PHOENIX (AP) – A national organization has filed a federal lawsuit to protect domestic partner benefits for gay and lesbian Arizona state employees.

New York City-headquartered Lambda Legal filed the suit on Nov. 17 and announced it at a press conference in Phoenix.

Arizona lawmakers included a provision stripping domestic partner health benefits from state employees as part of a last-minute budget deal approved in September, while retaining spousal health benefits for heterosexual workers.

The benefits were adopted last year by Democratic former Gov. Janet Napolitano’s administration. Critics at the time blasted the decision as a breach of power that would undermine the tradition of marriage.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A federal appeals court has agreed to consider whether the sponsors of California’s gay marriage ban must turn over some internal campaign records as part of a lawsuit against Proposition 8.

Protect Marriage, the coalition of religious and social conservative groups behind Prop. 8, wants to safeguard its private e-mails and strategy records.

Its lawyers have balked at repeated orders from a federal judge to furnish them to attorneys representing two same-sex couples in the lawsuit seeking to overturn the gay marriage ban.

The 9th U.S. Circuit of Appeals on Wednesday said it would hear arguments on Dec. 1 in Protect Marriage’s appeal of the orders.

Protect Marriage has argued that providing private communications from the 2008 campaign would violate the free speech rights of the measure’s supporters.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Veteran Los Angeles Times sports writer Mike Penner, who attracted national attention when he announced two years ago that he was a transsexual and was changing his name to Christine Daniels, has died at age 52, the Times reported on its Web site.

The newspaper said Saturday Penner was found dead at his Los Angeles home and the cause of death was believed to be suicide. The date of death was not given.

Penner announced in 2007 that after struggling with his sexuality for more than 40 years he had decided to live life as a woman. Over the next several months he blogged about the experience.

He eventually returned to using the Mike Penner byline. He continued to work for the Times, writing a column called Totally Random.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – Donors, volunteers and local leaders are lining up in support of an Orlando community center that was the target of vandalism earlier this week.

A spray-painted swastika and other graffiti was discovered the morning of Nov. 23 at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Community Center of Central Florida, according to the group’s executive director.

Community groups are condemning the vandalism, which caused an estimated $1,000 in damage. Some people have donated money for security cameras and the group’s executive director says volunteers are stepping forward to paint over the graffiti.

NEWPORT, Maine (AP) – A Maine school counselor wants a state board to toss out a complaint filed against him because he appeared in a television commercial opposing same-sex marriage.

Donald Mendell of Palmyra, a counselor at Kokomis High School, calls the complaint against him “frivolous.”

During the run-up to this month’s gay marriage vote, Mendell appeared in a commercial and asked voters “to prevent homosexual marriage from being pushed on Maine students.” The Nov. 3 vote overturned Maine’s same-sex marriage law.

The Kennebec Journal says Ann Sullivan of Newport complained Mendell violated a code of ethics set by the National Association of Social Workers that says social workers should not publicly condone discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

BALTIMORE (AP) – The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have affirmed that the church defines marriage between one man and one woman, and sex is meant for procreation.

The pastoral letter was issued Nov. 17 in Baltimore by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The bishops say they are disturbed that a growing number of people view marriage as a private or individual matter, instead of an issue critical to building a healthy society.

They say in the pastoral letter that redefining marriage to allow same-sex unions would damage the common good and would ignore the proper role of husbands and wives.

BOSTON (AP) – A convicted murderer who is seeking a taxpayer-funded sex-change operation has asked a judge to order prison officials to provide electrolyis treatments.

A lawyer for Michelle Kosilek argued Nov. 16 that having facial hair is “intensely personally stressful to her.”

But a lawyer for the state Department of Correction said Kosilek has had significant hair removal already through laser treatments and seven earlier electrolysis treatments.

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Wolf said he will rule on the electrolysis request Wednesday.

Born as Robert, Kosilek is serving a life sentence for murdering his wife, Cheryl, in 1990. Michelle Kosilek has been living as a woman in an all-male prison in Norfolk.

Prison officials oppose Kosilek’s request for surgery, saying the sex change would pose security problems.

NEW YORK (AP) – Chaz Bono says beginning the sex-change process to turn him from a woman to a man is “the best decision I’ve ever made.”

The 40-year-old writer, activist and reality-TV star, who was born a girl to Sonny Bono and Cher, says he’s eight months into the years-long transformation and says he feels great.

Formerly called Chastity, he told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Thursday: “Life is short and life is precious. This is who I am. I need to finally be who I am.”

Bono says he always felt like a boy growing up and came out as a lesbian 11 years ago. Now he’s undergone gender-reassignment surgery and hormone therapy.

He tells ABC: “To me, gender is between your ears, not between your legs. I’ve felt male as far back as I can remember.”

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A new poll shows some 69 percent of Utahns think state lawmakers and Gov. Gary Herbert should push to pass statewide anti-discrimination laws to protect gays.

The Deseret News/KSL TV poll of 408 Utahns comes after the Salt Lake City Council passed ordinances protecting from discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing and employment matters.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints backed the measures, which include exceptions for religious organizations.

In the poll, 69 percent of respondents said the Legislature should follow Salt Lake City’s lead. Just 28 percent opposed an anti-discrimination proposal.

The poll was conducted Nov. 19-23 by Dan Jones & Associates. It has a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.

RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) – A Vermont judge has granted sole custody of a girl to her nonbiological mother in a custody dispute involving a former lesbian couple.

Family Court Judge William Cohen awarded custody of the 7-year-old to Janet Jenkins of Fair Haven on Friday after finding the biological mother, Lisa Miller, in contempt of court earlier this year for denying Jenkins access to the girl.

Miller, who lives in Virginia and renounced homosexuality after the couple broke up in 2003, plans to appeal.