A Seattle man is facing hate crime charges after allegedly hurling anti-gay slurs and punching a lesbian student.

Gregory Cage Jr, 21, is being charged of abusing the woman outside a restaurant on 16 November.

As Seattle PI reports, he is accused of questioning her about her gender and sexuality on the night in question.

A gunman is accused of targeting ‘bears’ he met on gay dating apps for theft and rape.

The man from Kent, an outlying suburb of Seattle, is accused of having gone on a days-long violent crime spree and is now in jail on seven felony charges, reports Seattle Pi.

The most serious allegation against Laverne Lee Maxwell, aged 32, dates from 7 April.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told a shareholder this week to sell his shares if he didn't like the company's support of marriage equality.

The brief but powerful exchange occurred during the Seattle-based coffee giant's annual shareholders meeting.

Shareholder Tom Strobhar, whose website touts his efforts to stand up against corporate involvement in such issues as gay marriage and abortion, suggested that Starbucks' support of gay marriage is detrimental to its bottom line.

Headliner LeAnn Rimes was sidelined by the flu but Lily Tomlin, Pauley Perrette, Dot Jones, Dave Koz, Jai Rodriguez and Greg Louganis were among the stars on hand over the weekend for the Los Angeles kickoff of a nationwide tour of the musical It Gets Better.

The show, inspired by the It Gets Better anti-bullying campaign, features an ensemble cast of six actors - members of the Gay Mens Chorus of Los Angeles - whose real-life stories of growing up gay are woven into the production.

International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics (IGLA) is the organization that brings the world’s LGBT aquatics clubs together, sharing information and knowledge as well as staging an annual championships for LGBT competitors in swimming, diving, open water, synchronized swimming, and water polo.

We caught up with Jason Stone, head of the organizing committee for IGLA2013 to take a look at plans for this year’s event which will be held in the US city of Seattle.

Some public officials in US states that legalized same-sex marriage in November have been refusing to marry same-sex couples but are claiming that personal bias is not the reason.

In December a county court judge in Washington state instructed colleagues that he would not be available for same-sex weddings following that state’s referendum on the issue, while two town clerks and notary-publics in Litchfield, Maine, have used a similar excuse.

Columnist Dan Savage raised a glass of champagne to those newly married Washington couples (Savage lives in Seattle).

Yesterday (9 December), the noted writer was a guest on the MSNBC news show Up w/ Chris Hayes. The show's host and Savage had a glass of bubbly to celebrate the recent developments in the marriage equality battle.

Washington has given out its first same-sex marriage licence to a lesbian couple of 35 years.

Pete-e Peterson, 85, and Jane Abbott Lighty, 77, thought they were going to die without being able to be legally married.

But at midnight on 6 December, they became the first same-sex couple to receive marriage licences in the US state of Washington.

‘It’s been a long journey,’ Petersen said. ‘We’re just blessed with the people we’ve met and the opportunities we’ve had.’

Major League Soccer has suspended Seattle Sounders defender Marc Burch for three games after television cameras caught him mouthing a homophobic slur during a recent game.

Burch, 28, has also been fined an undisclosed amount and been ordered to attend sensitivity training by the league which has been trying to stop racism, sexism and homophobia through a television campaign.

The suspension comes during the team's conference final against the LA Galaxy which means Burch will miss the rest of the season even if his team makes it to the championship.

The world of LGBT sport is increasingly busy, with an ever-growing number of national and international single and multi-sport tournaments on offer.

One of the key drivers for this is the tourism value that can be created by an LGBT sports tournament, and major cities around the world are actively supporting local clubs and organizations to host events and attract international visitors.

‘As long as there have been people, there have been gay people.’

How to come out of the closet is a short animated video that’s been made to promote the book ‘How To Be A Person: The Strangers' Guide To College', a collaboration between Lindy West, Dan Savage, Christopher Frizzelle, Bethany Jean Clement and the staff of The Stranger, Seattle’s alternative weekly newspaper.

I first met David Hermann in Reykjavik - it was the welcome drinks for IGLA 2012 (the annual championships of the International Gay and Lesbian Aquatics association). It was an informal reception in Reykjavik’s Marina Hotel but Hermann’s warm and engaging personality somehow seemed to fill the room.