LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – The Arkansas Republican Party’s chair on Monday defended raising a lesbian lawmaker’s sexuality as an issue, but also praised her as “admirable” and a “very fine Christian person.”

At a joint appearance with the Democratic Party’s chair, Doyle Webb faced questions over why he’s brought up the fact that state Rep. Kathy Webb is a lesbian at events while he’s criticized Democrats.

Doyle Webb said Kathy Webb, a Democrat from Little Rock who is vice chair of the Joint Budget Committee, could use her position to try to repeal an initiated act banning unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children.

“It is my belief that if she is elevated to the position of co-chairman of joint budget, she could use that influence to support positions that Republicans and conservatives are opposed to,” the GOP chair said at the Political Animals Club luncheon at the Governor’s Mansion.

Doyle Webb compared bringing up the lawmaker’s sexuality to newspaper reports that mention the fact that Kathy Webb is the first openly gay person serving in the state Legislature. The two Webbs are not related.

“I certainly didn’t think it was anything inappropriate,” he said.

The GOP chair, however, also offered some praise for the Democratic lawmaker.

“She seems to me to be a very admirable public servant that represents the people of her district very well and a very fine Christian person,” Doyle Webb said.

Democratic Party Chair Todd Turner praised Webb and said that he hoped that the personal lives of lawmakers would not be an issue in the coming election.

“I hope we will judge them by the work that they do for the people of this state,” Turner said.

At the start of the luncheon, Webb was asked to stand up so she could be introduced to the GOP chair. She said afterward that she planned to have coffee soon with Doyle Webb to talk about his comments.

“I’m sorry the whole thing has come up in the first place, because I don’t think it’s relevant and I don’t like attack politics in this way, things that are divisive,” she said. “I don’t think it’s been helpful to the issues debate.”

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) – The pastor of a San Marino church has said he will not perform any more wedding ceremonies in California until the state’s same-sex marriage ban is overturned.

The Rev. Art Cribbs, pastor of the 60-member San Marino Congregational United Church of Christ, says he has been marrying couples for more than 20 years, but the wedding ceremony he performed on May 23 would be his last until same-sex couples are given the same right.

Speaking to reporters and a small crowd of church members Friday, Cribbs said he felt Proposition 8, upheld Tuesday by the state Supreme Court, crossed a boundary between religion and civil law.

San Marino is about 10 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

DENVER (AP) – Jury selection is under way in the murder trial of a former gay porn actor accused of killing a Denver businessperson.

Twenty-seven-year-old Timothy J. Boham is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in the shooting death of John Kelso more than 2 1/2 years ago.

A housekeeper found the 43-year-old Kelso dead in the bathtub of his home on Nov. 13, 2006. Kelso was the president of Professional Recovery Systems, a Denver collection agency.

Previously released court documents indicate Boham told his mother and sister he tried to rob Kelso of $400,000 he thought Kelso kept in a safe, but that Boham said his gun fired accidentally.

Boham was arrested in Arizona three days later.

Boham appeared in films in 2004-05 under the name Marcus Allen.

PLYMOUTH, Maine (AP) – A leader of efforts to repeal Maine’s new same-sex marriage law through a people’s veto referendum says nearly 5,000 petitions have been distributed so volunteers can collect signatures.

Rev. Bob Emrich told the Bangor Daily News that 8,000 petitions have been printed so far. To place the repeal question on a statewide ballot, petitioners must gather 55,087 signatures of registered voters.

Emrich, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Plymouth, is suggesting people have an open house and invite friends and neighbors to sign a petition.

Members of EqualityMaine, which led a coalition supporting the bill, will hold meetings Monday evening in Bangor and later this week in Portland, Lewiston-Auburn and York County to brief volunteers on the people’s veto process and continue identifying voters who support same-sex marriage.

HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) – The Reformed Church in America takes up gay issues and an apartheid-era anti-racism statement at a general meeting this week in Holland.

The 166,000-member church opens its General Synod on Thursday.

The agenda includes adoption of a document known as the Belhar Confession. It was drafted in 1982 during the struggle against the white supremacist system of apartheid in South Africa.

The church’s Web site says the statement was an “outcry of faith” and “call for faithfulness and repentance.”

The South African black rights leader Allan Boesak led the campaign for the Belhar Confession.

Last year, Boesak quit the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa after that synod rejected his assertion the Belhar supports full church participation of gays.

Church officials say consideration of the Belhar Confession could feed into the debate over homosexuality and the church.

“I’ve had many conversations with people across the denomination who are worried about that,” synod President the Rev. Carol Bechtel told The Grand Rapids Press. She is a Western Theological Seminary professor.

Bechtel said the drafters of the statement “very deliberately left out the word ‘apartheid’ because they didn’t want it eternally moored in that specific situation.”

“One of the things I noticed in my travels is how the Belhar is not confined to the original context that gave it birth,” she said.

Gay issues are directly on the synod’s agenda in a report on a three-year dialogue on homosexuality. The report calls for continued discussion.

“We talked,” Bechtel said. “We’ve learned a lot about how to talk. And we need to keep talking. That will frustrate some people at both ends of the spectrum, but this is where the Belhar is relevant.

“It counsels a kind of loving conversation that’s firm, but open, as opposed to just lobbing Bible verses at each other. We’re being called to genuine engagement and a patience with each other that is borne of a concern for unity and reconciliation.”

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The House and Senate vote Wednesday on compromise language to strengthen protections for churches, their employees and religious groups that object to same-sex marriage.

Gov. John Lynch demanded the protections to get his signature on legislation that would make New Hampshire the sixth state to allow same-sex couples to marry.

The House rejected language Lynch proposed by two votes last month. The compromise adds a sentence specifying that all religious organizations, associations or societies have exclusive control over their religious doctrines, policies, teachings and beliefs on marriage.

It also clarifies that church-related organizations that serve charitable or educational purposes are exempt from having to provide insurance and other benefits to same-sex spouses of employees.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – The Evangelical Church in America’s South Dakota Synod voted Saturday to urge the church’s highest governing body to keep its policy that would allow only celibate gay clergy to serve.

The vote was 362-233 against a recommendation to allow noncelibate gay clergy.

Those at the gathering at Augustana College over the weekend represented the state’s 253 ELCA congregations.

The ELCA has considered whether to permit noncelibate gay clergy for about 10 years. A task force recommends that local congregations be given the power to decide whether to allow them.

The proposal will be voted on in August by the Churchwide Assembly.