MESA (AP) – A Mesa High School teacher and softball coach has pleaded not guilty to charges of having sexual conduct with a former student.

Gay Lyn Turley, 42, was arrested last month after the girl she allegedly had the relationship with came forward to police.

The girl is now 20 but her name has not been released.

She told investigators she and Turley had lived together for years and their relationship was sexual.

The girl had also recently been arrested on suspicion of assaulting Turley.

The teacher’s arrest came just hours after the last class of the semester let out at the high school in December.

Turley, a Gilbert resident, entered her plea Thursday in Maricopa County Superior Court.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A production team has arrived in San Francisco to begin work on a movie about former supervisor Harvey Milk, the nation’s first openly gay politician.

The film is to be called Milk. Producers say work will begin this week.

Sean Penn will portray Milk. Josh Brolin has been cast as Dan White, the former supervisor who fatally shot Milk and Mayor George Moscone in 1978.

Current supervisor Tom Ammiano was a friend of Milk in the 1970s and will appear as himself in the film. He says he hopes the movie will bring Milk’s story to a mainstream audience.

RIVERSIDE (AP) – A judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed on behalf of two girls kicked out of a Christian school that suspected they were lesbians.

A judge in Riverside ruled Jan. 11 that the girls’ discrimination lawsuit had no basis in California anti-discrimination law.

The students and their parents sued California Lutheran School in Wildomar after they were expelled in 2005 because the school suspected the 11th-graders were having a relationship.

The private school views homosexuality as a sin and its code of conduct states that students can be removed for behavior that contradicts “Christian values.”

An appeal is expected.

SANTA ANA (AP) – Several gay adult Web sites posted photographs of high school boys water polo players from schools in Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, a newspaper reported.

Some of the pictures were of boys as young as 14, and were juxtaposed next to photos of nude young men and graphic sexual content, an Orange County Register investigation found.

University of California, Irvine, police confirmed they are investigating whether a dispatcher, Scott Cornelius, photographed high school players for gay-oriented sites.

“We’re looking into the matter,” police Chief Paul Henisey said. “We’re not exactly sure about what we have or what kinds of issues there are.”

Henisey said Cornelius remained on active duty. Cornelius did not respond to requests from the newspaper for comment.

It was not clear if posting the pictures constituted an offense.

State Assemblymember Jose Solorio, chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, said he would have the committee investigate the matter.

The Register found photos of players from 11 Orange County high schools and three other Southern California schools on several pages of one gay porn site registered to a London address.

A photo of one polo player adjusting his suit is the subject of several lewd comments on another site.

DES MOINES (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that a gay woman’s adoption of her partner’s children was legal and that a district court erred by saying it didn’t have jurisdiction to rule over custody issues in the case.

Court records said Heather Schott was in a relationship for several years with Jamie Schott, the children’s natural parent. After the women ended their relationship, Heather Schott asked a district court to determine child custody, physical care and support for the two children.

The district court found that Heather Schott’s adoptions of the children were invalid because they were contrary to state adoption law. The court considered her “a legal stranger” to the children, and said it did not have jurisdiction and dismissed her petition to determine custody and other issues.

“We find it was inappropriate for the district court to collaterally attack the adoptions,” the high court said in its ruling. “Heather is the children’s legal parent and the district court had ... jurisdiction to rule on her petition.’’

The district court ruled that an unmarried adult can’t adopt without terminating the rights of both natural parents, and that since Jamie Schott’s rights weren’t terminated the adoptions weren’t valid.

However, the high court said the district court that granted the adoptions treated them like a “second parent adoption,” such as ones that happen in stepparent adoptions. Because of that, they found that terminating Jamie Schott’s rights in order for Heather Schott to adopt would be absurd and not in the child’s best interests.

The Supreme Court ruled that the district court issuing the adoptions had jurisdiction to grant the adoptions, and even if that court misinterpreted the statute, the adoptions are not void. It also noted that neither adoption was appealed.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to district court to consider custody, physical care and support.

FRANKFORT (AP) – The Kentucky House Education Committee has unanimously approved an anti-bullying bill for schools.

It would require school districts to design policies to deal with bullies, but critics say that could lead to the teaching of homosexuality.

Senate President David Williams – a Republican from Burkesville – said he hasn’t read it, but said there’s concern about whether the bill could be – in his words – “an excuse for the addition of curriculum dealing with aberrant behavior.”

Jordan Palmer of the gay rights group Kentucky Equality Federation says Williams is homophobic and says the bill would only promote tolerance of other viewpoints.

NEW YORK (AP) – Shares of PlanetOut Inc. sank to an all-time low Tuesday after the media company, which serves the GLBT community, said it may sell itself.

PlanetOut shares fell $1.45, or 23.4 percent, to $4.75 in early afternoon trading. Earlier, the stock traded as low as $4.65 – its lowest since a reverse stock split in early October.

Late Monday, the San Francisco-based company said it hired Allen & Co. to help review strategic options, including a possible sale. PlanetOut also said it will stop providing earnings guidance or hold quarterly earnings calls.

In a phone interview Tuesday, PlanetOut spokesperson Kevin Nyland said the company is evaluating a possible sale “because we believe it may be in the best interest of our shareholders.”

Nyland said he could not say if any companies have expressed interest in purchasing PlanetOut.

The media company, which operates the Web site Gay.com and publishes The Advocate and Out magazines and other titles, has had a tumultuous year.

In May, shares plunged after PlanetOut said its first-quarter loss widened on decreased sales and higher operating costs.

In July, shares sank again after the company said it needed to take a $24.9 million noncash impairment charge on its goodwill and other intangible assets. Also in July, PlanetOut said it would close offices in Buenos Aires and London to lower expenses.

Shares jumped, however, after the private investment vehicle of Microsoft Corp. chair and co-founder Bill Gates reported ownership of 12.8 percent of the online media company’s common stock in a regulatory filing that month.

And in October, PlanetOut enacted a 1-for-10 reverse stock split to buoy share prices.

PlanetOut also said it would sell its RSVP Vacations unit to Atlantis Events Inc. for an undisclosed amount that month. Both RSVP and Atlantis specialize in GLBT cruises and vacations. PlanetOut said the sale helped it simplify its business model and make advertising revenue its core driver.

The company has experienced several personnel changes recently, too. In April, then-president and chief operating officer Jeffrey T. Soukup resigned, and in August the company said in a regulatory filing that its chief financial officer, Daniel J. Miller, was leaving.

DAYTON (AP) – A Democratic primary challenger says the judge considered Ohio’s first openly gay judge should take herself off any cases involving gay issues.

James Piergies says for Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Mary Wiseman, such cases would include those regarding Ohio’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage or a new Dayton law barring discrimination against gays. Piergies says it’s a matter of judicial ethics.

He made the comments in a meeting with the Dayton Daily News editorial board.

Wiseman says she takes “strong exception” to her challenger’s concerns. She says her sexual orientation has no bearing on how she considers cases.

SPOKANE (AP) – A Spokane man has pleaded not guilty to charges of trying to extort money from a former state legislator after a night of sex.

Cody Castagna, 27, on Monday pleaded innocent to three counts of theft, two counts of extortion and one court of conspiracy to commit extortion.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque set a trial date of April 7.

Prosecutors contend in court documents that Castagna and three other men attempted to blackmail former Rep. Richard Curtis in October.

Curtis, a Republican from the southwest Washington town of LaCenter, said in police reports that he and Castagna had sex in a hotel room and that Castagna later took his wallet and threatened to expose him publicly if he did not pay $1,000.

Castagna has contended Curtis reneged on a promise to pay $1,000 for sex.