FORT LAUDERDALE (AP) – Mayor Jim Naugle may be getting a lot more paperwork.

Gay rights activists in the state have launched a drive to engulf the Fort Lauderdale mayor with toilet paper to mock his comments about gay sex in public bathrooms.

“We are encouraging people to mail either a roll or several sheets of toilet paper to the mayor at City Hall to help him to wipe his dirty mind clean,” said Brian Winfield, spokesperson for Equality Florida, a gay rights organization that helped start the toilet paper protest Friday.

The uproar started after Naugle’s comments in a July 4 article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel about the city’s plan to buy a $250,000, self-cleaning robotic toilet for beachgoers. The device could be programmed with a time limit, after which the door would fly open.

In the article, Naugle was quoted as saying the toilet could prevent “homosexual activity” that has occurred at other public restrooms.

“Sometimes (public restrooms) are used for sexual activity – most of it is men meeting men because it’s same-sex people in the bathrooms,” Naugle said.

Equality Florida has provided a link on its Web site to send Naugle a virtual roll of toilet paper, and listed his City Hall address for those who want to send a real roll.

Naugle said no actual toilet paper rolls have arrived at his office. However, more than 300 people have e-mailed the mayor a virtual roll, Winfield said.

“It’s an e-mail – some juvenile diagram of a toilet,” Naugle said.

Last year, police made one arrest for such activity in a beach bathroom and another at the Coral Ridge Mall, Naugle said.

DES MOINES (AP) – Gov. Chet Culver is trying again to get a gay man approved to the Iowa State Civil Rights Commission.

Culver has appointed Des Moines businessperson Rich Eychaner, the same man Culver nominated last session, but was opposed by Republican senators. Eychaner was among 128 people Culver appointed Monday to various state posts.

Lawmakers have denied that Eychaner’s sexual orientation prompted their opposition, saying instead that Culver was trying to fill the panel’s GOP-allocated spot with someone who only recently became a Republican.

Culver aides said getting Eychaner approved by the Senate shouldn’t be a problem this time. They said Eychaner will have been registered as a Republican for a significant stretch when the Senate considers the issue next year. Two-thirds majority is needed for approval.

Eychaner has been a longtime Republican who ran for Congress in 1982 under the GOP banner but was briefly registered as a Democrat in 2006.

In recent years, Eychaner has pushed Legislature to expand gay rights. In the last session, he helped push for a measure giving gay and lesbian students new protections from bullying. The Legislature has also expanded the state’s civil rights laws to protect gays from discrimination in employment, housing and other areas.

Culver also appointed former Agriculture Secretary and legislator Paul Johnson to the Environmental Protection Commission.

Johnson is a former state legislator from Decorah who has authored some of the most sweeping environmental laws on the books. He was the main author of the Resource Enhancement and Protection Act, the state’s centerpiece environmental legislation.

After leaving the Legislature in the 1980s, he served a stint as secretary of agriculture in the late 1990s before returning to his tree farm in Decorah.

BALTIMORE (AP) – The pope has appointed the head of the U.S. military archdiocese to succeed retiring Cardinal William Keeler as archbishop of Baltimore, the Vatican said Thursday.

In a 2005 Associated Press interview, O’Brien said that most gay candidates for the priesthood struggle to remain celibate and the church must “stay on the safe side” by restricting their enrollment, in keeping with church policy.

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien will be taking over the nation’s oldest Roman Catholic diocese, which includes the first two Catholic seminaries and the first cathedral in the country. Keeler turned 76 in March, a year past the normal retirement age for bishops.

O’Brien, 68, a New York native, has extensive experience training priests. He served as head of his alma mater – St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y. – and as rector of the Pontifical North American College – the prestigious Rome seminary considered West Point for U.S. clergy.

O’Brien worked as an auxiliary bishop in New York before taking over the Archdiocese for the Military Services in Washington in 1997.

“I just loved the military,” he said. “The service has taught me so much.”

The archbishop also coordinated a major evaluation of U.S. seminaries in 2005-06, ordered by the Vatican in response to the clergy sex abuse scandal.

