NEW HAVEN (AP) – Yale Law School will end its policy of not working with military recruiters after a court ruling this week jeopardized about $300 million in federal funding, officials said Wednesday.

Yale and other universities have objected to the Pentagon’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which allows gay men and women to serve in the military only if they keep their sexual orientation to themselves.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Yale on Monday, rejecting its argument that its right to academic freedom was infringed by a federal law that says universities must give the military the same access as other job recruiters or forfeit federal money.

“The fact is we have been forced under enormous pressure to acquiescence in a policy that we believe is deeply offensive and harmful to our students,” said Robert Burt, a Yale law professor who was lead plaintiff in the case.

The funding loss would have devastated the university’s medical research into cancer, heart disease and other illnesses, Burt said.

Yale Law School policy requires all recruiters to sign a nondiscrimination pledge, which the Pentagon has not done.

Jan Conroy, a Yale Law spokesperson, said faculty had authorized the dean to waive the nondiscrimination pledge in 2002 when the military challenged it.

The pledge requirement will now be waived if military recruiters ask to participate in job fairs, Conroy said.

She said the U.S. Air Force has already asked to participate in a job interview program that starts Monday.

The law school had refused to assist military recruiters, denying them access to Web-based programs that link students and employers, Burt said.

The appeals court decision came after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously last year that the government can force colleges to open their campuses to military recruiters despite university objections. Justices rejected a free-speech challenge from law schools and professors who claimed they should not have to associate with military recruiters or promote their campus appearances.

The decision upheld a federal law that says universities must give the military the same access as other job recruiters or forfeit federal money.

In Connecticut, a federal judge ruled in 2005 that Yale Law School had a right to bar military recruiters from its job interview program. After the Supreme Court decision, the government appealed that ruling. That appeal led to Monday’s 2nd Circuit ruling.

Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh said in a statement Wednesday that he was disappointed by the appeals court decision. Yale has an obligation to “ameliorate the impact” of discriminatory hiring practices, he said.

“We intend to meet this obligation and will work alongside our students to identify the best ways of doing so, in accordance with the law,” Koh said. “We continue to look forward to the day when all members of our community will have an equal opportunity to serve in our nation’s armed forces.”

The military’s policy had put college leaders in a thorny situation because campus rules forbid participation of recruiters representing agencies or private companies that have discriminatory policies.

Defense officials argued that a federal law, the Solomon Amendment, requires Yale to allow recruiters on campus even without signing the pledge. Government lawyers have said blocking military recruiters makes it harder to hire huge teams of lawyers for issues related to operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

DES MOINES (AP) – Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney is launching a radio ad touting the strength of his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Romney, who has come under criticism from conservatives for his past support of some gay rights issues, says he is the only major GOP candidate backing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

“Not all Republican candidates agree, but defending marriage is the right thing to do,” Romney says in the 60-second spot to begin airing Wednesday.

The ad is meant to set him apart from Fred Thompson, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in the minds of conservative voters.

Giuliani, meanwhile, takes a different approach in his new Iowa radio spot – portraying himself as the Republican most likely to win over the more moderate electorate in the general election. Many conservatives are leery of Giuliani because of his views on issues including gay rights and abortion.

The ad Giuliani began airing Tuesday points to criticism of the candidate from the liberal group MoveOn.org and argues that Democrats fear Giuliani most as a potential GOP nominee.

“Why is MoveOn.org attacking Rudy Giuliani?” the ad asks. “Because he’s their worst nightmare.”

MoveOn.org’s political action committee had planned to begin airing a television ad Tuesday only in Iowa accusing Giuliani of a “betrayal of trust” for not completing his tenure on the Iraq Study Group. On Tuesday, MoveOn.org decided to expand the ad’s exposure and purchased $50,000 worth of air time on CNN.

Romney’s new ad is targeted directly at evangelical Christians who are crucial to Republican politics in Iowa, where precinct caucuses traditionally launch the nominating season.

