It’s been a long time coming, but Federal Judge Vaughn Walker overturned the 2008 California ruling that defined marriage in the state as between one man and one woman. The case will most likely be headed to an appeals court–being determined on August 6–but it is an indication that more federal recognition could be on its way. Walker stated in his summation that the proposition was unconstitutional because it violated federal due process and equal protections laws for gay and lesbian people. This follows up a recent Massachusetts ruling that declared the federal Defense of Marriage Act to be unconstitutional on the same grounds.

After Nikki Araguz lost her firefighter husband, Thomas, on July 4 to injuries sustained on the job, her devastation went beyond his death. Araguz is now in a legal battle to retain her husband’s estate as his immediate family is claiming their marriage is illegal because Araguz is transgender; in Texas, transgender people are legally considered to be their birth sex, and due to DOMA, two people of the same sex cannot be married. Araguz is challenging this and hoping to vindicate her relationship.

A federal judge halted a proposed Arizona law to ban gay and lesbian domestic partnership benefits. The bill was put into motion toward passing as part of a budget plan signed last September, but has so far been kept from being signed into law.

Lieutenant Dan Choi was released from service last week, becoming the latest of 59 Arabic linguists fired by the U.S. military’s DADT policy. Choi had been on suspended leave awaiting a formal discharge and working as an LGBT rights activist in the meantime.

Target is currently under scrutiny for recent political donations. The Minnesota-based chain provided $150,000 to political action committee MN Forward, which then distributes money to politicians like conservative gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer who financially supports rabidly homophobic Christian rock group You Can Run But You Cannot Hide.

Just 5 days ago, Argentina set a historic precedent as the first Latin American nation to legalize same-sex marriage. The 33-27 Senate vote was a fitting passage as part of President Cristina Fernandez’ administration, and even received lauds from Mexico City which offered a free honeymoon to the first gay Argentine couple to marry.

After months of humiliation and injustice for wanting to attend her high school prom with her girlfriend, Constance McMillen has finally received a settlement from the northern Mississippi school district that refused her entrance and canceled the official prom to prevent McMillen’s attendance. McMillen received $35,000 in damages, and the ACLU, who led the prosecution of the school district, were able to effect an agreement from the school district to enforce a non-discrimination policy for gay students.

An adjunct professor at the University of Illinois was recently fired for making disparaging comments about homosexuality in his Catholicism classes. Kenneth Howell was appointed to teach these Catholic studies classes by St. John’s Catholic Newman Center through a partnership with U of I that began in 1971; the university will now be reviewing this policy to assess if it violates the separation of church and state and hope to have a firm new policy by the fall semester.

Earlier today, Hawai’i Governor Linda Lingle vetoed a same-sex civil unions bill that had been sitting on her desk for weeks awaiting a decision. Today was the final day for a decision, following a lengthy public outreach process; had Lingle done nothing, the bill would have automatically passed and legalized gay civil unions in the state.

Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir wed her longtime partner Jonina Leosdottir on Sunday, June 27 after the enforcement of a gay marriage law passed in the country on June 12. Sigurdardottir is the world’s first openly gay leader and the first to be legally married in her own country.

On Wednesday, June 30, Lieutenant Dan Choi and Captain James Pietrangelo subpoenaed President Barack Obama to testify at their civil disobedience trial. The pair claim that they were not acting criminally as Obama’s direct orders were for the LGBT community to “pressure” him to overturn DADT and allow for other gay civil rights victories.

Google decided to change more than its logo on July 1: the search engine company decided to use employee suggestions to pay homosexual employees with partners more salary. This move was made to offset the costs gay couples in domestic partnerships face because extending their health benefits to their partners is considered taxable income, while those same benefits are untaxed for married couples.

A Georgian woman who was fired from her job after announcing her intention to transition was vindicated in Federal court when a judge ruled that her firing was unjust due to the Equal Protection Clause. Vandy Beth Glenn’s transition from Glenn Morrison was met with hostility by her former boss who fired her on moral grounds.

