WASHINGTON — The Respect for Marriage Coalition, a group of more than 50 groups supporting marriage equality, on Friday asked the U.S Department of Justice to ensure federal recognition of same-sex couples who were legally married in Arkansas, Indiana, and Wisconsin after those bans were declared unconstitutional.

Laurie Higgins is a Christian grandmother with a limited professional background (according to her bio). She has worked as “cultural analyst” for The Illinois “Family” Institute for six years, and before that was employed in the “writing center” for a high school. I am not exactly sure what the job qualifications are to be a “cultural analyst” but whatever they are, they have not won Ms. Higgins many friends…

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Lambda Legal has filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico, seeking a summary judgment to end the U.S. commonwealth’s ban on same-sex marriage. Lambda Legal joined the lawsuit, Conde v. García Padilla, in June on behalf of five same-sex couples and Puerto Rico Para Tod@s, an organization that represents …

SALT LAKE CITY — Several hundred people gathered to show their opposition to increasingly widespread acceptance of gay marriage Thursday at the Utah State Capitol, lamenting the harm done to children raised by gay and lesbian parents. They held signs declaring “biology is not bigotry” and “two moms don’t equal a dad,” The Salt Lake Tribune reported…

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – A South Dakota man says he was just doing the right thing when told a passer-by on the street not to use anti-gay slurs, but what happened next left him bloody and bruised. Drew Bartscher, 27, says he was in crowd with two of his friends outside a tavern in Sioux Falls early Sunday morning when he heard a woman use a derogatory term for gays.

BILLINGS, Mont. — A gay couple has been told they can no longer receive Communion or participate in church ministry after a new priest at a Roman Catholic church in central Montana learned they had been married in a civil ceremony more than a year ago. The decision set off a split that has cut attendance at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Lewistown…

RICHMOND, Va. — The GOP-controlled Virginia House of Delegates on Thursday approved a resolution that includes language that would allow the branch to hire legal counsel to defend the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, something Attorney General Mark Herring has chosen not to do.

HOUSTON — A Houston-area high school is the latest to crown a transgender teen as homecoming royalty. Mel Gonzales, a transgender student at at Stephen F. Austin High School in Sugar Land, Texas, was crowned Homecoming King last week.

DALLAS — At least two Texas hotels have turned away Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, over planned protests due to his country’s anti-gay laws. The Dallas Voice reports that the Four Seasons Hotel in Irving canceled Museveni’s reservation, and that Marriott’s Gaylord Texan hotel in Grapevine refused to host Museveni as well.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah activist says Salt Lake City’s two major outdoor advertising companies have refused to allow a billboard that reads “God Loves Gays.” Organizers behind the website “God Loves Gay People” and the Facebook page “God,” erected the first “God Loves Gays” billboard earlier this month in Topeka, Kan., home to the virulently anti-gay…

INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana state senator at the center of this year’s legislative same-sex marriage battle is being honored by the conservative Indiana Family Institute. Republican Sen. Mike Delph of Carmel was named lawmaker of the year by the group Thursday night at a fundraiser in Carmel.

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. — Macomb County authorities have passed a policy protecting county employees from discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. The county Board of Commissioners voted 8-5 for the change on Thursday. Commissioner Fred Miller spearheaded the policy initiative and says it will ensure county employees are …

Latino leaders from across the state kicked off National Hispanic Heritage Month by announcing their support for marriage equality, reports the Phoenix New Times. “There’s a perception out there that the Latino community does not support marriage equality, but that’s not the case,” says Jeremy Zegas, a project director for the coalition.

PHILADELPHIA — An assistant coach at a Roman Catholic high school has resigned over his role in a beating that left two gay men injured, church officials in Philadelphia said Thursday. About a dozen young adults were linked to the Sept. 11 encounter after police released surveillance video Tuesday and social media users mined online posts, including a group …

NEW YORK — Laverne Cox will host a documentary on MTV and Logo next month that profiles seven transgender youths. The special, “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word,” will air simultaneously on the two channels on Oct. 17. Cox, a transgender actress, was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role in Netflix’s “Orange is the New Black.”

PORTLAND, Tenn. — Residents in Portland, Tenn., are divided over a billboard proclaiming homosexuality “is an abomination.” Resembling an open Bible, the left side of the billboard quotes an Old Testament passage of Leviticus Chapter 18, Verse 22, “You shall not lie with a man as with a woman. It is an abomination. – God.” The billboard’s right side states…

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia has delayed ruling on a lawsuit challenging the state’s same-sex marriage ban. U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers in Huntington says due to the “overlap of issues” presented in the West Virginia case and a similar one in Virginia, he put the case on hold this week pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Actor Neil Patrick Harris, who married longtime partner, actor and chef David Burtka in Italy over the weekend, shares wedding moments with Rosie O’Donnell and Whoppi Goldberg on “The View.”

A Breitbart.com columnist launched a transphobic attack on transgender former Army Private Chelsea Manning, calling her a “traitorous transsexual” and asking if the government had “cut it off yet.” In a September 16 column for Breitbart London, columnist Milo Yiannopoulos attacked Manning – who was convicted in 2013 of leaking classified documents …

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco drag performers are sparring with Facebook over its policy requiring people to use their real names, rather than drag names such as Pollo Del Mar and Heklina. But the world’s biggest social network is not budging from its rules. In recent weeks, Facebook has been deleting the profiles of self-described drag queens and …