President Barack Obama appointed Alison J. Nathan as his associate counsel.

Nathan who is openly lesbian, was recently the Fritz Alexander Fellow at New York University School of Law and a visiting assistant professor at Fordham Law School.  Prior to academia, Nathan was an associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.

She served a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court of the United States and Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Nathan was the national voter protection senior advisor to the Obama campaign and a member of the campaign’s LGBT Advisory Committee.  Nathan received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and her J.D. from Cornell Law School, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Cornell Law Review.

Nathan was recommended for the position through GLLI’s Presidential Appointments Project.

Openly gay Colorado Congressman Jared Polis has begun writing a series of reports for CNN.com on his experiences as a freshman member of the House of Representatives. The Victory endorsee was sworn in on January 6, making him the first openly gay man to ever be elected to a freshman term and only the third openly gay member of Congress. In his first report, Polis compares the freshman legislator experience to the freshman college experience.

He writes:

New members have a lottery for our rooms (offices). We “rush” for our committee assignments and elect a class president (Martin Heinrich of New Mexico).

We wander around aimlessly, clutching maps, trying to find our way around “campus.” There are even intramural sports; I played baseball in high school and hope to join the congressional team.

And just like college, newbies are often lumped together and collectively, even mockingly, referred to as “The Freshmen.” Some of the upper classman are a bit snooty and don’t talk to us lowly fish, but others are friendly and eager to help.

On our first day, we passed legislation to help women fight wage discrimination. Since then, I’ve given my first floor speech, voted to help 11 million children have access to health care and wrote President Obama, asking him to consider ways to employ more women in the construction jobs that will be created with the economic stimulus bill.

For the full report, click here.

Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled that same-sex couples must be granted the same rights as heterosexual couples in common-law marriages. The decision will award dozens of rights to same-sex couples that unmarried heterosexual couples have enjoyed for years.

According to The Advocate, the ruling follows other recent court decisions that have awarded gay couples inheritance, pension, health and social security rights. Uruguay is the only other Latin American country to recognize same-sex unions.

Pink News further reports:

In April 2008 gay rights group Colombia Diversa, the Centre for Law, Justice and Society (Dejusticia) and the Group of Public Interest Law at the University of the Andes, filed a lawsuit for equal rights for unmarried heterosexual and same-sex partners.

…

Colombia’s 1991 constitution promises equal rights for all citizens.

Although homosexual relationships were decriminalised in the 1980s, serious human rights violations against LGBT people are commonplace.

The South American country of 45 million people is heavily Roman Catholic, and there is significant discrimination against gay people, despite recent court rulings granting rights to same-sex couples.

The police have also been accused on numerous occasions for abuse of authority and mistreatment of gay people.

However, since the election of Álvaro Uribe Vélez in 2002, the general security situation has improved somewhat.

Openly gay Washington state legislators Sen. Ed Murray and Rep. Jamie Pedersen have both introduced legislation that would offer same-sex couples within the states all the benefits of a civil marriage.

“This is everything but marriage,” Pedersen told The Seattle Times.

Murray sponsored the state’s domestic partnership law in 2007. That law provides same-sex couples with hospital visitation rights, the ability to authorize autopsies and organ donations and inheritance rights when there is no will. Currently, nearly 5,000 couples have become registered through the law.

The Seattle Times reports:

The 110-page bill makes changes to all remaining areas of state law where currently only married couples are addressed. The bill would add same-sex domestic partners to state statutes ranging from labor and employment to pensions and other public employee benefits.

“Although we view this as an improvement that provides real and concrete protections to same-sex partners, it’s an inadequate substitute for marriage,” Pedersen said. “Our hope is that the continuing success of this legislation helps people understand what marriage is, and that it gets them more comfortable with treating all families with equality dignity and respect.”

Pedersen and Murray said that a same-sex marriage measure, also introduced Tuesday, is unlikely to go anywhere this year, but is meant to spark further discussion.

“It’s entirely possible that next year, enough things might have changed that we feel like it’s time to make a run at the marriage bill,” Pedersen said. “We’re not there now. But it’s not out of the question.”

Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir could become the first permanent openly gay prime minister in the world after elections to be held this spring, according to The Iceland Revew.

The Huffington Post reports that Per-Kristian Floss served as interim prime minister of Norway in 2002.

According to the Associated Press, Iceland’s coalition government collapsed Monday after a wave of public dissent caused by the nation’s shattered economy. The AP reports:

Prime Minister Geir Haarde resigned and disbanded the government he’s led since 2006. Haarde was unwilling to meet the demands of his coalition partner, the Social Democratic Alliance Party, which insisted on choosing a new prime minister in exchange for keeping the coalition intact.

“I really regret that we could not continue with this coalition, I believe that that would have been the best result,” Haarde told reporters.

Sigurdardóttir currently serves as Iceland’s Minister for Social Affairs. Foreign Minister and chairwoman of the Social Democrats Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir proposed Sigurdardóttir replace Haarde.

The Iceland Review states that if she does become prime minister, she would not only become the first openly gay prime minister in the world, but the nation’s first female prime minister.

The publication reports:

Sigurdardóttir said the idea had only been discussed with her yesterday morning.

Her first choice of a coalition is a minority government with the Left-Greens and backing from the Progressive Party. “Another option is a minority government with the Social Democrats and passivity of the Left-Greens and Progressive Party.”

On whether she had discussed the matter with the Left-Greens, Sigurdardóttir replied, “I’m always talking with the Left-Greens.”

According to an opinion poll undertaken by Capacent Gallup in December 2008, Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir is the most popular minister—73 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with her work. Sigurdardóttir is also the only minister whose popularity had increased compared to a similar poll undertaken in December 2007.