“Gay, gay, gay, gay, gay. Plenty of Americans are tired of hearing about it,” wrote Jay Croft, a gay columnist and features editor with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, last January. Well, Jay, it only got worse. From Kerry to Canada, to Bush and basic rights, it’s been a rough and tumble year for the GLBT community. Here’s a look at the highs and lows, in both red states and blues.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who had previously said states should handle the same-sex marriage question, stated he would support President Bush in a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Cheney’s openly gay daughter, Mary Cheney, worked as a personal aide to her father in the 2000 presidential campaign, and joined the Bush-Cheney ’04 campaign the previous July as the director of Vice Presidential Operations.

Ron Crews of the Massachusetts Family Institute, a state group that opposes same-sex marriage, acknowledged it did not release portions of a poll that indicated voters were deeply divided on whether to ban same-sex marriage.

Crews said he regretted downplaying the omitted survey results as irrelevant.

The group touted Zogby poll results that indicated 69 percent of respondents wanted a chance to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

The group didn’t release information that poll respondents opposed the constitutional amendment, by a split of 49-48 percent. It also didn’t mention that poll respondents, by a margin of 48-46, did not want lawmakers to prevent marriage licenses from being issued to same-sex couples in May in the state.

The mother of Matthew Shepard, the gay Wyoming college student who was murdered in 1998, visited Utah to lobby for hate-crimes legislation that specifically protects GLBTs and other classes of victims.

“I don’t want this to happen again,” Judy Shepard said.

Shepard took part in a panel discussion on hate-crimes legislation in Utah and met with Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, then with various legislators.

Shepard acknowledged that including sexual orientation as a protected class makes passage of such a bill tougher in states such as Utah. But without inclusion of sexual orientation, a vulnerable part of the community will be reluctant to report such crimes, she said.

The high court of Massachusetts ruled that only full, equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, rather than civil unions, were constitutional, clearing the way for the nation’s first same-sex marriages beginning in mid-May.

The state Supreme Judicial Court issued the opinion in response to a request from the state Senate about whether Vermont-style civil unions, which convey the state benefits of marriage, but not the title, would meet constitutional muster.

President Bush immediately denounced the decision and vowed to pursue legislation to protect the traditional definition of marriage. Church leaders in the heavily Roman Catholic state also pressed their parishioners to oppose efforts to allow same-sex couples to marry, and legislators were prepared to vote on a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would seek to make the court’s ruling moot by defining as marriage as a union between one man and one woman, expressly making same-sex marriages illegal in the state.

Cirque du Soleil said it would reinstate an HIV-positive gymnast after federal labor investigators found “reasonable cause” to believe the Montreal-based circus engaged in job discrimination when it fired the performer because of his condition.

The offer came hours after the Los Angeles office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission upheld the merits of a complaint brought by the fired gymnast, Matthew Cusick. A Cirque du Soleil spokesperson said the circus was placing “no restrictions” on the kind of acts in which Cusick could appear.

The sudden turnaround in Cirque du Soleil’s position was hailed by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represented Cusick.

Cirque du Soleil, which is known for its daring aerial acts, never denied that Cusick was fired as a “catcher” in the Russian High Bar act and as an acrobat in the Chinese tall pole act days before he was to join the Mystere show in Las Vegas because of his HIV status.

Jumping into a volatile election-year debate on same-sex weddings, President Bush backed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage – a move he said was needed to stop judges from changing the definition of the “most enduring human institution.”

Bush, who cast himself as a “compassionate conservative,” left the door open for civil unions as an alternative to same-sex marriage.

Sen. John Kerry, Bush’s Democratic opponent, said he opposed same-sex marriage but also opposes a federal constitutional amendment to ban them, preferring civil unions and rejecting any federal or state legislation that could be used to eliminate equal protections for same-sex couples.

Wide-ranging reaction reflected the controversial nature of the issue.

Over 4,000 same-sex marriages kept San Francisco City Hall offices open and buzzing from Feb. 12 to March 11, when San Francisco officials issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples before the courts put a stop to them.

As the weddings increased, so did conservatives’ attempts to block them.

The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund sued to block the same-sex unions, and a second legal challenge was filed by a California group.

