PHOENIX (AP) – Arizona voters who rejected a ballot measure on same-sex marriage two years ago may tackle the issue again in November.

The House voted Monday to put a proposed state constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage on the ballot in Arizona, the only state where a ballot measure on marriage was rejected in 2006.

The House’s 33-25 vote sent the resolution (SB10242) to the Senate, whose approval would complete legislative action to put the measure on the ballot.

The proposal is a trimmed-down version of one rejected by Arizona voters in 2006, when seven other states approved same-sex marriage bans.

The current Arizona legislative proposal backed by social conservatives would define marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The 2006 version had that wording plus a provision that was widely interpreted as targeting civil unions and domestic partnerships.

Arizona already has a state law that was enacted in 1996 and upheld in 2003 by a state appellate court that defines marriage as a union of one man and one woman.

However, supporters of the constitutional amendment said the amendment would provide additional legal protection needed to prevent marriage from being redefined by a court or future lawmakers.

“The people of Arizona, not politicians and not judges, need to determine the future of marriage in our state,” said Rep. Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler. “This is not some made-up problem. On the contrary, this amendment will provide a real solution to a real problem.”

Opponents argued that the existing law makes the amendment unnecessary and that it insults gays and represents an attempt to exploit marriage for political purposes.

“This is a political ploy to be used in November and I believe it is inappropriate to use marriage as a political ploy,” said Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix.

The Republican-led House’s vote was mostly along party lines, with Democrats Jack Brown of St. Johns and Pete Rios of Hayden voting for the resolution. Tucson Republicans Pete Hershberger and Jennifer Burns voted against it.

An initial attempt by supporters to win House approval of a resolution on same-sex marriage was thwarted in April when opponents managed to attach a provision that would provide rights to unmarried couples.

As the House was voting Monday on the new version, Sinema tried to derail it by invoking an obscure House rule requiring a special committee review of measures deemed to be either an inappropriate subject of legislation or containing “insulting or derogatory” language.

“We’ve never seen this before. Very good,” House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix, said as he recessed the House floor session to consider Sinema’s objection.

However, a half-hour special meeting of the Rules Committee resulted in a 6-4 vote finding that the resolution didn’t violate House rules.

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) – Photographers whose high school water polo pictures wound up on gay Web sites won’t be prosecuted.

The Orange County district attorney’s office says a four-month investigation determined Scott Cornelius and Allen Rockwell didn’t commit any crimes.

Cornelius, a University of California, Irvine, police employee currently on paid leave, is still being investigated by the university to determine if he violated college policies.

Photographs of youths as young as 14 taken by Cornelius and Rockwell appeared on gay porn Web sites. But district attorney’s office spokeswoman Farrah Emami says “legally there were no criminal charges we could file.”

An Assembly bill currently in the Legislature would make preparing, posting or publishing a photograph or image of a minor on adult Web sites a crime.

DENVER (AP) – A jury says two women are guilty of trespassing for refusing to leave the Denver clerk’s office when they were denied a marriage license.

Kate Burns and Sheila Schroeder were seeking to draw attention to a state law that defined marriage in Colorado as the union of a man and a woman. The incident occurred in September.

A jury of six women deliberated for less than an hour Wednesday before returning a verdict.

The couple will have to pay $41 in court costs and perform 28 hours of community service.

GROTON, Conn. (AP) – Connecticut’s Episcopal Diocese has filed a lawsuit against the leadership of the Bishop Seabury Church, demanding it turn over control of the church property after voting to leave the national church in a dispute over theology and the appointment of a gay bishop.

The Rev. Ronald Gauss was suspended by the church May 3, when it appointed another priest, the Rev. David Cannon, to take over at Bishop Seabury. Rev. Gauss and 12 former and current church leaders were served this week with the lawsuit, which was filed in Superior Court.

“The parish has been a valued member of our Diocese for over a century and the departure of parishioners, while regretted, will not end that storied history,” the diocese said in a statement posted on its Web site.

The U.S. Episcopal Church is part of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, a global fellowship of churches that trace their roots to the Church of England, but the national denomination has faced increasing scrutiny for its liberal-leaning stance. Many Anglicans are traditionalists who believe Scripture bars same-sex relationships.

