News

JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi mayoral candidate was found dead Wednesday and the case is being investigated as a homicide, authorities said.

BOSTON — Nearly 300 corporations, cities, and other organizations filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, encouraging it to overturn a section of the Defense of Marriage Act that denies federal benefits and recognition to same-sex couples.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the case that could allow same-sex partners of state employees to receive death benefits from the state’s pension system.

GUANGZHOU, China — A PFLAG chapter in China has sent an open letter to delegates of China’s National People’s Congress demanding marriage equality for their children.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Just hours after a marriage equality bill was unveiled at the Minnesota state capitol, a group of Republican lawmakers are calling for its defeat.

FOUNTAIN, Colo. — A transgender advocacy group on Tuesday announced it has filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Division on behalf of a 6-year-old girl who has been barred from using the girls’ bathrooms at her elementary school.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Lawmakers formally launched a long-anticipated effort Wednesday to legalize gay marriage in Minnesota by summer, and gay couples and their small children crowded the kickoff news conference – an image meant to show family diversity already exists in the state.

WASHINGTON — Congress appeared on a course to renew the expired Violence Against Women Act after House Republican leaders on Tuesday agreed to take up a version of the 1994 anti-domestic violence law that passed the Senate two weeks ago by a wide, bipartisan margin.

WASHINGTON — Prominent Republicans, retired military leaders and U.S. businesses are among the factions ready to ask the Supreme Court to support marriage equality in two cases up for argument next month.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois state House committee has approved a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage, sending the measure to the full House for a vote.