News

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, Calif. — A 17-year-old high school senior from this hillside area just east of Oakland, Calif., has been told by the Boy Scouts that he is not eligible to be awarded the rank of Eagle Scout because he is gay.

If the point of the first presidential debate was to establish a fundamental difference between President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent Gov. Mitt Romney, as moderator Jim Lehrer set out to do, it was achieved not in soaring rhetoric or memorable one-liners, but mostly by body language and attitude.

BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia’s Interior Ministry announced Wednesday that it has ordered banned a gay pride march in Belgrade that was scheduled for this weekend, citing security concerns.

After releasing poll data showing a 10-point increase in support for same-sex marriage among Illinoisans, the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University released new data Monday showing a majority of Illinois Catholics also approve of gay and lesbian unions.

QUEENS, N.Y. — A Queens high school sophomore who self identifies as bisexual, was sent home Tuesday, after school administrators deemed that the “I enjoy vagina” T-shirt she was wearing was a distraction.

MIAMI — A new poll from NBC Latino/IBOPE Zogby released Wednesday finds that 60 percent of Latinos surveyed support same-sex marriage equality.

During an interview with Focus on the Family president Jim Daly, Paul Ryan reassured the anti-gay group that a Romney-Ryan administration will fiercely oppose gay rights. Focus on the Family and its founder James Dobson have a long history of promoting anti-gay policies and ex-gay therapy, and earned a shout-out from Romney earlier this week while campaigning in Colorado, where it is headquartered.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. — A 17-year-old Missouri teen has pleaded guilty to a hate crime charge in the July 24 beating of a local lesbian resident.

Former National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue on Tuesday announced that he and his wife have donated $100,000 to the campaign to defend Maryland’s same-sex marriage law.

FORT WORTH, Texas — A grand jury on Monday indicted four teens who stand accused of writing anti-gay slurs and other vulgar messages on vehicles and homes in an Arlington, Texas neighborhood earlier this year.