Bishop Seabury is one of a number of churches across the nation that have left the U.S. Episcopal Church in favor of the more conservative Convocation of Anglicans in North America, part of the conservative Anglican Church of Nigeria.

The U.S. Episcopal Church has responded with lawsuits, similar to the one filed against Bishop Seabury, arguing that the church property is held in trust for the diocese and the national church. Trinity Church in Bristol was sued a year ago.

Wethersfield lawyer Alan Robert Baker, who represents the diocese, told the Hartford Courant that the demands of the Connecticut Diocese are clear.

“Rev. Gauss holds the pulpit and is keeping the keys,” Baker said. “We want him to turn over both to Rev. Cannon.”

Gauss said the diocese never asked for the keys, but says it can’t have the records, because they are no longer the property of the Episcopal Church.

“The parish doesn’t want to do that,” Gauss said. “It’s not the leadership.”

BOSTON (AP) – Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley has appointed his first liaison to sexual minority communities.

Conley said May 7 that victim witness advocate Jennifer Stott will track cases with GLBT victims in Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop.

Stott will also continue her work in the office’s Major Felony Bureau.

Conley says minority sexual communities have been historically underrepresented in local law enforcement. He says Stott is a strong, compassionate advocate for crime victims.

Stott is a 2005 graduate of Ithaca College and has been with the Suffolk DA’s office since July 2006.

BOSTON (AP) – Allowing a convicted killer to get a sex-change operation would pose insurmountable safety and security problems for the state prison system, the Massachusetts corrections chief said.

Harold Clarke, who took over the department in November, said allowing the surgery for Michelle Kosilek could make her a target for assault by other inmates. He said prison officials also have concerns that Kosilek - who is serving a life sentence without parole - could try to escape if she is taken out of state for the surgery.

Clarke outlined his opposition to the surgery in court papers filed this week, mirroring arguments made by his predecessor, Kathleen Dennehy.

Kosilek, 58, was born a man, Robert, but underwent a legal name change to Michelle in 1993 and has been living as a woman in an all-male prison in Norfolk. Robert Kosilek was sentenced to life in prison for murdering wife Cheryl in 1990.

Kosilek sued the Department of Corrections in 2000, claiming the system’s refusal to allow the state-funded surgery violated her Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment.

U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled in 2002 that prison officials had failed to adequately treat Kosilek’s gender-identity disorder but did not order surgery. Wolf found that Kosilek had not shown that the correction commissioner had shown “deliberate indifference” to her medical needs.

Kosilek sued again in 2005, saying the hormone treatments, laser hair removal and psychotherapy she has received have not been enough to relieve her anxiety and depression.

In a three-page statement filed in court, Clarke said he does not doubt Kosilek’s belief that the surgery could reduce her anxiety.

“However, based on my review of the designated trial testimony and my many years of experience as a corrections professional, I believe that the safety and security concerns presented by the prospect of undertaking sex reassignment surgery for Michelle Kosilek are insurmountable,” Clarke said.

Kosilek’s lawyer, Frances Cohen, wouldn’t comment on Clarke’s opposition.

FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) – An Aztec man accused of attacking another man for being gay has been convicted of kidnapping and aggravated battery.

But a state district court jury has rejected prosecutors’ arguments that the attack was a hate crime.

The jury returned its verdict Tuesday in the trial of 22-year-old Scott Thompson.

Matthew Shetima testified that he was walking near a Farmington hotel last Sept. 22 when Thompson punched him in the face and dragged him into a motel room.

Shetima says he was called a faggot and was hit and kicked by several men in the motel room.

NEW YORK CITY (AP) – Conservative legal advocates are recruiting pastors nationwide to defy an IRS ban on preaching about politicians, in a challenge they hope will abolish the restriction.

The Alliance Defense Fund, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., will ask the clergy to deliver a sermon about specific candidates Sept. 28. If the action triggers an IRS investigation, the legal group will sue to overturn the federal rules, which were enacted in 1954.

The ADF has been involved in a number of lawsuits against GLBT issues in various states.

Under the IRS code, churches can distribute voter guides, run voter registration drives, hold forums on public policy and invite politicians to speak at their congregations.

However, they cannot endorse a candidate, and their political activity cannot be biased for or against a candidate, directly or indirectly.

The Alliance Defense Fund said Friday that the regulations amount to an unconstitutional limit on free speech and government intrusion into religion.

