News (USA)

RALEIGH, N.C. — The North Carolina General Assembly on Wednesday confirmed six appointments to the state Board of Education, despite an objection raised by Democrats who said one nominee had offended gays with a vote on a bullying measure.

The former head of a New York LGBT community center has been sentenced to at least two years in prison for embezzling more than $300,000 from the organization.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A group of Minnesota Republicans introduced a bill Wednesday to let gay couples join in civil unions, calling it an alternative to same-sex marriage that could end a corrosive fight on the issue.

LAS VEGAS — The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada wants a federal court to declare unconstitutional a state law that criminalizes consensual sex between same-sex teenagers as a “crime against nature.”

AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas state Senate panel on Wednesday began formal consideration of a bill that would ban discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation of gender identity, but the committee chair said the measure does not have the votes to pass.

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, challenging a recent court ruling that struck down Virginia’s sodomy laws.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Two pro-gun groups conspired with an anti-gay hate group to create political mailers that used a gay couple’s copyrighted engagement photo to attack candidates in the 2012 Colorado Republican primaries, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne will go to court to block the artists’ community of Bisbee from implementing a newly approved ordinance recognizing civil unions for same-sex couples, his office said Wednesday.

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A Republican state lawmaker is introducing a bill to establish civil unions for Minnesota gay couples as an alternative to legalizing same-sex marriage.

BISBEE, Ariz. — The city council in a former mining community-turned-artist’s haven in rural southeastern Arizona voted Tuesday night to approve an ordinance to recognize civil unions for same-sex couples.