BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch are asking the Alabama Department of Corrections to stop housing HIV-positive inmates in quarters separate from those of other inmates.

In “Sentenced to Stigma,” an ACLU-Human Rights Watch report issued Tuesday, the groups say that Alabama and South Carolina drag behind other states in their refusal to house HIV-positive prison inmates with uninfected ones.

Megan McLemore, a health researcher at Human Rights Watch, says there’s no justification and calls the practice discriminatory.

But Alabama Corrections Commissioner Richard Allen says separate housing is an effective step in meeting the state’s obligation to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – State Sen. Roy Ashburn has pleaded no contest to misdemeanor drunken driving after an episode that led the Bakersfield Republican to acknowledge he is gay.

Ashburn was sentenced to two days in jail and three years probation. He also was ordered to pay $2,000 in fines and fees and had his driver’s license suspended for 30 days.

Ashburn entered his plea Wednesday. Sacramento County prosecutors said he had a blood alcohol level of .15, nearly double the legal limit, when his state-provided vehicle was stopped by the California Highway Patrol.

Reports that the conservative senator had been at a gay-friendly nightclub near the state Capitol prompted Ashburn to acknowledge his sexual orientation. Ashburn, who is 55, is not running for re-election.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Three gay couples are suing California’s giant public pension fund and the Internal Revenue Service to make long-term care insurance available to the same-sex spouses of state government workers.

Claudia Center, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, said the California Public Employees’ Retirement System is violating the couples’ civil rights by making gay spouses ineligible for the program.

The law center filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday in San Francisco on behalf of the three married couples.

CalPERS spokesman Brad Pacheco says the agency makes the rest of its benefits available to gay spouses but that the long-term care program must abide by federal law, which does not recognize same-sex unions.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Gay rights activists say they have failed to qualify a measure that would repeal California’s same-sex marriage ban for the November ballot.

Restore Equality 2010 chairman Sean Bohac says the volunteer-run group fell short of gathering the nearly 695,000 signatures needed to put the initiative before voters. Monday was the deadline for submitting the signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Bohac says Restore Equality’s failed effort was undermined by the decision of more established gay rights groups not to participate in the campaign.

He says same-sex marriage supporters now are turning their attention to trying to repeal Proposition 8 in 2012.

A lawsuit to overturn Prop. 8 also is pending before a federal trial judge.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Protesters chanting slogans and carrying signs marched in Hollywood Sunday to demand equal Social Security benefits for same-sex couples.

About 700 peaceful demonstrators walked more than a mile to rally outside the Hollywood Social Security Administration office, said Lorri L. Jean, CEO of the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center.

“This was the kickoff for a national campaign to end discrimination when it comes to Social Security,” Jean said. “We not only have to educate the straight community, but we have to educate our own. Many don’t know how it works until they’re older and faced with having been denied benefits.”

Before the march, U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez told the cheering crowd she would author legislation that would extend survivor benefits to older gay and lesbian couples.

“We now have quality, affordable health care coming to all,” Sanchez said. “What good is the quality of our health care in America if Americans are not treated equally under all of our laws?”

U.S. Rep. Judy Chu offered to co-author the bill. U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer also spoke.

Senior citizen Alice Herman spoke about being denied benefits after the death of her partner, Sylvia, even though they were legally married. Had Sylvia been a man, Herman said, she would have been entitled to receive her spouse’s larger Social Security payments.

“This has got to change,” Herman said.

The Gay & Lesbian Center cites research from the University of California, Los Angeles, that found that the lack of eligibility for Social Security benefits cost the surviving partners of same-sex couples an average of $5,700 per year.

HOUMA, La. (AP) – The suspect in the Christmas Day stabbing death of a Houma bartender has been indicted by a grand jury on a first-degree murder charge.

The Courier of Houma reported last Wednesday that court papers say Jorell Young, of Galliano, was indicted by a Terrebonne Parish grand jury. Young was arrested April 2 and charged in the murder of 39-year-old Robert LeCompte. The two are former roommates and worked together at the Drama Club, a bar that caters to the gay community.

Young’s relatives have traveled to Houma from California and Mississippi in search of information about the case and told the newspaper they plan to hire lawyers to fight the charges.

Young has denied any connection to the killing, according to Maj. Malcolm Wolfe, a spokesman for the Terrebonne Sheriff’s Office.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – The lesbian teenager from Mississippi who challenged her school district’s ban of same-sex prom dates will serve as grand marshal of the annual gay pride march in New York City.

Organizer Heritage of Pride, Inc., announced Wednesday that Constance McMillen will appear in the parade on June 27.

“I never dreamed so many people would support my fight to take my girlfriend to the prom, much less that I’d end up being asked to be a Grand Marshal at NYC Pride,” McMillen said in a statement. “I’m really honored and touched to be asked to be part of this celebration.”

It commemorates the 1969 Stonewall riots in which patrons at a Greenwich Village gay bar fought back against a police raid. The 18-year-old senior says she’s honored to be part of the celebration.

Her fight has attracted nationwide attention from gay rights advocates and celebrities.

Rock band Green Day is part of an event planned for her in Mississippi next month and she has been invited to the annual “lesbian prom” in San Francisco held by the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) – The Missoula City Council passed an ordinance Tuesday that protects residents from housing and employment discrimination based on “actual or perceived” sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Most of us can’t remember civil rights in action,” said Councilwoman Stacy Rye, an ordinance sponsor. “This is it for us. This is our lifetimes.”

Council members voted 10-2 early Tuesday in favor of the ordinance, which the Montana Human Rights Network says is the first of its kind in the state.

“Hopefully our actions tonight will ripple through Montana from Libby to Billings, from Dillon to Wolf Point, and eventually to the capital in Helena,” said Councilman Dave Strohmaier, another sponsor of the ordinance.

The vote came after a nearly seven-hour meeting in which opponents argued that the ordinance would make women and children more vulnerable to “peeping toms and cross-dressing pedophiles” in public restrooms.

Dustin Hankinson of Missoula said some of the opposing arguments were “insane.”

“We are America. Freedom,” Hankinson said. “We cannot claim to be the paragon of freedom and liberty and still maintain that it is absolutely acceptable to oppress people for who they are. It’s contradictory.”

The council heard testimony about two women who were unable to purchase a condominium when it became clear to the owner that that they were a lesbian couple, while a 17-year-old girl said she had been repeatedly harassed and received two death threats for being a lesbian, even though she is not.

She said she wanted to point out that the ordinance recognition of discrimination by “perceived” sexual orientation could apply to heterosexuals as well.

Missoula pastor Ron Thiessen said he didn’t believe the council should advance such a political agenda.

“I do not mock their pain, but social policy is not the place to resolve discord in their lives,” he said.

The ordinance also applies to public accommodations such as restaurants and hotels.

Councilwoman Lyn Hellegaard voted against the ordinance, saying she was concerned it violated the Constitution.