SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Mayor Gavin Newsom is condemning the vandalism of a Catholic church in San Francisco.

Swastikas and graffiti were spray-painted on the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church Jan. 3 in an apparent protest of Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage in California.

Although prominent Catholic leaders supported Proposition 8, the targeted church is in the Castro District, San Francisco’s gay neighborhood.

Pastor Steve Meriweather told radio station KCBS-AM that his parishioners don’t support Proposition 8. “I think it’s unfortunate that they selected our community to attack,” he said, “because it’s the wrong one.”

In a statement, Newsom called the attack a “cowardly and criminal act.”

DENVER (AP) – The Episcopal Diocese of Colorado is ending its so-called “period of restraint” on ordaining gay priests.

Bishop Robert O’Neill ordained Mary Catherine Volland to the priesthood during a ceremony at St. John’s Cathedral on Jan. 3.

Volland, a longtime Colorado resident and partnered lesbian, had been a candidate for ordination in the Diocese of Minnesota. She will serve at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Denver.

The issue of gay priests has splintered the church nationwide. Beckett Stokes, spokeswoman for the 30,000 member Colorado diocese, said O’Neill had suspended gay ordination out of sensitivity for church factions strongly opposed to it. She says O’Neill is now deciding the matter on a case-by-case basis. Several Colorado congregations are served by gay priests.

SHELBYVILLE, Ky. (AP) – A central Kentucky pastor charged with sexually abusing a juvenile has told police he is HIV positive.

James H. Bell was arrested Dec. 30 after he went to the Shelby County Detention Center and spoke with police. An arrest citation says Bell told police he is HIV positive and had unprotected sex with a 15-year-old. The citation says Bell did not tell the juvenile he was carrying the virus.

State police say Bell told them he had sex with the minor “on multiple occasions” in 2007. The 47-year-old Bell is pastor of Refuge Temple Church of God in Christ in Shelby County.

He is charged with third-degree sodomy, sexual abuse and wanton endangerment. He remains in jail on a $50,000 bond. Shelby District Court deputy clerk Carolyn Peterson said Jan. 6 that the court has no information on Bell’s attorney.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) – Last week delivered another setback for a lesbian couple trying to get a family membership at the Rochester Athletic Club.

The Minneapolis Court of Appeals has upheld an Olmsted County judge’s ruling that the club did not discriminate against the women when it denied them a family membership.

Amy and Sarah Monson, a same-sex couple raising a daughter together, sued in 2007, claiming the club discriminated against them based on their sexual orientation, a violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

The club says it simply was following its policy to provide family rates only to married couples.

In 2007, Judge Kevin Lund found that the Monsons couldn’t prove that heterosexual unmarried couples were treated any differently than same-sex unmarried couples.

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) – New York authorities say a registered sex offender with AIDS is charged with reckless endangerment after being found during a traffic stop with a 16-year-old boy in his car.

The district attorney and police believe the boy may have been one of several victims with whom the suspect engaged in illegal sexual activity.

Robert Musmacker, a 36-year-old newspaper deliveryman from Oceanside, was held on $1 million bond after pleading not guilty Jan. 8 in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead. Musmaker’s attorney did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Musmaker’s 1991 sodomy conviction required him to register as a Level 3 sex offender.

His latest arrest was Dec. 28 on the Southern State Parkway in West Babylon.

According to prosecutors, Musmaker possessed AIDS medication and told police he has the disease.

ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) – The clergy at one Ashland church are refusing to sign marriage licenses until same-sex couples can legally tie the knot.

The Rev. Pam Shepherd and three retired clergy members who attend the Congregational United Church of Christ will still perform weddings. For the license, however, couples will have to see a judge or justice of the peace.

Shepherd told the Ashland Daily Tidings she made the decision after realizing that by signing the licenses she was inadvertently giving her approval to discrimination.

“Every time I sign a license, it’s like I’m saying, ‘OK,’ but it’s not OK,” she said.

Shepherd said she signed about five marriage licenses last year.

The clergy’s decision was announced last week with unanimous support from the Church Council to a congregation that is overwhelmingly straight, Shepherd said.

Her sermon on Sunday focused on marriage equality.

“I know a lot of other ministers in the community will disagree with us, but it grows out of our faithful reading of the Bible and our attempt to follow Jesus,” she said. “For us, it’s a faith issue. It’s not just a political stand.”

Connecticut and Massachusetts are the only states that permit same-sex marriage. A few states, including Oregon, allow civil unions or domestic partnerships that grant some rights of marriage.

Charles Harlow, one of the church’s retired clergy members, said the issue of same-sex marriage is about justice and equality.

“And I’m not against love,” he added. “I think we need more of it in the world, not less, and people shouldn’t be beating other people over the head because they like a person that is the same gender they are.”

SEATTLE (AP) – A federal grand jury in Seattle has charged two people in an alleged immigration fraud conspiracy, saying they advised straight immigrants to claim homosexuality in applying for political asylum.

Steven Mahoney and his wife, Helena, were arrested Jan. 6 and scheduled to make initial appearances at U.S. District Court in the afternoon.

Prosecutors say Steve Mahoney ran Mahoney and Associates in Kent, and held himself out as an expert in immigration affairs. They say the point was to make money by advising immigrants on how to stay in the U.S.

According to an indictment unsealed Jan. 6, the Mahoneys in at least three cases advised immigrants to falsely claim that they feared persecution for homosexuality if they returned to their home country.

The immigrants are identified by their initials only in the charging papers, and their home countries are not identified at all.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – State Sen. Ed Murray of Seattle and five other gay members of the Legislature are working on a bill that would expand the rights approved in the 2007 domestic-partnership law.

Nearly 5,000 couples have registered to claim rights such as hospital visits and community property. Murray wants to add pensions and parenting and tax issues.

Murray also told The Olympian he also plans to introduce a same-sex marriage bill but thinks it’s too early to push for full marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Opponents, including the Faith and Freedom Network, plan to fight the domestic-partnership and same-sex marriage bills. One network leader, Gary Randall, told The Olympian the bills would harm the traditional institution of marriage.