Keeler, a native of San Antonio, was appointed archbishop in Baltimore in 1989, and became a national leader in improving Catholic-Jewish relations. Pope John Paul II visited the archdiocese in 1994, followed two years later by Mother Theresa.

The cardinal marked his 50th anniversary in the priesthood in 2005, and oversaw the recently completed $32 million restoration of the Basilica of the Assumption in downtown Baltimore.

Keeler submitted his resignation when he turned 75, as required by the church.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore serves 510,000 Catholics in Baltimore and nine counties in central and western Maryland, according to the archdiocese Web site.

The Archdiocese for the Military Services serves about 1.5 million Catholics, including all in the military and their families.

TRENTON (AP) – United Parcel Service has denied health benefits to some same-sex couples in New Jersey, a decision gay rights advocates say starkly illustrates the limitations of the state’s civil unions legislation.

The company provides health benefits to its employees’ spouses, including married same-sex couples in Massachusetts. However, it said the Garden State’s decision to recognize same-sex relationships as civil unions, rather than marriages, has tied its hands.

In a letter to Gabriael “Nickie” Brazier, a driver for UPS, and her civil union partner, Heather Aurand, the company concluded that “New Jersey law does not treat civil unions the same as marriages.” It said if the state had done that, Aurand could have been included in the health coverage plan as a spouse.

“This is a problem the Legislature created,” Steven Goldstein, chairman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality, told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Sunday’s editions. “Civil unions are never in our lifetime going to be respected by employers like marriage.”

Aurand agreed, noting that gay and lesbian couples were supposed to be treated equally under the law and “should be treated equally.” She became a stay-at-home mom after the Toms River couple’s son, Zachary, was born in 2004, and the couple formed their civil union on Feb. 21, days after the state law took effect and a week before their twins, Joshua and Riley, were born.

Assemblymember Wilfredo Caraballo, D-Essex, who sponsored the civil union law, said he did not understand the company’s decision.

“We made it clear through the language and the intent that when it came to issues like this, we fully expected civil-unioned couples would be covered,” he said.

However, benefit plans offered by many employers, including UPS, are governed by federal law, which recognizes only the union of a man and a woman as a marriage. Those companies are allowed, although not required, to deny benefits to partners in other relationships.

Another longtime UPS driver, Tom Walton of East Brunswick, said he was verbally rejected when he sought health coverage for his civil union partner, Mermon Davis. Walton, though, said he has not received a formal explanation for the decision.

“It’s upsetting,” Walton said. “We were told this law was going to give us the same benefits as everybody else, even though they weren’t calling it marriage. It just goes to show when something is separate, it’s never equal.”

NEW YORK (AP) – Tori Spelling is now available for weddings.

“Yep, that’s right. ... Reverend Tori Spelling! I did it last week online and my official certificate is in the mail. I’m so proud,” the 34-year-old actress said in a posting Monday on the MySpace.com site she shares with her husband, Dean McDermott.

Spelling officiated at a same-sex union last weekend at Chateau La Rue, the bed-and-breakfast that she and McDermott run in California, on their Oxygen network unscripted series, “Tori & Dean: Inn Love,” her spokeswoman, Meghan Prophet, said Tuesday.

“I was so honored when the couple asked me to officiate. We did it on the front steps of the Chateau as 40 of their friends looked on seated in a loungelike atmosphere,” Spelling wrote.

Spelling and McDermott, who were married in May 2006, will reprise their innkeeper duties for the show’s second season, which premieres Aug. 14.

“It was so beautiful as I united Tony and Dex as life partners in love. They wrote their own beautiful vows and there was so much love surrounding them that there wasn’t a dry eye in the driveway!” wrote Spelling, adding that she was “beyond nervous.”

“I’ve done live theater and presented at the Emmys and this by far was my scariest moment simply because they had bestowed such an honor upon me and I didn’t want to let them down.”

Spelling and McDermott took their 4-month-old son, Liam, out for a spin on the dance floor at the wedding reception. “The three of us swayed and smiled to Madonna,” she said. “It was a magical evening of pure love.”

Spelling starred on the long-running ’90s TV series “Beverly Hills, 90210,” produced by her father, Aaron Spelling, who died in June 2006.