Mayor Gavin Newsom touched off the wedding spree by ordering officials to issue licenses to same-sex couples, declaring that he was merely ensuring equal treatment of gays and lesbians. Newsom later officiated personally at the weddings of his chief of staff and policy director, both of whom married their longtime partners.

Rep. Barney Frank expressed concern that the image of lawlessness and civil disobedience in San Francisco would lead some in Congress to support a federal constitutional amendment banning marriage for gays and lesbians.

New Paltz Mayor Jason West led two-dozen same-sex couples through wedding vows in the small Hudson Valley, N.Y., village, saying New York domestic relations laws are gender-neutral, and that he was abiding by the state constitution and upholding his oath of office.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer refused a request for an injunction from state health officials, who say marriages for same-sex couples are not legal. Spitzer said that question will be determined by the courts.

On March 2, West was charged with 19 criminal counts for performing marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples, which were later dismissed.

Sandoval County Clerk Victoria Dunlap followed ultra-liberal San Francisco’s lead and issued dozens of same-sex marriage licenses. She claimed she never expected the ensuing fuss and that she was simply following the state’s marriage law, which she said is not gender-specific.

As word spread, scores of same-sex couples swarmed into sleepy Bernalillo to wed, lining up outside the courthouse along the main road. Within hours, New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid issued an opinion that the licenses were not valid.

Dunlap stopped issuing the licenses. But weeks later, she changed her mind, and on March 22 she said she would issue more. The following morning, the county building was again packed with same-sex marriage applicants.

More than six months after his confirmation rocked the Episcopal Church, Bishop V. Gene Robinson took control of the diocese in a ceremony known as investiture.

Robinson is the first openly gay man to be elected as a bishop, both in the national Episcopal church and the worldwide Anglican Communion of which it is a part.

Several Anglican bishops abroad have said they will no longer associate with the Episcopal Church USA because it approved Robinson’s election.

In the United States, a dozen conservative bishops are organizing an alternative network of dioceses and parishes, arguing that Robinson’s sexuality violates biblical laws.

Robinson has lived with his partner, Mark Andrew, a state administrator, for 15 years and has two daughters from a previous marriage.

The son of California’s most prominent opponent of same-sex marriage exchanged vows with his longtime boyfriend during San Francisco’s month-long same-sex marriage spree.

David J. Knight, 42, the son of state Sen. William J. “Pete” Knight, married his partner of 10 years, Joseph A. Lazzaro Jr., 39, during a brief ceremony presided over by a volunteer marriage commissioner. The couple, who live in Baltimore, were accompanied by a friend, but no family members.

The elder Knight, a California Republican senator who authored a successful 2000 ballot initiative that strengthened California’s ban on same-sex marriage, died two months later of leukemia at the age of 74.

Massachusetts’ attorney general said a 91-year-old state law prevents the state from issuing marriage licenses to couples whose marriage would be illegal in their home state, an interpretation that blocks same-sex couples from 38 states from tying the knot in Massachusetts.

Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly said that when same-sex matrimony became legal in Massachusetts, it would apply only to residents of Massachusetts and couples who live in states where no law expressly defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Reilly based his decision on a 1913 state law that prevents out-of-staters from getting married in Massachusetts if they are ineligible for marriage in the state where they reside.

“Under our constitution, the attorney general is the gatekeeper to the Supreme Court. By his action, he’s closed the gate on the people of Massachusetts,” said Gov. Mitt Romney’s communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom.

Oregon became the first state in the nation where a judge recognized same-sex marriage, but state legislators, the state Supreme Court or voters were left to decide whether the practice would extend beyond the county where same-sex couples have tied the knot.

On April 20, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Frank Bearden ordered the state to recognize the 3,022 marriage licenses that Multnomah County has issued to same-sex couples since March 3.

At the same time, he ordered the county to stop issuing any new same-sex marriage licenses and asked the Legislature to craft a law that settled the dispute.

The judge gave the Oregon Legislature 90 days from the start of its next session to come up with a new law, otherwise, Multnomah County could resume issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

The United States became the fourth nation to allow same-sex couples to get married May 17 when a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling from the previous November took effect. Cambridge City Hall began handing out marriage licenses at 12:01 a.m. as some 10,000 same-sex couples rallied outside.

