LOS ANGELES -- The Williams Institute and the Center for American Progress today published a research brief analyzing the impact of an executive order preventing discrimination against LGBT workers.

LGBT workers continue to face widespread discrimination and harassment in the workplace. However, no federal statute explicitly prohibits such discrimination.

Pollsters and pundits pouring through the 2012 election results have arrived at an amazing conclusion: The LGBT vote proved to be a huge factor in the re-election of President Barack Obama.

Two separate groups – the Williams Institute in conjunction with Gallup Poll as well as the Human Rights Campaign – sifted through the numbers provided by exit polling, which for the first time asked voters if they were gay, lesbian or bisexual. Exit polling showed that 5% of the electorate identified as LGBT, according to Williams Distinguished Scholar Gary J. Gates.

ALBANY, N.Y. – Just moments before midnight on Friday, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law a bill that legalizes same-sex marriage in New York.

The law will go into effect 30 days thereafter, meaning that New York’s gay and lesbian couples can start planning weddings as soon as July 24.

The Republican-controlled Senate waited until the final hours of the 2011 legislative session to approve the bill, voting 33-29 earlier Friday evening after the Assembly had already passed the measure.