SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) – Sonoma State University’s president says blood drives on campus will continue, despite efforts to stop them because they discriminate against gay men.

President Rubin Arminana wrote in a letter to faculty and students that there’s no legal ruling that the federal ban on blood donations from gay men violates school anti-discrimination policies.

The announcement comes after the Sonoma State Faculty Senate voted 21-13 last month to approve a resolution urging Arminana to stop blood banks from operating at the school.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s policy of prohibiting blood donations from men who have had sex with other men was adopted to prevent the spread of HIV. But critics of the policy say blood-screening techniques already in use could detect HIV after the donation.

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) – Members of the congregation of a Trinity Church in Bristol are ending their legal fight with the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut by giving up their church.

The diocese sued Trinity last August to regain possession of the church that broke ranks with the diocese over the appointment of an openly gay bishop.

The Rev. Donald Helmandollar says he and the parish members want to get on with their lives as a congregation free of any ties to the Episcopal Church.

Helmandollar says he and about 120 parishioners will worship this Sunday at their new home, the auditorium of the Greene-Hills Elementary School.

Their new parish, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, is linked to the conservative Anglican Church of Nigeria.

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (AP) – Organizers of a parade in a south-central Idaho town will allow a gay pride float as long as no rainbows are displayed, the group’s full name isn’t used, and AIDS awareness information isn’t handed out.

“I do live in the United States, but I’m being treated like an alien,” Brandy Jones, president of the Southern Idaho Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Community Center, told The Times-News. “Why lie about who we are?”

Organizers of the three-day Western Days festival banned the group and its rainbow-decorated float from the parade last year, but is allowing it in this year with various restrictions, including that the group use the name “Southern Idaho Community Center.”

Last year was the first time an application had been denied in the parade’s 26-year history. The group staged a protest in response, and some members said another protest might be staged this year due to the restrictions.

Organizers last year said they wanted the event to reflect the conservative, religious and family values of the area. Private donations make up the $27,000 budget for Western Days.

Lisa Cuellar, board chairwoman for Western Days, and MaryAnne Taylor, parade chairwoman, said they didn’t set any restrictions but simply received an application from the group that was acceptable for entry into the parade. They said the application listed the Southern Idaho Community Center, and not the group’s longer name.

“They entered the name Southern Idaho Community Center, so that’s how they have to be in the parade,” she said. “They just have not been up front with us. Maybe it’s the lack of communication of both ends.”

Cuellar said the float that enters the parade must match the one described in the application.

“No rainbows, no gay pride, not anything like that,” she said.

Up to 50,000 people typically attend the three-day event, one of the largest public gatherings each year in the region.

Jones said the group’s float will blend in with the Western theme, using pumpkin decorations shaped like the state of Idaho.

“We’re not happy about it,” she said. “The churches and Wells Fargo are going to show their colors.”

Group members said they have contacted the American Civil Liberties Union and other human rights groups, and that legal action is possible.

CHICAGO (AP) – Sociologist Charles Moskos, an expert on the attitudes of servicemen and women who helped formulate the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gays in the military, has died.

The retired Northwestern University professor died of cancer May 31 at his home in Santa Monica, Calif., his family said. He was 74.

His surveys on military personnel issues, such as morale and recruitment trends, made him widely quoted in the news media. But he was best known for the advice to the Joint Chiefs of Staff that led to “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Under the policy, passed by Congress in 1993 in the early months of the Clinton administration, gays are allowed to serve in the military, but they are prohibited from engaging in homosexual activity or talking about their sexual orientation.

He acknowledged that the policy, which had critics on both sides of the debate, was imperfect.

“It’s like what Churchill said about democracy – it’s the worst system possible, except for all the other ones,” Moskos said in 2006. But he said allowing gays to serve openly would hurt the morale of the military rank-and-file and make many recruits uncomfortable.

To critics who called for the Pentagon to be more flexible about gays, he noted that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is the law.

“Any change in the status of homosexuals in the military requires congressional action,” he wrote in a letter to the editor of The New York Times in 2005. “Your editorial implies that the military should disobey the law. Who is hiding from reality?”

He also was a strong advocate of military service for young people from all segments of society. He argued it would increase public support for the military.

“Imagine if Jenna Bush were in Iraq today,” he said in 2004. “We would be much more committed.”

