EDGE Miami

Frederick Douglass was black and that was enough for the Smithsonian Institution to bar the famed abolitionist from speaking at a lecture series intended to convince President Abraham Lincoln that he should end slavery as war divided the nation.

The Washington state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would legalize marriage for same-sex couples.

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the gay populations in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore have doubled in the last decade, spawning increased political involvement. And there are now more reasons to visit.

New U.S. Census Bureau statistics indicate the number of same-sex households in Washington increased 50 percent between 2000 and 2010. The statistics also indicate the majority of this increase happened outside Seattle.

Ron Hearne succeeds Josh Friedes, who became Equal Rights Washington’s Marriage Equality Director and announced a push to secure marriage equality for same-sex couples in the Evergreen State.

Josh Friedes of Equal Rights Washington has handed the reigns of the organization to Rod Hearne in order to campaign for marriage equality around the Evergreen State.

LGBT activists in Washington State are optimistic that marriage for gays and lesbians could become a reality in the coming years.