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A North Carolina pastor said he was using hyperbole and regrets his choice of words when he told parents during a sermon on marriage to punch any sons who make gestures that might indicate they are gay.

Berean Baptist Church pastor Sean Harris preached Sunday about marriage before next week’s vote on a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, The Fayetteville Observer reports.

Activists are moving forward a resolution to include support for full marriage equality in the 2012 platform of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

Members of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s LGBT Caucus are attending conventions in the state’s congressional districts and asking attendees to vote for the resolution. Each of the state’s eight districts will then send 10 resolutions to the party’s state convention in Appleton on June 8-9, where the resolutions will be considered for inclusion in the platform.

A San Diego judge ruled Tuesday that prosecutors in a gay rights case violated the defendants’ rights when they dismissed a potential juror because he’s gay.

Superior Court Judge Joan Weber said defendants in the case, which involved a same-sex marriage protest, were denied a representative jury. Weber called the city attorney office’s actions “shocking” and dismissed the entire jury panel selected for the case, reported UT San Diego.

Civil rights advocates continue to call on President Barack Obama to issue an executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation and gender.

The initiative would be an expansion of the order Lyndon Johnson issued in 1965 to prohibit discrimination by federal contractors and subcontractors on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has ordered every federal prison to appoint an LGBT representative to its long-standing the affirmative employment program.

The bureau employs about 40,000 people nationwide and, until the order, LGBT staff did not have designated representatives in the program.

The wife of North Carolina Sen. Peter Brunstetter allegedly said that he sponsored an anti-gay marriage amendment partly to protect the Caucasian race.

The anti-gay amendment is on the May 8 primary ballot in the state. The measure would amend the state constitution to say marriage is the union of a man and a woman and barring recognition of same-sex relationships.

UPDATE: North Carolina teenager cited for discharge of a firearm after a friend filmed him firing a shotgun at a neighbor’s sign opposing Amendment One, which would ban legal recognition for same-sex relationships in the state.

A Republican Missouri House member who previously served in the U.S. Air Force came out as gay and called upon GOP leaders in the state Legislature to withdraw a bill that would limit discussion of sexual orientation in public schools. 

Rep. Zachary Wyatt, a 27-year-old cattle farmer from the rural northern Missouri town of Novinger, said on May 2 that the legislation had motivated him to disclose his sexual orientation publicly for the first time.

The Rev. Billy Graham urged North Carolina voters on May 2 to support an amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage.

“Watching the moral decline of our country causes me great concern,” said Graham, 93, who lives near Asheville. “I believe the home and marriage is the foundation of our society and must be protected.”

At least five people will face criminal charges in the death of a gay Florida A&M University drum major from who died after being hazed aboard a band bus in Orlando last fall, authorities said on May 1.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings told The Associated Press that multiple defendants will be charged in 26-year-old Robert Champion’s death, although he refused to say what the charges are. A press conference was set for 2 p.m. EST May 2.

Mitt Romney’s national security spokesman has resigned after critics raised questioned his conservatism because he is gay.

Richard Grenell announced on May 1 that he has decided to leave Romney’s campaign after just a few weeks. Grenell previously worked for neoconservative former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, as well as other foreign policy hawks.