News

MILAN — Italy’s premier has removed the equal opportunities deputy minister from her post after she said gays invited discrimination by “ghettoizing” themselves.

PHILADELPHIA — A Boy Scouts of America group will vacate its city-owned Philadelphia headquarters in return for $825,000 under an agreement that settles a long legal battle over the organization’s ban on gays, Mayor Michael Nutter’s office said Friday.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Governor of Maryland has notified state employees that shared benefits for domestic partners will end on December 31, and if they want to continue their health insurance coverage, they’ll have to get married.

EL PASO, Texas — Cities and counties that offer same-sex partner health benefits don’t anticipate altering their policies after the Texas attorney general called the practice unconstitutional, though his opinion does serve as fuel for litigation against entities providing benefits to gay couples.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — President Barack Obama says he supports recognizing gay unions in a broad immigration bill pending in Congress but won’t say whether he would sign legislation that fails to do so.

An autopsy report says a man admitted to killing a Mississippi mayoral candidate in February and that the victim died from lack of oxygen, but it doesn’t give an exact reason for the death beyond calling it a homicide.

DES MOINES, Iowa — A proposal to cut the salaries of four state Supreme Court justices who joined in a unanimous ruling four years ago that legalized same-sex marriage in Iowa, was withdrawn on Thursday and no vote was taken on the measure.

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Assembly this week approved the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA), a bill to prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression in employment, housing, public accommodations and credit.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Two freshman Democratic state representatives from socially conservative districts took opposite sides in their support for legalizing same-sex marriage in Minnesota, the latest among undecided lawmakers weighing their personal feelings against their political future.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Both spouses in a lesbian marriage must be recognized as legal parents to any child born during the couple’s union, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday.