THARPTOWN, Ala. (AP) – A northwest Alabama school district reversed itself and won’t bar a high school student from bringing her girlfriend to the prom after the principal initially said the lesbian couple wouldn’t be permitted.

Cynthia Stewart, 17, told the TimesDaily, a Florence newspaper, that she asked to bring her girlfriend to the prom at Tharptown High School in Franklin County but was refused permission by the principal.

“All I want is to be able to be myself and go to my prom with the person I love, just like any other student wants to do,” said Stewart, who is on the committee planning the dance scheduled for March.

Stewart sought help from the American Civil Liberties Union, and school officials on Tuesday said they had reconsidered.

The school reviews all potential prom dates who, like Stewart’s girlfriend, live outside the regular attendance district. Assistant Superintendent Donald Borden said that process hasn’t begun but would include the young woman.

“If her date passes, she comes,” he said. The checks screen out troublemakers and students with documented behavioral problems.

ACLU attorney Hank Sherrod III said Stewart’s girlfriend “is a teenager with no problems that would keep her from being able to attend the prom.”

“We’re not asking for special treatment. We just want to be treated like everyone else,” he said.

Stewart said she hoped that raising the issue would change the way some people think about the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. She said there are other students at Tharptown High School who are gay.

“I’m not just doing this for me; I’m trying to help other kids in my situation,” Stewart said.

Kathy Baker, who is Stewart’s aunt and legal guardian, appealed the principal’s initial refusal to the school board last month. Sherrod said allowing Stewart to bring the date of her choice to the prom was the correct decision.

“This issue is going to be confronting a lot of conservative school districts more and more as this generation accepts people for who they are,” Sherrod said. “There is case law that makes right and wrong very clear.”

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – An Alabama legislator is picking up support for his bill to stop the state’s public universities from offering employee benefits to same-sex couples.

Rep. DuWayne Bridges, R-Valley, said he has prepared a bill for the legislative session beginning in January. The bill would prohibit public universities from receiving state funds if they offer benefits to same-sex partners.

“I don’t think universities should waste money by making a liberal or politically correct statement,” Bridges said.

His bill is aimed at two campuses of the University of Alabama System, which Bridges said are ignoring the intent of a 2006 amendment to Alabama’s constitution that banned same-sex marriages.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham on Oct. 1 began enrolling eligible adult domestic partners of either sex of faculty and staff in medical, dental and vision plans. The University of Alabama in Huntsville will extend benefits to domestic partners Jan. 1.

At the University of Alabama’s Tuscaloosa campus, President Robert Witt recently told the faculty that the policy is under consideration.

Auburn University does not offer domestic partner benefits, a spokesman said.

Dale Turnbough, a UAB spokeswoman, said offering the benefits helps UAB’s medical school compete with other top schools which routinely offer the benefits. She said partner benefits “create a positive, supportive and diverse work environment in which faculty and staff can excel.”

Republican Gov. Bob Riley “supports Rep. Bridges 100 percent,” Riley press secretary Todd Stacy told The Tuscaloosa News.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim James has also endorsed Bridges’ bill. Bridges said what the UA campuses are doing amounts to “tacit recognition of same-sex marriage and civil unions.”

State Rep. Patricia Todd, who described herself as Alabama’s “first openly gay legislator,” said many companies and universities are offering domestic partner benefits because they are expected by many top wage-earners.

“They’re only going to go someplace that has that kind of benefit,” Todd, D-Birmingham, told The Birmingham News.

According to the nonprofit organization Human Rights Campaign, 74 of the 130 universities on the U.S. News & World Report list of top schools offer domestic partner benefits.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – The California Attorney General’s office says that more gay and Jewish people were the victims of hate crimes last year even though the overall number of bias-related crimes declined slightly.

A report released Friday showed that in 2008 there were 1,397 crimes motivated by racial, religious and other forms of bias, a 2 percent drop from a year earlier.

More than half were based on a victim’s race or ethnicity and of these, the vast majority were directed against black people.

Hate crimes based on religious bias were the second most common.

In 2008, there were 184 assaults, threats, and other crimes directed at Jews, a 37 percent increase from the year before.

Incidents targeting gays and lesbians rose by 28 percent, from 344 to 440.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) – A key lawmaker says the New Jersey Legislature might not vote on a bill to allow same-sex marriage before the current session ends in January.

State Sen. Paul Sarlo says he will not bring up the bill in the Judiciary Committee he chairs unless there are enough votes to pass it along to the whole Senate.

And the Bergen County Democrat said Friday that there currently are not enough votes.

Gay rights activists are pushing lawmakers to adopt a bill soon. Gov. Jon Corzine says he would sign legislation to allow same-sex unions.

But Gov.-elect Chris Christie says he would veto such a bill. He takes office Jan. 17.

AIKEN, S.C. (AP) – A former South Carolina teacher has been sentenced to six years in prison for not telling his ex-wife he has HIV.

The Aiken Standard reported Thursday that a jury found 47-year-old Joel Bedenbaugh of Camden guilty of exposing others to HIV infection, though the wife was not infected.

Prosecutors say the former Aiken County art teacher had HIV when he married the woman in 2002. But he lied and told her during their five-year marriage that he took medicine for a blood disease.

His HIV status surfaced earlier this year during a separate investigation. He still faces three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a girl who was younger than 11.

Bedenbaugh previously served two years of probation after pleading guilty to having inappropriate contact with a 13-year-old girl in 2006.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal officials are threatening to cut off more than $12 million in funding for the District of Columbia’s AIDS program.

Officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development have written to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty expressing concerns about a recent Washington Post series that found the city’s HIV/AIDS Administration had paid more than $25 million to nonprofit groups that delivered substandard care or failed to account for their work.

Assistant Secretary Mercedes M. Marquez says HUD plans to tell the city this week that the city won’t receive any new AIDS housing money unless it improves the way it tracks services and spending.

Fenty spokeswoman Mafara Hobson says the city will work with HUD to ensure continued funding.