The state senate in Rhode Island has passed a bill that will make their state the 10th in the US to allow gay marriage.

In a 26-12 vote Wednesday (24 April), the Democratic controlled senate passed a bill that had made it out of the judiciary committee just a day earlier.

Rhode Island had been the only New England state where gay marriage is not yet legal. Governor Lincoln Chafee says he plans to sign the bill into law.

In a statement after the vote, Chafee said the senators has chosen 'tolerance and fairness over division and discrimination.'

There used to be a time, very recently, when marriage equality took a constant beating in all polls. Now US voters seem more and more comfortable with LGBT families having the same rights of their straight counterparts.

This past week top pollsters for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama released a report that argued 'significant opposition to the freedom to marry is increasingly isolated within narrow demographic groups while a much broader and more diverse majority are ready to let same-sex couples marry.'

Illinois took another step closer Tuesday (26 February) to becoming the 10th state in the US to make gay marriage legal.

The Illinois House Executive Committee,comprised of seven Democrats and four Republicans, voted 6-5 to advance The Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act. It will next go to the full House floor for a vote.

At least 60 House members must vote 'yes' to pass the legislation for it to move on to Governor Pat Quinn for signature. Quinn has promised to sign the bill into law if it receives legislative approval.

The gay US soldier booed during a 2011 Republican debate is now part of the marriage equality conversation in the Buckeye State.

A Valetine's Day rally is to be launched this afternoon (14 February) calling for legalizing gay marriage in Minnesota.

Organizers of the 'Freedom to Marry' rally say they expect 1,500 to 2,000 supporters in the Capitol rotunda, Minneapolis, later this afternoon.

Minnesota's governor, Mark Dayton came out in support of marriage equality during his State of the State speech yesterday (13 February): 'I support the right of any Minnesotan to marry the person he or she loves'.

With the same-sex marriage debate ongoing worldwide, an unprecedented number of public figures have come out in support of marriage equality.

Several of the musicians nominated for Grammys, the American recording industry's annual awards, have publicly shared their support of gays and lesbians getting married.

Freedom to Marry, a campaign for nationwide marriage equality, has put together a few of the best supporting statements from some of the world's biggest hip-hop, country, pop and rock stars.

With six US states in various stages of proposed gay marriage legislation, the equal rights group Freedom to Marry announced Thursday (7 February) that it plans to spend $2 million this year to help the various efforts.

Freedom to Marry is kicking off its 2013 effort by investing $800,000 in efforts in Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, according to BuzzFeed.

Some New Jersey Democrats are coming around to the idea of putting the issue of same-sex marriage to a popular vote in the state despite opposition from the party leadership.

A bill to legalize same-sex marriage passed the state Legislature in February but was vetoed by New Jersey’s popular Republican Governor Chris Christie, who urged supporters to instead put the issue to the voters.

Although gay troops can now serve openly in the  US military, their families are still invisible.

In 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) passed the Congress and was signed into law by then President Bill Clinton. The law keeps the government from recognizing same-sex marriages, even in states where gay marriage is legal. Couples cannot file joint federal tax returns or receive survivor benefits.

Maryland says ‘I do’ to marriage equality after a public referendum.

Victory for marriage equality campaigners was declared in Maryland with 57.9% of the public vote in favour and 42.1% against, according to Politico.

Gay marriage opponents lost a legal battle in New York Tuesday (23 October) when an appellate court declined to hear an appeal to the state's marriage equality law.

New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, an evangelical group, had asked the Court of Appeals for permission to continue its appeal of a case in which it claimed that the state's senate did not follow proper procedures when it passed a gay marriage bill last year.

The court denied the request without comment.

Minnesota for Marriage, the group promoting a constitutional ban on gay marriage in the state, will debut its first two TV adverts of a heated campaign today.

Both adverts argue that male-female marriage has been a building block of society for centuries.

However, one of the adverts uses the line 'everyone has a right to love who they choose' and yet still argues it's important to keep the traditional definition of marriage between opposite-sex couples only.