Imagine a world where “gay” was “straight” and “straight” was “gay.”

The founding members of the gay conservatives group GoProud said Friday that are stepping away from their day-to-day roles at the organization they started four years ago as a grassroots alternative to the Log Cabin Republicans.

SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Army private charged in a massive leak of U.S. secrets to the WikiLeaks website has been named as a grand marshal of San Francisco’s annual gay rights parade, a choice that was immediately condemned by several groups representing gay and lesbian service members.

NOVO-OGAREVO, Russia — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday warned that agreements with other countries on the matter of adoption of Russian children may be changed to ban such adoptions if those countries legalize same-sex marriage.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Election Commission said Thursday that married, same-sex couples cannot pool their money to donate to political campaigns as married, opposite-sex couples are able to do so.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A bill protecting all workers from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity will be introduced in the South Carolina House of Representatives next Tuesday, according to staff at a state LGBT equality group.

Actor Tuc Watkins, who played gay neighbor Bob Hunter on ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” reveals for the first time that he is gay in real life, and a single dad.

MOSCOW, Idaho — The Latah County, Id., Republican Party has voted to censure its chairman for his vote as a Moscow city councilor supporting an ordinance outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation.

RED LION, Pa. — The American Civil Liberties Union has sent a warning to a Pennsylvania school district on behalf of a transgender student who was denied the chance to run for prom king when his principal placed his female birth name in the column for prom queen, despite repeated requests to be listed under his correct gender identity.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gov. Jay Inslee this week signed off on the final installment of a six-year effort to make language in Washington state’s copious laws gender-neutral.

SALEM, Ore. — A federal appellate judge ruled this week the judiciary must grant health care benefits to the same-sex spouse of a federal public defender in Portland, and ruled that Oregon’s same-sex marriage ban, enacted by voters in 2004, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act are both unconstitutional.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Several Republican lawmakers filed a bill Thursday seeking an exemption to the state’s anti-discrimination laws just weeks after legal action was taken against a Richland florist who denied service to a gay couple for their upcoming wedding.

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Coeur d’Alene officials are considering joining three other Idaho cities in outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation.

SALINA, Kan. — Six months after residents in Salina, Kan., voted to repeal anti-discrimination protections based on gender identity and sexual orientation, the city’s new mayor has joined a national group of mayors who support same-sex marriage.

PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia city council on Thursday approved a landmark LGBT equality bill that provides tax incentives to private employers who extend insurance to the same-sex partners of their employees, and strengthens legal rights and protections for LGBT citizens.

Pastors Kevin Swanson and Dave Buehner have long warned that homosexuality is responsible for natural disasters and that the US government should follow Uganda and “remove the abomination from the land” before it destroys people and society itself.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Mormon church says it welcomes the Boy Scouts of America’s latest proposal to lift the gay ban for youth members but continue to exclude gays as adult leaders.

YORK, Pa. — Prom court voting is over, and with prom night just days away, one senior at Red Lion Area Senior High School in York, Pa., is angry over an arbitrary decision by the school’s principal that left him excluded from the prom court election.

KENT, Wash. — Police in Kent, Wash., say they have arrested a man who used popular gay dating and cell phone apps to set up dates with gay men at remote locations and then robbed them at gunpoint.

WASHINGTON — The latest bad news in the hunt for an AIDS vaccine: The government halted a large U.S. study on Thursday, saying the experimental shots aren’t preventing HIV infection.