LANSING, Mich. -- Following months of heated debate, Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder on Thursday signed House Bill 4770, eliminating health care coverage for domestic partners of public employees, and prohibiting any government entity in the state from providing such coverage.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- As far right-wing and so-called Christian "family values" groups continue to insist that same-sex marriage is a force that is destroying the sanctity of marriage, one Minnesota resident “apologized” on behalf of the state's LGBTQ community for causing anti-gay GOP state senator Amy Koch to have an extramarital affair.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. -- A Tennessee woman who was denied visitation rights with her lesbian partner at the Rolling Hills Psychiatric Hospital in Franklin has been allowed a special visit and will commence regular visits during hospital's normal visitor's day Sundays.

DULUTH, Minn. -- In passing a resolution Monday, Duluth became the first city in Minnesota to take a stand against the proposed state constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage, which is slated to appear on the ballot for a statewide referendum vote in November 2012.

A Massachusetts newspaper is catching heat for mocking transgender celebrity Chaz Bono and a new state law prohibiting discrimination against gender identity.

A recent poll commissioned by Equality Utah — a Salt Lake-based civil rights organization focusing on equal rights and protections for LGBT Utahns and their families — found that a majority of those polled favored a statewide non-discrimination law that would make it illegal for someone to be fired from a job solely because they are LGBT.

HONOLULU -- Lambda Legal on Monday filed a discrimination lawsuit in the First Circuit Court of Hawaii on behalf of a lesbian couple rejected by a commercial business establishment, the Aloha Bed & Breakfast, because of the owner’s personal anti-gay beliefs.

VENTURA, Calif. -- Brandon McInerney was sentenced Monday to 21 years in state prison for the execution style killing of openly gay classmate Lawrence King during a computer lab class [...]

ATLANTA -- The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a decision by a U.S. district judge who ruled Augusta State University may expel a graduate student who refused to comply with graduate degree program requirements citing her Christian beliefs that homosexuality is immoral.

George Clooney takes a stand for marriage equality with his latest role. A new study connects anti-gay marriage laws to cardiovascular disease. Republican voters increasingly favor marriage equality, but this week several presidential frontrunners had some particularly unpleasant things to say about LGBTs.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., is calling on Catholics in his diocese to recite a special prayer during mass to promote passage of an anti-gay marriage amendment to the Minnesota state constitution.

Minnesota State Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (R) has resigned her leadership post amid allegations of an "inappropriate relationship" with a Senate staffer. Koch, who is is married with one child, has been one of the leading proponents of Minnesota's 2012 ballot initiative aimed at amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT -- Mark Ojakian, the openly gay Deputy Budget Director for the state of Connecticut, has been named to the position of Chief of Staff for Governor Dannel P. Malloy.

Save the date: Jan. 5, 2012. That’s the day the debate on civil unions here will get a whole lot more interesting. A group of Colorado conservatives are having a coming out party. Coming out for civil unions, that is.

A Virginia agency has approved new adoption rules which authorize state-licensed adoption agencies to engage in a breathtakingly broad range of discrimination, including allowing state-licensed private agencies to deny the adoption of a child by same-sex couples.