Hillary Clinton Hospitalized After Doctors Discover Blood Clot

Numerous news organizations are reporting that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been checked into New York Presbyterian hospital after doctors found a blood clot related during a check-up following her concussion earlier this month.

From CNN:

[Secretary Clinton] is expected to remain at New York Presbyterian Hospital for the next 48 hours so doctors can monitor her condition and treat her with anti-coagulants, said Philippe Reines, deputy assistant secretary of state.

"Her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion," Reines said. "They will determine if any further action is required."

Reines did not specify where the clot was discovered.

News: Berlusconi, Gay Tennis Player, Stormin' Norman, Log Cabin

A 24-year old woman has been arrested in connection to the upstate ambush that left two firefighters dead last week.

The dramedy television series Mom and Dads, about two gay guys raising a child with a straight woman, is kind of like an Israeli The New Normal, and is proving that same-sex parents are becoming a more everyday part of Israeli life: "For the most part Israeli society, which has made long and quick strides in gay rights in the past two decades, has reacted to the baby bump and the programs about it with nonchalance. Even the country’s sizable religious segment has merely shrugged at the series."

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will host same-sex marriages when they're legal in Maryland on January 1.

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has agreed to pay his ex-wife $48 million in annual alimony.

Troubled actor Nick Stahl was arrested after being caught masturbating at a porn shop.

"In Search of a Professional Gay Male Tennis Player in 2013."

Meanwhile, Chace Crawford is vacationing in Australia.

Justin Theroux tried and failed to have a private, shirtless moment with Jennifer Aniston in Cabo.

Actor Luke Evans was less shy while strutting his stuff on Miami Beach.

A look back at some of 2012's greatest photoshoots.

"The 25 Worst Anti-LGBT Villains Of 2012"

Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, the man who led US forces during the first Gulf War, has died. "The seemingly no-nonsense Desert Storm commander's reputed temper with aides and subordinates supposedly earned him that rough-and-ready moniker ['Stormin' Norman']. But others around the general, who died Thursday in Tampa, Fla., at age 78 of complications from pneumonia, knew him as a friendly, talkative and even jovial figure who preferred the somewhat milder sobriquet given by his troops: 'The Bear.'"

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans on returning to work next week following her recovery from a recent bout of dehydration and exhaustion.

Outgoing Log Cabin Republican leader R. Clarke Cooper insists the timing of his leaving has nothing to do with the Chuck Hagel brouhaha: "Cooper said he informed the board he would depart the organization at the year’s end during an Oct. 20 meeting at the California Republican Party headquarters in Burback. Cooper said his announcement kept in line with earlier stated plans to leave Log Cabin in that time frame."

Incoming interim Log Cabin executive director Gregory T. Angelo backed Newt Gingrich during the Republican presidential primary.

Two new orchid species have been found in the Caribbean, and they're teeny-tiny: "One of the world's newest orchid species is also its most delicate, with tiny white flowers smaller than a dime. Yet the flower finds its home amid boulders near the banks of rushing streams in Cuba's remote eastern mountains."

With all the recent progress on equality, the LGBT inclusive Metropolitan Community Church is wondering what step to take next.

An interview with Susan Muska and Greta Olafsdottir, the documentarians behind Edie and Thea: A Very Long Engagement.

150 Game Changing Wins that Made 2012 the Gayest Year Ever

A remarkably short four decades ago, the Stonewall Revolt of 1969 opened the flood gates for LGBT rights. The closet, so sturdy for so long, started being swept away in a rush of pride. Still, LGBT Americans lived in a culture of "tolerance," a popular euphemism for enduring.

There have been momentous years since then — both Barney Frank's 1987 coming out and the 2003 Supreme Court ruling overturning anti-sodomy laws come to mind — but when we look back in twenty years time or ten or even five, 2012 will be remembered as quantum leap for LGBT rights in the United States of America. It's the year that equality went from being a far-off dream to becoming an inevitable, immutable and irreversible reality. Even Newt Gingrich agrees!

This was the year of equality, the year the American dream came into sharper focus and the nation crossed from begrudgingly tolerating gays, and sometimes even acknowledging their relationships, to demanding our inclusion in the greater American family. Coming out is for the large part no longer a big deal, which is a big deal in and of itself.

There have never been as many out and proud elected officials; never before has Wall Street embraced us with such force; never before have so many conservatives admitted they need to shift gears on marriage equality and embrace change. This was a year of "never before" and "never again."

AFTER THE JUMP, 150 reasons why 2012 was a year of permanence for LGBT Americans, a year that the next wave of rights began its swoop across the purple mountain majesty and above the fruited plain.

And for more of our 2012 Year in Review, be sure to read "I'm Gay: 50 Most Powerful Comings Outs of 2012" HERE.

