FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Gay Republicans joined many of their straight counterparts in Florida Tuesday night in congratulating former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for his decisive victory in the Florida Republican primary.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Gay rights advocates expect a strong turnout of same-sex couples at Orlando's City Hall when the city's new domestic-partnership registry opens next month. The registry, which takes effect Jan. 12, will extend vital legal protections to gay and lesbian families.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Orlanda City Council on Monday voted unanimously to enact a domestic partnership registry, as the city became the first in Central Florida to recognize relationships of same-sex couples.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Broward County Commission on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve Florida's first countywide Equal Benefits Ordinance (EBO), a measure that requires the county's vendors to provide domestic partners with benefits equal to those offered to spouses of married employees.

The number of adoptions by gay and lesbian parents has almost tripled over the past ten years, despite the "patchwork of discriminatory policies" that often make it difficult for gays and lesbians to adopt, as either couples or individuals, according to a new study released this week.

TAMPA, Fla. -- The Pinellas County School Board this week voted to reject a $54,838 grant for a program run by a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America because the organization discriminates against gay youth.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A year ago this month, Florida's Third District Court of Appeals in Miami-Dade, ruled a 33 year-old law that barred gays and lesbians from adopting children unenforceable and the state's attorney general declined to challenge it.

The anti-gay hate group, the Family Research Council is furious that a Republican in Congress is co-sponsoring a bill which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Holy cow. Where to begin? Dustin Lance Black's play about Prop 8 hit Broadway for an incredible night. The tapes of the Prop 8 trial might actually get released. Florida's working on domestic partnerships, North Carolina's marriage ban is even worse than we thought, New Hampshire might repeal marriage, and Missouri -- yes, Missouri -- favors legal recognition for gay couples.

Two Florida state lawmakers have introduced a measure in both chambers of the legislature that would provide domestic partnership protections to committed same-sex couples throughout Florida.

Every time you share a story like yesterday's on Buell; every time you write and post such a story yourself; every time you leave a comment on such a post, so that observers can see how alive is the topic; every time you contribute to a pertinent online forum, you---you!---help to bring about real, actual change.

Many of you have heard by know about Jerry Buell. Buell is the teacher in Florida who took to Facebook and stated that he “almost threw up” when hearing about [...]

If you don’t know, Jerry Buell is the central Florida high school teacher who, on July 25, got so outraged while watching a TV report about the legalization of gay marriage in New York that on his personal Facebook page he wrote, “I’m watching the news, eating dinner, when the story about New York okaying same sex unions came on and I almost threw up.”

The ACLU of Florida on Monday reached a settlement in a lawsuit against the City of Miami Beach and two police officers on behalf of Harold Strickland, a gay former Miami Beach resident wrongfully arrested in March 2009 in retaliation for calling 911 to report that police officers were beating and kicking a man who lay handcuffed on the ground.

The Miami-Dade school district -- the fourth largest in the nation -- on Thursday joined other districts across the state of Florida in protecting students from bullying based upon gender identity or sexual orientation.