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New HIV cases may be leveling off for the first time since 2000, reports Bloomberg news. Researchers in the HIV surveillance unit at Berlin's Robert Koch Institute say they expect about 3,000 new infections of HIV in Germany this year, which is on a par with last year's rates. Gay and bisexual men are expected to account for about 72% of those new cases.

The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund endorsed a record 11 LGBT candidates, and a majority of them won their races. "This was a watershed election," Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the Victory Fund, said in a press release on Wednesday.

U.S. senator Dianne Feinstein has filmed an ad urging voters to vote against California's Proposition 8, the proposed constitutional amendment that would overturn the state supreme court's May decision legalizing gay marriage by banning same-sex couples from getting married. No on 8 campaign staff announced the new ad during a conference call with reporters Tuesday, in which they also said their fund-raising totals had reached $32 million, giving them a narrow $1 million to $2 million lead over Prop. 8 supporters.

A Florida judge has found the state's 31-year ban on gay adoptions to be unconstitutional, reports the Miami Herald. The ruling from Judge David Audlin Jr. will allow a gay Key West resident to adopt the teenage boy he has raised as a foster parent since 2001. Audlin said the adoption was in the child's "best interest" and asserted that barring gays from adopting conflicted with the state constitution since it targets a specific group for punishment. Audlin had appointed the foster father to be the boy's legal guardian in 2006. At a hearing earlier this year, the order says the boy testified that he wanted the man to be his "forever father...because I love him," the Herald reports.

The Joy of Gay Sex will return to the shelves of the Nampa, Idaho, public library after the American Civil Liberties Union threatened to sue for removing it and The New Joy of Sex back in in June.

Trustees for Palm Beach Community College decided to grant LGBT and unmarried employees partner benefits after a 3-2 vote on Tuesday. The board, after a year of delays, voted to offer health insurance to partners of college employees, according to the Palm Beach Human Rights Council.

Barack Obama supporter and actor Alan Cumming is hoping he can become a U.S. citizen in time to register to vote for his preferred candidate.

Barack Obama's newly minted running mate will join the Democratic hopeful onstage Saturday at a rally in this capital city where Obama launched his White House bid, a campaign official said. A senior Obama adviser told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday that Obama and his vice presidential choice will appear in front of the former state Capitol where Abraham Lincoln once served. The last time Obama appeared there, he announced he was running for president.

Registered LGBT voters favor Sen. Barack Obama over Sen. John McCain 68% to 10% in the presidential election, with 3% of GLBT adults supporting Ralph Nader and 1% choosing Bob Barr. Another 15% of LGBT voters said they were still undecided on a candidate. Among all registered U.S. voters, Obama retains an eight-point lead over McCain in the latest Harris Poll, virtually unchanged since the nine-point lead he enjoyed in early July.

U.S. soldiers have donated more presidential campaign money to Democrat Barack Obama than to Republican John McCain, a reversal of previous campaigns in which military donations tended to favor GOP White House hopefuls, a nonpartisan group reported. Troops serving abroad have given nearly six times as much money to Obama's presidential campaign as they have to McCain's, the Center for Responsive Politics said Thursday.

John McCain raised $27 million in July, his largest one-month fundraising haul since clinching the Republican presidential nomination, while the Republican National Committee brought in nearly $26 million. The GOP nominee-in-waiting had $21 million available to spend as August began, while the national party began the month with $75 million to compete with the Democrats.

Presidential contenders Barack Obama and John McCain differed on abortion Saturday, with McCain saying a baby's human rights begin "at conception," while Obama restated his support for legalized abortion. Appearing on the same stage for the first time in months, although they overlapped only briefly, the two men shared their views on a range of moral, foreign and domestic issues. Obama said he would limit abortions in the late stages of pregnancy if there are exceptions for the mother's health. He said he knew that people who consider themselves pro-life will find his stance "inadequate."