Recently, the LGBT community raised awareness about anti-LGBT violence and harassment with the National Day of Silence. Members of all sexual orientations were encouraged to participate in the quiet protest, with activists taping their mouths shut, wrapping bands around their mouths, or simply not speaking.

The protest is geared to help combat verbal and physical violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered students, of whom 9 out of 10 report verbal, sexual or physical harassment at school—with one transgendered student allegedly being held down while the attacker carved “It” into the student’s chest.

Long struggling to find insurance that funds much-needed sex reassignment surgeries, the transgendered community took another blow when San Francisco policy makers threatened to cut funding for the Transgender Job Center. But a victory was won when a Texas woman married her girlfriend using her birth certificate that proved she’d been born a male.

Same-sex marriage is still illegal in Texas, so county attorneys are petitioning the Attorney General to clarify how the Texas courts should distinguish men and women—and if the ruling’s overthrown, it would run counter to other court decisions establishing birth certificates as a legal basis for determining a person’s sex. If the ruling’s upheld, more transgendered couples may be flocking to Texas to say their vows.