ATLANTA (AP) – The new owner of a longtime weekly newspaper covering the gay and lesbian community in Atlanta said the shuttered publication will reopen next week.

Southern Voice shut down in November because parent company Window Media LLC in Washington D.C. filed for bankruptcy. New owner Matt Neumann, publisher of Gaydar Magazine LLC, says he’s going to start publishing the newspaper again Wednesday.

Neumann said the paper was supposed to launch this week, but some minor issues have caused delays. He said he plans to print about 10,000 copies for now, with a goal of eventually growing that to 20,000.

He also plans to distribute copies in Tennessee, South Carolina and Alabama.

Neumann also bought rights to gay magazine David and began publishing it in March.

HONOLULU (AP) – The board of the Log Cabin Republicans has endorsed Charles Djou’s campaign for Hawaii’s vacant 1st Congressional District seat.

A statement Tuesday from national board Chairman Terry Hamilton noted that Djou opposes the current military policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

President Barack Obama has moved to end the ban on openly gay service members.

Hamilton’s statement also notes that Djou, a captain in the Army Reserve, supports market-based health care reform, limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and efforts to cut taxes.

The Log Cabin group represents gay Republicans that advocate equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation.

Djou is the lone major Republican in the race.

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) – Green Day, former ‘N Sync member Lance Bass and celebrity chef Cat Cora are among those helping to pay for a gay-friendly prom in Mississippi next month.

Organizers say the event is open to everyone but geared toward gay students.

The American Humanist Association also will contribute $20,000 for the May 8 event in Tupelo.

The annual prom is organized by the Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition. This year’s event has drawn attention because of the case of Constance McMillen, a high school senior who challenged her school district’s rule banning same-sex dates at proms.

Coalition spokesman Matthew Sheffield says plans for the event haven’t been completed. He says Bass, who is gay, is among the celebrities expected to attend.

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) – The Rapid City Police Department has changed its policy for releasing information to the military following the outing of a lesbian Air Force sergeant that led to her discharge.

The new policy calls for the department’s records custodian to review reports before they’re released to military officials. Previously, any officer could release information.

Chief Steve Allender says he still believes his officers acted appropriately in sharing information about Jene Newsome with nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base, but the policy change will allow better evaluation of what future information is released.

Newsome’s military discharge in January came after Rapid City officers saw an Iowa marriage certificate in her home and told Ellsworth officials.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A Democratic lawmaker opposed to legislation that would prohibit teaching about same-sex relationships in Tennessee public schools told the Republican sponsor on April 7 that the practice is a “figment of his imagination.”

The proposal sponsored by Republican Rep. Stacey Campfield of Knoxville was sent back to the State Board of Education for further study by the House Education K-12 Subcommittee. It’s at least the second year that the same panel has killed the measure.

Campfield claimed to have proof that some state counties could be headed toward such teachings. For instance, he said one school system has removed filtering software from its class computers.

Last year, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the public school systems in Knoxville and Nashville over access to gay Web sites after a settlement was reached.

The ACLU filed suit over Internet blocking that denied access by students to educational sites about gay, lesbian and transgender issues.

The ACLU said Tennessee law required schools to filter Internet sites to block those which are obscene or harmful to minors, but said the sites being filtered out were educational sites which are not sexually gratuitous.

The two school systems have agreed to stop using filtering software that blocks those sites.

Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee, said the subcommittee made a “wise decision” because she believes Campfield’s legislation would have infringed on discussions of other school issues, such as bullying.

“This was a bad bill,” Weinberg said. “It was challenging academic freedom.”

Rep. Ulysses Jones, a Memphis Democrat who voted against the bill, said Campfield’s claims are not factual.

“What we’re dealing with is a figment of his imagination,” Jones said. “This is not based on any evidence.”

The proposal sought to prohibit the “teaching of ... human sexuality other than heterosexuality in public school grades K-8.”

Campfield said the state should “stay neutral” and leave it up to parents whether they want to talk about anything other than heterosexuality.

“All this is saying is that we’re not going to take positions on these issues,” Campfield told the committee.

Bruce Opie, legislative director for the Tennessee Department of Education, said current state curriculum doesn’t address “any type of sexual preference.”

Tennessee Education Association lobbyist Jerry Winters said public schools are being attacked for something that’s not happening.

“I don’t appreciate the intent of this bill,” he said. “Teachers are not teaching alternative lifestyles in the classroom. If they were, they would be told to stop it. lf they didn’t, they would be fired.”

The companion bill is awaiting a vote in the Senate Education Committee.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) – A Fort Worth theater has withdrawn its offer to stage a student play about a gay Christ-like figure that was canceled at a small-town campus.

An online post by Artes de la Rosa at the Rose Marine Theater in Fort Worth Thursday says its board of directors retracted the offer a day after they had extended it.

The theater’s executive director Adam Adolfo told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram there were concerns about “financial repercussions and patronage.”

The Terrence McNally play “Corpus Christi” premiered in New York in 1998 and is considered blasphemous by critics.

Tarleton State University student John Jorden Otte had originally planned to direct the play for a class on the Stephenville campus. The class instructor canceled the March 27 campus production after receiving violent phone calls and e-mails

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Republican Utah lawmakers are targeting a program for possible cuts that helps hundreds of low-income residents with HIV and AIDS pay for health insurance and life-saving medication.

Lawmakers deferred approval last Tuesday of the $5.2 million Ryan White Program while they wait for more information at next month’s meeting. The program is primarily funded through federal grants, but requires a $1.4 million investment by the state.

State health officials say delaying approval could put life-saving care at risk.

Senate President Michael Waddoups ordered the extra scrutiny after saying he thought the program would be funded through federal health care reform.

Waddoups was told it would not be covered until 2014.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Four finalists are in the running to be the 11th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah, including an openly gay priest.

That candidate, the Rev. Michael L. Barlowe of California, married his partner, the Rev. Paul Burrows, in San Francisco in 2008, just before the Proposition 8 vote banning same-sex marriage.

The other three finalists are the Rev. Juan A. Quevedo-Bosch of New York, the Rev. Mary C. Sulerud of Washington, D.C., and the Rev. Scott B. Hayashi of Chicago.

“We felt that any one of them would help us draw together as a church family,” said Ric Tanner, president of the Utah church’s Standing Committee, which advises the bishop.

The four finalists, winnowed from a list of 48 applicants, will visit parishes across the state during the first week of May.

Delegates from each parish will elect retiring Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish’s successor May 22 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Salt Lake City.

If Barlowe is elected, Utah would become only the third Episcopal diocese with an openly gay bishop.