News Sweep

Jose Peralta won the Special Election in Queens last night and will become State Senator representing the 13th Senate District in New York. He overwhelmingly defeated Hiram Monserrate, who ran a divisive, anti-gay campaign.

Democratic Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, who is considering a run for Governor as a Republican, has declared that he now considers marriage to be between "a man and a woman"--a statement completely at odds with the position his aides said he held just a few short months ago.

A hearing has been scheduled in the case of Constance McMillen, the Mississippi teen who is suing her School District to reinstate her high school prom after it was canceled when she asked if she could bring her girlfriend as her date.

Proving that John McCain isn't the worst politician to come out of Arizona, Former State Rep. J.D. Hayworth who is challenging McCain in the U.S. Senate primary, recently said that Massachusetts' marriage equality law could be interpreted to mean "if you really had affection for your horse, I guess you could marry your horse."

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has launched a "Queer the Census" campaign to petition the U.S. Census Bureau to begin counting LGBT individuals.

UNAIDS said Monday that the rate of new HIV infections is increasing among lesbian and gay people in part due to anti-gay legislation like the bill being proposed in Uganda. Michael Sidibe said "it is unacceptable" that 85 countries have laws that criminalize relationships of lesbian and gay couples.