WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (AP) – A transgender woman who says a Connecticut bar refused to allow her to sing on a karaoke night has filed a complaint with the state Liquor Commission.

Michelle Merrill says a manager at the Skyline Restaurant in Windsor Locks would not let her sing on Aug. 22 because she is a transsexual. The 35-year-old Enfield resident was born a male and began sex-change procedures 10 years ago.

Merrill says the manager told her other patrons complained that she used the women’s bathroom and he didn’t want people like her in the bar.

The restaurant’s owner, Gina Pastula, denied the discrimination allegation. She declined to name the manager working that night.

A Liquor Commission official confirmed that a complaint has been filed but declined further comment.

DYERSVILLE, Iowa (AP) – A former McDonald’s employee filed a complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission alleging he was unlawfully fired because he’s a gay man with HIV.

Daniel Carver, 46, alleges that what began as a lack of promotions and fewer hours escalated to derogatory names, violence and death threats.

Carver alleged that a manager punched him in the stomach and another employee slapped him in the face with a piece of cheese after calling him a derogatory name.

Carver was fired in February 2008 after nearly four months at the Dryersville restaurant.

State and federal law prohibits discrimination against an employee with a disability, which includes HIV status.

“In November 2007, I was threatened by other employees because of my HIV status and my sexual orientation that I, ‘better watch my back or I might get shot,”” Carver wrote.

When reached Sept.2, Carver said his lawyer advised him not to discuss the case.

Neither the McDonald’s Corp. nor Glenn and Lois Karpinske, owners of the Dyersville McDonald’s, returned calls for comment.

After Carver filed a complaint, he received a right-to-sue letter from the commission and filed a lawsuit in Dubuque County District Court against the Dyersville McDonald’s restaurant and the Karpinskes, of Galena, Ill.

Under a 2007 Iowa law, it’s illegal to discriminate against an employee because of perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. Within about a year after becoming law, the civil rights commission received six gender identity and eight sexual orientation discrimination complaints, said executive director Ralph Rosenberg.

Rosenberg said the right-to-sue letter isn’t a reflection of the case’s merits.

Approximately 2,000 Iowans suffer from HIV, according to estimates by the Iowa Department of Public Health.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) – Two female University of Iowa professors flew to San Francisco and were legally married in a civil ceremony.

Rebecca Burkhardt, a professor of music, and Cynthia Goatley, a professor of theater, said they initially did not want to publicize their marriage, but feel they can now deal with any disapproval they may face.

The two have been together for five years. Their marriage is not recognized in Iowa.

They both declared ownership on the house they jointly own, and are looking for ways to become full beneficiaries for each other should the other die.

Before the California wedding, the two flew to Texas, where Burkhardt’s father is an ordained Methodist minister. Her father performed a blessing, but could not marry the two without risking losing his ministerial status.

Since the marriage, each said her students and colleagues have been supportive.

BOSTON (AP) – Boston police have arrested a 28-year-old Framingham man accused of beating three gay men and their female friend in a suspected hate attack.

Fabio Brandao was apprehended Friday and charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon. A police spokesman said detectives are investigating the attack as a possible hate crime and additional charges are possible.

The attack happened early Sunday morning in Boston’s South End as the victims were leaving a club.

The victims told police they were walking home when four men shouted anti-gay slurs and attacked them. Police said one man was beaten to the ground. A second suffered a gash above his right eye.

A prosecutor said the victims gave police a license plate number, and they traced the car to Brandao.

He said Brandao’s cell phone was also found at the scene.

Brandao’s attorney said the evidence might put his client at the scene, but that doesn’t mean he was part of the attack.

Fabio Brandao was freed Sept 2 after posting $10,000 cash bail following his arraignment at Boston Municipal Court on four civil rights violations.

STANTON, Mich. (AP) – A Crystal, Mich. man is accused of having unprotected sex with two women without telling them he carries the virus that causes AIDS.

Thirty-two-year-old Gerald Campbell Jr. is to be arraigned Thursday in Montcalm County Circuit Court.

Campbell is being held in the county jail following a preliminary hearing this week in district court. A conviction could result in up to six years in prison.

He’s accused of violating a state law requiring anyone infected with HIV to disclose that information to their partners before engaging in sex.

Campbell spent more than 13 years behind bars after being convicted at 17 of assault with intent to commit murder.

Defense attorney Dennis Moore of Edmore declined to comment Friday on the charges.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – An HIV/AIDS support group is set to march from Jackson to Oxford on Sept. 13 in a demonstration it hopes will lead to a national strategy to combat the spread of the disease.

The Campaign to End AIDS group will begin the march in Jackson and end it in Oxford on Sept 23. The group says it wants to urge the federal government to establish a national strategy to deal with HIV/AIDS.

Eric Bailey, an AIDS support group member, will lead the march. He says HIV/AIDS is a public health crisis. Bailey says the march is being held in Mississippi because the group believes the state is at the center of today’s AIDS epidemic. There are 600 new cases of HIV in Mississippi each year and southern states have greater rates of HIV infection.

BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) – A 44-year-old Bremerton man is suspected of assaulting two men outside a downtown bar Saturday after calling them derogatory names in reference to their sexual orientation.

Bremerton police were called to the scene outside the Drift Inn in shortly after 2 a.m., reports said.

A witness told officers the 44-year-old began taunting the two men for being gay. The men left the bar, and after enduring more name-calling, used a profanity to tell the man to leave them alone.

The 44-year-old then attacked one of the men, a 38-year-old, by punching him in the face, and then shoved the other man, a 36-year-old, to the ground, the report said.

The man who was shoved sustained a broken ankle in the fall.

A friend of the suspect told police the two victims were the aggressors, but the officer found his account was not credible.

The suspect’s name did not appear on the Kitsap County jail’s in-custody list Saturday afternoon. Police have probable cause to book him into jail for investigation of second-degree assault and malicious harassment.