Indiana

GLSEN and The Ad Council announced the award-winning “Think Before You Speak” PSAs will appear at Super Bowl XLVI and reach tens of thousands of fans. The campaign will be targeting anti-LGBT language among teens with Super Bowl attendees at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, IN. The advertising opportunity was made possible as an in-kind donation to GLSEN by Toronto-based Grazie Media.

Legal claims filed by the partners of two lesbians killed in the Indiana Fair stage collapse could make the state re-examine how it defines survivors in wrongful death cases despite the state’s unwillingness to recognize same-sex unions.

The courts could choose to define next of kin more broadly to include people who live together, share bank accounts, have children together or are otherwise committed to sharing their lives. Christina Santiago and Tammy VanDam were among seven people who died after Sugarland's stage toppled.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department shows their support for the GLBT community by marching in the Indianapolis Pride Parade for the first time. Indianapolis Pride started in 2005 with one float and a few drag queens. Fast forward six years to see hundreds of attractions, and crowds in the thousands. Now the IMPD is joining the celebration. The uniformed officers will be riding in the department issued Humvee and have specific direction to not decorate the car, change the car in any way or add anything to their uniforms.

Lawmakers in Rhode Island and Maryland are considering bills to legalize same-sex marriage, and advocates in New York haven't given up - while opponents are fighting for constitutional bans in Indiana and Wyoming and to re-impose bans in Iowa and New Hampshire.

In NYC, Freedom to Marry announced the launch of what it described as the largest-ever campaign aimed at increasing popular support for same-sex marriage.

When I read about a case such as the one below, it reopens the need for education of Intended Parents (and their surrogates) by experienced legal counsel. Why did this Intended Parent think that this situation would work out for him in Indiana? Was he aware of the risks? Did he know that there were other options in other more appropriate venues, such as California?

The number of single fathers has risen dramatically in the U.S. and more than tripled in Allen County - in Indiana - in less than two decades, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. Last year, there were an estimated 3,344 single fathers in Allen County, defined by the census as male householders with no wife present, living with their own children younger than 18 years old.

A medical catastrophe has split a couple who have spent a life together. In March 2005, Patrick Atkins collapsed while on a business trip. He had a ruptured aneurysm and later suffered a stroke while hospitalized. Now his deeply religious family have taken over his guardianship - even barring his longtime partner, Brett Conrad, from seeing him. Phone calls are also no longer allowed.