News

Support for same-sex marriage has reached a record high in California, while a majority of voters support laws to prohibit anti-gay discrimination, according to various state and national polls released this week.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah gay-rights organization has started a petition to protest the naming of a new Weber State University center after a leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s trip to Africa next month may result in a stark juxtaposition between the growing power of the gay rights movement in the U.S. and the criminalization of homosexuality throughout the African continent.

DOVER, Del. — Democratic lawmakers have introduced a bill outlawing discrimination in Delaware based on gender identity.

TRENTON, N.J. — The New Jersey Senate has put off a vote on a bill that would prohibit licensed therapists from performing controversial gay-to-straight conversion therapy on minors.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Two Oregon bakeries who cited their moral principles and religious convictions as the basis for refusing to bake wedding cakes for gay couples, are seemingly selective in which Biblical “sins” they are willing to accommodate.

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is sidestepping the debate over whether gay marriage should be allowed in Michigan.

CHICAGO — President Barack Obama, appearing at a Democratic fundraiser in Chicago Wednesday night, encouraged Illinois state lawmakers to approve a pending marriage equality, calling it “the right thing to do.”

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s highest court has rejected an appeal by the National Organization for Marriage to keep its donor list confidential.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Black lawmakers undecided on gay marriage are feeling increasing pressure as a vote nears, but are keeping mum on their plans.