CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A former systems engineer from Rockwell Collins has filed a lawsuit, claiming he was fired after he refused to sign a document accepting homosexuality.

Thomas Meeker of Robins filed the lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court. He said in the lawsuit that he is Christian and believes homosexuality is a sin.

The lawsuit claims Meeker was fired because of his religion. It says he suffered loss of pay and benefits as well as emotional distress.

Meeker is being represented by William Kurth of Lake City, who accepted the case on behalf of the Rutherford Institute, a conservative civil rights group based in Charlottesville, Va., that provides free legal services on issues it supports.

Pam Tvrdy, a spokeswoman for Rockwell Collins, declined comment, saying the company does not discuss pending litigation.

In his lawsuit, Meeker said he received an e-mail telling workers of the company’s diversity initiative on May 22, 2007. The initiative asked employees to welcome, value and respect differences in others in the workplace, the lawsuit said.

Meeker sent an e-mail to company officials objecting to diversity training. He said he believed such training would divide workers into groups by focusing on differences and he refused to participate.

Meeker met more than once with human resource and other managers to discuss his objections, the lawsuit said.

He said he found online training he did to prepare for one of the meetings to be offensive. he told manager is promoted and insisted that employees accept, celebrate and embrace homosexuality.

According to the lawsuit, Andrew Mlynarczyk of the company’s human resources office, told Meeker his e-mails were disrespectful and that he had acted outside the company’s “standards of business.”

Meeker received a certified letter on July 9, 2007, telling him he was fired because of his unwillingness to treat gay or lesbian co-workers with respect and was violating company policies.

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) – The Justice Department has asked to take testimony under oath from a man whose son was barred from the swimming pool at a Silverhill RV resort last year, laying the groundwork for a possible discrimination lawsuit.

Dick Glover, 70, has terminal non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and is the adoptive father of Caleb, the HIV-positive toddler who was barred from using the pool and restrooms at the Wales West RV Resort.

A federal court petition was filed May 13 to take a deposition from Glover, saying his condition has deteriorated to the point that he’s making funeral arrangements. Silvia Glover told the Press-Register in a story last wee that her husband was readmitted to Providence Hospital earlier this month, but she hopes he can be deposed this week.

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division began an investigation of Wales West in January, according to the court filing, based on allegations that the park violated the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Silvia Glover said she believes federal involvement could lead to Wales West conducting HIV education and awareness sessions with its employees. The case could also result in new guidelines outlining the rights of HIV-positive patients to use public facilities.

“Maybe something good will come from this,” she said. Wales West owner Ken Zadnichek declined comment to the newspaper.

The Glovers and their two foster children – Caleb and another 6-month-old boy – stayed at the Wales West RV park in Silverhill for less than a day in July 2007.

The family left after the park manager informed them that the 2-year-old could not use the swimming pool, showers and other common areas without a doctor’s letter assuring them that the boy posed no danger to others.

The incident was first reported by the Press-Register and the story was later picked up by various national outlets including ABC’s “Good Morning America” and National Public Radio.

Zadnichek has said he asked for a letter from a doctor or the health department as a safeguard that the child could not infect others.

Wales West gave the Glovers a full refund and in September the park hosted a “family reunion,” sponsored by the Campaign to End AIDS, for people diagnosed as HIV-positive or with AIDS.

MIAMI (AP) – Unmarried couples in Miami-Dade County now have domestic-partner benefits.

On May 20 the county commission approved to give unmarried, non-related couples—gay or straight—who are at least 18 and live together similar benefits as spouses.

Those benefits include having the same visitation rights in healthcare facilities, jails and juvenile detention centers. Couples will also be able to visit a partner’s children and parents.

Plus, county workers will be able to buy health insurance for their domestic partner and that partner’s children.

Couples should register with the county’s Consumer Services Department. An estimated 900 couples will file this year.

Broward and Palm Beach counties already have similar policies in place.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage approved by voters in 2004.

The court rejected arguments by gay and lesbian couples that Measure 36 should be overturned because it amounted to a revision to state law rather than an amendment to the state constitution.

The amendment said that only marriage between one man and one woman shall be legally recognized in Oregon.

One of the same-sex couples says their attorneys plan to appeal the case to the Oregon Supreme Court.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey’s gay ex-governor said he’s turning down an offer to be a radio talk show host.

Former Gov. James McGreevey said he won’t entertain an offer from New Jersey 101.5 FM to host his own show.

McGreevey’s tongue-in-cheek response May 20 to the politically controversial station: “Thanks for the gracious offer, but I don’t want to destroy your image.”

The offer came after testimony in McGreevey’s bitter divorce trial described him as “radioactive” in the work world since a gay sex scandal toppled his administration four years ago.

“Gov. McGreevey has claimed that he is ‘unemployable’ and the management of New Jersey 101.5 simply does not believe this to be true,” the station said in written statement.

McGreevey, 50, has testified that he is too poor to pay his wife alimony. He is a seminary student who says he has borrowed more than $200,000 from boyfriend Mark O’Donnell to pay legal bills and other expenses.

Andy Santoro, chief operating officer at Millennium Radio New Jersey, insists the offer was legitimate, saying McGreevey remains “one of the most intriguing political figures in New Jersey’s history.”

Santoro said McGreevey turned down a previous offer because of “bad timing.”

The station wouldn’t say what it would have paid the former governor for his time on the air, but said it was willing to negotiate.

McGreevey is scheduled to testify throughout the week as his divorce trial continues in state Superior Court in Elizabeth.

SEATTLE (AP) – Federal appeals court judges have reinstated a lawsuit brought against the Air Force by a flight nurse forced out of her job for being gay.

Maj. Margaret Witt, 42, was suspended in 2004 after the Air Force received a tip that she had been in a long-term relationship with a civilian woman. She was honorably discharged last October, after having put in 18 years – two short of what she needed to receive retirement benefits.

In a decision issued May 21, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle ruled that the facts in her case must be developed to determine if the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, as applied to Witt, furthers a compelling governmental interest. The law prohibits the military from asking about the sexual orientation of service members but requires discharge of those who acknowledge being gay or engage in homosexual activity.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican John McCain says same-sex couples should be allowed to enter into legal agreements for insurance and other purposes, but he opposes gay marriage and believes in “the unique status of marriage between and man and a woman.”

“And I know that we have a respectful disagreement on that issue,” the likely Republican presidential nominee said in an interview on May 22 on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

McCain, who also opposes an amendment to the Constitution to ban same-sex unions, said people should be encouraged to enter into legal agreements, particularly for insurance and other areas where decisions need to be made.

DeGeneres needled McCain on the issue, arguing that she and the senator from Arizona aren’t different.

Last week, after the California Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in that state, DeGeneres announced on her program her engagement to longtime girlfriend Portia de Rossi.

“We are all the same people, all of us. You’re no different than I am. Our love is the same,” she said. “When someone says, ‘You can have a contract, and you’ll still have insurance, and you’ll get all that,’ it sounds to me like saying, ‘Well, you can sit there, you just can’t sit there.’

“It feels like we are not, you know, we aren’t owed the same things and the same wording,” DeGeneres said.

McCain said he’s heard her “articulate that position in a very eloquent fashion. We just have a disagreement. And I, along with many, many others, wish you every happiness.”

DeGeneres steered the conversation back toward the humor she’s known for.

“So, you’ll walk me down the aisle? Is that what you’re saying?” she asked.

“Touche,” McCain said.