Facebook, the world’s largest online social network, has taken another step toward LGBT-inclusiveness, introducing same-sex icons for users to select from when adding marriage events to their profile’s timeline.

The ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee has introduced a bill that would exempt the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs from the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 federal law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.

SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer and co-founder Bill Gates have each donated $100,000 to the campaign supporting Washington state’s recently passed law legalizing same-sex marriage, reported the Associated Press on Monday.

MEXICO CITY — Armando Montano, an openly gay apprentice journalist working as a summer intern for the Associated Press in Mexico City, was found dead early Saturday. He was 22 years old.

After years of speculation, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has come out — “The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.”

WASHINGTON — Two gay rights advocacy groups that fought to bring about an end to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the U.S. military’s former ban on openly gay service members, announced Monday plans to merge into a single organization.

CHICAGO — Two downstate Illinois county clerks are moving to intervene on behalf of the state’s marriage statute prohibiting same-sex marriage after top-ranking Cook County officials said they would not defend the law in a legal challenge headed by the ACLU of Illinois and Lambda Legal.

WASHINGTON — More than 100 people gathered in Dupont Circle on Friday for a vigil in honor of a lesbian couple who was shot last week in a Texas park.

On a March day last year, Richard Noble decided it was high time to take a walk; after 15 months and 2,700 miles, he became the first man to walk across America with the rainbow pride flag. Noble and the rainbow pride flag left San Francisco with hopes of spreading what he calls “the dream.”

Just over a year ago, my partner, Tom Bridegroom, accidentally fell off a roof while taking photographs of our best friend. He died a few hours later. He was just 29 years old. … Because we weren’t able to marry and because, young and feeling invincible, we hadn’t had papers drawn up that would’ve protected us if one of us died, I lost all claim to Tom after he fell … For those out there who do not think they know someone who’s been deeply hurt by laws that prevent people from marrying the ones they love, well, now you do. My name is Shane Bitney Crone…

Hey Linda: You’ve been spouting off at the mouth a lot of utter nonsense about how dangerous it is to allow gays in the military. … Linda, some of the most powerful, victorious, and abundantly brave – breathtakingly heroic actually – armies in history had in their rank and file – and leadership – gay men. … And now with your ignorance and hate you demean their memory and you scorn those who want to wear a uniform of honor in order to serve this country and risk their very all to do so. How dare you.

Ten years ago, I was 50 years old. My life had been spent in hiding and had been filled with so many lies and so much hurt and anger, I never imagined there was a way out. More specifically, I never dreamed there was a way for me to come out. But – there I was – this 50 year-old Lesbian, sitting on a corner waiting to see my first-ever Pride Parade. I was a stranger in a strange land – and yet I felt more at home on that street corner than I had ever felt in my home-town.

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. — Fred Karger, the first openly gay presidential candidate from a major political party in American history — ended his campaign on Friday.

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Police Department celebrated Pride 2012 by changing the banner on the department’s website to reflect its “commitment to diversity and equality.”

WASHINGTON — PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), the nation’s largest grassroots-based non-profit for families, friends, and straight allies of LGBT people on Friday kicked off its milestone 40th anniversary year campaign, “PFLAG Then & Now…40 Years of Family and Ally Voices.”

MONTCLAIR, N.Y. — A married same-sex couple in New Jersey said they are considering legal action against an anti-gay advocacy group for using an altered version of their engagement photograph in a anti-gay political mailer.

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) attorneys on Friday formally appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court an appeals court decision determining the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional, according to a Democratic aide.

On Wednesday’s program, American Family Association spokesperson Bryan Fischer dedicated a segment to discussing a 2009 newspaper article about bestiality advocates in order to bolster his case against marriage equality, saying that “once you allow sex between two people of the same-sex, there is no place to stop” and it will inevitably lead to the legalization of polygamy, pedophilia, and bestiality.

KAMPALA, Uganda — A Ugandan judge this week said that the country’s security and interior ministries should “infiltrate” gay rights groups to ascertain if children are being “recruited into homosexuality.”

District of Columbia police on Tuesday night charged a woman and two men with assault with a dangerous weapon for allegedly stabbing a 16-year-old man during an argument outside the Howard Theater at 6th and T Streets, N.W. Police listed the incident as an anti-gay hate crime.