WASHINGTON, D.C. - Legislation that would provide full health benefits to to domestic partners of gay and lesbian federal employees took a significant step toward passage Thursday when the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Post Office, and the District of Columbia voted 3-2 along party lines in support of the measure.

In June, President Obama extended some federal health benefits to same sex partners of federal employees, but said at the time that changes to the law were needed for all benefits such as health care and retirement benefits.

HR 2517, the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, is intended to fill the void by providing access to health care coverage, retirement and disability plans, and life and long-term care insurance.

KIEV, Ukraine - Old habits die hard, especially in old countries with a history of brutal Soviet-style repression based on arbitrary state-sanctioned biases like homophobia. Sometimes, the bias takes on absurd proportions.

Case in point, Ukraine, which has banned Bruno, Sasha Baron Cohen's latest flick about a gay Austrian fashion designer. The Culture Ministry has determined  - following 14 careful screenings of the movie - that it is "immoral and obscene."

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Celebrity and fashion photographer Adam Bouska will host a seven-hour photo shoot at his North Hollywood, Calif., studio July 15.

Proceeds and images from the shoot will be used to advance the work of NO H8, a grassroots effort he founded to challenge California’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

VANCOUVER – Following accusations it was attempting undue suppression of a gay dating website’s rights to free speech and promotion, the Canadian Olympic Committee has withdrawn its objection to the company’s trademark application.

The COC claimed Interactive Male’s logo was confusingly similar to a symbol used to denote an Olympic wrestling event…in 1976.

“We have an obligation to protect various Olympic Games-related marks, which include pictograms,” COC representative Isabelle Hodge told The Vancouver Sun. “But after reviewing all the information, we agree with Interactive Male that there’s little chance this particular pictogram will cause any confusion with existing Olympic pictograms.”

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The California Supreme Court split the difference Tuesday, voting 6-1 to uphold the ban on same-sex marriages approved last year by voters through the initiative process and 7-0 to preserve the validity of the 18,000 marriages performed in state before the November election overrruled the court's landmark 2008 ruling making gay marriage legal. Got that?

The ruling, while expected, was still a bitter pill to swallow for those who think Proposition 8 went too far in codifying the denial of what many believe is a funadamenal right. It was precisely the question of whether Prop 8 permissibly "amended" or impermissibly "revised" the constitution that became the fulcrum of the argument before the court.

CONCORD, N.H. - In voting 186-188 Wednesday to reject language placed into same-sex marriage legislation by Democratic Gov. John Lynch that would have provided legal cover to religious groups and individuals opposed to gay marriage, the New Hampshire House of Representatives provided a stark reminder of the vast divisions that remain regarding the legalizing of marriage rights for all couples, regardless of their sexual orientation, and set the stage for a possible veto by the governor of a watered-down version of the bill he wants.