Gov. Mitt Romney said same-sex couples from other states cannot get married in Massachusetts unless their home state recognizes same-sex marriages or the couple is planning to move to Massachusetts, but several Massachusetts cities said they never applied that law to straight people and have no intention of applying it to gay people. Those cities include Somerville, Springfield, Worcester and Provincetown, which began issuing licenses to out-of-state couples immediately.

Focus on the Family’s James Dobson said: “We will look back 20, 30, 50 years from now and recall this day as the day marriage ceased to have any real meaning in our country. The documents being issued all across Massachusetts may say ‘marriage license’ at the top, but they are really death certificates for the institution.”

Gay activists in Virginia toyed with a new motto for the state: “Virginia is for lovers. *Some restrictions apply.”

Gays and lesbians threatened to leave the state over a new law that prohibits civil unions and could interfere with contracts between same-sex couples. Some legal experts call it the most restrictive anti-gay law in the nation.

The law is an amendment to the state’s 1997 Affirmation of Marriage Act, which prohibits same-sex marriages in Virginia. The amendment extends that ban to civil unions, partnership contracts and other “arrangements between persons of the same sex purporting to bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage.”

Virginia’s attorney general and other supporters said the law provides a needed safeguard for the institution of marriage and does not deprive anyone of individual rights.

But some legal experts say the law is so vague and ill-defined that it could interfere with legal contracts such as powers of attorney, wills, medical directives, child custody and property arrangements and joint bank accounts.

A federal judge ruled that stating that someone is “homosexual” does not libel or slander them, particularly in light of new court decisions granting gays and lesbians more rights.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner came as she threw out a lawsuit by a former boyfriend of pop singer Madonna who claimed he was libeled because his name appeared in a photo caption in a book about Madonna – under a picture of Madonna walking with a gay man.

“In 2004, a statement implying that an individual is a homosexual is hardly capable of a defamatory meaning,” Gertner wrote in the ruling issued May 28.

But she then went further, addressing whether a statement that somebody is a gay was capable of defaming someone.

Paul Martinek, editor of Lawyers Weekly USA, said Gertner is known as a liberal judge and she was “obviously trying to make new law in this case” on defamation.

A man in colonial dress waiting by Independence Hall rebuffs an interested female’s pass and instead gives his bouquet of flowers to his male lover in one of the nation’s first gay-targeted television commercials. The 30-second spot, which aired for the first time June 9 in Philadelphia, ends with the tag line: “Come to Philadelphia. Get your history straight and your nightlife gay.”

“This is an invitation, that you [gays and lesbians] are welcome here, because of what Philadelphia is and what Philadelphia has to offer, and because we have a strong gay community,” said Meryl Levitz, president and chief executive of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, which is sponsoring the ad campaign.

“And we’re not saying it’s a gay destination; it’s a gay-friendly destination.”

The Reagan administration was lobbied in 1982 to launch an emergency campaign to educate Americans about AIDS, but it took the president five more years to publicly mention the crisis. By then, almost 21,000 Americans had died and thousands more had been diagnosed.

Despite the accolades lavished upon Reagan since his death – for ending the Cold War, for restoring the nation’s optimism – his many detractors remember him as a right-wing ideologue beholden to monied interests and insensitive to the needs of the most vulnerable Americans. Elected on a promise to slash taxes and crack down on freeloading “welfare queens,” Reagan depicted government as wasteful and minimized its capacity to help people, ideas that survive today.

“Ronald Reagan really was a modern day Robin Hood in reverse – he stole from the poor and gave to the rich,” said Michael Stoops, a longtime advocate for the homeless in Washington.

A Cherokee Nation Tribal Judge postponed a hearing on the legality of the union between two Owasso women who obtained a marriage application from the tribe after the couple, Dawn McKinley and Kathy Reynolds, asked for more time to respond to a complaint filed June 11 by Tribal Council attorney Todd Hembree.

The couple did not yet have an attorney who was recognized by the Cherokee courts, officials said. A lawyer must be a member of the Cherokee Nation Bar to argue cases in tribal court.

The women asked for a marriage application May 13. A day later, Justice Darrell Dowty of the Judicial Appeals Tribunal issued a 30-day moratorium prohibiting issuing the applications. The Cherokee Nation Tribal Council unanimously passed a law banning same-sex marriages. Tribal law states any person 18 years of age can marry if he or she does not have a living spouse.

