21 Top News Stories of the Year

 6. Gay Rights in the Classroom
While Tennessee considered the “don’t say gay” bill, which would have barred schoolteachers from talking about LGBT history, California took the opposite tack. The passage of SB 48 ensures that the LGBT civil rights movement is part of the curriculum. Opponents promise to overturn the law but missed an October deadline to get enough signatures to put the repeal on the ballot in 2012.

(RELATED: Tenn. Senator: “Don’t Say Gay”)