Social Issues

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Brazilian transgender model Felipa Tavares is photographed by fashion photographer Emerson Muniz during a Dec. 4, 2012, photo session in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The 6-foot-tall Tavares is among Brazil's small but growing ranks of transgender models — leggy, high-cheekboned sirens who were born men and are causing a splash here as well as in Paris and other international fashion capitals. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Jose Antonio Vargas, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and immigration reform activist, listens June 28, 2011, as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Education Secretary Arne Duncan testify at a hearing regarding immigration reform and the DREAM Act on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Associated Press)

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Photograph provided by Waterlily Interiors Devising a budget is critical, so your designer will know whether to shop for a $500 light fixture or a $5,000 chandelier.

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Hayley Atwell plays a Russian emigre in pre-World War II Paris recruited as a spy by a British agent played by Rufus Sewell in “Restless.” Michelle Dockery of “Downton Abbey” is also in the cast of the Sundance Channel original miniseries. (Sundance Channel via Associated Press)

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George Osborne (left), Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, walks with Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the treasury, to deliver the half-yearly budget statement to Parliament in London on Dec. 5, 2012. (Associated Press)

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**FILE** Qatari women activists holding a banner reading "commit to climate justice 4 all" as they march with local and international activists march to demand urgent action to address climate change at the U.N. climate talks in Doha, Qatar, on Dec. 1, 2012. (Associated Press)

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State Sen. Ted Lieu urged fellow California lawmakers to approve his bill to ban a controversial form of psychotherapy aimed at making gay people straight. The law was passed and then signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. (Associated Press)

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D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray says the city should 'double down' on its gun laws in the wake of the school shooting in Newton, Conn. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

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Conservative lawmakers and interest groups have said House Speaker John A. Boehner's offer of $800 billion in tax increases abandoned core Republican principles and earned no credit from a White House that has insisted on even bigger tax hikes. (Associated Press)

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A Free Syria Army fighter receives treatment Dec. 3, 2012, at a makeshift clinic during clashes with government forces in Aleppo, Syria. (Associated Press)