SACRAMENTO, California (AP) – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed another gay marriage bill, saying voters and California’s state Supreme Court, not lawmakers, should decide the issue.

The Republican governor on Friday turned down a measure by Assemblymember Mark Leno that would have defined marriage as a union between two people, not just a man and a woman. Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill from Leno, a San Francisco Democrat, in 2005 and has said he would veto all such bills.

The California Supreme Court is likely to rule next year on whether the state’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage violates the constitution.

Schwarzenegger said in his veto message that Californians “should not be discriminated against based upon their sexual orientation.” He said he supports state laws that give domestic partners many of the rights and responsibilities of marriage.

Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a gay rights group, said the veto was “hypocrisy at its worst.”

“We find it shocking for the governor to say he opposes discrimination based on sexual orientation and then veto a bill that would have ended discrimination based on sexual orientation,” Kors said.

ROCKVILLE (AP) – A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge is allowing a new sex education plan to proceed in Montgomery County public schools.

Judge William J. Rowan III has denied a request from advocacy groups to block schools from teaching the new lessons in middle and high schools this fall. The lessons introduce the topic of sexual orientation in classrooms for the first time in eighth- and 10th-grade health classes.

The request for a legal block on starting the classes this month was denied Tuesday. It was part of an appeal filed in July that won’t have a full hearing until January.

The three groups opposing the sex-ed curriculum are Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, Family Leader Network and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays.

The county school board revised lesson plans after a federal judge found some earlier parts of the curriculum unfairly criticized religious fundamentalism.

FARMINGTON (AP) – The Farmington school board voted to uphold an existing policy on non-curricular clubs, a decision that allows a Gay-Straight Alliance club to meet at Piedra Vista High School.

The board’s only option for banning the Gay-Straight club was to ban all clubs.

However, members decided Thursday that banning the club would violate the federal Equal Access Act and the loss of other clubs and the loss of public use of the district’s high school facilities was too great to forfeit.

“It would be unfortunate to let a small group of students – who believe they need to join this club – eradicate all the good we’ve been able to achieve by allowing the public to use our facilities,” board deputy secretary Mike Isaacson said.

The board directed Superintendent Janel Ryan to tighten existing policy to include more parental say in what clubs their children can join, as well as to require permission slips for students to join such clubs.

Annalee Gosar, a 41-year-old parent of a Piedra Vista student, said she worried that the board’s vote left the district vulnerable to clubs with very particular “agendas,” such as the Gay-Straight Alliance, a national organization.

“I think that it’s a Band-Aid for a big wound,” she said.

Teacher Ann George, one of two faculty sponsors of the club, praised the board for leaving the existing policy in place but expressed concern about potential reforms. She disagreed with the decision to require permission slips.

“The kids who want to participate in these clubs should be allowed to,” she said.

BUFFALO (AP) – The state Corrections Department has been ordered to pay $850,000 to a lesbian prison guard who said she feared for her life while being relentlessly harassed by a co-worker because of her sexual orientation.

New York Human Rights Commissioner Kumiki Gibson also directed the department to train employees and enforce policies to prevent discrimination after an administrative law judge found it had subjected the guard “to a hostile work environment because she is gay and female.”

Corrections Officer Alicia Humig, 55, said she was bombarded with derogatory names, sexually offensive drawings and written comments at Wende Correctional Facility for a year, and that her complaints about it only led to retaliation by the department.

The harassment by fellow officer Jim Wright left Humig unable to eat or sleep, caused frequent nosebleeds and depression and threatened her safety at work, according to the judge’s finding, which was accepted by Gibson on Thursday.

“This case reflects the most disturbing nightmare that any employee could find herself,” Administrative Law Judge Martin Erazo Jr. wrote.

The Corrections Department, the judge said, “willfully permitted a work environment to flourish where the credible evidence showed the complainant could have been killed because she is a gay female.”

Corrections spokesperson Erik Kriss said the department would appeal the ruling and called the award amount excessive.

“We have a case here involving two of our own employees basically disputing what each other is saying,” Kriss said. “We did side with the accuser .... We did take the action we could take, which was that we formally counseled the allegedly offending employee.”

Wright and Humig continue to work at Wende, a maximum-security prison in Alden, though in different areas of the complex, Kriss said. Alden is 19 miles east of Buffalo.

NEW YORK (AP) – A man who tried to fend off gay bashing charges by telling a jury that he, too, is gay has been convicted of manslaughter as a hate crime for his role in a fatal attack at a remote city beach.

Jurors deliberated for four days before convicting Anthony Fortunato in the death of Michael Sandy, a gay, black man who was beaten and then chased into the path of a moving car on Brooklyn’s Belt Parkway on Oct. 8, 2006.

Prosecutors say Fortunato was part of a group of four young white men who hatched a hate-inspired robbery scheme when they ran out of drugs and money on a weekend night. The others also faced charges in the attack.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – The city officially has the first openly gay male judge in its history.

Common Pleas Court Judge Daniel Anders, who has been hearing cases since mid-August, was taking the oath of office in a City Hall ceremony Thursday.

Anders, 39, previously was a litigator at the Pepper Hamilton law firm and a member of Gov. Ed Rendell’s finance committee. He is the youngest of 93 judges in the city’s Common Pleas Court.

“Being gay doesn’t define who I am or impact my job in any tangible way, but maybe I can be a role model for some gay kid or inspire someone to get involved in politics,” said Anders, who grew up in Lancaster.

In April, Rendell nominated Anders to fill a vacancy and he was confirmed June 30, making him the first openly gay male judge in Philadelphia, said Rendell spokesperson Mike Marsico.

Andrew Chirls, the first openly gay chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, noted that Anders, a Democrat, was confirmed unanimously by the Republican-dominated state Senate.

“The fact that it’s not a big deal is a big deal,” Chirls said.

NASHVILLE (AP) – Tennessee has no constitutional obstacles to same-sex couples adopting children, according to an attorney general’s opinion released Thursday.

Same-sex couples should be eligible to adopt children as long as adoption is found to be in the best interest of the child, Attorney General Bob Cooper wrote in the opinion.

The opinion was requested by Wilson County Circuit Judge Clara Byrd, but her reasons weren’t immediately known. She did not immediately return a call seeking comment and court records for adoption and juvenile cases are generally sealed from the public.

The Tennessee Constitution has no mention of any adoption issues, Cooper found, and there are no current laws on the books that specifically bar same-sex couples from adopting.

Cooper said under current state law, adoptions may be granted to any prospective parent who is at least 18 years old. No one is required to be married.

But prior to making a final order, a judge “must find that petitioners are fit persons to have the care and custody of the child.”

The state Court of Appeals has found that “the lifestyle of the proposed adoptive parent is a factor the trial court should consider in determining whether a proposed adoption is in the best interest of a child,” Cooper said.

“Accordingly, assuming the adoption is found to be in the best interest of the child who is the subject of the adoption, there is no prohibition in Tennessee statutes against adoption by a same sex couple.”

Current guidelines followed by the state’s Department of Children’s Services for placing children in state custody with foster or adoptive parents do not take into account sexual orientation.

Former state Rep. Chris Clem, R-Lookout Mountain, sponsored a bill in 2005 seeking a ban on gay adoptions but it was later watered down, only giving preference to heterosexual, married couples over singles. The bill was voted down in committee.