News

DENVER — A bill granting civil unions for same-sex couples in Colorado advanced Friday morning in a third House committee, and now heads to the full House for a vote.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah Senate committee on Thursday advanced legislation proposing a statewide law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

AUSTIN, Texas — Support for marriage equality continues grow in Texas, as a new poll shows a minor plurality of voters now favor legalizing same-sex marriage.

WASHINGTON — The senior U.S. Senator who, as chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, shepherded the repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian service members, has announced that he will retire at the end of this term in 2014.

FOREST HILL, Texas — A Texas woman is facing felony charges for badly beating her 15-year-old son after she caught him receiving oral sex from a male cousin last December.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Facing pressure from shrinking federal funds, the West Virginia Senate advanced a bill Thursday that would allow local health departments to charge patients for testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

JACKSON, Miss. — The FBI said Wednesday that it has been monitoring the state investigation into the death of an openly gay mayoral candidate in Mississippi, but the agency didn’t indicate it had opened its own investigation.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Thursday signed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization bill into law.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A bill to legalize gay marriage in Minnesota has enough votes to clear one of its first legislative hurdles, over protests from opponents.

Extending marriage to same-sex couples in Illinois would generate up to $103 million in spending to the state and local economy, according to a study released by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.