Lesbian activist Del Martin died on Wednesday, just two months after marrying her partner of 55 years in one of the first legally recognized California same-sex weddings.

A state senator has filed legislation to ease a three-decade old ban on gays adopting children in Florida. The measure has the support of a number of groups including state LGBT organizations, the ACLU, and others.

An overflow crowd and hundreds more outside a San Francisco courthouse listened yesterday as the California Supreme Court heard arguments on the state's gay marriage ban. The judges appeared split as lawyers argued for over 3 1/2 ours on the issue.

A conservative social policy group launched its campaign Thursday to collect enough signatures to force a ballot measure in November to bar same-sex or unmarried opposite-sex couples from adopting or becoming foster parents in Arkansas.

Former Vice President Al Gore has come out in favor of same-sex marriage."Shouldn't we be promoting the kind of faithfulness and loyalty to one's partner regardless of sexual orientation?" Gore said in a posting on his personal blog.

The Iraq government is considering the release of some 5,000 prisoners but a spokesperson said it would not include terrorists or homosexuals.

Dozens of gay and lesbian couples entered into civil unions in New Hampshire in the early moments of New Year's Day as a new state law legalized such arrangements after midnight.

Results of a poll on discrimination in Bulgaria have sent up alarm signals within the EU. The survey found that 80 percent of of the population have negative attitudes toward gays and 53 percent have attitudes that are "extremely negative".

A new study says there are at least 3,800 people under the age of 25 living on the streets of New York and that almost 30 percent are gay, lesbian or bisexual. The study was based on surveys of 1,000 young people taken last summer.

GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Sunday he won't run from his statement 15 years ago that AIDS patients should have been isolated. "I still believe this today," he said in a broadcast interview. "I don't run from it, I don't recant it".