News

HONOLULU — The Hawaii House on Wednesday night moved forward a bill to legalize gay marriage to the chamber’s final vote after a nearly 11-hour hearing that featured political maneuvering and chanting crowds outside the gallery.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate is headed for a vote on legislation outlawing workplace discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Senate passage would be a major victory for gay rights advocates, but the bill appears to have little chance of passing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

SANTA FE, N.M. — Insurance companies in New Mexico must provide same-sex married couples with the same discounts and benefits offered to opposite-sex married couples, the state insurance regulator announced Wednesday.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Just a few hours after state lawmakers approved same-sex marriage in Illinois, Chicago wedding planner Lindsay Parrott started getting her first inquiries for summer weddings.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. Mary Fallin says Oklahoma National Guard facilities and employees who are paid with state tax dollars won’t process benefits for married, same-sex couples.

HONOLULU — A bill to legalize gay marriage in Hawaii faced a crucial test in the House on Wednesday as crowds for and against same-sex marriage chanted outside the chamber, drowning out lawmakers as they tried to speak.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — An Illinois lawmaker is engaged to his partner just hours after the state Legislature approved same-sex marriage legislation.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate has adopted a Republican-backed change in a bill outlawing discrimination against LGBT people in the workplace.

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday about whether the state can grant divorces to gay couples married elsewhere despite its own constitutional ban on gay marriage, in one of the first serious challenges to that 2005 amendment.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. Pat Quinn says he’ll sign legislation allowing same sex couples in Illinois to marry this month.