RICHMOND, Va. — GOP lawmakers in the Virginia House of Delegates, led by virulently anti-gay Del. Bob Marshall (R-Prince William), have blocked the judicial nomination of an openly gay Richmond prosecutor.

Tracy Thorne-Begland, a Richmond prosecutor for the past 12 years, had been nominated for an open judgeship, but the nomination was quickly decried by the conservative group The Family Foundation and Marshall, who argued that Thorne-Begland’s sexual orientation would conflict with his ability to hold up the state’s constitution.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island's governor on Monday declared that the state will recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere, giving gay couples the same rights as heterosexual ones when it comes to health insurance and a slew of other benefits.

The order signed by Gov. Lincoln Chafee in a Statehouse ceremony directs state agencies to recognize marriages performed out of state as legal and treat same-sex married couples the same as heterosexual ones.

WASHINGTON — GOP front runner and presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney engaged in several incidents of pranks during his high school years, at least one incident in particular that LGBTQ activists are calling anti-gay bullying, according to a report by The Washington Post.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — An openly gay teen in Rochester, Minn., took his own life on Sunday, and according to the boy’s father, anti-gay bullying played a “a big part” in his son’s suicide.

Shortly before midnight on Sunday, Jay “Corey” Jones, a 17-year-old student at Century High School, jumped off a pedestrian bridge near his school in Rochester and died, reported the Rochester Post-Bulletin.