Two years ago, when Dallas County, Texas, added same-sex insurance benefits, the proposal was controversial.

Ditto for the county’s 2011 decision to add transgender nondiscrimination protections.

But Dallas County’s most recent pro-LGBT proposal, which would extend family medical leave to the partners of gay employees, has generated zero opposition. 

The Dallas County Commissioners Court, which first discussed the family medical leave proposal last month, is expected to approve it later this month or early next month. The measure would get around Texas’ same-sex marriage ban by allowing all employees to designate a nonrelative as a designated care recipient — and take unpaid leave to care for that person without risking their jobs. 

From The Dallas Morning News: 

“A policy like this is important,” said Rafael McDonnell, a local gay rights activist who proposed the change to county leaders. “This allows county employees to never have to make a choice between the families they love and the jobs they are hired to do.” … 

McDonnell said he approached County Judge Clay Jenkins (right) and Commissioner Elba Garcia about implementing the change at the county level shortly after the city of Dallas passed a similar rule.

“Broadening the categories of loved ones for which employees can use family leave promotes stronger families and a stronger community,” Jenkins said.

The city of Dallas added family medical leave for gay employees last year, but The Morning News notes that same-sex benefits are less common at the county level in Texas, ostensibly due to more conservative voters in suburban areas. Other counties that have extended at least some benefits to gay employees include Bexar County (San Antonio), El Paso County and Travis County (Austin). 

Of course, the issue of equal benefits for government employees will become moot if and when same-sex marriage becomes legal in Texas. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear oral arguments in the Texas marriage case on Jan. 9. 

But at the very least, assuming they approve the proposal, Dallas County commissioners will be able to say they were on the right side of history. 

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote next month on net neutrality rules, The Washington Post reports:

President Obama’s top telecom regulator, Tom Wheeler, told fellow FCC commissioners before the Christmas holiday that he intends to circulate a draft proposal internally next month with an eye toward approving the measure weeks later, said one official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the agency’s deliberations are ongoing. The rules are meant to keep broadband providers such as Verizon and Comcast from speeding up or slowing down some Web sites compared to others. 

The AP adds:

President Barack Obama has asked the FCC to put Internet service providers under the same rules as those imposed on telephone companies 80 years ago. The aim is to protect net neutrality, the concept that everyone with an Internet connection should have equal access to all legal content online, including video, music, email, photos, social networks and maps.

The outcome could affect the prices consumers pay for access to entertainment, news and other online content.

For a handy primer on the topic and what’s at stake, you can’t go wrong with John Oliver’s brilliant segment on net neutrality, or as Ted Cruz calls it “Obamacare for the internet”.

Transgender suicide victim Leelah Alcorn (below right) was laid to rest Friday morning in a private service, after her family moved the funeral in response to alleged threats, according to a report from NBC News: 

Tim Tripp, the family minister at Northeast Church of Christ in Cincinnati, told NBC News the funeral had been moved to a private location because “the times and dates had been publicized, and the family’s received threats.” Tripp wouldn’t specify what threats surrounded the funeral, other than to say the family had heard there would be “disruptions.” Mourners arriving at the church Friday found a sign on the door announcing the service’s postponement. Jeff Hartmann, of Hodapp Funeral Home, said the private service was held there Friday morning. He said Alcorn’s body was to be cremated.

Meanwhile, the LGBT community and its supporters honored Alcorn at candlelight vigils in Cleveland, Columbus (above) and other cities on Friday night. Additional vigils are planned outside Alcorn’s former school today, and as far away as Orlando and London. 

A petition launched in the wake of Alcorn’s suicide calling for a federal ban on transgender conversion therapy has garnered more than 240,000 signatures. Another petition calling for Alcorn’s correct name to be placed on her headstone has garnered more than 70,000 signatures. 

As we reported, Leelah’s mother, Carla Alcorn, told CNN she’d never heard her daughter’s chosen name prior to her suicide. But that isn’t surprising given that Leelah’s parents likely would have used the name as another reason to punish their daughter, since they didn’t support her gender identity due to their religious beliefs. 

WCPO-TV reported Thursday night that Leelah’s father, Doug, sent the station an email in which he continued to misgender his daughter and use her birth name: 

WCPO has made several attempts to speak with her parents at their Kings Mills home. 

After an attempt Thursday, the girl’s father, Doug, sent WCPO an email with the subject line: “Joshua Alcorn and your visit this morning.”

Doug Alcorn’s message reads in part:

“We love our son, Joshua, very much and are devastated by his death. We have no desire to enter into a political storm or debate with people who did not know him. We wish to grieve in private. We harbor no ill will towards anyone. … I simply do not wish our words to be used against us.”

Needless to say, it’s a little late for that, but actions speak louder than words, and Leelah’s parents’ actions as described in her Tumblr post were largely confirmed by her mother’s statements to CNN.  

Not surprisingly, the original Tumblr post itself has been removed, but you can find an archive of it here, and the unprecedented national media coverage of Leelah’s suicide continues, with some advocates calling her death the transgender community’s “Matthew Shepard moment.” 

Watch GLAAD spokesman Tiq Milan discuss the tragedy on MSNBC, as well as WCPO’s report on Leelah’s father’s statement, AFTER THE JUMP …