As of June 10, transgender Americans are able to acquire a passport for their preferred gender without having to go through sexual reassignment surgery first. The State Department has stated that transgender individuals only need documentation from a doctor that she or he has been through proper clinical treatment.

The U.S. Department of Labor will be announcing new regulations this week that will allow same-sex couples time off to care for newborns or significant others. The regulations will extend the Family and Medical Leave Act, a nearly twenty-year-old law that allows  heterosexual couples 12 weeks unpaid time to care for their spouses or loved ones and newborns.

Iraqi police raided a safe house in Karbala last Tuesday and arrested 6 LGBT people. One person has been located in a local hospital; the remaining five–two transgender people, two gay men, and one lesbian–have still not been located, but are speculated to be held at Baghdad’s Interior Ministry, according to UK-based organization Iraqi LGBT.

The Chicago Blackhawks are spreading the enthusiasm of their Stanley Cup win to the queers. Defenseman Brent Sopel will be accompanying the Cup during this year’s Pride Parade on Sunday, June 27 as part of the Chicago Gay Hockey Association’s float. The Chicago Cubs will also be the first major sports team to have a float in the Chicago Pride Parade as part of this year’s festivities.

The early ’80s-adopted blood donation policy that restricts men who have sex with other men from donating was upheld on June 11 by the Federal Advisory Committee for Blood Safety and Availability, which regulates rules for organizations like the American Red Cross. The policy prohibits men who have had any sexual intercourse with another man since 1977 from providing blood for medical emergencies. Following thisIllinois Rep. Mike Quigley publicly endorsed his support of a repeal of this policy.

Iceland legalized same-sex marriage on June 11 with a unanimous 49-0 vote. Iceland has been an increasingly LGBT-accepting country, electing the first openly gay head of state last year with prime minister Johanna Sigurdardottir.

Closing arguments in the case against California’s Proposition 8 are being heard today. Thousands of same-sex couples who were married between the overruling of a previous law prohibiting same-sex marriage and the passage of Prop 8 are awaiting a determination of whether their marriages are still valid. A final decision is expected in a matter of weeks.

Malawian couple Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga were released from prison on May 29, a week after their 14-year conviction for sodomy and indecency. The pair were arrested in December following an engagement ceremony, but have split up since the presidential pardon, many media speculating for safety issues following death and renewed arrest threats.

On April 15, President Obama called on the Department of Health and Human Services to enforce a ruling that all federally funded hospitals would have to allow visitation rights to non-relatives. This primarily affects gay and lesbian domestic partners, but can include unmarried couples and any non-relative designated by a patient as having a right to visit.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer recently rescinded legislation that allowed domestic partner benefits to lesbian and gay couples. By signing a bill that redefined dependent status in that state, Brewer took away these protections, as well as dependent status for disabled adults and full-time students 23 and older.

A transgender Cal State Long Beach student was slashed multiple times by an assailant in one of the campus bathrooms Thursday, April 15. The student was released from the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries; authorities believe the assailant knew the student as he called the student’s name directly before the attack.

Trans woman Ashley Santiago Ocasio was murdered last week by gun in her home in central Puerto Rico. The investigation is proceeding as a robbery, but activist Pedro Julio Serrano–who also spoke out in the death of gay Puerto Rican teen Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado in November–is making sure the police keep hate bias in mind as a possible motive. Puerto Rico has never passed a 2002 hate crime law that identifies penalties for crimes committed based on gender expression or sexual identity.

As part of an April 20 protest against DADT at the White House in which six LGBT individuals chained themselves to the White House fence and subsequently arrested, transgender veteran Autumn Sandeen relates that her experience with offers was extremely abusive. Sandeen was demeaned with names like “it” and “shim” by officers as well as placed in a cell with male prisoners after self-identifying as female and providing satisfactory documentation of her gender. Sandeen has written a letter to President Obama urging a reaction to this treatment.

