[caption id="attachment_170280" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Robbie Manson, left, and his brother Karl[/caption]

Olympic rower Robbie Manson came out as gay this week in a moving story in  Outsports. The New Zealand sportsman came out to his family when he was in his early 20s—his older brother is gay, as well, and younger brother Karl is on the same rowing squad as Robbie.—but he didn't tell his teammates until he made the NZ rowing team for the London Olympics.

"We were having a few drinks and near the end of the night I had a heart-to-heart with two of my friends," Manson recalls. "In a very emotional state I told them that I was different, and then finally that I was gay."

He says the experience of coming out has been universally positive and that being gay has actually proven to be a positive aspect of his personality. "I wouldn't want to be any other way," he reveals. "I think it makes me more interesting, and it's something that does make me different in a good way. I learned that I'm a lot stronger and more resilient than I gave myself credit for, and that other people are far more accepting than I thought they would be."

The ruling only applies to St. Louis for now, but sets a precedent that will hasten marriage equality across the Show Me State.

"Cities are strengthened by their families. I want St. Louis to be the sort of diverse and open place in which all families—gay and straight—choose to live, be creative, and build businesses," said Mayor Francis Slay, who has gay siblings.

A total of six magistrates—administrative appointees who help district judges with administrative responsibilities like officiating weddings and setting bail— have left their posts since the state's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage was thrown out in October.

“It was something I had to do out of conscience. I felt like to perform same-sex unions would be in violation of the Lord’s commands so I couldn’t do that,” Judge Bill Stevenson of Gaston County told WCNC-TV. “I hate to wax so biblical, but it says, 'What good is it for man to gain the whole world but lost his soul', so that’s the stakes I put on this.”

That's nice. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Van Teasley, a well known DC defense attorney who often represented LGBT and low-income clients, was found murdered in his vacation home in the Dominican Republic on Thursday.

A relative worried that he may have grown "too comfortable" in a country known for its homophobia.

Some medical professionals reportedly tell gay people they are "sick" and need treatment. One doctor said he's personally conducted 200 such operations in the past year alone.

While homosexuality is a serious crime, transgender people are ostensibly accepted by the Iranian government.

“They show how easy it can be,” one psychologist said of state medical officials. “They promise to give you legal documents and, even before the surgery, permission to walk in the street wearing whatever you like. They promise to give you a loan to pay for the surgery.”