EDGE Los Angeles

California leads the way with the election of veteran California public school teacher and Democrat Mark Takano, as the first openly gay person of color elected to the House of Representatives.

In her bid to represent Florida’s 10th Congressional District, Democrat Jessica Ehrlich has dredged up a 50-year history of state-sanctioned anti-gay discrimination by her opponent, incumbent C.W. Bill Young.

A former state senator from Arizona could become the first open bisexual member of Congress after she won the Democratic primary for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Longtime Libertarian and openly gay Congressional candidate Bruce Majors has mounted a run to unseat 11-term DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, but is raising hackles with his online attacks on liberal gays.

Congressional Republicans have made an eleventh-hour attempt to delay the Sept. 20 final repeal of the anti-gay federal law "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell," which since 1993 has forced gay and lesbian servicemembers to conceal their true sexuality.

Last week, the Obama Administration announced that it would not defend DOMA in federal court. Now, lawmakers and GLBT equality advocacy groups have a message for GOP members of Congress: Focus on the economy.

Two early showdowns on spending and debt will signal whether the new Congress can find common ground despite its partisan divisions or whether it’s destined for gridlock and brinkmanship that could threaten the nation’s economic health.

A vote to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a controversial military policy that disallows gays to serve openly in the military, was successfully filibustered by Senate Republicans reports Joel Brown.

Just three of the 535 members of Congress are openly gay, but two candidates hope to inch that number up to five this year.

President Barack Obama’s election-year jobs agenda suffered a new setback Thursday when Senate Republicans blocked a bill creating a $30 billion government fund to help open up lending for credit-starved small businesses.