PHILADELPHIA — The Philadelphia City Council on Thursday approved a landmark LGBT equality bill that provides tax incentives to private employers who extend insurance to the same-sex partners of their employees, and strengthens legal rights and protections for LGBT citizens.

TIRANA, Albania — The Albanian Prime Minister, in a historic first for this tiny Balkan nation, met Monday with two LGBT activists to express his full support for LGBT rights and same-sex marriage.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Cameroon prosecutes people for consensual same-sex conduct more aggressively than almost any country in the world, four human rights organizations said in a report released Thursday.

The organizations – Alternatives-Cameroun, Association for the Defense of Gays and Lesbians (ADEFHO), the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS), and Human Rights Watch – found that at least 28 people have been prosecuted for same-sex conduct in Cameroon since 2010.

(Editor’s note: Lane Hudson’s commentary first appeared in Out and has been submitted to SDGLN as well.)

Corporate America has become a leader on issues of LGBT equality. Thanks to many things—including the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and robust employee resource groups—corporate policies are usually far ahead of laws providing for the general LGBT population.