New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch today signed legislation creating civil unions for same-sex couples, capping a drive by the state’s openly LGBT lawmakers to gain marriage-like rights. Stateline has the details.

It’s certainly a new day in Alabama. The state’s first-ever openly gay elected official, state Rep. Patricia Todd, is bringing accountability to the good ole’ boy network. Check out this Pam’s House Blend post citing Patricia’s dressing-down of the Alabama Democratic Party Chair for his use of some anti-gay rhetoric recently.

For the second year in a row, openly gay elected officials from across Europe were among those beaten and arrested in Moscow this weekend as they attempted to petition city hall to allow a gay pride parade. Along with a group of Russian LGBT campaigners, Volker Beck, a member of the German Bundestaag, and Vladimir Luxuria, a member of the Italian Parliament, were pelted with eggs and roughed up by protesters and police. Photographer Jeremy Nichol posted photos of the melee on his Flickr page.

Photo credit: AFP PHOTO / MAXIM MARMUR

Jenny Bailey, the new mayor of Cambridge, England, said being able to serve was “fantastic,” adding that it meant she was living as she wished:

For transgender people, all we want is to disappear and become normal, so I don’t want to let it define me. When you go through transgender experience and come through the other side, you are just happy to get on with normal life, normal problems, so this is a wonderful opportunity.

Read more at Advocate.com.

Explaining to an audience in Jacksonville, Florida that he is not anti-gay, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney today cited his appointment of an openly gay cabinet member when he was governor of Massachusetts. “I am not anti-gay. I know there are some Republicans, or some people in the country who are looking for someone who is anti-gay and that’s not me,” Romney said. Read more here.