt the rainbow," glitterbomb inventor Nick Espinosa said into his own camera, moments after cohort Ben Egerman pulled the pin.

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Rolling Stone

The Anoka-Hennepin school district blasts back against Rolling Stone.

​In response to an article in the most recent issue of Rolling Stone, officials in the Anoka-Hennepin school district issued a lengthy statement lambasting reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely.

"The article in Rolling Stone presents a grossly distorted portrayal of the Anoka-Hennepin School District, its schools and its communities," the statement begins.

Superintendent Dennis Carlson also sent a voicemail out to the district's staff calling the piece a "brutal and distorted attack."

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There's something in the air the night before the caucus.

​As Republican candidates descended on our fair state for today's caucus, the glitter was inevitably not far behind.

At a campaign rally in downtown Minneapolis last night, Congressman Ron Paul became the latest conservative presidential candidate to be baptized in glitter, and the set is now complete. As of last night, all the frontrunner candidates -- Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, and Paul -- have officially been glitterbombed.

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Rolling Stone

The title "School of Hate" isn't doing anything for the Anoka-Hennepin image.

​In its current issue, Rolling Stone magazine becomes the latest big-name national media outlet to come down hard on the gay-bullying problem in the Anoka-Hennepin school district.

In "School of Hate: One Town's War on Gay Teens" reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely writes about the plight of gay students in Michele Bachmann's home district, joining past scrutinizing reports from Mother Jones and The New York Times.

"The Anoka-Hennepin school district finds itself in the spotlight not only for the sheer number of suicides but because it is accused of having contributed to the death toll by cultivating an extreme anti-gay climate," Erdely writes.

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Mitt Romney gets a Minnesota welcome.

​Glitterbombing may have become a nationally recognized form of protest, but the original inventor took back the reigns at a Mitt Romney event this afternoon in Eagan.

Nick Espinosa, who originally glittered Newt Gingrich way back in May of 2011, tossed a few fistfuls as Romney walked toward the stage, bedazzling the former governor's coiffure. Romney laughed it off, but that wasn't the end of it.

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Jefferson Fietek is making the leap into politics.

​Jefferson Fietek has made a name for himself as the most outspoken teacher in the Anoka-Hennepin school district's "neutrality policy" debate -- now he's parlaying that notoriety into a run for state senate.

"I definitely think this work that I've done locally -- and transitioned into nationally -- will hopefully be good training for me," says Fietek, who is a drama instructor and Gay Straight Alliance club leader in the now-infamous school district.

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If the recent lists are to be believed, MSP is slightly more gay than lesbian.

​Minneapolis-St. Paul is the 13th "most lesbainish" metro in the country, according to Jezebel's first-ever ranking of lesbian hot spots.

Jezebel doesn't explain the list's methodology, so take it for what it's worth, but the Twin Cities gets kudos for our abundance of piercing-laden bicycle chicks, Carleton College (how is Carleton more of a lesbian haven than St. Kate's?), and a certain championship-winning professional basketball team.

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Franken supports marriage equality, though he might not have a firm grasp on how widely his stance is shared.

​Not that there was much doubt about his stance to begin with, but Senator Franken has made it clear that he supports marriage equality.

In a video released yesterday by the Human Rights Campaign, Franken points out that he's been married to his wife, Franni, for 36 years -- "many of them happy." He says he believes "everyone should be able to marry the person they love, and I think our government should help people make those loving, life-long commitments."

He later asks viewers to "join me and the majority of Americans who support marriage equality." There's only one problem with that -- recent polling indicates a plurality of folks in Franken's left-leaning home state actually support restricting marriage to one man and one woman.

Video after the jump.
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Minnesota's big cities are united in opposition to the marriage amendment, but it's a different story outstate.

​The cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth have all come out against the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage that will go before Minnesota voters this November.

Last night, the St. Paul City Council (minus Council Member Dan Bostrom, who was absent) unanimously approved a resolution stating that the city council joins "a broad coalition of organizations, community and business leaders, faith, labor, progressive and nonpartisan organizations; communities of color; and current and former elected officials" all of whom have come together to defeat the amendment.

The Duluth City Council passed a similar resolution in last month, as did the Minneapolis City Council's Committee of the Whole earlier today.

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Only Anoka-Hennepin district residents were permitted to speak at the latest reading.

​Less than a week after ditching the incredibly controversial "Controversial Topics Policy," the Anoka-Hennepin School Board took another crack at rewriting its "Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy."

Conservative Christian parents and LGBT rights advocates gathered once more to hear the language of the new "Respectful Learning Environment Curriculum Policy," which until last night's meeting had been kept secret.

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