The governing board of an Episcopal church in North Carolina voted unanimously to allow the blessing of same-sex unions among members of its congregation.

The 12-member governing board, or vestry, at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church discussed the question of same-sex unions over the past year. A summary of the discussions was presented at a congregational meeting June 6, and the vestry voted June 21.

National church leaders decided at a convention held in summer to allow each local diocese to make its own decision about whether to bless same-sex relationships.

Gays and lesbians moved a step closer toward ordination in the Presbyterian Church after a legislative committee approved a measure that would partially lift the church’s ban on gay and lesbian ministers.

The proposal would soon go before the Presbyterian Church national legislative assembly for a full vote. If passed, it would allow individual churches to dismiss a 1978 interpretation of church law that prohibits gays and lesbians from being ordained as ministers, elders or deacons.

The Senate dealt an election-year defeat on July 14 to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, rejecting pleas from President Bush and fellow conservatives that the measure was needed to safeguard an institution that has flourished for thousands of years.

The vote was 48-50, 12 short of the 60 needed to keep the measure alive. Six Republicans joined dozens of Democrats in sealing the amendment’s fate.

“I would argue that the future of our country hangs in the balance because the future of marriage hangs in the balance,” said Sen. Rick Santorum, a leader in the fight to approve the measure. “Isn’t that the ultimate homeland security, standing up and defending marriage?”

“The issue is not ripe. It is not needed. It’s a waste of our time. We should be dealing with other issues,” said Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut.

The Democratic National Convention kicked off July 26, with at least 255 GLBT delegates and alternate delegates from 48 U.S. states and territories, the largest GLBT delegation in convention history.

At their first meeting, which took place at the Boston Sheraton on the first day of the convention, the GLBT caucus was addressed by U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

“What I’m hearing [from people] is, ‘This is the most important election of my lifetime,’” Boxer said. “Over the next couple of years, we may have as many as four Supreme Court justices appointed, and you and I know that [under George W. Bush] that could change America in a way that we would not recognize.”

Boxer said Bush has taken direct aim at the GLBT community.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Marriage Protection Act of 2004 (MPA) on July 22 by a vote of 233 to 194. The measure would strip federal courts of the authority to deal with issues concerning same-sex marriage. Opponents say it is unconstitutional and would set a dangerous precedent.

Social conservatives pressed for the bill and Republicans provided most of the votes in support of it. But 17 Republicans voted against it, enough to assure its defeat. The margin of victory was provided by 27 Democrats who crossed the other way and voted for the measure.

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, called it “a sad day for all Americans, not just because the House passed a bill that seeks to deprive gay and lesbian Americans access to federal courts ... [but] because 233 members of Congress ignored their oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United Sates by voting in favor of a measure that is blatantly unconstitutional.”

Doctors in major U.S. cities aren’t doing enough counseling of HIV patients to prevent the spread of the virus, researchers reported in a government-funded study.

Doctors in Atlanta, Baltimore, Los Angeles and Miami were more likely to provide HIV risk-reduction counseling to those newly diagnosed with the virus that causes AIDS than to existing HIV patients, according to the study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 60 percent of the 317 doctors surveyed said they regularly provided counseling – which health officials believe is critical to curbing the spread of the infectious disease – to their new HIV patients. However, only 14 percent of the doctors said they routinely counseled those patients who have had the virus.

The U.S. government refused to take steps to in effect force down the spiraling price of an important AIDS drug, saying such an unprecedented move isn’t allowed by federal law.

The decision by the National Institutes of Health, or NIH, was a major victory for Abbott Laboratories, which quintupled the price of its AIDS drug Norvir late last year. Patient groups and some members of Congress called the move price gouging.

“The issue of drug pricing has global implications and thus is appropriately left for Congress to address legislatively,” concluded NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni.

Abbott raised the price of Norvir, on the market for eight years, to $8.57 a day from $1.71. It called the move necessary to counter falling sales as the drug’s use shifted from a primary treatment agent to one now used in low doses to boost the effects of other anti-AIDS medicines.

A judge ruled that a ban on same-sex marriage violates Washington’s constitution, but no licenses would be issued to same-sex couples until the state Supreme Court reviewed the case.

