News

DALLAS — Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will serve as the next president of the Boy Scouts of America, taking the helm of a national executive board that remains tangled in controversy over the organization’s policies toward gays, BSA announced Wednesday.

HONOLULU — The state Senate passed a bill Wednesday legalizing same-sex marriage, sending the measure to more uncertain prospects in the House.

TEMECULA, Calif. — As the battle intensifies over California’s recently enacted transgender student rights law, one transgender advocate said Tuesday she has caught another conservative Christian group spreading a second “fabricated” story about restroom harassment in a California school.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University isn’t taking sides in the fight over a proposed state constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriages.

HOBART, Tasmania — A motion to revive the debate over same-sex marriage in Tasmania’s parliament was defeated in the Upper House Legislative Council Tuesday, as local MP’s voted to leave the question up to the Federal Parliament in Canberra.

Transgender rights advocates are taking aim at the Chairman of the Jelly Belly company after learning that he donated thousands of dollars to the campaign to repeal California’s landmark transgender student rights law.

WASHINGTON — All Democrats in the Senate are backing a bill that would prohibit employers from discriminating against workers on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

BALTIMORE, Md. — A Maryland university is investigating a student’s claim that members of a fraternity he wanted to join rejected him because he is gay.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a Highway Patrol trooper’s same-sex partner who was seeking survivor benefits after his partner was killed in the line of duty.

WASHINGTON — Two of the last three remaining Democratic U.S. Senators have announced their support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a bill that would prohibit workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.