WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has formally added gay marriage cases to the justices’ agenda for their closed-door conference on Sept. 29. The action Wednesday does not mean that the court will decide that day to hear state appeals of lower court rulings that struck down bans on same-sex marriage. But the late September conference will be the first time…

WASHINGTON — A U.S. House panel on Wednesday rejected a measure that would have enabled veterans with same-sex spouses to receive partner benefits regardless of where they reside. The Washington Blade reports that the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs rejected the Veteran Spouses Equal Treatment Act by a vote of 12-13.

SALT LAKE CITY — Eighty members of the Utah state legislature have filed a brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a federal appeals court ruling striking down Utah’s same-sex marriage ban, because allowing gay to marry could lead to incestuous and polygamous marriages. The amicus brief supporting Utah’s appeal asserts that the …

LOS ANGELES – Ten states’ strict voter ID laws may create substantial barriers to voting and possible disenfranchisement for more than 24,000 transgender voters this November. According to a new study entitled, “The Potential Impact of Voter Identification Laws on Transgender Voters in the 2014 General Election,” authored by the Williams Institute’s …

WASHINGTON — Both sides in the same-sex marriage debate agree on one thing: It’s time for the Supreme Court to settle the matter. Even a justice recently said she thinks so, too. The emerging consensus makes it likely that the justices soon will agree to take up the question of whether the Constitution forbids states from defining marriage as the union of a…

BOSTON — Women’s colleges are revisiting policies around enrolling transgender students as institutions of higher learning – single-sex, coed and those with religious affiliations – demonstrate varying degrees of acceptance for changing norms. Mills College in Oakland, California, recently became the first women’s college in the U.S. to declare it would accept …

“Roseanne” alum and “The Talk” host Sara Gilbert announced Tuesday that she and her wife, rock songwriter-producer Linda Perry, are expecting their first child together. Gilbert told her “Talk” co-hosts that she would not be facing her fear of a cinderblock being broken on her stomach during their “Face Your Fears” week.

Massachusetts Attorney General candidate Maura Healey won the hotly-contested Democratic primary, advancing to the November general election. If she wins in November, Healey would become the first openly LGBT attorney general candidate ever elected in the United States.

SALEM, Ore. — Two of the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit that led to Oregon allowing same-sex marriage are throwing their support behind Republican Senate candidate Monica Wehby. Wehby’s campaign trumpeted the endorsement from Ben West and Paul Rummell on Tuesday. Her campaign released a television ad featuring West, who says…

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Broward County judge, who last month struck down Florida’s ban on same-sex marriage, vacated his own ruling Thursday on a legal technicality. The Miami Herald reports that Circuit Court Judge Dale Cohen vacated his decision because a petitioner in the case “failed to comply with (state law)” and notify “the Office of the…

“Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson is back, with a new message that sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, are God’s wrath for immoral conduct, such as homosexuality. Robertson made the remarks in an appearance on Washington Watch with with Tony Perkins, head of the anti-gay hate group Family Research Council. Robertson was…

AUSTIN, Texas — Lawyers for two same-sex couples challenging Texas’ same-sex marriage ban are refuting state claims the prohibition promotes raising children in “stable, lasting relationships,” arguing in an appeals brief Tuesday that it serves no legitimate state interest. The 88-page filing with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the ban denies gay…

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple unveiled its long-anticipated smartwatch Tuesday, introducing a device that aims to put many of the functions of a smartphone onto a smaller screen that’s never more than an arm’s length from the wearer’s eyes. The Apple Watch, the company’s first completely new product in four years and its first wearable device, is also Apple’s…

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s governor says the island’s largest public university is partnering with federal agencies to oversee a U.S.-funded project aimed at trying to develop a prophylactic vaccine for the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

The Wyoming State Historical Society honored a book that asserts college student Matthew Shepard wasn’t murdered because he was gay, but was instead killed in a drug-related incident – even though the book relies on wild extrapolation and questionable or anonymous sources and has been denounced as “fictional” by lawyers and investigators involved in the case.

Lily Tomlin will be one of five recipients of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors, the national awards for influencing American culture through the arts. Tomlin, 75, said she was astounded to learn she will receive the honors. The Detroit native originally went to college to study medicine.

TOPEKA, Kan. — Organizers behind the website “God Loves Gay People” and the Facebook page “The Facebook God,” have erected a billboard Topeka, Kan. — home to the virulently anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church — proclaiming that “God Loves Gays.” The billboard, located about 3 miles southeast of the Westboro Baptist Church compound, is the product of …

NEW YORK — Gay activists who have been pushing to join New York City’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade since the 1990s called on organizers Tuesday to include them, not just a group for gay NBC employees. Members of a group called Irish Queers held a news conference to announce that they were applying for a spot in the 2015 event, the nation’s biggest and oldest …

Attorneys general for Wisconsin and Indiana each tried to convince the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday that his state’s gay marriage case should be the one to decide the contentious issue for the country. Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller and his Wisconsin counterpart, J.B. Van Hollen, separately asked the nation’s highest court to reverse a 7th Circuit …

FARGO, N.D. — A federal judge is set to decide the future of a lawsuit filed by seven couples challenging the constitutional prohibition on same-sex marriage in North Dakota. The suit opposes both North Dakota’s ban on gay marriage and its refusal to recognize marriages of same-sex couples who legally wed in other states.