BAKERSFIELD, California (AP) – A county clerk in California says she will stop performing all marriage ceremonies shortly before a state Supreme Court order legalizing same-sex marriage takes effect.

A newspaper says the move came after the clerk received advice from Kern County lawyers who said marriages cannot be performed in a discriminatory fashion.

The Bakersfield Californian says Clerk Ann Barnett said Wednesday she would not have the staff or space to deal with an increase in licenses and ceremonies. She plans to stop all ceremonies starting June 13 – three days before gay couples may legally wed.

The newspaper reports she asked county counsel to file a brief with the California Supreme Court opposing implementation of its May 15 ruling allowing gay marriage.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Sen. John McCain says he is glad California voters will get to weigh in on a ballot measure that seeks to overturn the recent state Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.

The Republican presidential candidate’s campaign released a statement June 3 in which McCain said California residents should decide who can marry “rather than having that decision made by judicial fiat.”

The initiative qualified for the November ballot last week. It would amend the state constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The Arizona senator opposed amending the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage nationwide but supported a similar amendment in his home state that was defeated in 2006.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed McCain but opposes the November ballot measure.

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) – State public health officials are launching a new campaign to encourage blacks to get tested for AIDS.

The state Department of Public Health program is the first new AIDS testing campaign in four years and includes billboards and newspaper ads.

Blacks in Massachusetts account for 6 percent of the population, but 28 percent of people with HIV/AIDS.

Health Commissioner John Auerbach said testing is important for individuals and the community.

As part of the program, the health department is also offering free, confidential AIDS testing services.

The program targets five cities including Worcester, Boston, Springfield, Lynn and Brockton.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The first openly gay Episcopal bishop and his partner of 20 years have been united in a private civil union.

The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson was legally joined to Mark Andrew, his partner of 20 years, in a civil ceremony Saturday, the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire announced.

Civil unions became legal in New Hampshire this year.

The union was performed five years to the day after New Hampshire Episcopalians elected him as their bishop.

The civil and a following religious service of thanksgiving were both held at St. Paul’s Church in Concord.

Robinson had made public his intention to join his partner, but had kept the date secret out of concern about security. Spokesman Mike Barwell said the ceremony was intentionally private.

“Initially, the idea was to have it in a public building to make clear it was a public civil ceremony and a private thanksgiving ceremony,” Barwell said Sunday.

The plan changed out of respect for next month’s worldwide Anglican church conference in England, called the Lambeth Conference, and out of concern for the couple’s security.

Robinson had announced in March that he would have no official role in that conference, saying restrictions that organizers wanted to place on his involvement had caused him “considerable pain.”

Robinson was told last year that he could not fully participate in the once-a-decade gathering in England as the world Anglican Communion has been on the brink of schism over his 2003 election.

The civil union was performed by Ronna Wise, a longtime friend and justice of the peace.

About 120 family and close friends attended.

Robinson and Andrew decided to enter the union before Robinson’s trip to ensure they have legal protections New Hampshire’s civil union law gives gay couples. The law bestows all the rights and responsibilities of marriage, which includes inheritance and other rights enjoyed by married couples.

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) – A Nevada panel that oversees health insurance benefits for state employees voted Thursday to extend coverage to domestic partners, including those of the same sex, despite budget problems that could make the $2.7 million cost unaffordable.

State Public Employees Benefits Program board members voted 5-3 to move forward despite concerns about the cost voiced by some members.

If funding doesn’t develop during the 2009 legislative session to pay for the expansion of benefits to domestic partners and their children, the regulation won’t take effect.

Candice Nichols, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Center of Southern Nevada, praised the decision, saying it “enables Nevada to recruit the best and brightest employees for the state.”

“For too long, Nevada has not been able to offer the same benefits package options to current and prospective employees and compete with other states for the most qualified employees,” Nichols said.

Proponents of the change had argued it’s consistent with Nevada laws that ban workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Presidents of Nevada’s eight higher education institutions petitioned the PEBP board last year, asking them to offer benefits to domestic partners. The idea has generated controversy since the state’s university-college regents first discussed it in 2005.

