Playahata

NEW YORK (AP) — Both Anderson Cooper and Frank Ocean made revelations about their sexuality this week, but Ocean’s could end up being the more significant announcement. Ocean — the rising R&B singer behind the single “Novacane” and the self-released album “nostalgia, ULTRA,” which critics heralded as among the best of 2011 — announced on his Tumblr page Wednesday that his first love was a man. He also tweeted a link to the post.

Earlier this week, CNN’s Cooper acknowledged that he was gay. But the admission from the 24-year-old Ocean — who is part of the hip-hop collective Odd Future and was prominently featured on Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Watch the Throne” album — is noteworthy because he inhabits the world of rap, where anti-gay sentiments have long been part of the regular vocabulary. Gay epithets are often used in lyrics — one of Lil Wayne’s catch phrases is “no homo.” (more…)

Zach Wahls, a 19-year-old University of Iowa student spoke about the strength of his family during a public forum on House Joint Resolution 6 in the Iowa House of Representatives. Wahls has two mothers, and came to oppose House Joint Resolution 6 which would end civil unions in Iowa.