CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – Two months after the Iowa Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, the number of applications is climbing in parts of eastern Iowa.

County recorders say 100 same-sex marriage applications have been issued in Johnson County and another 71 in Linn County. Recorders say almost 75 percent of the applicants are women.

Recorders say in about 30 percent of applications, both partners are from out of state.

In April, Linn County recorded 182 marriage applications overall, up from 136 applications a year ago. But those numbers didn’t carry through in May, when there were four fewer applications for marriage than in 2008.

WILLIAMSBURG, Ky. (AP) – A Texas church youth choir has diverted a planned mission trip after being told it’s not welcome to perform and work in a Kentucky Baptist mission program.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the Broadway Baptist Church Chapel Choir, made up of high schoolers, was informed Monday that it was “uninvited” to participate in the University of the Cumberlands’ Mountain Outreach program. Officials at the school in Williamsburg declined to comment Thursday.

The Southern Baptist Convention voted last week to sever ties with Broadway Baptist Church of Fort Worth because it said the church did not adhere to the language in the denomination’s constitution calling for churches not to “approve or endorse homosexual behavior.” The choir will instead travel to Tennessee to First Baptist Church of Nashville.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – The Springfield City Council is looking into eliminating an unenforced local ordinance making it illegal to entice a member of the same gender to engage in sexual activity in a public place.

The city says it already only enforces a law that makes it illegal for anyone to engage in sexual activity in any public place.

Council member Doug Burlison has requested the 1976 ordinance be removed.

The vice president of the local Gay and Lesbian Organization, Jim Wooten, says getting rid of the rule would be “another steppingstone to our equal rights.”

City Attorney Dan Wichmer has been asked to draw up language to remove the ordinance.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – A Mid Missouri group says the region has seen an 18 percent rise in people seeking treatment for AIDS and HIV.

RAIN-Central Missouri handles case management for patients. It has added 58 clients in the 12-month period that ended in May. Those clients have either tested positive or have begun seeking services.

The group also enrolled its youngest HIV-positive client, a 16-year-old girl.

RAIN’s executive director, Cale Mitchell, says his organization has made an effort to offer tests at gatherings of college students and at events such as Pridefest and Earth Day.

This led to the group administering 15 percent more HIV tests in 2008 than in past years.

NEW YORK (AP) – Two young women have been named best couple at their Bronx high school.

Seniors Vikky Cruz and Deoine Scott beat out two opposite-sex couples for the honor at Mott Haven Village Preparatory High School.

Cruz, who’s 17, says she was scared at first to enter the contest because she wasn’t sure how people would react. At the last minute, she scratched out “boy” and wrote in “girl” on the ballot. Supporters followed suit.

She and Scott, who’s 18, got four times the number of votes as the other nominees.

The couple started dating when they were sophomores.

NEW YORK (AP) – A Brooklyn teenager convicted of fatally stabbing a man in what prosecutors initially said was an anti-gay hate crime has been sentenced to 23 years to life in prison.

Nineteen-year-old Omar Willock was sentenced Monday in the 2007 killing of Robert Duncanson. Willock was found guilty in March of second-degree murder.

A judge threw out a murder as hate crime charge after witnesses failed to support allegations that bias was the primary motivation for the attack.

Prosecutors say Willock shouted anti-gay remarks at Duncanson when they passed each other on a Crown Heights street on May 12, 2007. They say the two got into a fist fight, and that Willock pulled a knife and stabbed Duncanson four times in the back.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Gay and lesbian Mennonites dressed in bright pink have gathered with others outside the church’s biannual convention in Columbus to criticize its leaders for trying to push them out.

About 100 ministers and lay people prayed, sang hymns and spoke of feeling ostracized from the church at the protest in downtown Columbus on Thursday. The “pink Menno’’ campaign is an effort to get the church to address the deeply divisive issue of allowing homosexuality within its congregations.

The Rev. Cindy Lapp, pastor of Hyattsville Mennonite Church in Maryland, says her congregation has lost its voting rights within the church for welcoming gays and lesbians

Nearly 1,400 Mennonite ministers and church members have signed a letter voicing their support of the campaign.

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Twenty years after its county seat of Pittsburgh passed a similar law, Allegheny County is banning discrimination in employment and housing based on sexual orientation.

The Allegheny County Council passed such a bill by a vote of 8-6 on Wednesday night. County Executive Dan Onorato says he will sign it.

