LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – Sexually transmitted diseases are disproportionately higher among black Arkansans while the stigma of AIDS deters many blacks from getting help, a public health researcher says.

Katharine E. Stewart of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Public Health told a task force Monday that the rate of HIV among blacks throughout Arkansas is five times greater than among whites.

Lee and St. Francis counties, which have a high percentage of black residents, have gonorrhea rates about twice the statewide average of 168 cases per 100,000 people, she said.

Stewart said people with AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases often are poor and are drug users who do not use condoms. Poverty-stricken women might trade sex for money to feed their families and do not demand that their partners wear condoms, Stewart said.

Stewart said she was studying how best to educate black Arkansans who live in rural areas and may not have access to health care. She stressed the importantance of getting community members involved because of the stigma attached to AIDS.

The Arkansas HIV/AIDS Minority Task Force was created by a 2007 state law. The group is to make recommendations to Gov. Mike Beebe by Nov. 1.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) – The Lewis and Clark Library’s board of trustees will hold a public hearing this week on a Helena man’s request to remove a book from the library.

Paul Cohen says he discovered the book, called The Joy of Gay Sex, in February in the library’s new books section. He then filled out a form asking the library to remove it from circulation.

Cohen wrote that the book’s drawings were “pornographic,” and said the library was failing to provide a “safe place” for children.

Following protocol, the book was reviewed by the library’s collection review committee. Library Director Judy Hart then accepted the committee’s recommendation to keep the book in the collection.

Cohen appealed the decision to trustees last month.

A public hearing before the board is set for Tuesday. Written testimony will be accepted until Oct. 3.

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) – A quilt in memory of people who have died from AIDS or related illness goes on exhibit this month at the University of Montana in Missoula.

The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display Sept. 18-21 at the Adams Center on the campus.

The display will feature 101 quilt panels commemorating some 800 people who have died. The number of panels increased after organizers of the exhibit realized the room available at UM was greater than they initially thought.

The quilt has been shown in Montana previously, but on a smaller scale.

The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt was established in 1987. It has become one of the world’s major community art projects.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The head of the U.S. Episcopal Church is making a visit to New Hampshire.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, will visit parishes in the state from Sept. 26-28.

V. Gene Robinson, New Hampshire’s Episcopal bishop, announced the visit Thursday during an interview on New Hampshire Public Radio’s “The Exchange.”

The visit comes after Robinson’s recent visit to the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England, an assembly of Anglican bishops that takes place once very 10 years.

Robinson, the Episcopal church’s first openly gay bishop, was not formally invited to the conference by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican Church.

Jefferts Schori, who became head of the church in 2006, supported Robinson’s election in 2003.

NEW YORK (AP) – A fugitive has been convicted of second-degree murder in the beating death of a gay man on a New York City street in 2001.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown says John McGhee was convicted Sept. 10. He says McGhee fled to London after 35-year-old Edgar Garzon died on Sept. 4, 2001, of injuries suffered in a street assault.

Garzon was attacked after leaving a gay bar in Queens on Aug. 15, 2001. Trial testimony showed the victim and McGhee had exchanged words before the assault.

McGhee was arrested after arriving at Kennedy Airport on a flight from London in 2006. The 40-year-old former Queens resident faces up to 25 years to life in prison at sentencing on Sept. 29, 2008.

A call for comment to McGhee’s attorney, Charles Abercrombie, was not immediately returned.

NEW YORK (AP) – A gay man who illegally fled to Israel with the son he and his husband adopted has pleaded guilty in New York City to custodial interference.

Eric Hyett admits he took 2-year-old Jedidiah Hyett-Glazer from New York on Aug. 4 without permission after a weekend visit.

The 37-year-old computer expert will be sentenced next month to 45 days in jail and five years of probation. He faced four years in prison if convicted after trial.

Hyett and 31-year-old Joshua Glazer married in a synagogue in Brookline, Mass., in May 2004 on the first day Massachusetts’ same-sex marriage law took effect.

After Hyett and Glazer broke up last year, Glazer got custody of their son.

Hyett was arrested Aug. 22 in Boston as he arrived from Tel Aviv.

PITTSBURGH (AP) – The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church says there will be a vote this week at a meeting of the national House of Bishops on whether to remove Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh ministry.

The step comes as the Diocese of Pittsburgh nears an Oct. 4 vote on whether to secede from the Episcopal Church for a more conservative alignment.

A pastoral letter from Duncan indicated that he would abide by the Sept. 11 vote of the House of Bishops, but that he doesn’t believe it can stop the diocesan effort to secede.

The Pittsburgh diocese voted in November to realign with the 77-million-member Anglican Communion, which believes the Bible forbids gay relationships, while a majority in the Episcopal Church does not.

PITTSBURGH (AP) – The University of Pittsburgh is broadening its anti-discrimination policy to include the way people express their gender identity through clothes and appearance.

The university’s anti-discrimination already covers sexual orientation.

The vice president of the university’s Rainbow Alliance, which advocates for gay, bisexual and transgender students, says the changes extend that policy to “anyone whose gender identity does not match their assigned sex at birth.”

Rainbow Alliance vice president Kelly Coburn says that would include people whose wardrobe or appearance “isn’t what most people would expect of their sex.”

A university spokesman says the new policy will also apply to university housing assignments.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – New estimates of HIV cases in South Carolina shows the infection rate among blacks is higher than for all other races combined.

The estimates released last week by state Department of Health and Environmental Control also show that men are infected at nearly twice the rate of women.

The estimates come from an analysis of repeat blood tests and testing history from people who initially were diagnosed in 2006. Before the state could only count the number of cases detected not track the true number of new infections.

The number of cases detected has declined steadily over the past several years.

DHEC estimates there were 990 new cases in 2006, while the number of people diagnosed that year was 777.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – A member of the state Human Rights Commission quit at the request of Gov. Chris Gregoire after an audit showed improper use of rental cars and a state credit card.

Jerry Hebert of Poulsbo disputes the audit and says no taxpayer dollars were spent improperly. He says he was targeted because he is openly gay.

Gregoire’s legislative director Marty Brown asked Hebert to step down and received his resignation Aug. 6.

Hebert told The Olympian newspaper that the investigation was slanted. His claim that he was targeted because he was gay was condemned by the former commission chairman, Reiko Callner, who called it ridiculous.