Texas

San Antonio, TX and its largest utilities - the city's Water System and CPS Energy - may extend benefits to domestic partners of employees. Mayor Julián Castro said the benefits will help the city as a governmental entity and as a community. “For the city as an employer, it means we can be more competitive for great talent,” Castro said. “For the San Antonio community, it means there are no second-class citizens.

At least seven bills related to bullying have been filed in Texas. Some may require school districts to develop strategies to combat bullying and cyberbullying, train school employees, and launch educational programs for students and parents.

The bills would also require districts to notify a parent or guardian quickly of a student involved in bullying, and give school boards the power to transfer a student who is being bullied to another school.

Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns (pictured) delivered on his goal to reach out to youths who are struggling with their sexuality. During a moving speech at a recent council meeting, the openly gay Burns reflected on his own closeted youth and his reaction to youths taking their lives after being bullied because of their sexuality. "High school was difficult, coming out was painful," he said. "I want to tell any teen who is watching this, life will get better.

Two Texas moms got married in Massachusetts but separated in 2007. They worked out a custody arrangement for their 4 1/2-year old adopted son - but the state of Texas says a same-sex marriage can't be dissolved with a divorce there because Texas doesn't offer marriage equality.

The Associated Press reports:

A Bay Area woman has won the right to parental status and visits with the daughter of her former lesbian partner - who moved away when their daughter was 3-months old.

Charisma R., had been fully involved in conceiving and taking care of the child and was legally the child's co-parent. The ruling also allows her to argue for reimbursement of the costs of traveling to Texas, where her ex-partner lives with their now 6-year-old daughter.

City Controller - and lesbian mom - Annise Parker made history Saturday by being elected Houston's first openly gay mayor, earning 53.6 percent of the vote in a tight race.

Parker and her partner, Kathy Hubbard, have been together since 1990. They have two adopted children.

Kristie Vowels and Tracy Scourfield had been a couple for more than four years and had gone through counseling to help them decide whether to have a child together. Scourfield gave birth to their daughter, conceived through IVF, on May 21, 2004.

A little more than a year later, the two women broke up and Scourfield and the little girl moved out of Vowels’ home - although Vowels’ continued to help support the child financially. The women agreed to and operated on a visitation schedule very similar to what is considered “standard visitation” in a heterosexual custody case.