The ad, coming as Iowa is embroiled in a court fight over its same-sex marriage ban, points to Romney’s role in battling a Massachusetts court ruling that paved the way for same-sex marriages there.

“As Republicans we must oppose discrimination and defend traditional marriage: one man, one woman,” Romney says in the spot.

Romney’s conservative critics argue that his position on gay rights was more nuanced as Massachusetts governor and during his 1994 bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

In focusing on the “major candidates,” Romney is separating himself from rivals such as Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback, who favor the constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage but have come in behind Giuliani, Romney and Thompson in most polls.

AUGUSTA (AP) – The state’s Human Rights Commission found reasonable grounds to support a discrimination claim against a widow from Wilton who asked two gay men about their relationship before ultimately rescinding a rental agreement. The case is the first in which the rights panel upheld a housing discrimination claim based on sexual orientation since Maine’s gay rights law took effect in January 2006.

ANNAPOLIS (AP) – Now that the state’s highest court has upheld Maryland’s law banning same-sex marriage, supporters of same-sex marriage are hoping the General Assembly will change the law. But one of the state’s most powerful legislators says it isn’t likely to happen.

Senate President Thomas ``Mike’’ Miller says he won’t support legalizing same-sex marriage or civil unions and says supporters don’t have the votes in the legislature.

Democrats hold large majorities in both legislative chambers but are divided on the issue. Governor Martin O’Malley has said he supports civil unions.

The Court of Appeals ruled last week that Maryland’s ban on same-sex marriage does not discriminate against same-sex couples or deny them any fundamental rights.

AMHERST, Mass. (AP) – The president of Hampshire College and his male partner of 27 years have married.

President Ralph Hexter says he and Manfred Kollmeier tied the knot Labor Day weekend. The couple say they have been committed to each other for years, but felt it was important to exercise their right to marry in Massachusetts, the only state that allows same-sex marriage. Kollmeier, a native of Munich, Germany, is retired and serves on the board of directors of the Commonwealth Opera of Western Massachusetts. The pair plan a celebration with students on campus Wednesday afternoon.

Hexter has been president of Hampshire, a small liberal arts college of 1,350 students, since Aug.1, 2005.

NEW YORK (AP) – One of the men accused in an attack on a gay man who was killed by a car while trying to escape is also gay, his lawyer said.

The claim, made public Monday in court by a lawyer for Anthony Fortunato, appeared to be a strategy to redirect a case marked from the outset by allegations that the group targeted Michael J. Sandy because of his sexual orientation.

Fortunato, 21, is charged with murder as a hate crime and felony murder, a count requiring prosecutors to prove that the killing took place during a robbery.

Prosecutors have said that Fortunato was one of four men who lured the 29-year-old Sandy last October to a secluded spot, where they intended to rob him. But after one of the men punched him, he fled onto the busy Belt Parkway, where he was fatally struck by a car.

Fortunato’s attorney, Gerald DiChiara, said in Brooklyn state Supreme Court that his client had been “leading a secret life through the Internet, meeting men and having sex with them.”

In fact, DiChiara continued, Fortunato intended to tell his friends about his sexual orientation on the very same night of the attack. Luring a gay man out to a secluded spot was part of his plan, DiChiara said.

But prosecutors said the men simply intended to rob Sandy.

“He was preyed upon by four young men who decided to rob him,” Assistant District Attorney Anna-Sigga said in her opening statement.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – It’s crunch time for social conservative and church groups seeking to overturn two gay rights laws passed by the 2007 Oregon Legislature – and the effort may be struggling.

This is the final weekend for those groups to gather signatures to derail a domestic partnership law giving same-sex couples most of the state benefits of marriage along with another new law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The deadline was 5 p.m. Wednesday to turn in 55,179 valid signatures to refer each of the two measures passed by the Legislature to the November 2008 ballot.