Google Doodles, whether animated or not, are known for their creativity, charm and ingenuity. On a daily basis, they celebrate a variety of holidays and milestones, from the mainstream — think Halloween or Christmas — to lesser known landmark events — think the birthday of Thomas Alva Edison or the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man.

This year's animated Valentine's Day Doodle features a fairly adorable heteronormative love story, set to Tony Bennett's "Cold, Cold Heart," as an increasingly exasperated and smitten boy tries to win over the female object of his affection.

What's most interesting, however, is a series of tiles at the end of the animation featuring an array of diverse couples — an astronaut and space alien, a princess and frog, and two men in tuxedos holding hands. Google has long been a friend to the LGBT community, and by including a gay couple clearly promotes all types of love. I'm sure there are those out there, however, who might argue that putting a gay couple alonside such unusual couples could be a detriment to the community. What do you think? Check out the video below.

• Canadian Supreme Court

In the first case, a man was convicted in 2008 of aggravated assault for having sex with six women without disclosing his status, but two years later he was acquitted on appeal. The Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled if an HIV-positive person wears a condom or has a low viral load and, therefore, a low risk of transmitting the virus, having sex does not pose a risk of serious bodily harm. In the second case, a Quebec woman did not disclose her HIV-positive status to her former spouse. In neither case did the “victim” contract AIDS.

In 1997, Florida legislators made it a felony for an HIV-infected person to have “sexual intercourse” without informing the partner of their infected status, adding the virus to a list of established STDs, like gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis.

But Florida statutes specifically define sexual intercourse only as vaginal sex between a man and a woman, meaning “the penetration of the female sex organ by the male sex organ.” Therefore, gays and lesbians cannot be charged. The question before the courts and legislatures needs to be decided on legal and not moral grounds.

Earlier this week, a federal appeals court struck down the infamous Proposition 8, a voter-mandated law that banned same-sex marriage in California. Judge Stephen Reinhardt concluded that Prop. 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

In his decision, Reinhardt wrote that the legislation "serves no purpose, and has no effect in California, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. The Constitution simply does not allow for laws of this sort." His finding upheld the historic August 2010 decision of the Federal District Court that found Prop. 8 unconstitutional.

We've all experienced love. We've all had those moments where we just look at someone and a feeling of immense happiness and joy washes over us like the waterfalls of Niagara Falls.

One of the biggest struggles for me, however, is determining what to do when you realize that the one you love and the one you have all these feelings for is simply just a friend. What do you do?

When I first moved to Florida two years ago, I met some amazing people. But there was one in particular who caught my eye. I remember everything about how we met—it’s almost impossible not to remember. I had decided to go check out a bar that I had heard so much about. Everyone said it was the Thursday night hot spot. Being new to town and only having a couple of friends in the area, I said why not, let’s go! So we all decided to dress up in drag and prance around like we were the hottest thing to come to this town since sliced bread.

According to the site's findings, Tampa had just 2.8 reported hate crime incidents per 100,000 residents, and boasted 7.2 same-sex couples per 1,000 households.

Tampa's inclusion in the top 20 shouldn't be much of a surprise, as the entire Bay area is known for being home to a vibrant, bustling, and engaged LGBT community. And Florida should be proud overall — both Orlando and Miami also made it onto the list, at numbers 16 and 4 respectively.

You know what they say: Art imitates life. This is especially true of last week's episode of 30 Rock. The comedy took on star Tracy Morgan's controversy from last summer, when he received a tremendous amount of backlash for an anti-gay standup routine in Tennessee. In the episode, his alter ego Tracy Jordan made the exact same gaffe, telling a crowd that if he "turned into a gay [he] would sit around all day and look at [his] own junk."

There are billions upon billions of people in the world, and we meet so many throughout our lifetimes that the odds of getting along with everyone is nearly impossible. We all have different views and stances on every aspect of life. Our lives truly are a melting pot of not only cultures, but also of many different opinions in a mass pool of people. Is it really all that hard to get along with everyone though?

I have been working in the gay scene for quite some time now, since I was a little twinky boy at the age of 16. Working in a bar scene at such a young age I have experienced my fair share of things and have grown up so much through it all. Something that I have realized is always present is an immense amount of drama and a sense of having to look out for one’s self at all times. Now, I realize that this isn’t only the gay scene that has issues and drama within itself but with that being really the only thing I have experienced that is what I will go off of as of now.