• A broad coalition of civil rights, labor, progressive, faith, student, health, legal, women’s, and LGBT organizations, led by Freedom to Marry and HRC, announced support of the federal Respect for Marriage Act that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
• U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced new regulations to ensure that HUD’s core housing programs are open to all eligible persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
• A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a U.S. District Court judge was in error when he decided that videotapes of the Proposition 8 trial (regarding California’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples) were part of the trial record and should be released.
• Marriage equality advocates in Maine announced plans for a Citizens Initiative that would place a question on the November 2012 ballot asking voters to approve marriage for same-sex couples.
• A marriage equality bill passed a New Jersey Assembly committee, and looks set to move through the full Assembly and Senate in the coming weeks. Governor Chris Christie (R) has said he will veto the bill.
• The effort to pass a ballot measure in North Carolina that would prohibit marriage of same-sex couples under the state constitution may have gotten more difficult. Now that Governor Beverly Perdue (D) has said she will not run for reelection, more Democrats are expected to go to the polls this May, when the ballot measure will appear. That may give marriage equality supporters a better chance of defeating the measure.
• A marriage equality bill passed the Washington State Senate, and looks likely to pass the House next week. Governor Chris Gregoire (D) has said she will sign it, but opponents have said they will attempt to put the measure before voters on the November 2012 ballot.

Around the world:

• Same-sex couples in Australia can now apply for a “Certificate of No Impediment,” a document required before they can marry in  several other countries that allow same-sex couples to wed.
• PinkNews.co.uk has an interesting piece on the gay community in Bangladesh, where same-sex intercourse is punishable by life in prison.
• Transgender advocates are concerned that a recent regulation in Canada could have an impact on transgender people’s ability to use air travel. The regulation states:  ” An air carrier shall not transport a passenger if … the passenger does not appear to be of the gender indicated on the identification he or she presents.”
•  Scotland could see a draft bill for marriage equality by mid-2013, and have it pass as law by the end of that year.

• Freedom to Marry has launched Mayors for the Freedom to Marry, a bipartisan coalition of over 80 mayors who have pledged to support marriage for same-sex couples.
• Indiana has begun to issue a license plate designed to raise awareness about LGBT youth issues—the first state to do so. Funds will go to the Indiana Youth Group. South Carolina also began to offer an LGBT-related plate, with funds going to the South Carolina Equality Foundation. (And just to make sure you click through to some of the sites I list here, you can check out the above links to find out the first state ever to issue an LGBT-related plate.)
• Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick (D) signed the Transgender Rights Bill.
• Omaha, Nebraska City Councilman Ben Gray (D) wants the Council to consider a measure to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. But State Senator Beau McCoy (R) has introduced a bill that would ban cities and local governments from creating such protections, saying such power should be reserved to the state. Zack Ford at Think Progress points out that if McCoy was really interested in consistent policies, he’d also propose a statewide anti-discrimination bill covering sexual orientation or gender identity. But he hasn’t.
• The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing and a vote Tuesday, January 24 at 11:00 a.m. ET, on a bill to legalize marriage for same-sex couples.
• Microsoft has said it will join Nike and other companies in supporting a bill to legalize marriage for same-sex couples in Washington State. (Insert obligatory joke about hoping the bill doesn’t crash like Windows.)

Around the world:

• The Canadian Department of Justice caused a scare when it said a lesbian couple who married in Canada should not be granted a divorce because they were not residents of Canada at the time of their marriage, and therefore it was not legal. Several LGBT legal groups in the U.S. issued a statement saying they do not believe the ruling will invalidate other marriages.
• The Swedish government has said it will not change a 1970s law that requires transgender people to undergo sterilization before the state will recognise their gender identity.

• Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a speech that focused on the human rights of LGBT people—a speech that some LGBT advocates are already calling a “landmark.”
• Supporters of anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people in Anchorage, Alaska, appear to have collected enough signatures to put the measure on the April city ballot.
• The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case to determine the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex couples from marriage.
• A federal appeals court ruled in favor of Vandy Beth Glenn, a transgender woman who was fired from a Georgia General Assembly job after telling her supervisor she was transitioning from man to woman.
• A bill that would prohibit local and state government from offering health care benefits to unmarried partners—by definition, including same-sex partners—of public employees has passed the Michigan legislature. Governor Rick Snyder’s (R) office has said he will sign the bill, if it can be determined that it exempts public universities and colleges.
• A New York judge ruled to let a lawsuit proceed that challenges the state’s marriage equality law. The suit claims that in passing the law, legislators violated New York’s open meetings law.

Around the world:

• Australia’s ruling Labor Party dropped its position against marriage for same-sex couples.
• The Australian government will now issue “Certificates of No Impediment to Marriage” to same-sex couples who wish to marry overseas. Many countries require such a document. The marriages will not be recognized as marriages in Australia, but “will be used as evidence of a relationship for regional laws,” reports PinkNews.co.uk.
• The U.K. Home Office has released a plan for “Advancing transgender equality.” The document “is intended to create a framework for communities to work with the government to challenge and overcome persisting inequalities.”