Six same-sex couples sued in March after King County refused to grant them marriage licenses. Two other couples later signed onto the case. A second lawsuit was filed in April by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of 11 same-sex couples.

After achieving a lifelong dream by becoming New Jersey’s governor, James E. McGreevey gave it all up, acknowledging that he had lived a lie.

A twice-married father of two who had proudly discussed his Catholic education and deep faith, McGreevey said he would leave office because of an adulterous affair with another man.

On Aug. 12, both his parents and his wife, Dina, stood stoically by his side as he announced: “My truth is that I am a gay American.”

A Superior Court judge declined to halt enforcement of a 1913 state law barring out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in Massachusetts, despite a concern that the statute violates the spirit of the state’s landmark same-sex marriage decision.

The law prohibits marriages that would not be legal in the couples’ home state. In what is likely to be the first of several phases in the case, Superior Court Judge Carol Ball denied a request by eight out-of-state same-sex couples for a preliminary injunction blocking the state from enforcing the residency requirement.

A member appointed in August to the 36th District Court bench is believed to be the first openly gay person appointed to a judgeship in Michigan.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm named Rudy Serra, 49, to the position on June 25. The Detroit resident was sworn in Aug. 9 as one of 31 judges on the district court, one of the busiest in Michigan.

Vice President Dick Cheney spoke supportively about gay relationships on Aug. 24, saying freedom means freedom for everyone.

“Lynne and I have a gay daughter, so it’s an issue our family is very familiar with,” Cheney told an audience that included his daughter. “With respect to the question of relationships, my general view is freedom means freedom for everyone … People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.”

Swarming the streets, anti-GOP protesters made their voices heard. The police put on an unprecedented show of force, assuring things didn’t spiral out of control.

For protesters it had all the elements of success – a nonviolent protest in a landmark Manhattan intersection witnessed by Republicans with journalists on hand to capture the moment. Police would call it a triumph because they never lost control of the situation and there were no injuries.

Saying the state constitution broadly guarantees equality, a judge struck down Washington’s ban on same-sex marriage and set the stage for an appeal to the state Supreme Court.

Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks said the guarantees of equality are violated by the state’s 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman and bars same-sex civil marriage.

He acknowledged the Legislature’s intent was clear when it banned same-sex marriage. But Washington’s constitution, which offers broader protection of individual liberties than the federal Constitution, always trumps statute law, he said.

Louisiana voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages and civil unions. With over 78 percent approval, support for it was evident statewide. The civil rights group Forum for Equality promised legal action against it.

A Greenbrier, Ark., farmer who pled innocent after admitting that he dumped three tons of manure on the route of a Pride parade to protest the event was found guilty of misdemeanor harassment.

Wesley Bono, 35, was ordered to pay $639.09 in restitution and $90 to the person from whom he had borrowed the manure spreader for the impound fee. The judge also imposed a $500 fine and court costs.

Bono also was sentenced to 30 days in jail, but the judge suspended the sentence as long as Bono made his payments on time.

The Rev. Lou Sheldon wasn’t thrilled when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation requiring health insurance policies to offer equal coverage to partners of gay and lesbian workers. Sheldon, a conservative activist and president of the Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition, grew more upset after Schwarzenegger approved legislation allowing hypodermic needles to be sold with no prescription as a way to slow the spread of AIDS.

Schwarzenegger also approved a bill to expand the definition of hate crimes – which conservatives fear will lead to prosecutions of those who condemn homosexuality.

The House followed the Senate in decisively rejecting a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, ending debate – for the year – on what has become a dominant issue for the Republican Party’s conservative base.

The 227-186 vote in the House fell well short of the two-thirds majority needed to advance a constitutional amendment, but fulfilled a promise by backers to get lawmakers on the record on the highly sensitive issue in the run-up to Election Day.

Laws limiting marriage to a man and a woman do not run afoul of California’s constitution, Attorney General Bill Lockyer declared in a long-awaited legal opinion that sought to avoid offending either side in the contentious same-sex marriage debate.

Meeting a judge’s deadline to answer a pair of lawsuits seeking to put California on par with Massachusetts, Lockyer said it was up to voters or the Legislature to decide whether to change “the common and traditional understanding” of matrimony that “pre-dates the founding of this state or nation.”

A year after the Massachusetts Supreme Court gave same-sex couples the right to marry, the issue of same-sex marriage added an unpredictable element to races both for the presidency and for Congress.

