10 Things You Should Know

Administration announces HIV strategy

The Obama Administration has announced a $30 million fund dedicated to implement the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. The plan’s goals are to reduce the number of new infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities.

Presbyterians may allow gay clergy

Presbyterian leaders have voted to allow non-celibate gays in committed relationships to serve as clergy. The policy needs approval from majority of the church’s 173 U.S. presbyteries.

Today Show wedding contest welcomes gays

Reversing an earlier decision, NBC’s Today Show announced it would open its “Modern Day Wedding” contest to same-sex couples.

Hawaii governor vetoes civil union legislation

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a bill that would have granted same-sex and opposite-sex couples the right to enter into civil unions.

Challenge to D.C.’s marriage law denied

The District of Columbia’s highest court has ruled against opponents of the city’s same-sex marriage law, saying they cannot ask voters to overturn it. Opponents had wanted to challenge a law that took effect in Washington in March allowing same-sex couples to marry.

Argentina legalizes same-sex marriage

A wave of same-sex weddings is expected in Buenos Aires after Argentina became the first Latin American nation to gay marriage on July 15.

Google will pay tax on partner benefits

Google has announced it will pick up the tab on a tax levied against gay and lesbian employees when their spouses receive domestic partner benefits, a fee that heterosexual couples don’t have to pay.

Gay asylum seekers win right to stay in Britain

Gay and lesbian asylum-seekers have won the right to live in Britain after the Supreme Court ruled that the government was wrong to return refugees to countries where people had to choose between homophobic persecution or hiding their true sexual identity.

Charges dropped against Dan Choi in DADT protest

The government has dropped charges against Lt. Dan Choi and Capt. Jim Pietranglo, who chained themselves to the White House fence in April in protest over the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Policy.

BY THE NUMBERS: Weddings in Mexico City

271 gay and lesbian couples have married in Mexico City since the capital enacted the first law in Latin America explicitly allowing same-sex marriages. There have been 142 marriages between men and 129 between women in the four months since the law went took effect March 4.