• Reps. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), along with Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME), introduced the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act in their respective houses. The Act would offer the same benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of federal employees as to opposite-sex married spouses.
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has updated Healthcare.gov to include a new tool that lets small businesses find insurance plans that offer domestic partner or same-sex partner coverage.
• The California Supreme Court said supporters of Proposition 8 have the standing to defend Prop 8 in federal court, even though state officials are not doing so.
• Anti-LGBT advocates in California filed papers to try and get an initiative on the November 2012 ballot asking voters to remove provisions from the FAIR Education Act that require schools to include information about the historical contributions of LGBT people, among others, in social studies courses and prohibit schools from adopting materials that discriminate against LGBT people.
• Colorado State Rep. Mark Ferrandino (D), who is openly gay, was elected minority leader.
• The Massachusetts legislature passed a bill protecting transgender people from discrimination in housing, employment, and credit. Governor Deval Patrick (D) has said he will sign it.
• LGBT advocates in Washington said they would push the legislature to enact marriage equality in 2012, but those in Oregon said they would not pursue a ballot measure for equality next year.

We’ll keep it otherwise short this week:

• The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Getting it to the Senate floor seems doubtful, however.
• Edward DuMont, an openly gay nominee to the U S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, withdrew his nomination, citing Republican opposition to his confirmation.
• Openly LGBT candidates did well in this week’s elections around the country.
• Basic Rights Oregon, the state’s leading LGBT group, announced it would not push for a ballot measure on marriage in 2012, but will “extend our public education campaign and continue to build public support.”

• Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and 132 other Democrats filed an amicus brief in Massachusetts v. Dept. of Health and Human Services and Gill vs. Office of Personnel Management, asking the First Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a lower court ruling that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. Seventy Massachusetts and national employers filed a separate, similar brief, as did several other professional, labor, law, and religious organizations.
• The home of LGBT pioneer Frank Kameny, who died in October, has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
• California Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani came out as gay.
• A New Jersey Superior Court judge ruled against the state’s motion to dismiss Garden State Equality v. Dow, a case arguing that civil unions do not provide same-sex couples with equality under the state constitution. (That’s not a final ruling on the case, just a ruling that it will proceed.)

Around the world:

• The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) created a Unit on the Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex (LGBTI) Persons, “in order to strengthen its capacity to protect their rights.”
• Danish LGBT pioneer Axel Axgil, who helped his country become the first in the world to allow same-sex couples to marry, died at age 96.
• Member of the Scottish Parliament Ruth Davidson, who is an out lesbian, is the new leader of the Scottish Conservative party.
• The U.K. Home Office confirmed that religious buildings may begin to host civil partnerships by the end of 2011.

• Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) became a co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal the anti-LGBT Defense of Marriage Act. Levin was one of the leaders in repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
• Michigan state Rep. Thomas McMillin (R-Rochester) introduced a bill that would eliminate LGBT people as a protected class under all local ordinances, as well as university, school, and state agency policies.
• Washington State officials have halted the release of the signatures of those who supported a petition to vote on the state’s domestic partnership law. An appeals court is considering whether the signers are likely to be harassed if their names are released.
• Lesbian attorney Beth Robinson was nominated to the Vermont Supreme Court.
• Tammy Baldwin (D), the out U.S. representative from Wisconsin running for Senate, picked up the endorsement of former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold.

Around the world:

• Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard may in the next few weeks call for a conscience vote on marriage for same-sex couples. She herself opposes marriage equality.
• Botswana’s former president, Festus Mogae, said his country should decriminalise homosexuality and prostitution in order to prevent the spread of HIV.

• Frank Kameny, one of the founders of the LGBT rights movement, died at the age of 86.
• The U.S. Senate confirmed Alison Nathan to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, making her the second lesbian federal judge—and (fun Mombian fact!) the second lesbian mom to hold such a position. (Deborah Batts, who sits on the same bench, was sworn in in 1994.)
• The White House named Gautam Raghavan, former deputy White House liaison at the Department of Defense, as its LGBT liaison in the Office of Public Engagement.
• California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill simplifying the process for transgender people to obtain updated birth certificates. It was one of 10 pro-LGBT bills passed into law in this legislative session.
• Opponents of California’s Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful (FAIR) Education Act, which requires schools to incorporate into social studies classes information about LGBT people’s contributions to history, failed to collect enough signatures for a ballot measure to overturn it.

Around the world:

• Anna Grodzka became Poland’s first openly transgender member of parliament, and the only currently serving one anywhere in the world.
• Not new news, but a good recap of old: The New York Times looks at how marriage equality became law in Portugal.
• Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, a Ugandan LGBT advocate, received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders.

The military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is no more—but the Department of Justice argued in court this week that servicemembers who had been dismissed under the policy should receive only half of normal severance pay, as per the regulations that existed at the time of their dismissal.

Around the world:

• Official statistics from the U.K. show that after five years, more than twice the number of opposite-sex marriages ended in divorce than did same-sex civil partnerships.

• The Michigan House voted to ban benefits for domestic partners of all public employees in the state. The bill now goes to the Senate.
• North Carolina’s legislature approved a ballot measure to ask voters whether to ban marriage for same-sex couples under the state constitution. It is already banned by statute. I covered the story for Keen News Service, but I urge you also to read the excellent coverage by Matt Comer, editor of North Carolina’s QNotes newspaper, and of course the thoughts of NC-native Pam Spaulding of Pam’s House Blend.
• A New Hampshire House subcommittee passed a bill that would repeal the state’s existing marriage equality law. It would leave existing marriages of same-sex couples in place, but in the future only allow them to form civil unions.

Around the world:

• Australia has added a third option for “gender” on its passports: intersex individuals may now check “X” for “indeterminate.”
• The U.K. government will begin a formal “consultation” on how to allow civil marriage for same-sex couples. PinkNews.co.uk also reports that “prime minister David Cameron is ‘emphatically’ in favour of the change.”