BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – A gay advocacy organization has filed a federal lawsuit against Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford for refusing to allow city workers to hang Gay Pride Week banners.

The suit said Langford’s actions violated the constitutional rights of Central Alabama Pride Inc., which sponsored the 20th annual Gay Pride Week in Birmingham in June.

The suit said the city has hung flags or banners in support of many diverse events in Birmingham, including City Stages music festival and the Magic City Classic football game.

Langford said Wednesday that the city hangs banners for events it sponsors. He said he hasn’t discriminated against anyone and called the suit a frivolous publicity stunt.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A woman wearing a T-shirt promoting lesbianism said she was forced the leave a federal building Aug. 25 by a security guard who didn’t approve of her attire.

Lapriss Gilbert said she was picking up a Social Security card for her son when the guard was offended by her “lesbian.com” shirt and threatened her with arrest.

She was eventually allowed inside after her mother called police, according to a Los Angeles Daily News story.

The guard, whose name was not immediately available, works for Paragon Security, which contracts with the Department of Homeland Security.

Lori Haley, a spokeswoman within the Homeland Security Department, said the guard’s actions were inappropriate and unacceptable.

“We have notified his company, Paragon, of our position in the matter,” Haley said.

A message left with Paragon Security was not immediately returned Aug. 25.

Gilbert said the guard cited a document, the Rules and Regulations Governing Conduct on Federal Property, as proof he had jurisdiction over her clothing. The document does not address what type of clothing is allowed in federal buildings.

Gilbert called the guard’s actions “shocking.”

“As an African-American and a lesbian, I haven’t been through one day without facing some sort of discrimination,” Gilbert said.

Her mother called police after Gilbert was kicked out, but another security guard escorted her to the front of the Social Security line before officers arrived, the Daily News reported.

According to a police report, a witness described Gilbert as “peaceful and quiet” before the guard told her to leave.

DENVER (AP) – At least two people were taken into custody amid demonstrations about a mile from the Democratic National Convention, but the scene was much calmer than the night before.

Shouts erupted Aug. 26 when demonstrators carrying anti-gay banners went to a rally organized by the Backbone Group, which says it supports progressive values.

One man yelled “Jesus Hates Sin!” Another man with a sign supporting separation of church and state was led away by police as others shouted “Let him go!”

Police restrained some people on the ground.

Jean Stevens, a spokeswoman for the group Codepink, says a woman in her group was arrested but she didn’t know her name.

On Aug. 25, 100 people were arrested after a clash between protesters.

ATLANTA (AP) – Police in Atlanta say a man who bit an officer’s arm and said he has HIV has tested positive for the disease.

Police spokesman Ron Campbell says 41-year-old Ross Deadwyler told the officer he was HIV positive after biting him early Saturday.

Campbell would not give the officer’s name but says he’s at home taking medication for 30 days.

Police say the incident began when an officer tried to pull over Deadwyler for driving with a broken headlight, but the man sped off. Authorities eventually caught Deadwyler, but he bit an officer as he reached into the suspect’s car to shut off the ignition.

Authorities have charged Deadwyler with aggravated battery, aggravated assault, speeding to elude, felony obstruction and improper equipment.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A federal appeals court has ruled against Osseo Area Schools in a dispute over a student-run gay rights group.

It’s the second time in two years that the appeals court has ruled against the district.

The district was appealing a judge’s order that granted a gay rights group at Maple Grove Senior High the same privileges extended to other extracurricular clubs.

U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen issued a permanent injunction last September that puts the group Straights and Gays for Equality, or SAGE, on equal footing as other groups.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Ericksen’s decision – as it did her preliminary injunction against the school in 2006.

A district spokeswoman told the Star Tribune that officials had just received the ruling and would comment later.

NEW YORK (AP) – New data shows New York City residents are contracting the virus that causes AIDS at three times the national rate.

The city health department said Aug. 27 that almost 4,800 New Yorkers were infected with HIV in 2006. That number represents 72 in every 100,000 residents, compared to a national rate of 23 per 100,000.

The figures pinpoint when people became infected with the virus, not just when they were diagnosed.

Health officials attribute the city’s relatively high rate of new infections to its large populations of gay men, blacks and other groups on whom HIV has traditionally taken a heavy toll.

Assistant health commissioner Dr. Monica Sweeney says the figures underscore the continued need to promote HIV testing and prevention.

WINCHESTER, Virginia – A woman attempting to keep her former partner from having visitation rights to her daughter has lost yet another round in a lengthy legal battle that has involved the high courts in two states.

At the center of the battle between Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins is a six-year old girl named Isabelle who was conceived through artificial insemination to Lisa Miller.

At the time Miller was in a relationship with Jenkins, which had been formalized by a civil union in Vermont where they resided.

When the relationship between the two women soured and they split up, a judge in Vermont gave Jenkins temporary visitation rights with the child.

Miller then fled with her daughter to Virginia, which has some of the most anti-gay legislation in the country. She then declared she was no longer a lesbian, hired a conservative Christian law firm, the Liberty Counsel, and went to court in Virginia seeking sole custody of the child.

Miller argued that since gay unions are banned in Virginia she was not obligated to abide by the Vermont ruling.

Jenkins fought the application on the grounds that the case was already before the court in Vermont.

Last year, the Vermont Supreme Court unanimously concluded that “under well-established laws designed to protect children and families” the Vermont Family Court properly ordered visitation between Janet and her daughter.

Liberty Counsel appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.

The case then returned to the Virginia Supreme Court, which ruled in June that the Vermont high court’s ruling should stand. The court cited the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, which says custody orders of one state must be enforced in other states.

But Miller returned to a lower court in Virginia requesting a halt in the visitation order.

On Aug. 25, Frederick County Circuit Judge John Prosser dismissed the application, saying the courts had already ruled in Miller presented no new evidence to reopen the case.

ACLU attorney Rebecca Glenberg, who is representing Jenkins, said that Miller’s lawyers were trying to re-litigate the case and attempting an “end-run” around the state Supreme Court decision.

Liberty Counsel said it intends to appeal on Miller’s behalf.