“It certainly does have a chilling effect,” said Mike Johnson, senior counsel for the fund. “I think that there is a lot of fear and intimidation and disinformation about the parameters that do exist.”

Johnson said about 100 pastors have expressed interest in participating so far.

The IRS has stepped up monitoring of nonprofit political activity during the 2008 election. Punishments can range from a financial penalty to loss of tax-exempt status.

IRS investigations are confidential and the agency does not discuss the cases.

However, the United Church of Christ, which counts Sen. Barack Obama as a member, has said that it is under IRS review because of a speech given by the Democratic presidential candidate at the denomination’s national meeting last year.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an advocacy group in Washington, monitors church political activity and consistently files complaints with the IRS. They said Friday that they will notify the agency of any pastor who participates in the ADF campaign.

Some religious groups support keeping politics out of the pulpit.

J. Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington, which advocates for religious freedom, said churches should be involved in public issues, but partisan activity can “compromise the essential calling to spread the Gospel.”

“The church can’t raise prophetic fist at a candidate or at a party,” Walker said, “when it’s locked up in a tight bear hug with that candidate or party.”

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A lawyer for a lesbian married in Massachusetts has asked Rhode Island’s Superior Court for a divorce after an earlier attempt to dissolve the marriage failed.

An attorney for Margaret Chambers asked the Superior Court on May 8 to dissolve his client’s marriage after Rhode Island’s top court blocked a divorce court from handling it. The judge did not immediately rule and set another hearing for June 12.

Chambers wed Cassandra Ormiston four years ago in Massachusetts, the only state where same-sex marriage is legal. Rhode Island does not recognize same-sex unions.

In 2006, they filed for divorce in Rhode Island, where they live.

Rhode Island’s Supreme Court ruled in December that the state’s divorce court cannot end the marriages of same-sex couples.

Ormiston, has said she may relocate to Massachusetts for a year so she can file for divorce there.

Meanwhile, in the past week lawmakers have debated two bills that would allow same-sex couples legally united elsewhere to divorce in Rhode Island courts.

Rep. Al Gemma said May 7 that he believes marriage should be between a man and a woman. But he submitted a bill before the House Judiciary Committee that would allow same-sex couples united elsewhere in the U.S. to divorce in Rhode Island courts.

Gemma filed his bill after the Rhode Island Supreme Court made its December ruiling.

Gemma says divorce is a civil rights issue and warns that couples who cannot legally separate could be hurt financially.

The committee was not expected to vote on the proposal.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Angry parents have asked Memphis’ Board of Education to take action against a principal accused of publicly identifying two male students as gay.

A letter from the American Civil Liberties Union that was made public last week accuses staff at Hollis F. Price Middle College High School of compiling a list of dating students, including a same-sex couple, as part of an attempt to limit public displays of affection on campus. The letter says the list was kept in the principal’s office.

Parent Elizabeth Goodman told board members at their Monday meeting that exposing students as gay would make them objects of discrimination.

In a statement released last week, the district expressed its support for principal Daphne Beasley, saying the sexual orientation of students was not placed on the list of couples.

AUSTIN (AP) – A federal judge has dismissed claims alleging school officials didn’t try to prevent a sexual relationship between a high school student and a color guard instructor.

U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks found no evidence that district employees knew about any inappropriate relationship involving a then-Bowie High School before the teenager’s mother told school officials.

After the ruling dismissing the claims against the school Wednesday, the now 21-year-old dropped his lawsuit against former instructor James Scott Johnston.

Attorney Randal Mathis said the former high school student planned to appeal the ruling. The young man’s father said his son would now consider filing a criminal complaint against Johnston.

The former Bowie High School student alleged that Johnston had sex with him on several occasions at the school and other locations during the 2003-04 school year. School and district officials should have been aware of the risk and failed to protect him from the abuse, the suit alleged.

“The evidence is overwhelming that the one person who had knowledge of what was going on failed to tell anybody,” Sparks said.

During the trial, Johnston testified that the student began calling him in December 2003, discussing arguments with his parents and feelings that he might be gay.

Johnston, 25 at the time, said the then-16-year-old “just needed someone to talk to.”

“Maybe I was too much of a friend (to the student), and in the end maybe it cut me in the throat,” he said.

Johnston denied having sexual contact with the student and has not been charged with a crime.