News

WASHINGTON — The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on Wednesday approved a package of bills to improve benefits and health care services for veterans and their families, including the Charlie Morgan Military Spouses Equal Treatment Act.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas’ attorney general said Tuesday that a proposed petition that would put a gay-marriage ballot question before voters in 2016 was ambiguous in a number of places and would need to be reworked before its backers can collect signatures.

SAN FRANCISCO — Federal judges have permitted a gay Filipino immigrant to stay in the U.S. despite deportation orders because he has suffered persecution for his sexual orientation in his native land.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — A Mennonite pastor from Virginia convicted of helping a woman flee the country rather than share custody of her daughter with her former lesbian partner says his federal conviction should be thrown out because no part of the crime occurred in Vermont, where he was arrested, prosecuted and found guilty.

DUBLIN, Ireland — Financial news publisher Forbes on Wednesday apologized to Ireland’s president for inaccurately describing him as gay in an online article.

The U.S. government said Wednesday it had reached an agreement with a Southern California school district to resolve claims the district discriminated against a transgender student.

The Alabama Public Service Commission kicked off a meeting on power rates last week with a prayer against gay marriage and reproductive rights. John Delwin Jordan, who was at the meeting to testify on behalf of the Prattville Tea Party, opened up the meeting in prayer after receiving a laudatory introduction by Twinkle Cavanaugh, the head of the PSC.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Organizers of the effort to make same-sex marriage legal in Oregon say they will start collecting petition signatures Friday.

ASBURY PARK, N.J. — Several national groups that support recognizing same-sex marriage are teaming up in New Jersey, saying that the state is primed to allow gay couples to wed.

BUDVA, Montenegro — Several hundred people shouting “Kill the gays” attacked gay activists and clashed with police on Wednesday in a bid to disrupt the first ever pride event in staunchly conservative Montenegro, which is seeking to improve its human rights record as it bids to join the European Union.