The bill contains an exemption for fraternal, religious, charitable and sectarian organizations.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) – An attorney for veterans who were possibly exposed to HIV and other infections at three Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals says his clients are waiting to hear if they will be compensated for mistakes that led to congressional hearings and new VA spending on patient safety.

The VA isn’t saying, yet.

Nashville lawyer Mike Sheppard represents about 50 veterans and describes that filing process as cumbersome, particularly for veterans who have tested positive for HIV and hepatitis.

The VA’s Web site shows that a seventh veteran has tested positive for HIV among the former patients exposed to mistakes with rigging or cleaning endoscopic equipment at VA hospitals in Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Miami and Augusta, Ga.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – A man hospitalized after a raid at a Fort Worth gay bar says he’s still nursing injuries from the incident now that he’s home.

Chad Gibson had bruises, muscle strain and bleeding in his brain after his arrest more than a week ago on suspicion of public intoxication at the Rainbow Lounge.

Police have said the 26-year-old injured himself when he fell and hit his head. Witnesses say officers slammed him into the wall and floor and tackled other patrons who were arrested that night.

Police say some of the bar patrons made sexual gestures toward the officers and allege Gibson grabbed a Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission officer’s groin. In interviews after his release from the hospital Sunday, Gibson denied groping the officer.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – Fort Worth police have temporarily stopped working with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

Police Chief Jeff Halstead’s decision comes nearly a week after several Fort Worth officers helped some TABC agents inspect a gay bar where one man suffered a severe head injury.

The TABC has said the man was in the custody of one of its agents – and has started an internal investigation to find out exactly how he was injured.

Halstead said he wants to learn more about the events early Sunday at the Rainbow Lounge, and about the historical relationship between the TABC and his department.

Halstead also said he’ll make sure officers are trained for dealing with different groups, specifically the gay and lesbian community.

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) – The newest inpatient mental health and addiction program at Brattleboro Retreat is the first in New England designed exclusively for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals.

The new unit, which opens Tuesday, will include 16 beds at the 175-year-old psychiatric hospital. Clients will receive the same psychiatric care offered throughout the rest of the hospital, but all the doctors and support staff have specialized training in working with the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities.

The Brattleboro Reformer reports that the Retreat started considering the unit about a year ago. In the coming months, it also plans to introduce a program serving police officers, firefighters and other uniformed workers.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The nation’s top military officer said Sunday he has advised President Barack Obama to move “in a measured way” in changing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military.

Obama as a candidate pledged to end the ban. As president, he has not said when or how he will take steps to do so, drawing criticism from gay rights activists and others. The president has pointed out that Congress in 1993 made into law a policy begun by President Bill Clinton.

“It’s very clear what President Obama’s intent here is. He intends to see this law change,” Adm. Mike Mullen, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“I’ve had conversations with him about that. What I’ve discussed in terms of the future is I think we need to move in a measured way,” Mullen said.

Mullen said he has discussed with his staff what steps might be taken to implement a change in the policy.

“I haven’t done any kind of extensive review. And what I feel most obligated about is to make sure I tell the president, you know, give the president my best advice, should this law change, on the impact on our people and their families at these very challenging times,” he said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last week that he has lawyers studying ways the law might be selectively enforced as part of an effort to find “a more humane way” to apply the law until it is changed.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Obama administration is not fighting a nearly $500,000 judgment for a Library of Congress hiree who lost the job while undergoing a gender change from a man to a woman.

The Justice Department let the deadline to appeal the decision pass Tuesday, a day after President Barack Obama hosted gay supporters at the White House and promised to be their “champion.” Some activists have complained he has not led on their causes, including ending the ban on gays in the military.

Diane Schroer, a retired Army Special Forces commander had been offered a job at the Library of Congress when he was a man, David Schroer. The job was rescinded the day after Schroer told a library official he was going to have an operation to become a woman.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Schroer’s behalf in 2005, and two months ago a federal judge awarded her $491,190 in back pay and damages because of sex discrimination.

The Library of Congress and President George W. Bush’s Justice Department had argued unsuccessfully that discrimination because of transsexuality was not illegal sex discrimination under the Civil Rights Act.

Schroer said she saw the administration’s decision not to appeal as a recognition that transgender discrimination must end and “gives me renewed hope and restores some of my shaken faith in what our country stands for.”