COLUMBUS (AP) – The State Board of Education adopted a model anti-bullying policy Tuesday after deciding that it should not specifically reference students’ religion or sexual orientation.

The adopted policy does not reference ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual orientation because a majority of board members believed the categories were repetitive and unnecessary.

But those who wanted to keep the specific references said the vote boiled down to sensitivity over homosexuality.

“Let’s say what this is,” said Robin C. Hovis, a board member from Millersburg. “The issue is inclusion of homosexuality.”

The 19-member board rejected a proposal to keep the contentious language by a vote of 11-8. It then approved the policy by a 17-2 vote.

The Ohio Legislature directed the board to create the model policy to help local school districts create their own guidelines.

Board members who prevailed said language prohibiting “threats, taunts and intimidation through words and/or gestures” was sufficient.

They also said reference to sexual orientation could make some school officials uneasy.

“The language will be a concern in some districts,” said Colleen D. Grady of Strongsville.

The policy also targets physical violence, extortion, using the Web to circulate gossip and rumors, and sending abusive or threatening instant messages.

The model policy follows the passage of legislation in December that requires all districts to have an anti-bullying policy in place by the end of the year.

PORTLAND (AP) – A Gresham man is accused of swindling more than $400,000 from people who gave him money to invest, then spending it lavishly in less than four months on a male prostitute.

Police say Gary Sparks, 64, was hoping to build a long-term relationship.

They say he took the 23-year-old man on extravagant shopping sprees in Portland and Hollywood, spending $72,000 on a Mercedes convertible, $9,000 on a Rolex watch, $41,000 for a one-year lease on a West Hollywood apartment, $3,000 on a Louis Vuitton gym bag and more than $40,000 on clothes from high-end retailers. Alterations cost another $2,000.

Portland police Detective Andy Madden said the amount stolen isn’t unusual but the way it was spent is.

Investigators say they don’t believe Sparks spent any of the money on himself.

Sparks, a retired schoolteacher and a parochial school principal from Ohio, divorced his wife in 2002 and lives in a rented mobile home in Gresham.

Sparks met the man in a Portland gay men’s chat room several years ago, police said.

“In Gary’s mind, it was much more than sex,” Madden said. “What Gary wanted was love – he wanted to have a relationship. And he had that until he ran out of money.”

The relationship took off in Dec. 2005 – about the time Sparks allegedly started stealing money from a 79-year-old man, according to a Multnomah County Circuit Court indictment. Police say the elderly man may suffer from dementia.

The indictment also says that in 2005 and 2006 Sparks cheated tens of thousands of dollars out of two brothers in their 30s who had immigrated from Guatemala.

By March 2006, the money was gone and the relationship was wilting, police said.

They say they learned of the lost money from an attorney who was participating in a hearing over the mental competency of an elderly man.

Sparks was indicted this week on 32 felony counts related to securities fraud and theft. He is free under court-ordered supervision.

Police say Sparks presented himself as a successful and trustworthy investor, promising a respectable 8 percent, not enough to expose him as a scam artist.

Jail employees said he looked like a “sweet grandpa.”

Sparks’ arrest shocked those who knew him as a diligent and generous volunteer. He worked four hours a week for the past nine years at the Northeast Emergency Food Program, putting donated food into boxes and handing it out, said program director John Elizalde.

“Gary gave nine years of noble service,” Elizalde said. “He was always friendly to people. ... I’m blown away.”

Detective Madden said Sparks made a point of telling him that he didn’t spend it all on shopping sprees, $400 breakfasts and $1,000 night hotel rooms with the young man.

He said he used $200 to buy gift certificates for two needy recipients at the food bank.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate on Monday confirmed the nomination of a judge who attended a same-sex union ceremony in 2002 and drew criticism from a conservative senator about her views on same-sex marriage.

Sen. Sam Brownback, a candidate for the Republican nomination for president, was one of four senators who voted against the confirmation of Janet T. Neff to be a federal District Court judge in western Michigan. Her nomination was approved by a vote of 83-4.

