Lower taxes for gay couples who receive health benefits from employers. Nutrition labeling requirements for snack food sold in vending machines and many restaurants. A new program to teach parents how to interact with their children.

Gay-marriage advocates are vowing to press on after a defeat in Maine on Tuesday. Voters passed a measure blocking gay marriage in that state, dealing a major setback for the cause around the nation.

To know lesbian life in Chicago is to know Vernita Gray. She helped found Chicago’s first lesbian newspaper, Lavender Woman, helped organize the city’s very first Pride Parade, and set up one of Chicago’s first gay information hotlines—which she operated out of her apartment. “My phone was always ringing, and there was always someone in my little apartment because my place was also a crash pad for my eers who had no place to go,” says Gray. “Today we call them homeless.”

Obama administration officials are acting to address the needs of LGBT seniors and curtail housing discrimination against LGBT people, including same-sex couples that apply for public housing programs designated for low-income families.

The founder of San Francisco's LGBT housing and services agency Openhouse will be honored by Civic Ventures with the Purpose Prize for her entrepreneurial spirit and work improving housing and social services for LGBT seniors. Marcy Adelman, Ph.D., said she was pleased to have been selected.

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced a series of steps aimed at ensuring that federal housing programs do not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and that the federal government improves its knowledge base about discrimination the community faces.

President Obama signed major civil rights legislation on Wednesday, making it a federal hate crime to assault people based on sexual orientation, gender and gender identity. The new measure expands the the scope of a 1968 law that applies to people attacked because of their race, religion or national origin.

Happy Thursday! (Unless you're White House Counsel Gregory Craig?) The gay rights community scored two more small victories on Tuesday, courtesy of the departments of Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services.

From the tough-as-nails cop on '80s drama Cagney & Lacey to the proudest PFLAG mom ever on Showtime's groundbreaking Queer as Folk in the '90s, Sharon Gless has had a long, storied career that's resounded strongly with the lesbian audience. Now, the 66-year-old actress is adding another credit to her resume: playing gay. Starring as the title character in Outfest hit Hannah Free, which opens in select theaters Friday, SheWired.com caught up with Gless to talk about how much the lesbian community has supported her through the years, kissing Rosie O'Donnell and how she's always wanted to portray a lesbian on-screen.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced plans to establish the nation’s first national resource center to assist communities across the country in their efforts to provide services and supports for older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals.