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New Yorkers from as far away as Buffalo and New York City traveled to the state capitol in Albany on Tuesday to rally for an immediate vote on the marriage equality bill, which remained one vote shy of passage in the senate as lawmakers and Gov. Andrew Cuomo appeared to be making progress in negotiations by the early afternoon.

Hundreds rallied in New York's Union Square Monday to speak out against the city's proposed slashing of its contribution to youth shelters, including the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing for LGBT young people throughout the city. According to WCBS, the city spends approximately $12 million supporting the shelters but may be forced to halve its contribution because of a lack of funding.  Sandra Bernhard, an honorary member of the Ali Forney Center's board of directors, stressed the importance of keeping the shelters funded.

Alumni and clergy peacefully protested outside a St. Louis high school that recently fired a lesbian couple after learning they planned to live together.

Students rallied Thursday night at two Ohio universities to protest a recent attack on two gay men and promote greater acceptance of LGBT people. The rallies, at the University of Cincinnati and Miami University in Oxford, were in response to an attack that occurred early in the morning of March 24. Miami student Michael Bustin and UC student Adam Voegele were holding hands as they walked home from an event on the Miami campus when they were attacked and beaten by four men who yelled antigay slurs. No arrests have been made.

Two guys kiss-bombed a Thursday rally for presidential candidate Rick Santorum and now you can see it for yourself. About three minutes and 35 seconds into Santorum's speech at the Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, Ill., Timothy Tross and Ben Clifford screamed, "MIC Check!"

Students stood outside the president of Belmont University's office to call for change after lesbian soccer coach Lisa Howe told administrators that her partner was pregnant and due to give birth in May. She asked the athletic director whether she could tell her team the news, but he allegedly said that there was no place for gay people in the sports department. They also wrote letters to various national media outlets, Coach Howe and even Ellen Degeneres.

As many as 100 students rallied on the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus Friday to protest antigay bullying after a female student wearing a "Legalize Gay" T-shirt was attacked.

Facebook and Twitter are buzzing over plans for a rally late Thursday afternoon in West Hollywood to protest the North Circuit Court’s stay of lesbian and gay marriages in light of the Proposition 8 ruling from Judge Vaughn Walker.

Just days before the tax deadline, peaceful protesters carried signs as they marched in Los Angeles Sunday demanding equal Social Security benefits for same-sex couples. Rock for Equality donned approximately 700 demonstrators rallied from the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center. "What Kind of Planet Are We On?"-an online video that tells the story of a lesbian alien who is denied Social Security benefits-won the YouTube's 4th Annual DoGooder Awards!

Meet in the Middle for equality in Fresno, CA brought over 5,000 supporters, including Charlize Theron and her mother, Eric McCormack from Will & Grace, Michelle Clunie from Queer as Folk, Milk's Dustin Lance Black and Cleve Jones, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's Kyan, T.R. Knight, and many more!

A high school history teacher and basketball coach was fired last month for what administrators say were "performance issues," but parents at the Life School in Waxahachie, Texas, think it's because the teacher is a lesbian.

Some 300 people gathered in Maryland on Monday evening for a vigil in response to the brutal beating of Chrissy Lee Polis captured on video at a McDonald’s last week. Reports from the scene in Rosedale in Baltimore County indicate that the crowd of activists and politicians expressed an upbeat and unified mood in the face of continuing violence against transgender individuals. The video of the beating filmed by a McDonald’s employee, who has since been fired, went viral on Youtube and, in the words of delegate Joseline Pena-Melnyk to her legislative colleagues, brought “shame” to the state. Teonna Monae Brown faces first and second-degree assault charges. The identity of her younger accomplice, who was charged as a juvenile, has not been released. Prosecutors are looking into the possibility of hate-crime charges.

A coalition of groups in Maryland will rally Monday evening to denounce the violent attack against a transgender woman at a McDonald’s in Baltimore County that was captured on video last week. According to a news release, Trans-United, TransMaryland, Baltimore County for Equality, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Baltimore and others will gather at 7 p.m. outside the McDonald’s in Rosedale where Chrissy Lee Polis, 22, was attacked last Monday. A video of the violent attack, in which two teenage girls punched and kicked Polis while one restaurant employee and patron tried to intervene and others laughed, has gone viral on the web. Watch the extremely graphic video below, followed by comments from Polis.