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Houston voters head to the polls Saturday to vote on several runoff races, and final polls indicate they could elect the city’s first openly gay mayor. City Controller Annise Parker is a lesbian who has never made a secret or an issue of her sexual orientation. If she wins, Houston will become the largest U.S. […]

Gay marriage supporters challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8 lost their bid Friday to see the internal communications of those who supported the initiative when an appeals court ruled that disclosure would violate the 1st Amendment, reports the LA Times. In a unanimous ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit of Appeals tossed out the order that […]

Adding his voice to the debate on gay marriage, native New Jersey resident Bruce Springsteen has called for lawmakers in his state to pass the measure. “I’ve long believed in and have always spoken out for the rights of same-sex couples,” Springsteen wrote on his website. “Like many of you who live in New Jersey, […]

An 18-year-old West Texas man was kidnapped and repeatedly sexually assaulted earlier this week in a possible hate crime that’s being compared to the 1998 murder of gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard, reports the Dallas Voice. Citing a report from the The Big Bend Gazette, a monthly newspaper in Alpine, TX, the Voice reports […]

VIENNA — Austria’s parliament approved legalizing civil unions in the country Thursday, an move considered a historic victory for gay rights in the central European country. Out of 174 lawmakers present, 110 voted in favor and 64 voted against, Associated Press reports. The law is due to come into force on January 1st. It will […]

Houston’s openly gay city controller has pulled ahead in the race to be mayor of the nation’s fourth largest city, just two days before a runoff election, according to a new poll — despite a wave of anti-gay attacks. [fbshare] It’s believed if Annise Parker wins Saturday’s runoff, it would make Houston the nation’s largest […]

Assemblyman John Pérez, an openly gay Latino Democrat from Los Angeles, made history Thursday when he was unanimously chosen by the California Assembly’s Democratic Caucus as the lower house’s leader, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Pérez, a freshman lawmaker who is expected to be formally voted in as the 68th Assembly Speaker in January, will […]

Uganda will drop the death penalty and life imprisonment for gays in a refined version of an anti- gay bill expected to be ready for presentation to Parliament in two weeks, according to James Nsaba Buturo, the minister of ethics and integrity, reports Bloomberg. The draft bill, which is under consideration by a parliamentary committee, […]

In a last-minute move, the New Jersey state senate today called off Thursday’s planned vote on the gay marriage bill, as supporters scrambling for votes said the controversial measure would have a better chance by shifting it to the Assembly for more debate, reports the New Jersey Star-Ledger. The surprise announcement by the bill’s prime […]

As part of her continuing coverage on Uganda’s anti-gay legislation, Rachel Maddow interviewed conversion therapist Richard Cohen tonight, who continued to advocate his position that homosexuality is a choice, and gays can change their preferences. The author of “Coming Out Straight : Understanding and Healing Homosexuality,” has been used in Uganda’s campaign to justify an […]