LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – A conservative group behind a successful ballot measure banning unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children can help defend the ban in a lawsuit, a judge ruled Friday.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza said he believes allowing the Arkansas Family Council’s request to help the state defend the law would allow the case to be “fully developed.”

“I’m a firm believer that you can’t be afraid of what someone is going to say,” Piazza said.

Byron Babione, an attorney for the family council, said it had a unique interest in the case because it pushed to get the measure on the November ballot and mobilized volunteers during its successful fall campaign.

He noted that Gov. Mike Beebe and state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, both Democrats, opposed the measure, and that McDaniel’s political action committee gave $1,000 to a group that campaigned against the restriction.

“Nobody really likes to have their interests represented by somebody who doesn’t believe in their cause,” said Babione, who is senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian legal organization.

Piazza said his decision was not a reflection of how he felt about McDaniel’s ability to handle the case.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state on behalf of more than a dozen families seeking to overturn the law. The families argue that it violates their rights and that the way it was presented to voters on the ballot was misleading.

An attorney for the plaintiffs, Stacey Friedman, argued that the conservative group should not be allowed to intervene in the lawsuit because its defense of the law could have been heard by filing a friend-of-the-court brief.

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) – The attorney for a murder suspect says his client killed the victim because the man had allegedly sexually assaulted him.

Attorney Michael Aed told jurors that 36-year-old Fernando Limon killed in self-defense in 2001 after he awakened to find 32-year-old Jorge Perez naked from the waist down.

Limon’s trial began Monday in Fresno County Superior Court.

According to testimony, Perez picked up Limon, whom he found walking in Fresno, had lunch and took him to sit in the sun next to a river. He said he later woke up in Perez’ bedroom.

Aed said his client “feels violated because he’s not gay.”

Limon was arrested in 2005 while serving time in Corcoran State Prison after a bloody palm print linked him to the scene.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Connecticut lawmakers plan a public hearing on updating state laws to reflect last year’s state Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriages.

The hearing is expected to attract scores of speakers from both sides of the issue.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled last October that same-sex couples have the right to wed rather than accept a civil-union law designed to give them the same rights as married couples.

The proposed legislation would update state marriage laws to remove gender references, and would transform existing civil unions into legally recognized marriages as of October 2010.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) – An attorney for two gay students at a north Florida high school told a federal judge they should be allowed to have a Gay-Straight Alliance on campus, while a lawyer for the Nassau County School Board says the group’s name is against school policy.

Yulee High School students Hannah Page and Jacob Brock, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, are challenging a decision by the school board that prevents them from having the club, which promotes anti-bullying and tolerance toward gays.

School board attorney Frank Sheppard says if the group will change its name, it could meet on campus.

U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams says he will quickly rule on the students’ request to allow them to meet while the case makes its way to trial.

BALTIMORE (AP) – One woman is dead after a triple shooting outside a lesbian nightclub in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood, and police are looking for a female shooter.

It happened around 2 a.m. Saturday outside the Coconuts Cafe. Officer Nicole Monroe, a police spokesperson, says an altercation on the dance floor spilled out on the street.

Monroe says a woman who had been bumped on the dance floor earlier in the evening emerged from a vehicle with a metal pipe and attacked a woman who had bumped her. A melee ensued, and the attacker returned to the car and retrieved a handgun. She shot the woman she had beaten with the pipe, then shot another woman who was sitting in a car.

Monroe says the initial victim tried to run after being beaten and shot, but the shooter chased her and shot her again. The victim died at a hospital.

A third woman was wounded by stray gunfire.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – A Maryland Senate panel is scheduled to hear testimony on a measure that would prohibit discrimination against transgender people.

The bill is sponsored by Montgomery County Sen. Richard Madaleno Jr. and would protect transgender residents from discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations. Testimony will be heard on Wednesday.

Thirteen states, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and 90 other local jurisdictions including Montgomery County, have banned discrimination against transgender people, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

NEW YORK (AP) – Slain gay-rights activist Harvey Milk is being honored posthumously by a network of gay and lesbian organizations in his native New York.

The Long Island Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Services Network says Stuart Milk will accept an award on his uncle’s behalf at a gala on April 18.

Milk was born in Woodmere and went to high school in Bay Shore. He later became the country’s first openly gay man to hold public office when he was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors in 1977.

In November 1978, Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone were fatally shot by Dan White, a city supervisor who had resigned.

Milk, the film based on his life, won an Oscar for actor Sean Penn and the award for best screenplay.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A House panel has unanimously passed a resolution urging lawmakers and other Utahns to be respectful even while disagreeing.

Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, wrote Senate Concurrent Resolution 2. He says he’s not calling on everyone to agree, but rather for people to discuss differences without using personal attacks.

The resolution now goes to the full House.

The bill already passed the Senate, where Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, voted for it. Buttars has been criticized this session for comments he made to a documentary filmmaker comparing gay activists to radical Muslims.

Rep. Neil Hansen, D-Ogden, says all Utahns should take the resolution to heart and see people as human beings, especially when it comes to the gay-rights movement.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) – The Washington, D.C., home regarded as the epicenter of the city’s gay-rights movement is being designated a historic landmark.

The home belongs to 83-year-old Franklin E. Kameny, who is considered the “father of gay activism” by the Historic Preservation Review Board.

Kameny fought in World War II, earned a doctorate and then moved to D.C. to work as an astronomer. But he was fired by the Army Map Service in 1957 for being gay.