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HOUSTON -- Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, has changed its U.S. employment policies to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as now required by federal law.

Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said Friday the company's board approved the policy change at a meeting on Wednesday and noted that the oil company "always updates its policies to comply with the laws where we work."

Chris Smith, who represents New Jersey's 4th district in the US House of Representatives, made the comments during Tuesday's sitting of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, a day when 12 men were reportedly arrested for attending an alleged same-sex wedding in Nigeria.

The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Caucus of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee blasted the comments, calling them "close-minded and "appalling".

NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - U.S. lawmakers in both houses of Congress introduced on Thursday a bill to protect and promote the rights of the international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

The International Human Rights Defense Act, spearheaded by Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Rep. Alan Lowenthal of California, both Democrats, would appoint a special envoy within the U.S. Department of State to coordinate efforts to prevent discrimination and advance the rights of LGBT people worldwide.

STOCKHOLM — A public swimming pool outside the Swedish capital is reopening this weekend after building a third changing room, for people with a "neutral gender identity."

The city of Sundbyberg, a suburb of Stockholm, says it's the first LGBT-certified swimming pool in Sweden, a country known for its tolerance toward lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people.

Officials say the new changing room, which is designed for one person at the time, can also be used by people with disabilities or those who prefer to get changed in private because of their religious beliefs.

Top leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints called Tuesday for passage of laws granting statewide protections against housing and employment discrimination for gay and lesbian Utahns — as long as those measures safeguard religious freedom.

The move, one LGBT advocates have been pushing for years, provides a major boost for the prospects of nondiscrimination statutes on Utah's Capitol Hill. Such proposals have been bottled up in the Legislature for years — despite the church's historic endorsement of similar protections in Salt Lake City ordinances in 2009.