Obama To Nominate Sen. John Kerry As Hillary Clinton's Replacement

With Susan Rice out of the running to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State when Clinton stepped down, all eyes turned to John Kerry, the Democratic Senator whom many assumed was high on President Obama's shortlist.

Well, turns out those people were right: it was reported late last night that the commander-in-chief plans on nominating Kerry, currently chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and an advocate of equality.

Republicans have already indicated that Kerry would breeze through the nomination, one of the reasons UN Ambassador Rice stepped aside. They prefer Kerry not only for his foreign policy acumen, which Rice also has, but for the fact that his ascension to Secretary of State would get him out of the Senate, potentially freeing up some space for the GOP, though not for a little while.

CNN lays out how a power transfer would unfold:

If nominated by the president and confirmed by his colleagues in the Senate, Kerry would leave Congress, and Deval Patrick, Massachusetts' Democratic governor, would appoint a replacement.

By state law, a special general election is required to take place 145 to 160 days after a vacancy occurs. So if Kerry were nominated, confirmed, and then stepped down on January 21 (Inauguration Day), the election would take place between June 14 and June 29, with primary elections being held six weeks earlier.

Whoever wins the special election would serve the final year and a half of Kerry's term and would then be able to run again for a full six-year term in office in the 2014 midterm elections.

The formal announcement should be coming early this week.

News: Hillary Clinton, Francois Hollande, Connecticut, Australia

Hoorah! The Michigan legislature put the kibosh on a plan that would have allowed adoption agencies and health officials to forbid same-sex couples from adopting.

Matt Damon explains why he never denied rumors about him and Ben Affleck being an item. "I never denied those rumors because I was offended and didn’t want to offend my friends who were gay, as if being gay were some kind of f--king disease. It put me in a weird position in that sense," he told the New York Daily News.

James Badge Dale covers Glow.

Dido and Kendrick Lamar make beautiful music, "Let Us Move On."

Neil Patrick Harris steps out to step into Barney's.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is recovering at home after fainting and suffering a concussion early last week. "At their recommendation, she will continue to work from home next week, staying in regular contact with Department and other officials. She is looking forward to being back in the office soon," said Deputy Secretary of State Philippe Reines The Secretary of State, who also said she will miss a Senate Foreign Relations Committee testimony next week.

Another fun reason to visit New York City: the just-opened National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath).

Actress Amanda Seyfried is moving to New York with a gay pal Alex Nesbitt and they plan on opening an antiques shop. "We're planning on opening an antiques and curiosities home store, which we want to call Mr. and Mrs. Nesbitt," said the Les Misérables star. "I'm worried that I'll lose my career one day, and I'll need something I can contribute to creatively."

Reed Gusciora, a freshly elected gay New Jersey Assemblyman, talks to Michelangelo Signorile about bringing marriage equality to the Garden State, where he says activists and allies need a fresh approach. "The Human Rights [Campaign], the national groups, they need to talk to other gays in the state instead of one person, who everyone seems to talk about [Steven Goldstein, at Garden State Equality]. They're not even talking to legislators. It's short-sighted not to talk to openly gay legislators in the state," he said.

Heroes large and small of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Local sources say that the Connecticut shooter, Adam Lanza, tried to buy a rifle mere days before the shooting but said he didn't want to wait two-weeks for a background check.

His motive is still unknown.

Remember those once-ubiquitous AOL CD-ROMs?

Anglican leaders in England are threatening to derail marriage equality legislation there.

And religious and conservatives leaders are still protesting French President Francois Hollande's plans to legalize same-sex nuptials.

Inspired by the American Tea Party, which is never a good thing, a group of Australian lawmakers recently formed an organization called CANdo, which among other things is warning that gay marriage down under will lead to Muslim polygamy. "All he was saying was that if you open up marriage to a wider group, then there will be calls for more... Muslim people are allowed polygamous marriage, but there will no doubt be calls for recognition, such as through the welfare system," said one of CANdo's founders, David Flint, the former Australian Broadcasting Authority chair.

Susan Rice Pulls Name From Secretary Of State Consideration

MSNBC is reporting that U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice has taken her name out of the running to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State when Clinton steps down next year.

The confirmation process, which Republicans have vowed to derail, "would be lengthy, disruptive and costly - to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities," Rice wrote to President Obama in a letter obtained by NBC News.

"That trade-off is simply not worth it to our country...Therefore, I respectfully request that you no longer consider my candidacy at this time." Rice, a fierce advocate of international LGBT rights, also reportedly said she is "saddened" by the partisan bickering that arose over her consideration.

"The position of secretary of state should never be politicized," she wrote. "I’m saddened that we have reached this point, even before you have decided whom to nominate. We cannot afford such an irresponsible distraction from the most pressing issues facing the American people.”

Republican Sens. John McCain, Kelly Ayotte and Lindsey Graham have been particularly voracious in their attacks on Rice, particularly her handling of the attack on the States' embassy in Benghazi, an attack that left U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others dead.