News

WASHINGTON — A District of Columbia council member on Tuesday introduced a bill that would ease the requirements of transgender D.C. residents seeking to legally change their gender on birth certificates and other legal documents.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is quietly considering urging the Supreme Court to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage, a step that would mark a political victory for advocates of same-sex unions and a deepening commitment by President Barack Obama to rights for gay couples.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court has narrowly voted to uphold a law banning gay couples from adopting children.

The Respect for Marriage Coalition on Wednesday launched a national advertising campaign featuring prominent bipartisan leaders – including President Barack Obama, Former Vice President Dick Cheney, Former First Lady Laura Bush, and Former Secretary of Defense Colin Powell – speaking out in support of marriage for gay and lesbian Americans.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Republican state senator who supports legalizing same-sex marriage in Minnesota said Wednesday that he hopes to convince GOP colleagues to join him in abandoning the party’s traditional stand on the issue.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The nation’s largest Protestant group is calling on members of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America to uphold a ban on gay leaders and Scouts when it votes in May.

A California state Senator on Tuesday introduced legislation that would remove the state’s tax exempt status for any youth group — including the Boy Scouts of America — that bans members on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity

CHICAGO — The results of a Crain’s/Ipsos Illinois Poll released this week found that 50 percent of the state’s adult residents support the same-sex marriage bill currently making its way through the Illinois state legislature.

A new poll released Tuesday by the Center for American Progress and Gay & Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), found that an increasing number of voters see the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as discriminatory.

The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday ruled against Austria’s decision to deny a lesbian woman the right to adopt her longtime partner’s son.