TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) – Nearly 1,000 people marched in downtown Tucson Friday night to protest Arizona voters’ approval of a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

More protests were held across the country on Saturday over a California vote that also banned same-sex marriage. In Phoenix, an estimated 2,000 people marched for gay rights in a rally that began at the Phoenix City Hall and ended at the State Capitol.

In Tucson, members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community marched from the city’s El Presidio Park to a nearby development. Next to the park, dozens of heterosexual couples were being married in the Pima County courthouse.

March leaders vowed not to remain silent about their lifestyles and families.

Proposition 102 was approved by 55 percent of the state’s voters on Nov. 4. Only Pima County voters disapproved of the measure.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Five civil rights groups are seeking to have California’s new same-sex marriage ban annulled on the grounds that Proposition 8 threatens the legal standing of all minority groups, not just gays.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund, Asian Pacific American Legal Center and two other groups asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to issue a stay preventing the ballot initiative approved by voters last week from taking effect.

The petition is the fourth seeking to have the measure invalidated. But it’s the first to argue that the court should step in because the same-sex marriage ban sets a constitutional precedent that could be used to undermine the rights of racial minorities.

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) – A lesbian mother in Fresno says she was forced to resign from her position as president of the parent-teacher association at her son’s Catholic school after she spoke out against banning same-sex marriage.

Robin McGehee, who enrolled her son Sebastian at St. Helens Catholic School, says she went to a vigil for the “No on Proposition 8” campaign last Thursday. After that, a priest from the Diocese of Fresno told her to step down because she had gone against church teachings.

The PTA’s vice president, Tiffany Rodriquez, confirmed that McGehee was removed. Rodriquez herself resigned in protest of her removal.

The school directed inquiries to Rick Sexton of the Office of Catholic Education, who said he couldn’t discuss the issue due to privacy concerns.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Gay rights groups in California may ask voters to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage they approved last week if legal challenges to Proposition 8 are unsuccessful.

Couples who missed the chance to wed and others have filed petitions asking the California Supreme Court to throw out the measure on the grounds that voters did not have authority to enact such a sweeping constitutional change.

In an e-mail to supporters Wednesday, Equality California executive director Geoffrey Kors said same-sex marriage advocates would collect signatures for a ballot initiative to reverse the ban in two years if the lawsuits fail.

“We will go back to the ballot only after we have exhausted our legal avenues and after we have a majority of voters with us,” Kors said. “We hope we don’t have to go back to the ballot. These things shouldn’t be decided by voters.”

Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that overruled the state Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage, passed 52 percent to 48 percent. The court has not indicated when it would decide whether to take up the cases seeking to invalidate the measure.

California election law does not limit the number of times voters can be asked to decide the same issue, meaning opponents and supporters of same-sex marriage could keep sponsoring competing measures as long as they secure enough signatures to qualify them for the ballot.

LAS VEGAS (AP) – Comedian Wanda Sykes says the passage of a same-sex marriage ban in California has led to her be more outspoken about being gay.

“Everybody that knows me personally, they know I’m gay. But that’s the way people should be able to live their lives,” she said.

Sykes, who is known for her feisty and blunt style, said the passage of California’s Proposition 8 made her feel like she was “attacked.”

“Now, I gotta get in their face,” she said. “I’m proud to be a woman. I’m proud to be a black woman, and I’m proud to be gay.”

Sykes’ appearance at a Las Vegas gay rights rally surprised organizers. She was in town performing at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

RENO, Nev. (AP) – A 43-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the June strangulation of a man he met hours before at a downtown Reno gay bar.

Washoe County District Judge Janet Berry handed down the sentence Friday to Karl Schenker of Massachusetts, who earlier pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the June killing of 30-year-old Brent Peeck.

Authorities say Schenker placed Peeck’s body in a bathtub filled with water following the killing. They say he gave different versions for why he killed Peeck, and he later claimed Peeck committed suicide.

Defense lawyer Jennifer Lunt says Schenker suffered from hydrocephalus, a neurological disorder due to abnormal amounts of fluid in the brain.

She says his criminal history began after he suffered a head injury following a car crash when he was 19 or 20.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The group that helped legalize same-sex marriage in two New England states wants to do the same in the other four by the year 2012.

GLAD – which stands for Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders – announced the campaign Tuesday, the fifth anniversary of the key court decision legalizing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. GLAD also backed the case that led Connecticut to start allowing same-sex couples to marry this month.

Executive Director Lee Swislow says that by using know-how and experience from those fights, it wants to bring around Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island by 2012.

GLAD says it will work in the courts and with groups that support same-sex marriage in each of those states.

DELAWARE, Ohio (AP) – A jury in central Ohio found a man guilty of felonious assault Friday for not telling a girlfriend he has the virus that causes AIDS.

Peter Ayala, 45, was charged in June under a state law making it a felony for a person who has tested positive for HIV to conceal it from a sexual partner. Following the verdict, Delaware County Common Pleas Judge Everett Krueger sentenced Ayala to five years in prison.

Prosecutors said that, from January through October 2006, Ayala kept his diagnosis a secret from a woman he dated and had a sexual relationship with.

Ayala, formerly of Delaware County, testified Nov. 13 that he did not hide his diagnosis from the woman. Public Defender Brian Jones said the allegation could not be proved because there was no hard evidence.

But a Delaware police detective testified that Ayala disclosed his status in 2007 in a separate criminal case and said he had not told anyone but his mother.

Ayala responded that he had misspoken at that time.

HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) – A 20-year-old woman says she was beaten with a rock after she told a young man that she was gay.

Washington County sheriff’s deputies said the woman was walking along a street in Aloha on Nov. 11 when a young man asked for a cigarette.

The woman said the man asked whether she was gay and became angry when she told him that she was.

Deputies said the two struggled, she fell, he beat her with the rock and his fists, and then she escaped.

The suspect was described as white, 16 to 22 years old, about 6 feet tall and slender with very large ears.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Vermont state Sen. John Campbell says he’s going to introduce a same-sex marriage bill when the Legislature convenes in January.

Campbell says same-sex marriage is an important issue for many Vermonters, but he calls it a political land mine.

Since 2000 Vermont has allowed same-sex couples to be joined in civil unions.

In April, a commission of legislative leaders formed to study whether Vermont should go beyond civil unions and enact same-sex marriage issued a report supporting same-sex marriage, but stopped short of recommending such a step.

Campbell says a same-sex marriage bill probably wouldn’t go far unless it was supported by Gov. Jim Douglas.

A Douglas spokesman didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.