Last year Brownback questioned Neff’s views of same-sex marriage after learning about her role in the same-sex ceremony. He blocked her nomination, a privilege that senators hold, but then agreed to allow it to come up for a vote after he met with her privately and she appeared for a Senate hearing.

Neff, a Michigan Court of Appeals judge, said during the hearing in May that the Massachusetts ceremony was for the daughter of close family friends and her partner. Neff said she gave a homily but did not preside over the service.

Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, a supporter of Neff’s nomination, noted the ceremony was private and “had no legal effect.” Neff, he said, “felt that it was like being asked by one of her own daughters to be part of an important event in her life.”

Neff said during the Senate hearing in May that she could apply the law without regard to her personal views.

The others who voted against her confirmation were Sens. Jim Bunning, Jon Kyl and Mel Martinez, all Republicans.

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush’s nominee for surgeon general faced a contentious confirmation hearing last week because of his writings about homosexuality and health. In advance of the Senate hearing on Thursday, gay rights groups, the American Public Health Association and 35 members of the House were lining up in opposition to Dr. James W. Holsinger’s nomination. The Kentucky doctor garnered the support of a prominent former surgeon general, Dr. C. Everett Koop, as well as the American College of Physicians.

Holsinger wrote a paper in 1991 for a United Methodist Church committee that gay groups and others interpret as saying that homosexuals face a greater risk of disease, and that homosexuality runs counter to anatomical truths.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., chair of the Senate health committee, said Holsinger’s record “appears to guarantee a polarizing and divisive nomination process.”

Kennedy also responded to Carmona’s allegations of political interference. He demanded that Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt provide documents that would show various political appointees’ interaction with the surgeon general’s office. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., also demanded documents associated with reports Carmona was preparing on issues such as global health and prisoner health.

Maria Kemplin, a former co-worker of Holsinger’s, wrote Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in support of the nomination. Holsinger does not discriminate and “is able to see across divisive issues and relate with integrity to people, no matter their life circumstances,” said Kemplin, who described herself as a liberal Democrat and member of gay and women’s rights groups.

WASHINGTON (AP) –A public art project celebrating individuals who have worked to ease the suffering of people living with HIV and AIDS is taking shape in the heart of Washington’s gay community.

An excerpt from “The Dresser,” a Walt Whitman poem about tending to soldiers wounded in battle, is being carved in the granite wall of the Dupont Circle Metro station. A dedication for the project, which also will include a second poem by Howard University Professor E. Ethelbert Miller around a nearby bench, is being held Saturday.

The project was the initiative of District of Columbia Council member and Metro board member Jim Graham. Graham served as executive director of the city’s Whitman-Walker Clinic, which cares for people with HIV, from 1984 to 1999, and was its volunteer president for four years before that.

Graham said the engraved lines were meant to pay tribute to people who came forward to help cope with the crisis when the AIDS epidemic first hit. At that time, there was little understanding of what was making people sick and little federal support for efforts to cope with it, he said.

The city’s first AIDS forum was held in April 1983, and 1,100 people showed up, Graham recalled.

“The people who showed up became the volunteer buddies, lawyers, social workers, all manner of caregivers,” he said. “Many of the people who volunteered themselves became sick and died.”

Barbara Chinn, who today directs Whitman-Walker’s Max Robinson Clinic, was among those who mobilized to deal with the crisis in the early days.

“You would respond if someone needed someone to sit with them, if there was someone who needed to be fed, to hold their hands in their last days,” Chinn said.

D.C. has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the nation. It’s estimated that one in 20 adult residents have the virus, according to the Whitman-Walker Clinic. The House last month lifted a ban on using D.C. tax funds to provide clean needles to drug addicts, which advocates say is key in helping bring HIV infection rates down.

Despite the sobering statistics, Graham said that today there is not the sense of urgency about AIDS that there was in the 1980s.

Chinn agreed, saying she worries that medical advances have made people inured to the issue, even though AIDS continues to take a serious toll.

“I have heard younger people, when I try to caution people about at-risk behaviors, say, ‘Oh, you can take a pill – I’ll be all right,”” she said.

The Dupont Circle project was funded by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and implemented by Metro. It is expected to be completed in

August.