Critics of the change, including backers of a successful 2002 ballot initiative banning gay marriage in Nevada, had argued that it could lead to children being taught that same-sex and opposite-sex relationships were “moral equivalents.”

ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) – It’s now up to a divorce court judge to decide how much alimony and support New Jersey’s gay ex-governor owes his estranged wife.

Lawyers for Dina Matos (MAY’-tohs) and Jim McGreevey finished summations June 4, laying the conflicting arguments and financial statements in the hands of Superior Court Judge Karen Cassidy.

Cassidy says she won’t rule until at least July.

Earlier, McGreevey’s lawyer accused his estranged wife’s expert of using “imaginary numbers” to come up with the gay ex-governor’s earning potential.

Meanwhile, Matos’ lawyer called McGreevey’s poverty claim a “contrived farce,” saying McGreevey chooses not to earn more to avoid paying alimony.

The 50-year-old seminary student says he’s too poor to pay alimony.

Matos is asking for $2,500 a month in alimony for four years and $1,750 a month in support for their 6-year-old daughter.

NEW YORK (AP) – A public hearing will be held this month on a proposal to create a domestic partner registry in suburban Putnam County.

County Executive Robert Bondi could sign the registry into law after the June 25 hearing. County legislators say they would have the votes to override a veto.

The registry would allow unmarried gay or straight couples to document their relationships for hospital visits, health benefits and other rights.

Neighboring Rockland County established a domestic partnership registry in early 2006, and Westchester County has had one since November 2002.

NEW YORK (AP) – Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is doing it. So is “Star Trek” actor George Takei. But comedian Rosie O’Donnell isn’t jumping at the chance to walk down the aisle.

O’Donnell and her girlfriend, Kelli Carpenter, were married four years ago when the mayor of San Francisco allowed same-sex marriages. The California Supreme Court later declared such marriages invalid.

Now the state’s highest court has ruled that denying same-sex marriages was discriminatory, and many gay and lesbian couples, including DeGeneres and girlfriend Portia de Rossi and Takei and his partner, Brad Altman, are planning to tie the knot.

O’Donnell told AP Radio that she and Carpenter are “going to wait until it’s legal everywhere, because otherwise, I said to Kelli, we’ll be going around touring the country on the marriage tour every state by state.”

“Once it gets to be at the federal level, once every state recognizes the marriages of every other state, I think that’ll be the time we would do it,” the 46-year-old said.

Asked if she thought that time was near, O’Donnell replied, “Yes.”

“The same way it was illegal for black and white people to marry at one point and people couldn’t conceive of that ever being different, I do think that two consenting, law-abiding adults who want to share their life together should be allowed to do that,” she said.

NEW YORK (AP) – A Christian legal organization says it has sued to stop New York from recognizing same-sex marriages legally performed in other states.

The Alliance Defense Fund says it filed its lawsuit June 3 in a court in the Bronx. Several Republican state senators are named as party to the suit.

Gay marriage is unconstitutional in New York. Gov. David Paterson however told state agencies on May 14 that New York must recognize same-sex marriages performed in Massachusetts, Canada and other places where they are legal.

The Arizona-based legal group filing the lawsuit has intervened elsewhere in same-sex marriage and religious freedom cases including those involving abortion and what it calls traditional family values.

HERRIMAN, Utah (AP) – Some parents in Herriman feel a Jordan School District teacher was a little too informative during a sex education discussion with some middle school students.

They feel she violated Utah’s law that limits what can be discussed in the classroom.

The district is investigating the health teacher’s responses to questions from students about topics including homosexual sex, oral sex and masturbation.

State Rep. Carl Wimmer plans to introduce a bill next year with criminal penalties for teachers who violate state law on sex education. The Herriman Republican says teachers only face administrative penalties now.

Wimmer’s bill also would create a registry with the names of teachers who violate the law.