DENVER (AP) – A bill making it easier for gays and lesbians to leave property to their partners and visit each other in the hospital is closer to approval in the Colorado Legislature.

The measure was approved by the House Judiciary Committee Feb. 16 and sent to the full House for debate.

It would allow any two unmarried people to sign up to be the other’s designated beneficiaries.

Rep. Bob Gardner, a Republican from Colorado Springs, strongly opposed the bill, calling it an attempt to circumvent Colorado voters, who rejected civil unions and defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

“This is a de facto civil union bill,” Gardner told the committee.

Rep. Mark Ferrandino, a Denver Democrat who is openly gay, rejected that suggestion, telling the committee, “voters have taken the ability of same-sex marriage away from us.”

“We are basically giving them rights, no more rights than anyone else in Colorado,” Ferrandino said.

Under the bill, beneficiaries would get a range of rights, including hospital visitations. Others include being able to decide funeral arrangements and inheriting property when there’s no will.

It’s backed by Equal Rights Colorado, a gay and lesbian advocacy group. Supporters say it would also help senior citizens who don’t marry for financial reasons and people who can’t afford a lawyer to do estate planning.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – A Senate committee has rejected a proposal to add sexual orientation discrimination to the Idaho Human Rights Act.

Supporters who packed the committee room were angered or frustrated by the Senate State Affairs Committee’s decision Friday to kill the measure.

Sen. Nicole LeFavour, the state’s only openly gay lawmaker, says the absence of language in Human Rights Act preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation gives some the impression it’s acceptable.

The Boise Democrat says there are more than 40,000 gay, lesbian and transgender people in Idaho.

Idaho’s 1968 Human Rights Act forbids workplace and housing discrimination based on race, sex, religion, color or national origin.

The measure defeated Friday would have prohibited discrimination in employment, education and housing on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) – A 43-year-old Hutchinson man with HIV is being tried on felony charges that he had sex with a teenager, even though he knew he was infected.

Reno County District Attorney Keith Schroeder told jurors Feb. 10 that Harlin Bailey and the 18-year-old boy on three occasions performed oral sex on each other.

Defense attorney Kelly Driscoll said Bailey revealed he had the virus that causes AIDS before any sexual activity took place, and that Bailey did not receive oral sex in order to avoid infection. The alleged victim confirmed Driscoll’s statement regarding the sexual encounter.

The teen’s mother testified that her son told her about the sexual activity after she returned home to find him in the bathroom, wearing a towel, with Bailey. She said the boy was in special education classes at the time.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) – Legislators are again being asked to establish a statute that would outlaw discrimination against GLBT residents in Montana.

House Bill 252 would add new categories to the law that bans discrimination for reasons such as race or religion.

Similar measures have failed for several consecutive legislative sessions, and the new one faces a tough road in a sharply divided Legislature.

Supporters say it is wrong that businesses, landlords and others legally may discriminate against GLBT people.

Opponents say the proposed law would unnecessarily confer special rights on certain groups, and would be unfair to some Christians who find homosexuality immoral.

NEW YORK (AP) – A sergeant formerly assigned to New York City’s Police Academy has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a young boy for several years.

Jaime Katz pleaded guilty to second-degree sodomy and endangering the welfare of a child. Prosecutors said the sex abuse began in 2003 when the boy was 12 and continued into 2007.

Katz, who’s 39, was a police officer for 10 years. He is a former president of the Gay Officers Action League. He will be sentenced March 31.

Katz has pleaded guilty to similar charges involving the same boy in Rockland County. He is to receive a five-year sentence there March 23.

Prosecutors say some encounters with the boy occurred at a Katz relative’s home in Bergen County, N.J.

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – North Dakota’s Senate wants to extend the state’s anti-discrimination protections to gays and lesbians.

Senators voted 27-19 to approve a bill that covers discrimination complaints dealing with employment, housing, credit, insurance and public accommodations. It prohibits discrimination in those areas based on a person’s sexual orientation.

The bill now goes to the state house.

Before the Feb. 18 vote, senators agreed to change the bill to exempt religious organizations from some of its provisions.

North Dakota law already bans discrimination by race, color, sex, religion, age, national origin and disability. The law also prohibits discrimination based on whether a person is on public assistance or is married or single.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Presbyterian church leaders from central and southern Ohio have approved the idea of clergy members who are in same-sex relationships.

Pastors and elders from the Presbytery of Scioto Valley voted Feb. 18 to amend the Presbyterian church constitution, which now states clergy must be in a faithful marriage between a man and a woman or be celibate.

An elder from the First Presbyterian Church of Waverly spoke of his gay son and said it was time to end discrimination. But a pastor from Lewis Center opposing the amendment said the church must stand up for the Bible’s teachings about marriage and sexuality.

The Ohio church body is one of at least 10 that have votedf or the change. At least 25 have rejected it. Dozens more have yet to vote.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A gay magazine says the young man at the center of a sex scandal that nearly derailed Portland Mayor Sam Adams has agreed to appear nude for the publication.

Unzipped magazine said on its Web site it has just completed “an erotic photo session” with Beau Breedlove, with nude photos and an interview to appear in the May issue.

After Adams took office in January, Portland was in turmoil over the mayor’s admission he had lied during the election campaign when he denied having sex with Breedlove.

Both Breedlove and Adams have said they met when Breedlove was 17 but did not have sex until Breedlove was 18.

Despite calls for his resignation and an investigation, Adams has decided to remain in office. Efforts to reach Breedlove were unsuccessful.

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) – Jury selection has begun in the case of a Virginia man accused of killing a rival gay porn producer in his northeastern Pennsylvania home.

Luzerne County prosecutors say 27-year-old Harlow Cuadra and another man killed Bryan Kocis in his Dallas, Pa., home, then set his house on fire. Jury selection began Tuesday.

Cuadra’s co-defendant, 35-year-old Joseph Kerekes, pleaded guilty in December to second-degree murder and got life in prison without parole. Kerekes said he would not testify against Cuadra.

Cuadra and Kerekes are both from Virginia Beach, Va.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Same-sex couples would be allowed to divorce in Rhode Island under legislation introduced in the Assembly.

The bill is in response to a 2007 state Supreme Court decision that blocked a lesbian couple who wed in Massachusetts from getting divorced in Rhode Island, where the women lived.

Sen. Erin Lynch, a Warwick Democrat and the bill’s sponsor, said same-sex couples are sometimes forced to stay married when they don’t want to be.