PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Rhode Island state Senate will be considering a marriage equality bill when lawmakers return this week for the final work of their annual session.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider legislation allowing gay couples to wed. The session is scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed Eric Fanning, currently serving as Deputy Undersecretary of the U.S. Navy, to be the Undersecretary of the Air Force.

Fanning, who is openly gay, was nominated to the second-highest civilian position in the Air Force by President Obama last August. He succeeds Erin Conaton, who took over as the Pentagon’s personnel and readiness chief.

HELENA, Mont. — Sixteen years after the Montana Supreme Court ruled that the state’s sodomy law was unconstitutional, the obsolete law has been deleted from the books.

On Thursday, Gov. Steve Bullock signed Senate Bill 107 in law and formally decriminalized sodomy in Montana.

For the past 24 years, gay activists and their allies have fought to remove the law. When the Governor signed the bill into law, he was greeted with loud applause by dozens of people who gathered to witness the occasion.

WASHINGTON – The Senate’s so-called Gang of Eight today introduced its new immigration bill, and LGBT binational couples are not mentioned.

LGBT groups and allies said they are hoping that the bill will be amended to include protections for binational couples who are gay and lesbian.
Of the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States, about 267,000 identify as LGBT. Of that total, about 40,000 are binational couples.