The April 6 death of Polish president Lech Kaczynski has left many in the LGBT community tentative about what the future holds for Poland now that their allegedly homophobic leader is gone. The plane crash that claimed Kaczynski also killed pro-gay politician Izabela Jaruga-Nowacka, who stood up to Kaczynski when he was mayor of Warsaw to demand that a gay pride parade be allowed to commence in the city. Jaruga-Nowacka was a 2005 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Jim Carrey-Ewan McGregor film I Love You Phillip Morris is still awaiting distribution, waiting a whole year before getting a March 26th initial release date that was bumped back to April 30th and is now postponed indefinitely. The story revolves around a homosexual relationship that forms between Carrey and McGregor after they meet in prison and contains some graphic sexual material, which some consider to be the main reason for the delayed release.

This Saturday, head by Columbia College to see outstanding performances by LGBT artists and students. The sixth annual Gender Fusions will be held across Columbia’s campus, starting with a 5 PM performance at 618 S. Michigan by Guillermo Gomez-Pena of La Pocha Nostra, heading up to a parade down Wabash, and ending with performances at 8PM at 1104 S. Wabash.

Gay military man Lt. Dan Choi, still awaiting discharge for being homosexual, recently handcuffed himself to the White House with comrade Capt. Jim Pietrangelo to protest the lack of inaction by the White House on repealing DADT, among other LGBT-rights legislation. Choi also had some choice words for the Human Rights Campaign’s coddling of the White House and lack of gumption to push for timely rights reform: “There is a deep schism [in the gay-rights movement], everyone knows this. But this shouldn’t be about which group has better branding. There is a tremor right now in every gay and transgender youth that these groups are not grasping. I would say to them–you do not represent us if all you are looking for is a ladder in to elite society.”

Almost a month ago, transgender people in France were treated to the news that trandgenderism is no longer considered a mental illness. Though in many ways a symbolic gesture, it is a much more liberated stance than many countries take on transgender people and their autonomy, including the United States.

After (many) years of speculation, Ricky Martin has come out as a gay man. Lest you think this is unimportant because a) who cares who’s gay or not? or b) we’re nearly a decade from Martin’s height of popularity, blog VivirLatino relates how crucial this acknowledgment is by stating, “Let’s just take a moment to remind ourselves that he is identifying as a gay Puerto Rican man at a time when gay Puerto Rican men get murdered for begin gay, Puerto Rican, and male.”

At the annual National Prayer Breakfast on February 4, President Obama condemned Ugandan legislation that would penalize homosexual people for engaging in homosexuality. Speaking before a room filled with sponsors of the breakfast, the Fellowship Foundation–an organization linked to efforts to pass the anti-LGBT bill–Obama called the measures “unconscionable” and “odious.”

60 members of Congress have signed a letter addressed to President Obama urging him to pass the comprehensive immigration-reform Uniting American Families Act with language that allows LGBT U.S. nationals to sponsor their partners
in binational families.

The European Parliament reaffirmed today that securing LGBT rights were an important consideration for candidate countries applying to join the European Union.

A school program for LGBT students recently opened in Los Angeles. A collaboration with Opportunities for Learning, the anti-harassment school would offer around 40 7th through 12th graders an alternative program with an independent study angle. Students meet with an instructor twice a week and spend the other weekdays completing a full day of schoolwork at home.

If you are planning on spending your Valentine’s weekend eating pints of Chubby Hubby and watching Love, Actually fourteen times, fear not! Single Mingle will be hosting their Big Gay Valentine’s Day show at Spybar (646 N. Franklin) on Saturday, February 13. Single Mingle utilizes familiar dating game elements in a live environment that allows the crowd to size each other up and pair off while three predetermined contestants vie for the hand of one lucky lonesome. Doors open at 6 PM followed by two shows separated by an intermission.

If you’re looking for something to do with a special someone this weekend, head to Chicago’s Freedom to Marry Day events, which will include a demonstration by the LGBTQA Liberation Network on Valentine’s Day outside Holy Name Cathedral (735 N. State St.) picketing Cardinal Francis George and his efforts within the Catholic church to staunch equal marriage. Meet up at 10:30 AM, just in time for mass! London will be holding a similar demonstration that day to protest a visit by the Pope, organizing for a secular Europe as well as LGBT and women’s rights.