LITTLE ROCK (AP) – A petition seeking a public vote on a proposed domestic partner registry in the resort city of Eureka Springs has been rejected for not meeting legal requirements, potentially paving the way for the city to begin registering couples Friday, the city’s clerk said.

City Clerk Mary Jean Sell said while the petition had more than the 144 signatures needed to push the issue to a public vote, the petitions lacked a ballot title. Organizers also did not include a copy of the ordinance for signers to look over and it did not specifically ask for a special election to be called, Sell said.

Sell said the decision likely would mean the northwest Arkansas enclave would be allowed to begin registering couples.

“That’s what it meant at 2:42 p.m.,” Sell said.

In May, the City Council voted unanimously to begin registering both same-sex and heterosexual couples. Couples who are 18 and older and pay a $35 fee will receive a certificate noting their partnership, which would be recorded in a paper registry.

City officials had planned to begin registering couples Friday, but put off plans after opponents gathered enough signatures to call an election on the issue.

The Carroll County Election Commission also discussed the petition Wednesday, but decided it did not have the power to call a vote on the issue, as that rests solely with the city’s aldermen, said chair Levi Phillips.

“From us, the standpoint is if a small town wants to say we’ve done this and the City Council wants an election set … that the sun doesn’t come up the second of December and vote on it, I’ll put it on the ballot,” Phillips said. “It’s not for us to decide what goes on the ballot or off the ballot.”

TRENTON (AP) – A lesbian couple barred from holding their civil union ceremony at a beachfront pavilion in Ocean Grove has filed a state civil rights complaint against the church group that owns the property.

The couple, Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster of Ocean Grove, allege in a complaint filed Tuesday with the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights that they were denied use of the boardwalk pavilion because of their pending status as same-sex civil union partners.

“They have weddings there all the time,” said Bernstein, a semi-retired educational consultant. “We wanted to have our ceremony on the boardwalk, on the beach, because it’s a beautiful setting, just like any married couple would want to do.”

Division on Civil Rights Director Frank Vespa-Papaleo said the complaint was the first to deal with discrimination in public places under New Jersey’s new civil union law, which took effect in February.

The boardwalk pavilion the couple applied to use is owned by the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, a Methodist ministry that owns all the land and the boardwalk in the oceanfront enclave of Victorian homes that is now part of Neptune Township.

The couple applied in March to rent the pavilion for a Sept. 30 ceremony. Their application was rejected and their $75 deposit returned.

Bernstein said the couple plan on keeping the date, but will have their ceremony at the Bradley Beach gazebo instead.

She said filing a civil rights complaint was a last resort for the couple, who have been together more than seven years.

“We really didn’t want to do this,” she said, expressing hope the two sides can reach a settlement with the help of Civil Rights mediators. “We were the only gay couple to actually make application and be turned down. We felt we had to do something – we were it.”

Scott Hoffman, chief administrative officer for the association, acknowledged Wednesday that the complaint had been received and was being reviewed by the group’s lawyers.

Previously, Hoffman said the association does not allow same-sex unions to be performed at any of its facilities, including the pavilion, because such unions are not recognized in the United Methodist Church Book of Discipline.

The gay rights advocacy group Garden State Equality said it has launched an e-mail campaign urging residents to contact the association to lift the civil unions ban.

If the civil rights dispute is not resolved in mediation, the Civil Rights Division will investigate the claim and make a determination whether the anti-discrimination law was violated.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – The school district said Monday it regretted ordering a picture of a male student kissing his boyfriend blacked out from all copies of a high school yearbook and said it apologized to the student.

Andre Jackson, the student, said he was disappointed that the superintendent had not delivered the apology face-to-face and in public. Because of that, he said he didn’t accept it as sincere.

“I would accept an apology – a public apology,” said Jackson, 18.

Jackson said he learned of the apology through the media.

The district issued a statement Monday saying it regretted the decision and that it would issue an original version of the yearbook to any student of East Side High School who wants one.

“The decision was based, in part, on misinformation that Mr. Jackson was not one of our students and our review simply focused on the suggestive nature of the photograph,” the district said.

“Superintendent Marion A. Bolden personally apologizes to Mr. Jackson and regrets any embarrassment and unwanted attention the matter has brought to him.”

District spokesperson Valerie Merritt said Bolden would meet with Jackson on Tuesday.

