Gay-rights freedom riders met for more than two hours Monday with a handful of LDS officials in Salt Lake City to raise continuing concerns about Mormon policies and language that the advocates see as harmful to their community.

U.S. President Obama is taking additional heat from gay and lesbian couples. Nationally he has been denounced, condemned, and called a liar after refusing the sign an executive order preventing gay and lesbian discrimination for companies who accept federal contracts. Now, Administration officials in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are taking another run at the U.S. Administration, as well as citizens. In 2010 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.

U.S. President Obama disappointed and vexed gay supporters on Wednesday with his decision, conveyed to activists by a senior adviser, not to sign an executive order banning discrimination by employers with federal contracts. That stance departs from the White House’s prominent “we can’t wait” campaign: Since last fall, Mr. Obama has signed executive orders on a variety of issues, arguing that “we can’t wait” for legislation that Republicans in Congress refuse to let pass.

Equality California the nations largest equality organization is beginning to close. “Right now a lot of nonprofits are having problems,” Equality California said in a statement.

A pioneer and the Queen of County Music, Dolly Parton apologized to a lesbian couple asked to leave her Tennessee theme park, Dollywood. Wearing a T-shirt “marriage is so gay,” is controversial and contradictory to public service announcements by Whoopi Goldberg, Cyndi Lauper, Miley Cyrus, Wanda Sykes, and other celebrities asking people to refrain from saying “that’s so gay,” “queer,” and other offensive language to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgende​r community. The theme for the public service announcements are intended to get people to “think before they speak.”

In just a year and a half, the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community of Puerto Rico has been rocked by the deaths of 18 of its members, with three murdered in the last week alone. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States and is not a sovereign State like the other 50 which appear on the United States flag. Pedro Julio Serrano, communications manger for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said there has been a “spike in violence against the LGBT people since the ‘80s, when we had a serial killer who killed 27 gay men.”

California’s lawmakers are fighting over legislation that would require public schools to include the historical contributions of LGBT people in their curriculum while the Kentucky Senate proposed teaching Bible lessons [the Kentucky Legislation was defeated].

Queer Questions Straight Talk: 108 frank & provocative questions it’s OK to ask your lesbian, gay or bi loved one, is based on the idea that there are no stupid questions or “wrong” answers.

Motivated by three picketers from the Westboro Baptist Church, hundreds of students and East Lansing residents gathered to show their support for diversity and tolerance. Earlier this month, the Westboro Baptist Church protest another military funeral.

Andrew Shirvell’s rants against a University of Michigan student leader who is openly gay could cost him his law license. Shirvell already is fighting a ban from the University of Michigan campus. The Assistant Attorney General in the Appellate Division has taken a leave of absence and is now facing disciplinary hearings.