LOS ANGELES (AP) – Two ABC series were in repeats – as winners – at the annual awards honoring good work in media presentations of gays and lesbians.

“Brothers & Sisters” and “Ugly Betty” received awards for Outstanding Drama and Comedy Series, respectively, during the 19th annual Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday night.

Both shows, which feature openly gay or transsexual regular characters, received the same awards last year from GLAAD.

On “Brothers & Sisters”, Matthew Rhys plays Kevin, a lawyer sibling whose dating life is frequently depicted on the drama. “Ugly Betty” features Marc St. James, the flamboyantly gay assistant played by Michael Urie, as well as Alexis Meade, the transgender editor played by Rebecca Romijn.

Other winners included Bravo’s “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List” for Outstanding Reality Program, Janet Jackson for the Vanguard Award, and Rufus Wainwright for the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, in honor of the late casting director who fought homophobia in the entertainment industry.

According to GLAAD, the awards honor individuals and projects in media for their fair, accurate, and inclusive representations of the GLBT community and the issues that affect their lives. The awards are split into four ceremonies, held in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and San Francisco in March, April, and May. The awards will air on Bravo on June 27 at 7 p.m. Eastern/Pacific.

MERIDIAN, Idaho (AP) – The battle over whether two sex education books belong on the shelves of Nampa’s Public Library is far from over.

The library board says it needs more time to determine whether copies of The New Joy of Sex and The Joy of Gay Sex should be stored in the director’s office and available only by request.

The board’s 3-2 vote to delay comes a month after it agreed to remove the books from the main shelves after a parent complained about easy access to children.

The recent vote also comes after more than half of the library’s staff asked the board to reverse decision, saying sequestering the books violates the vision and values of the library.

The letter was signed by 18 of the library’s 30 workers.

CHICAGO (AP) – A federal appeals court says a suburban Chicago student can wear a “Be Happy, Not Gay” T-shirt at his high school.

The decision overturns a lower court’s ruling that sided with the Naperville school’s move to ban the anti-gay shirt. The school argued the shirt’s message is derogatory and could disrupt education.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled April 23 that the school can’t justifying banning Alexander Nuxoll from wearing the T-shirt on the grounds it might provoke incidents of harassment of homosexuals.

Attorneys for the Neuqua Valley High School sophomore welcomed the ruling. They call it a victory for students’ First Amendment rights.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) – Sections of a memorial to people in the Fort Wayne area who have died as a result of HIV/AIDS have been toppled and badly damaged.

A stone pedestal that supported a statue of an angel was pushed over, and the statue smashed.

The vandalism was discovered by Otis Vincent who created the memorial after his son died of AIDS in 1995. He has spent the past four years working on the memorial in Lindenwood Cemetery.

“I just can’t understand why someone would want to do this,” Vincent told the Journal Gazette newspaper.

“Some people do not like the gay community, … but they don’t have to destroy something that I have put a lot of work into.”

Some 3,000 bricks, many of them bearing the names of people in northeast Indiana who have died from AIDS, create walkway through the memorial.

Under a gazebo is a large granite stone with a red AIDS ribbon engraved on the front it.

Vincent told the Journal Gazette that he intends to replace the smashed angel with a new statue.

He also said he will plant additional flowers and shrubs. He said he hoped to have the work completed before an AIDS Candlelight Memorial Service on May 18.

Police say they have few clues in the search for the vandals.

Vincent is appealing to anyone who might have information to come forward.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – Iowa had its highest number of HIV diagnoses last year since reporting began a decade ago.

There were 127 people diagnosed with HIV in Iowa last year, according to the Iowa Department of Public Health. That’s up from the 113 diagnoses in 2006 and the earlier record high of 117 in 2005.

The state started reporting diagnoses in 1998. In 2007, state and local agencies tested more than 8,000 people for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Health officials said “late testing” – when a person waits years after being exposed to HIV to get tested – may be a factor for the increase.

Randy Mayer, who heads the health department’s HIV/AIDS/Hepatitis program, said people with HIV may mistake early signs like a rash, fever and swollen glands for the flu. It can take eight to 10 years for symptoms of AIDS to manifest.

But Mayer said the jump isn’t just because there’s more testing going on.

“I think it’s a true increase,” he said.

The health department found men made up 83 percent of new HIV cases in 2007. Health officials said men having sex with men remained the No. 1 risk factor in Iowa for transmitting HIV.

Mayer said diagnoses among men age 45 and older more than doubled since 2003.

Blacks made up 20 percent of Iowa HIV diagnoses last year, though they account for only 2.5 percent of the state’s population.

The findings have prompted the state to fund HIV prevention and education projects. Among those programs are “moMENtum” in Johnson County that conducts outreach among men; and “Many Men, Many Voices” in Polk County, which runs programs focusing on black men.

