PHOENIX (AP) – A proposed ballot measure would expand Arizona’s law against discrimination in employment to cover sexual orientation as well as “gender identity” and “gender expression.”

State Rep. Kyrsten Sinema and others supporting the initiative, who filed Friday with the Secretary of State’s Office, need to collect petition signatures from more than 153,000 voters by July 3 to get it on the November ballot.

Sinema says the initiative would protect employment rights of Arizonans now vulnerable to discrimination. But she says it’s also intended to pressure social conservatives pushing legislators for a ballot measure to amend the Arizona Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

The Phoenix Democrat says her initiative drive might end if the marriage push ends but she says that may depend on timing.

CHICAGO (AP) – A three-judge panel heard testimony Friday in a Naperville high school student’s appeal to wear a T-shirt expressing opposition to homosexuality.

Alexander Nuxoll, a Neuqua Valley High School sophomore, was banned from wearing a T-shirt reading “Be Happy, Not Gay” to school.

Nuxoll and one-time student Heidi Zamecnik, who wore a similar T-shirt to school in 2006, filed a lawsuit saying their civil rights had been violated. Indian Prairie Unit District 204 later said the students could wear a T-shirt that read “Be Happy, Be Straight,” but the students refused. Last year, a judge ruled against them.

Zamecnik has since graduated. Last week, the federal appeals court in Chicago heard arguments from attorneys in Nuxoll’s case.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian litigation group representing the students, said they should be allowed to express their views.

“Christian students shouldn’t be discriminated against for expressing their beliefs,” attorney Nate Kellum said in a statement Friday. “The Constitution prohibits school officials from singling out one viewpoint for censorship while allowing opposing viewpoints to be heard.”

Appellate Judge Richard Posner argued that the T-shirt’s message was just a play on words to reinforce the students’ message.

“It’s so tepid,” Posner said. “It’s just a pun because gay once meant happy. It’s a joke.”

But school district attorney Thomas Canna said the shirt’s message is no laughing matter.

“I don’t believe it’s a joke at all,” he said, “especially for someone struggling with their identity.”

The school district has argued that the T-shirts are derogatory and cause disruption to students’ education.

No date has been set for a decision from the appeals court, but both sides are hoping for a determination before the pro-gay National Day of Silence on April 25 and the National Day of Truth on April 28 during which Nuxoll wants to wear the “Be Happy, Not Gay” shirt.

ASHLAND, Ky. (AP) – A high school student won’t be allowed to proceed with a lawsuit against his school district for instituting a policy that barred him from expressing his opposition to homosexuality, a federal appeals court ruled April 9.

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 vote, said Boyd County High School student Timothy Morrison failed to show that he was harmed by the policy that was later changed.

Judge Deborah L. Cook, joined by Judge John R. Adams, also said Morrison didn’t show how winning a lawsuit seeking only $1 in damages would rectify his situation. Judge Karen Nelson Moore dissented.

“This case should be over,” Cook wrote. “Allowing it to proceed to determine the constitutionality of an abandoned policy – in the hope of awarding the plaintiff a single dollar – vindicates no interest and trivializes the important business of the federal courts.”

The ruling is a reversal of a previous ruling that held Morrison should be allowed to pursue the lawsuit.

Morrison, a senior at Boyd County High School, sued the Boyd County school district over a policy that required students to undergo anti-harassment training. He claimed the policy threatened him with punishment for expressing religious beliefs in opposition to homosexuality. Morrison is a professed Christian who believes his religion requires him to speak out against what he sees as behavior that doesn’t comport with his understanding of Christian morality.

Morrison was never punished under the policy, which was later changed to exempt speech that would normally be protected off campus.

The school district adopted the policy and established the anti-harassment training as part of a 2004 legal settlement that ended a lawsuit between the school district and a now-defunct gay-rights group that wanted recognition as an extracurricular group.

Members of the Boyd County High School Gay Straight Alliance argued that the school district violated their constitutional rights by refusing to allow them to meet on campus.

Joel Oster, an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian law group that represents Morrison, didn’t immediately return a telephone message left at his Scottsdale, Ariz., office. Winter Huff, an attorney representing the school district, didn’t immediately return a call to her Somerset office.

Sharon McGowan, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which supported the Alliance Defense Fund in arguing that Morrison should be permitted to pursue his case, said the ACLU was disappointed by the decision.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) – The leader of the Christian Civic League of Maine has taken a first step to launch a referendum drive to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions in Maine. The proposal advanced by Michael Heath would also strike the sexual orientation category from the Maine Human Rights Act.

Heath says if the Secretary of State’s Office approves his petition, he’ll begin recruiting organizers to gather signatures. Putting a referendum on the state ballot requires about 55,000 signatures, or 10 percent of the turnout for the last gubernatorial election.

In 2005, an effort to overturn the Maine law prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals in the areas of housing, education and employment was rejected

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – Unmarried couples would get additional medical decision-making rights in Maryland under a bill headed to the governor.

The House of Delegates has approved a bill to allow domestic partners, who could be gay or straight, to make medical or funeral decisions for each other if they meet certain criteria to show they are a committed couple.

The bill has already passed the Senate and is now headed to Governor Martin O’Malley to be signed.

Some Republicans in both chambers tried to defeat the decision-making bill, saying it paves the way for gay marriage. But supporters said gay couples should be allowed such rights as riding in ambulances with a sick partner or making next-of-kin funeral decisions.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – Missouri legislation encouraging colleges and universities to respect a diversity of viewpoints gets a celebrity endorsement from actor Ben Stein.

Stein is backing a bill by House member Jane Cunningham that would require higher education institutions to report to the state how they are ensuring students and faculty feel comfortable stating their opinions.

Supporters cite an incident at Missouri State University. A student claimed she was retaliated against when she disagreed with a professor and refused to sign a letter supporting adoption by gay couples.

Stein came to the Missouri Capitol for a screening of his new documentary-style film. It highlights how some scientists have been shunned for questioning evolution and suggesting life may have originated from an intelligent designer.

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) – A state lawmaker says a Missouri judge should not grant an annulment to a lesbian married in Massachusetts.

Republican State Sen. Delbert Scott of Lowry City said the couple violated a Massachusetts residency requirement when they moved to Missouri. In 2003, Missouri lawmakers overwhelmingly passed Scott’s bill limiting marriage to be between only a man and a woman.

Scott filed a brief April 8 asking Buchanan County Circuit Judge Daniel Kellogg to drop the case as an “unrecognized marriage.” The brief said state law bars judges from recognizing same-sex marriage for any purpose.

The legal squabble stems from a request late last year by Charisse Sparks to annul her 2005 marriage to Janet Peters Mauceri Sparks.