Thanks to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, many aspects of our private lives are made public – whether it’s where we ate dinner last night or the person with whom we chose to eat that meal.

Of course, most of these bits and pieces are benign, or, depending on who you ask, even boring. But for some people - specifically gay people who are closeted or trying to come out - they can serve as an announcement about their sexual orientation.

It's Friday, it's summer, and that can only mean one thing: it's movie time. Today we take a look at the latest in a long line of bromances, “Get Him To The Greek,” which hit theaters today.

Exactly thirty years ago today, May 28th, West Point graduated its first women.  I was one of sixty-one women who raised their right hands that day and swore our oaths to the Constitution, then pinned on our bars as new second lieutenants.

No one rolled out the red carpet for us, but on the whole, the integration of women at West Point went pretty well. We kept our heads down, and did the work, and were rewarded on occasion by a male cadet saying grudgingly, “Well, I don’t believe women belong here, but you’re okay.” My roommate was an amazing athlete – what West Pointers call, regardless of gender, a “stud.” She could do a dozen pull-ups, run two miles in 12 minutes. In combat boots. I was more of an academic type, competing on West Point’s Debate Team as a plebe. At some point, the head of Admissions told me that my SATs had been the highest of anyone, man or woman, entering in the class of ’80.

 

Twenty years ago this week, the World Health Organization ceased to categorize homosexuality as a pathology, but is it still considered one socially in the workplace?

For this week's work segment, we look at the issue of being openly gay at work. Takeaway contributor Beth Kobliner explains the current laws and trends. And Jeff Barnes, a gay manager at an IT outsourcing company in Colorado, tells us why he keeps his orientation a secret from most of his colleagues.

We want to know from you, Is it acceptable to be gay in YOUR workplace? Text TAKE to 69866 and send your response. (Message and data rates may apply.) You can also just leave a comment below.

Later this morning, Washington, D.C.'s marriage equality law goes into effect, allowing the city’s gay and lesbian citizens to legally apply for marriage licenses. Some officials expect as many as 200 people to decend on City Hall to apply.  In the political battle leading up to passing the local legislation, some interesting alliances were formed.

The fight over gay marriage resumes in California today with Perry v. Schwarzenegger ... and you may be able to watch it on YouTube, tonight.  Two same sex-couples are suing the enforcers of California's Proposition 8 on grounds that the gay marriage ban violates their federal constitutional rights. This might lay the groundwork for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The trial will be the first federal court case in the U.S. to be broadcast on YouTube. Kenji Yoshino, professor of law at New York University, has been following the case.

Mexico City lawmakers Monday voted to legalize same-sex marriage in the capitol – a move that would also give same-sex couples the ability to adopt children. It was a stunning move in a conservative Catholic nation. Ioan Grillo is Mexico Correspondent for Time Magazine; he reports on the reaction in Mexico City and throughout the nation.

A judge blocked Latin America's first gay marriage at the last minute today in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The last-minute reversal highlights the divided opinion on gay marriage in predominantly Catholic Latin American culture. We get the latest from BBC’s South America correspondent, Candace Piette, live from Buenos Aires.

On Tuesday, Maine voters headed to the polls and reversed the state legislature's decision to permit gay marriage. Maine is the third state in the country where voters repealed a legislature-granted law allowing same-sex marriage, and the 31st state to ban gay marriage outright. We ask Columbia University law professor Suzanne Goldberg, director of the Gender and Sexuality Law Program, if this repeal is part of a larger national trend. We also speak with Jill Barkley, a resident of Portland, Me., who was planning to marry her partner next summer; and to Andrew McLean, a gay man in Portland, Me., who volunteered with Equality Maine.

"Question 1" on Tuesday's ballots in Maine, much like last year's "Proposition 8" in California, would explicitly revoke recently granted marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples in Maine if it passes. The initiative asks:

"Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"

Abby Goodnough, from The New York Times, gives us an overview of the initiative and its national significance. We're also joined by Shenna Bellows, from Maine's ACLU; and Brian Souchet, from the anti-gay-marriage group Stand for Marriage Maine.

As we continue our conversation on women serving in war, we turn to a new report, “Women Warriors: Supporting She ‘Who Has Borne the Battle,’” that shows sexual assault in the military was up nine percent last year. But many assaults go unreported, and fewer than 10% of assailants are court-martialed. For a look at the culture of sexual assault in the military, we're joined by the report's author, Erin Mulhall, from Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and Army Sgt. Cara Hammer, who served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005 and works in veteran services at the IAVA.

With men getting laid off at a faster rate than women, we ask is there such a thing as a gender that's recession proof?

When Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Governor Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, ran for the top offices in the country, the White House's glass ceiling looked like it might be shattered. But Amanda Fortini, a writer for New York Magazine, says the “Year of the Woman” in presidential politics reinforced stereotypes, set women back and made President-elect Barack Obama’s road to gender equality a lot rockier.

Read "The Momification of Michelle Obama" at Salon.com »

"Michelle Obama was a particularly threatening figure within a world that has traditionally been about white male power."
-- Rebecca Traister