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Voters in U.S. state of Maine reject a proposal to reinstate the ban on sexual orientation discrimination in the private sector, with 50.5 per cent against and 49.5 per cent for.
January
12 January — the ban on lesbians and gay men serving in the United Kingdom armed forces is lifted.
March 7 — California voters approve Proposition 22, a preemptive measure stating that California will not recognize same-sex marriages, even if the marriages took place in states that permitted them.
March 15 — Equality Mississippi is formed in response to a hate-crime murder and attempts in the U.S. state to ban adoption by same-sex couples.
Marc Racicot, governor of the U.S. state of Montana, issues an executive order banning sexual orientation discrimination in the public sector.[2]
November 9 — The U.S. state of Connecticut's Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities rules that gender identity discrimination is included in the existing ban on sex discrimination in the private sector.[3]
December
The age of consent across the United Kingdom is [[equalised at 16. Previously, the age of consent was 18 for homosexual acts, and 16 for heterosexual acts. The equalisation took place after a long struggle, in which the Labour party eventually invoked the Parliament Act due to repeated House of Lords opposition. See: .
Tom Vilsack, governor of the U.S. state of Iowa, rescinds an executive order he issued in 1999 banning discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in the public sector.[4] Vilsack would later reinstate the order for sexual orientation only.
December 15 — Thomas Carper, governor of the U.S. state of Delaware, issues an executive order banning sexual orientation discriminiation in the public sector.[5]