JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Two Florida high school students on Feb. 10 sued their school board because they were not allowed to form a club that promotes the tolerance of gays.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed the suit Feb. 10 in federal court on behalf of Yulee High School students Hannah Page, a freshman, and Jacob Brock, a junior.

The lawsuit claims violations of the First Amendment and the Federal Equal Access Act. The act requires schools to grant access and recognition to a Gay-Straight Alliance and other groups if the school allows any extracurricular group to meet on campus, said ACLU attorney Robert F. Rosenwald.

The lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction to allow the club to meet at Yulee High while the case makes its way to trial.

Page said the group just wants to meet like others do.

“We just want the club so that straight and gay kids can get together to talk about harassment and discrimination against gay kids in an open environment. The school is discriminating against us and that’s exactly the kind of thing we want to prevent,” she said.

John L. Ruis, the school district’s superintendent, said in a letter to Rosenwald that “a club highlighting sexual orientations will not be permitted as it would violate school board policy.” The Nassau County School Board was served with the lawsuit.

The ACLU recently won a similar case in Okeechobee. A judge there ruled schools must provide for the well-being of gay students and cannot discriminate against the Gay-Straight Alliance.

Rosenwald said the Okeechobee County School Board paid $326,000 in attorney fees in the case.

Yulee is about 25 miles north of Jacksonville.

HONOLULU (AP) – As gay activists across the country protest laws denying them the right to marry, Hawaii has moved a step closer to enacting same-sex civil unions.

The state House approved civil unions Thursday on a 33-17 vote, but the proposal faces a difficult fight in the state Senate, where opinion is more divided.

Four other states allow civil unions – Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey and New Hampshire.

Only Massachusetts and Connecticut allow same-sex marriage. California voters recently overturned a ruling allowing the practice there.

Hawaii voters passed the nation’s first “defense of marriage” constitutional amendment in 1998, which cleared the way for lawmakers to reserve marriage for opposite-sex couples.

However, it left the door open for civil unions.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – The Kansas Army National Guard has discharged its first gay soldier under the federal “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” policy.

Amy Brian, who served nine years in the guard, including a stint in Iraq, was investigated and “separated” last month after a civilian co-worker told authorities they had seen her kissing a woman in a Wal-Mart checkout line.

“I’d never really tried to hide my homosexuality to the close people I worked with,” Brian said. “And they didn’t seem to care or think any different of it.”

Brian joins almost 12,500 other lesbian, gay and bisexual service members whom the Pentagon has discharged from 1994 to 2007.

The Washington-based Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a nonprofit organization formed in response to the “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” policy, said women are discharged at a rate disproportionate to their presence in the military.

In 2003, for example, women made up 33 percent of all discharges tied to gay conduct but made up only 15 percent of all military personnel. Those numbers, based on the most recent statistics available, were gathered from the government under the Freedom of Information Act.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – A gay advocacy group says it fears Louisiana’s marriage and family commission, which met for the first time Feb. 5, would work to restrict gays, lesbians and same-sex couples’ right to adopt children.

Sen. Sharon Broome, the chairperson of the Commission on Marriage and Family, said she does not expect the panel to focus on adoption and dismissed the concern raised by the New Orleans-based Forum for Equality Louisiana.

“I don’t see adoption as part of our agenda, gay or not,” Broome, D-Baton Rouge, told reporters after the meeting.

The panel was created by former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, then kept alive last year by an executive order by Gov. Bobby Jindal. The commission’s duties include collecting data on the state’s two-parent and single-parent families, and to study ways to increase the percentage of Louisiana families that have two involved parents.

Kenny Tucker, New Orleans-based Forum for Equality’s chairperson, raised the adoption issue in a Jan. 28 letter to Broome, asking that the group be allowed to make a presentation at a commission meeting. He said his group seeks to protect the rights of all single parents, not just homosexuals.

Louisiana law already prohibits adoption by two people of the same gender. An individual homosexual can adopt.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) – Opponents of same-sex marriage turned out in force at a rally at the Augusta Civic Center as the Maine Legislature prepares to take up a bill to legalize such unions.

The Sunday night gathering was organized by the Family Research Council, a lobbying group that champions traditional marriage as a foundation of family life. The group estimates that nearly 1,000 people turned out at the rally.

The council’s president, Tony Perkins, said same-sex marriage is a national battle. He told the crowd that whenever people in a state are able to speak out, they say marriage should be between a man and a woman.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Dennis Damon of Trenton would legalize same-sex marriage and recognize same-sex marriages from other states.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – The first openly gay bishop in the U.S. Episcopal Church led a prayer in the Maryland Senate Feb. 2 in which he asked God to bless the legislators with “anger at discrimination in all its forms.”

The Rev. V. Gene Robinson also asked for the legislators to be blessed with “freedom from fear,” including fear of their next election and criticism from unpopular votes during the invocation prayer.

Robinson is a bishop in New Hampshire, but he is in Annapolis to lobby for a same-sex marriage bill and a measure that prohibits discrimination against transgender people.

Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller said he hasn’t had a chance to read either measure yet, but that based on past history, the bills might face difficulty in the Senate.

NEW YORK (AP) – An ex-girlfriend of Roberto Alomar has filed an explosive lawsuit, alleging the former baseball star insisted on having unprotected sex with her for four years despite having AIDS.

The lawsuit contains accusations that could not be corroborated but portray Alomar as someone who demanded sex without a condom despite showing obvious signs of HIV.

Ilya Dall is seeking at least $15 million in punitive damages from the 41-year-old former infielder. Alomar spent 17 years in the majors and was one of the game’s great second basemen.

Calls seeking comment from lawyers for Alomar and Dall were not immediately returned. Alomar lawyer Charles Bach told the New York Daily News the allegations are “frivolous and baseless.”

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Jefferson County Circuit Judge Randy Koschnick may find support among Christian conservatives in his bid for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Koschnick is running against Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson in the April 7 election.

He is an elder at an evangelical church that opposes abortion and gay rights and disavows evolution.

Koschnick says he respects precedent and his religious views would not affect his decisions on the court.