Jackson said his teachers, classmates and his parents all knew he was gay and that his sexual orientation was never a problem at school.

“I’ve never had to deal with this before,” he said. “It’s shocking. It’s crazy.”

Previously, Bolden had described the picture, which showed Jackson kissing boyfriend David Escobales, of Allentown, Pa., as “illicit.”

“If it was either heterosexual or gay, it should have been blacked out. It’s how they posed for the picture,” Bolden told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Saturday’s editions.

In the 41/2-by-5-inch photo, Jackson is seen turning his head back over his right shoulder and kissing 19-year-old Escobales. It was blacked out after Russell Garris, the district’s assistant superintendent who oversees the city’s high schools, told Bolden he was concerned that the photo could upset parents.

The photo was among several that appeared on a special personal tribute page in the yearbook.

Jackson, who paid $150 for the page, noted that the yearbook is filled with pictures of heterosexual couples kissing.

Newark public schools have about 42,000 students, making it the largest district in New Jersey.

PORTLAND (AP) – A transit agency chief apologized last week to two lesbian teenagers who were kicked off a bus when a passenger complained about them kissing.

“Removing the girls from the bus was not consistent with our policy,” said TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen. “I want to reiterate that we welcome all riders on our system.”

The 64-year-old bus driver will face disciplinary action for removing the two 14-year-old girls during a June 8 incident aboard his bus, TriMet officials said. But no details about the discipline were released.

The driver, an 11-year veteran, violated several agency procedures and policies, officials said.

The girls said the driver called them “sickos” after a female passenger complained about their kiss. He then stopped the bus along the street and forced them off.

The actions by the girls did not warrant being removed from the bus, and TriMet policy requires operators to call for assistance before removing any minors, TriMet said in a statement released Wednesday.

“TriMet sincerely apologizes to the girls and their families for this incident,” Hansen said in the statement.

The mother of one of the girls, Ronnda Zezula, welcomed the apology.

“The only thing I had a problem with is they didn’t really address why the driver broke those policies,” Zezula said. “He knew it was wrong. He’s been a driver for 11 years.”

She also said she wished the agency had made the extent of the disciplinary action public to show it will not “be just a slap on the wrist.”

Zezula said the family has been encouraged to consider a lawsuit, but they will “have to mull it over.”

Melissa Chernaik, spokesperson for Basic Rights Oregon, said the gay rights group has been in contact with Zezula and “we share the same set of concerns.”

But Chernaik said the chief concern was that the girls were put in an unsafe situation.

“The fact that they were possibly singled out because they were two girls is obviously problematic,” Chernaik said. “But the big issue is that teenagers were put at risk and they should not be. Keeping kids safe is really the problem, and it sounds like TriMet is dealing with that, as they should be.”

CHARLOTTESVILLE (AP) – The University of Virginia has expanded gymnasium membership eligibility to the same-sex partners of students and employees.

Gay and lesbian employees had lobbied for the benefit for years.

In a written opinion earlier this month, Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell told the university it could provide gym memberships to adults who live with an employee or student but are not their spouse. This is the first time McDonnell has offered an opinion on the issue, and it came after a request from University of Virginia earlier this year.

McDonnell said in the opinion that the benefit is permissible because it will be offered uniformly, regardless of the nature of the relationship.

“The attorney general’s opinion confirms our authority to offer this,” University of Virginia spokesperson Carol Wood said Tuesday.

McDonnell’s predecessor, Jerry W. Kilgore, had said in a 2004 opinion that the school should not grant benefits involving relationships not recognized by Virginia law.

Virginia Tech began allowing life partners of current and retired employees to use its fitness center about a year ago. Also, Virginia Commonwealth University and the College of William and Mary treat domestic partners the same as spouses when it comes to gym memberships.

The University of Virginia doesn’t offer health benefits to employees’ same-sex partners. Wood said such benefits at public colleges are prohibited by state law.

Jan Cornell, president of the Staff Union at the school, said she was pleased with McDonnell’s opinion. However, she said same-sex partners need health care too.

Ellen Bass, an assistant professor of systems and information engineering and a member of the gay rights group University of Virginia Pride, also was thrilled by the decision.

“We’re just so happy,” Bass said. “Everyone here is jumping up and down with excitement.”