News (USA)

BEAR, Del. — A sign at a Delaware church opposing same-sex marriage has been drawing national attention online.

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.

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.

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.