LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – A conservative group says it may ask Arkansas lawmakers to block the release of petition-signers’ personal information after a group posted the list of voters who had signed petitions to put adoption and foster parenting restrictions on last year’s ballot.

KnowThyNeighbor.org on April 28 posted a list of voters who signed petitions to put an initiated act banning unmarried couples from fostering or adopting children on the ballot. Voters approved the act, which took effect Jan. 1.

The Arkansas Family Council, which pushed for the act, complained that placing that list online violated the privacy of voters who signed petitions. The council says it will ask Attorney General Dustin McDaniel for an advisory opinion on whether the information can be released.

“If Arkansas doesn’t have a law prohibiting the release of petition-signers’ personal information, we will ask the Arkansas Legislature to pass such a law next session,” said Jerry Cox, the council’s director. “This would provide equal protection to any voters who sign a ballot-measure petition, regardless of cause.”

Cox said he didn’t know if the group would seek to bar the release of any information on petition-signers or push for restrictions on what information is released.

Gabe Holmstrom, a spokesperson for McDaniel’s office, declined to comment because a formal legal opinion request would likely be on its way to the attorney general’s office. Cox said the council is in the process of seeking lawmakers to formally request the legal opinion.

Tom Lang, KnowThyNeighbor.org’s director, said the Massachusetts-based group got the public records through the Arkansas secretary of state’s office. Lang said restricting the information about the petition-signers would be a violation of free speech.

“If anything, that is completely anti-American and I can’t imagine the Family Council would be able to muster any legislators to do anything as anti-American or anti-Democratic as that,” Lang said.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – The state Assembly will consider a bill as soon as this week that would require prison officials to take inmates’ gender identity into account in housing decisions.

The bill by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, a San Francisco Democrat, is supported by gay-rights groups. They cite studies showing that homosexual, bisexual or transgender inmates are more vulnerable to abuse.

Currently, state law requires officials to consider factors such as age, criminal history and mental health in deciding where to house inmates. The department’s policy is to classify inmates based on their physical gender, regardless of how they identify themselves.

A study released this week by the University of California, Irvine says transgender inmates, predominantly men who dress and act like women, are particularly likely to be assaulted.

DOVER, Del. (AP) – Delaware’s Transportation Secretary has apologized after a department newsletter on diversity offended minority employees by spelling out many of the slurs that it advised workers not to use.

Carolann Wicks said the Diversity Spotlight newsletter tried to directly address workplace issues by letting employees know what’s not acceptable.

The newsletter published a racial epithet often directed at blacks and derogatory terms for homosexuals and Asians, advising people not to use the words. And it specified offensive phrases not to use with gay, lesbian and transgender co-workers, as well as Asian, Hispanic and older employees.

Delaware NAACP President Charles Brittingham says the newsletter went too far but is moving in the right direction.

HONOLULU (AP) – Supporters of same-sex civil unions are still pushing for a vote on the issue with a petition signed by more than 7,300 people.

Gay-rights advocates delivered the petition April 29 to the office of Sen. Brian Taniguchi, head of the legislative committee that held up the measure.

The petition asks Taniguchi to waive the bill’s referral from his Senate Judiciary Committee so that it could get a full vote from the entire Senate.

The petitioners also are trying to exercise a rarely used rule that allows petitions to be read before the full 25-member Senate.

Civil unions legislation passed the state House earlier this year but failed to advance out of the Senate Judiciary Committee following a 3-3 vote. An effort to recall the bill to the full Senate fell short.

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) – A bill barring discrimination in Nevada based on sexual orientation won approval May 1 in the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee.

The panel’s vote advanced SB207, introduced by Sen. David Parks, D-Las Vegas, an openly gay state lawmaker, to the full Assembly for final legislative action. It already has won Senate approval.

Under SB207, the Nevada Equal Rights Commission would be required to investigate complaints filed by those reporting such discrimination.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – New Hampshire is a step closer to allowing same-sex marriage after a state Senate vote.

A bill the Senate passed April 30 would have gone to Gov. John Lynch, but senators changed the version that passed the House.

The changes include a provision that makes a distinction between religious and civil ceremonies and would allow churches to decide whether they will marry same-sex couples. The House rejected a similar proposal during its debate on the bill.

Lynch has said he believes the word “marriage” should be reserved for a man and a woman. He hasn’t said he would veto the bill.

If the bill becomes law, New Hampshire would be the fifth state to allow same-sex marriage. A defeat would frustrate activists’ efforts to extend same-sex marriage to all of New England.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – The state of New Mexico has agreed to offer health care coverage to the domestic partners of retired governmental and educational workers.

The change in policy will settle a lawsuit brought in 2007 by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of several same-sex couples.

Gov. Bill Richardson signed an executive order in 2003 extending health care benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian state employees. That did not apply to retirees because the state Retiree Health Care Authority governs medical insurance benefits to governmental retirees and their dependents.

The lawsuit in state district court in Albuquerque alleged the state violated constitutional guarantees of equal protection by providing dependent health insurance benefits to retirees with opposite-sex partners but not to those with same-sex partners.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A jury will hear about an alleged attack by parents on a man charged with two counts of child kidnapping and a count of burglary.

Defense attorneys have called the attack, in which no one has been charged, a hate crime against David J. Bell, who is gay, and his partner.

Police say Bell claimed he was at a neighbor’s Fourth of July party last year in South Salt Lake when he found two children awake and fussy. According to testimony, Bell told officers he wanted to take them to his house so they could sleep on the couch.

The children, ages 2 and 4, had already been removed from Bell’s home when up to five adults, who apparently didn’t know the children were not there anymore, allegedly kicked down his door. Bell’s throat and a toe were cut with a piece of broken glass and his head was smashed onto the sidewalk, causing hearing loss. His partner also was beaten.

Prosecutors told a 3rd District Court judge at a pretrial hearing that they are withdrawing an objection to jurors hearing about the attack.

Bell’s attorney, Susanne Gustin, called it a huge victory.

The child kidnapping charges are first-degree felonies. The burglary charge is a second-degree felony.