New Jersey Supreme Court will not consider whether the state’s civil union law provides equal rights to gay couples before the case is heard in a lower court. The court said yesterday that it could not consider the merits of the claim by six same-sex couples that New Jersey’s civil union law is unconstitutional, until there is a trial record.

Although a majority of California voters say they support same-sex marriage, that endorsement is as tenuous as it was two years ago when voters told pollsters that they approved of the idea but still voted to ban the marriages.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon (D) signed Executive Order 10-24 at the National Conference of the NAACP in Kansas City prohibiting employment discrimination in Missouri Government because of sexual orientation.

Robyn Deane, dressed in a red raincoat, jeans and heels, glanced at her handwritten notes before peering at the crowd gathered outside Virginia’s Capitol to promote the rights of gay and transgender state workers. For years, Deane, a man who is in the process of becoming of woman, had considered revealing her lengthy but largely unknown connection to Governor Robert F. McDonnell (R).

The Argentine Republic on Thursday became the first nation in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, turning aside protests from the Roman Catholic Church to give gay couples the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts. It was not immediately clear if the provinces will accept the Federation’s legalization of same-sex marriage.

Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act’s denial of federal rights and benefits to lawfully married Massachusetts couples “offends” the notion of states’ rights as enshrined in the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Hawaii Republican Governor Linda Lingle yesterday vetoed legislation that would have permitted same-sex civil unions, ending months of speculation on how she would weigh in on the contentious, emotional debate.

Kentucky’s Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Rand Paul’s opponent isn’t the only one who thinks Paul compromised his stance against business as usual in Washington, D.C., by taking campaign cash at a high-dollar fund-raiser there last month.