California

A regular game of tag between best friends lead to an alleged sexual assault / sexual battery at a Hercules, CA elementary school. Experts said such incidents are not isolated, but rather part of an emerging national trend. A similar case caused a sensation in Boston last fall when a 7-year-old faced sexual harassment charges for kicking another boy his age in the groin during a fight.

Among new legislation taking effect in California is a requirement that public schools include positive history lessons on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Chino, said she voted in support of the legislation. "There should be awareness that there are other people that may be gay or lesbian so that we can stop some of the bullying that takes place," Torres said. "Let's look at the bigger picture. Kids are committing suicide because they don't feel accepted."

Let this story serve as a lesson that the surrogacy process is nothing to be taken with any amount of whimsy. On one side of a long parental court fight over 5-year-old twin girls were Donald and Sean - a gay couple who live in Jersey City. On the other was Angelia, Donald’s sister, who agreed to serve as a surrogate, eventually giving birth to the girls through a donor embryo fertilized by Sean (pic). The men took custody of the children after the birth.

A Southern California teenager who shot a gay classmate to death three years ago avoided a retrial by pleading guilty to second-degree murder, a deal that will send him to prison for 21 years. Brandon McInerney (now 17) pleaded guilty to the murder charge, as well as one count each of voluntary manslaughter and use of a firearm. The case drew wide attention because of its shocking premise: McInerney, in a fit of homophobic rage, killed 15-year-old Larry King at school because he was offended by King's dress and how the victim interacted with him.

Irene Rojas-Carroll graduated from high school in June and began her freshman year at Brown University a few weeks ago. Before she left her alma mater, she took over and revamped El Cerrito High’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), and helped make the school a safe and accepting place for all people, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation. She created a constitution for the organization, developed an outreach plan and led efforts that held El Cerrito High administrators accountable to its GLBT students.

Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed legislation making California the first state to require that school textbooks and history lessons include the contributions of GLBT Americans.

Nearly 1 percent of California households - about 126,000 homes - are headed by same-sex couples, according to statistics from the 2010 census. The numbers show nearly a quarter of California's same-sex couples are raising children. These families say that society is increasingly adjusting to having them and their children around. And to increase their visibility, more same-sex couples are conscious about identifying themselves on census forms.