State health officials said Iowa’s numbers are relatively low compared to other states. But they said it’s crucial to keep encouraging early testing so those who are infected can get treatment sooner.

CLEVELAND, Miss. (AP) – Health officials say a startling trend is emerging in some north Mississippi counties in which more teenagers are contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

Mary Currier, a state epidemiologist with the Health Department, said the most prevalent increases in sexually transmitted diseases among those under the age of 18 in the area has been syphilis and HIV.

“We are beefing up our field staff and are trying to screen more and find more contacts of those who have these sexually transmitted diseases,” she said.

The number of teens with STDs have increased over the last five years, officials said.

“One of the things the health department does with every syphilis and HIV case, is to find their contacts – people who have had sex with those who are known to have the disease – and find out who their contacts are,” Currier said. “We don’t tell them who named them, but we do tell them they have been named. We offer testing. Both contacts are given education. And we try and prevent their exposure in the future.”

Currier said the last large spike in syphilis was in the 1990s. In response, the health department increased its number of field staff and provided information and seminars for physicians and other health care providers.

Currier said that some sexually transmitted diseases have a natural cycle that will increase and then decrease. However, she believes the latest increase is directly related to a shortage of field staff, or those who work to track the sexual partners of infected people.

“Certainly people are not using contraceptives that are to prevent such diseases,” she noted. “Parents really should talk to adolescents about sexual behavior.”

Officials say the other sexually transmitted diseases that are becoming more prevalent are the human papilloma virus, the most common sexually transmitted infection, and Hepatitis B.

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) – Two lawmakers called Friday for the suspension of 14 southern Nevada doctors at a clinic linked to a hepatitis C outbreak as a medical oversight panel and the state attorney general prepared to move against several of the physicians.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, and Sen. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, urged Gov. Jim Gibbons to appoint a special counsel to investigate the doctors and to urge the state Board of Medical Examiners to suspend the licenses of the doctors at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada.

Tony Clark, executive director of the medical board, said the panel was working with Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto’s office to enjoin several of the doctors from medical practice, and legal action was likely early next week.

“It isn’t that we’re sitting on our thumbs,” Clark said in responding to Leslie and Horsford.

Gibbons spokesman Ben Kieckhefer said the governor is looking into his authority to name a special counsel, adding, “From early on in this crisis the governor demanded strong action from the state Board of Medical Examiners.”

The lawmakers said in their letter that only one of the doctors, Dr. Dipak Desai who ran the endoscopy center and several other clinics, agreed to not practice pending outcome of the investigation into the hepatitis outbreak – and his agreement is no guarantee that he won’t resume his practice.

“By appointing a special counsel and calling for the summary suspension of the licenses of these 14 physicians, we can jointly move forward to assure the public that its elected officials will not wait idly by and permit further harm,” Leslie and Horsford said.

The lawmakers said the medical examiners’ board has legal authority for summary suspensions. But Clark said the legislators have focused on a law section that requires a specific finding of crisis conditions – which no longer exist because the endoscopy center has been shut down.

In any case, Clark added, “the board is currently pursuing action against the physicians employed by the endoscopy center.”

Besides the board’s activity, legislators were told this week that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the FBI, Masto’s office and the Clark County district attorney are involved in a criminal probe into the crisis.

The outbreak prompted health officers to advise tens of thousands of former patients at several clinics to be checked for exposure to hepatitis and HIV.

Authorities blame the infections on the reuse of needles and vials of medication on multiple patients, and say they’ve traced eight acute cases of hepatitis C to Desai’s endoscopy center and to another one he operated. The two clinics have surrendered business licenses and paid a total of $500,000 in fines.

CLEVELAND (AP) – An Ohio Supreme Court panel is frowning on having guilty defendants donate nutritional drinks for AIDS patients instead of paying fines.

The sentencing idea came from two board members of the AIDS Task Force of Greater Cleveland. They said people with AIDS need high-calorie drinks such as Boost and Ensure but often can’t afford them.

Before ordering anyone to make the contributions, Cleveland Municipal Judge Joseph Zone checked with the Supreme Court’s Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline. Staffers recommended against the plan, based on opinions from other states.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Joan Synenberg already imposed the sentences in a few cases. The judge, who’s also an AIDS Task Force board member, says she won’t do it again.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Prosecutors have charged an 18-year-old man who is accused of having unprotected sex with a woman without telling her he was HIV-positive.

Rick Allen Brown of Milwaukee faces a charge of second-degree reckless endangerment. The felony count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint filed Tuesday, the woman says they had sex three times last year – twice unprotected and once with a condom that broke during intercourse.

The woman says Brown’s aunt recently told her Brown is HIV-positive. The woman later received a call from Brown, who allegedly admitted that he learned 18 months ago he is HIV-positive.

Brown denied to investigators that the two had sex, saying he only kissed her on the cheek.