In a 2005 Associated Press interview, he said of the 750 men in his Princeton University graduating class in 1956, more than 400 went on to serve in the military. Of the 1,100 men and women in the 2004 Princeton class, eight joined, he said.

“That’s the difference,” he said.

Moskos himself was drafted after graduation and served two years in the Army. He earned graduate degrees at UCLA and joined the Northwestern faculty in 1966 after working at the University of Michigan.

Moskos’ work earned his several awards, including the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest honor the Army awards civilians.

“He truly had an impact on the military,” retired Gen. Wesley Clark said in a statement. He said Moskos “gave many of us the reassurance that someone out there knew us, cared about us and could help see our best interests as a nation and a military were looked after.”

Moskos retired from Northwestern in 2003 and moved to Santa Monica. However, he returned to the university each fall to teach an introductory sociology course.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Department of Public Health is planning a conference on HIV/AIDS early this week.

Officials says they will gather health care professionals to take ideas and translate them into real prevention and treatment services for Iowans.

They say the conference comes at a time when the number of Iowans diagnosed with HIV infection has risen to its highest level since reporting began in 1998.

The theme of the conference, which runs June 3-4 in Des Moines, is “Unity and Diversity: The Challenge for Change.”

Mindy Thompson-Fullilove is a Columbia University research psychiatrist who will serve as keynote speaker. Her work has focused on health disparities among poor communities and blacks.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – Gov. Steve Beshear has signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination against state employees who are gay or transgender.

The order Beshear put into place on June 2 restores the protection that former Gov. Ernie Fletcher stripped from state policy in 2006.

Employees, or prospective employees, may not be hired or fired because of a number of reasons including their race, age, religion, disability, ancestry or veteran status. Beshear’s order adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the list.

SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – Four Harvard University students have been charged after refusing to leave a military recruiting center in South Portland where they were protesting the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Police say between 20 and 30 people were inside and outside the recruiting center when they were called Wednesday morning. When police told the group to leave, four people refused and were charged with criminal trespassing.

Jacob Reitan, one of the students who was arrested, says he tried to sign up for the Army but didn’t want to hide the fact that he is gay. He says the military needs to change its policy.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – New Hampshire no longer is asking the California Supreme Court to delay finalizing its ruling to legalize same-sex marriage.

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed May 29, New Hampshire and nine other states said they have an interest in the case because they would have to determine if their states would recognize the marriages of same-sex couples who wed in California.

However, on Saturday, Attorney General Kelly Ayotte announced that New Hampshire was withdrawing from the request because the state addresses the recognition issue in its civil union law.

She said under the law, New Hampshire will recognize a legal gay marriage from California as a civil union.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – The number of new HIV cases in Utah this year already is about half of the total for all of 2007.

Health officials say people are less worried about contracting the virus because medications have improved. But better medicine is not a cure for a virus that causes AIDS.

“People have become complacent,” said Lynn Beltran, HIV and STD program manager for the Salt Lake Valley Health Department. “They’re not seeing people die from AIDS because medications are more effective in staving it off, so the fear factor is no longer present.”

Already this year, about 45 new HIV cases have been identified in Utah, compared to 91 for the entire year in 2007, according to the Utah Department of Health.

Stan Penfold, executive director of the Utah AIDS Foundation, said the threat still is very real.

“I’ve heard people say there’s a cure there isn’t or ‘If I get sick, I can take some pills.’ They have no sense of what that really means, including side effects or the cost and misery,” Penfold said.

“There’s a sense it’s not really here, so we won’t worry much,” he said.

The foundation is looking for new ways to get the message out that the problem is not only in Asia and Africa.

In Utah, the greatest increase in HIV is among young white men, Beltran said.

Experts also attribute some of the increase to methamphetamine use, which raises the chance of “risky behaviors related to sexual health,” she said.

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.

On May 16, 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.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A gay rights group says Biddy Martin would be the first openly gay person to lead a university as big as University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Candace Gingrich of the Human Rights Campaign says about eight gay people have become university presidents and chancellors in recent years but mostly at small schools.

She says the nomination of Martin to lead UW-Madison is a milestone and reflects the increasing number of openly gay professors and administrators in higher education.

Amit Taneja of the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals says Martin will be a trailblazer just like the other gay college leaders.

He says she will show sexual orientation has little to do with her ability to do the job.