They were the poster couple for the Massachusetts gay marriage movement. But after a 21 year relationship, Julie and Hillary Goodridge have confirmed they're splitting after much speculation among the GLBT chattering classes. Their biggest concern right now, however, is not whether their split might impact the gay marriage effort, but in how to care for their 10-year-old daughter Annie — who sparked their drive to legalize gay marriage.

[Spokeswoman Mary] Breslauer dismissed any suggestion that Hillary and Julie Goodridge had an obligation to stay together for the sake of the marriage rights movement. “Julie and Hillary, like all the other plaintiff couples in this case, have done heroic work for gays and lesbians who wish to take on the responsibilities and joys of marriage with the person they love. This does not diminish that contribution in any way,” Breslauer said. “I think to anyone who would say that this says something about same-sex marriage, I would say it’s nonsense. It doesn’t say anything at all. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that our families, like any families, face tough times. Many make it through those times, but some don’t. This is part of the maturation of living with marriage as a community.”

Just like straight couples, gay couples can fall out of love too.

Julie and Hillary Goodridge, lead plaintiffs in Mass. marriage lawsuit, have separated [Bay Windows]

• The finale of My Life On The D-List brings together one gay icon with another as Kathy Griffin joins Johnny Weir on the ice. [Malcontent]

• Following a court order, Missouri removed from its books a regulation automatically banning gay men and women from becoming foster parents. [AP]

• You've got till tomorrow to nominate a friend – or, more likely, yourself – for Cosmo's Media Men contest. [Cosmo]

• Latvia's gay pride celebrations have been banned, just as they were last year. Except last year a court overturned the decision and the gays marched on. Will it be the same this year? [SMH]

• Boston's WRKO radio station suspened talk show host John DePetro yesterday after he called the Turnpike Authority chairman a "fag." Though most news media aren't printing the actual word. [Boston Globe]

• Rape survivors are always the victims of unfortunate circumstances, but in this case, the cirumstances are somehow even more devastating: A woman was raped by a gay man who wanted to prove he could have sex with a woman. [Aust. News Limited]

• The Born Different campaign is getting a huge PR push, but so far we've yet to see anything more than a couple viral video clips and recycled stats. [Born Different]

What little boy hasn't played with dolls at some point? Okay, sure, there are some out there who stuck strictly to GI Joes and Tonka trucks, but any child psychologist will tell it's perfectly normal for children to cross gender boundaries; girls will want to play in the sandbox, boys will want to wear Mary Janes. But what about your five-year-old boy who, from the day he was born, insisted he was a she? Meet Nicole (nee Nicholas), perhaps the youngest transgender person out there.

Born a biological male whom the family named Nicholas, Nicole today dresses, acts, and lives like a girl. She's been insisting she's female since she could talk, say the Andersons, who asked that their real names not be used for this article. "He has always been attracted to the flowers, the bright colors, his Barbie dolls, and his beloved mermaids," Lauren says, using the male pronoun for her child. In fact, talking with Lauren, who fully supports Nicole's desire to live as a girl, it's clear that the family is still working out the grammar of how to refer to its youngest.

Nicole's story only gets more interesting from there. When toenail polish and Little Mermaid toys weren't enough, Nicole approached her parents – at age two – and asked for "the fairy princess to come and make my penis into a vagina." For now, five-year-old Nicole is in the clear when it comes to hiding her biological gender. But puberty isn't that far off, and thus neither is the question of reassignment surgery.

See Tom Be Jane [VV]