Opponents of same-sex marriage saw like-minded social conservatives trooping to the polls, a plus for President Bush and Republicans, especially in the 11 states with ballot initiatives on banning same-sex marriage.

Christopher Barron, spokesperson for the gay Log Cabin Republicans, warned that pressing the gay issue was a “serious gamble” that could backfire. “Here we are a couple of weeks out from the election and the president is still trying to energize his evangelical base, unwilling to reach out to moderate swing voters,” Barron said.

Two powerful conservative groups hoped to extend indefinitely what started as an election-related boycott of Procter & Gamble Co., contending that the consumer products giant is too supportive of gay rights, and urged customers to stop buying Crest, Tide and Pampers.

P&G, while proud of its reputation for recruiting and supporting a diverse work force, said boycott organizers have deliberately distorted the company’s positions by suggesting incorrectly that P&G has endorsed same-sex marriage.

One-time migrant farm worker Lupe Valdez made history when she became the first woman and the first Hispanic elected Dallas County sheriff, not to mention the first Democrat to win the post since the mid-1970s. She also is openly gay.

The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a political action committee that endorsed Valdez’s candidacy and trained her on answering questions related to her sexual orientation, hailed her as the “first ever Latina lesbian sheriff.”

Opponents of same-sex marriage told a California judge that same-sex unions are contrary to the purpose of marriage itself: procreation.

Robert Tyler, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based Christian law firm who is fighting San Francisco’s lawsuit trying to legalize same-sex marriages in California, also said that same-sex marriages are not ideal institutions to raise children.

In an interview, he said, “clearly, the best environment for children” is a marriage between a man and woman. A same-sex marriage, he said, would deprive a child of either a mother or father.

The Pentagon agreed to warn military bases worldwide not to directly sponsor Boy Scout troops, partially resolving claims that the government has engaged in religious discrimination by supporting a group that requires members to believe in God.

The settlement is part of a series of legal challenges in recent years over how closely the government should be aligned with the Boy Scouts of America, a venerable organization that boasts more than 3.2 million members.

Civil liberties advocates have set their sights on the organization’s policies because the group bans openly gay scout leaders and compels members to swear an oath of duty to God. The American Civil Liberties Union believes that direct government sponsorship of such a program amounts to discrimination.

A Vermont Family Court judge ruled that both members of a same-sex civil union are the legal parents of a child.

Judge William Cohen’s decision is the latest twist in a nationally watched custody dispute that has produced conflicting rulings in two states.

Cohen ruled that Janet Miller-Jenkins of Fair Haven is a parent to 2-year-old Isabella, a child born by artificial insemination to Lisa Miller-Jenkins.

The case has attracted national media attention, highlighting the fate of children in relationships sanctioned in one state but not in others.

“It’s a landmark decision, and it’s a no-brainer under Vermont law,” said Michael Mello, a professor at Vermont Law School. “It shouldn’t be controversial and the only reason it is, is because it involves a civil union.”

The governing board of the Naval Academy Alumni Association rejected a bid from graduates who sought to establish a predominantly gay and lesbian alumni chapter, saying the chapter might exclude non-gay members.

The decision marked the second time in two years the Naval Academy’s alumni association rejected the group, whose members believe it is the first gay and lesbian chapter to seek recognition from a U.S. service academy.

For decades, David Brudnoy’s low-decibel discussions of current events, culture, politics and other subjects over the airwaves soothed evening radio listeners tired of shock-jock chatter. Brudnoy’s refined voice of culture and conservatism, a rarity amid the increasingly coarse chatter of talk radio, fell silent the night of Dec. 9 when he died of renal failure at about 6:20 p.m. at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, surrounded by friends. He was 64.

Brudnoy’s radio show touched on almost any topic, from politics, to current events, to the arts. He was known for his intellectual thoughtfulness, his sense of humor and his easygoing manner with callers, who came from all walks of life. Brudnoy was openly gay and had been living with HIV for over a decade.

The U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction of a soldier for consensual sodomy in early December, striking down the last remaining vestige of sodomy laws in the United States. The case, U.S. v. Bullock, involved Army specialist Kenneth Bullock, who was convicted of engaging in consensual oral sex with a female civilian in a military barracks.