Today on Here & Now

President Obama has held a news conference to discuss the debt ceiling, and his effort to press for what he calls “the highest possible amount” of deficit reduction. We’ll get an update on where things stand.GOP insiders say Governor Rick Perry will likely throw his cowboy hat into the presidential race, maybe just ahead of the Iowa straw poll next month. We’ll assess the potential impact of his bid.Author Rich Benjamin caused a kerfuffle in the blogosphere recently when he published a New York Times Op-Ed piece titled Not Going To The Chapel. He writes that he was not attending the wedding of a close friend, because as a gay man, he felt it was "utterly absurd to celebrate an institution that I am banned from in most of the country." We’ll ask him if his views cause more harm than good.Also, WFPL's Gabe Bullard interviews Beth Van Sickle. She's been an elder in her Presbyterian church for two decades - a position that was not acknowledged by the larger church, because she's a lesbian. The Presbyterian Church has now changed the rules and will allow openly gay men and women to be ordained clergy. Van Sickle talks about her reaction to the rule change.