SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The federal trial to determine if California’s same-sex marriage ban violates the U.S. Constitution is scheduled to wrap up in June after a months-long hiatus.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker on Wednesday tentatively scheduled the closing arguments for June 16. After hearing more than two weeks of testimony in January, Walker had wanted time to review all the evidence before hearing lawyers give their wrap-ups.

But the break has dragged on, as civil rights groups that opposed the measure have fought turning over internal documents from the 2008 campaign to the measure’s sponsors.

The case, brought on behalf of two unmarried same-sex couples, is being closely watched across the country. It’s the first federal trial to examine if denying gays the right to wed violates their civil rights.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Illinois lawmaker Deborah Mell is sharing some bittersweet news with her colleagues.

The sweet is that she’s engaged. The bitter is that Illinois doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage. So she plans to get married in Iowa, which does.

Mell rose on the Illinois House floor Wednesday to announce her engagement and say she looks forward to the day when same-sex couples can marry in Illinois.

A 1996 law specifically defines marriage as applying only to a man and a woman. Illinois doesn’t allow civil unions for same-sex couples, and recent efforts to begin offering civil unions have fallen short.

Mell’s announcement was greeted with applause. Several lawmakers rose to congratulate the 41-year-old, who got engaged two weeks ago her girlfriend of six years.

MCKEE, Ky. (AP) – A judge has reduced charges against two eastern Kentucky high school students who were accused of attempting to kill a classmate.

Cheyenne Williams had told police on April 16 that three of her friends tried to push her off a cliff in Jackson County. A third teen charged in the case is a juvenile and has not been identified.

Ashley Sams and Corinne Schwab, both 18, were originally charged with kidnapping and attempted murder.

The Herald-Leader reports that Judge Henria Bailey-Lewis said after a hearing Thursday that the evidence did not justify those charges. They were reduced to fourth-degree assault and menacing, both misdemeanors.

Williams’ mother says the alleged attack at Flat Lick Falls was a hate crime, since her daughter is openly gay. Attorneys for Sams and Schwab say Williams was a willing participant in a staged act.

BUFFALO, New York (AP) – Relatives of a man who recently completed a 12-year prison sentence for knowingly infecting at least 13 women with the AIDS virus say there’s no reason the state should keep him locked up any longer.

The wife and mother of Nushawn Williams spoke outside a Buffalo courtroom Wednesday after the state attorney general’s office began efforts to keep him confined under a civil law meant to keep the most dangerous sex offenders out of communities after their sentences are completed.

Williams was assigned a lawyer at Wednesday’s procedural hearing. He will be back in court May 6.

Williams infected the women in western New York state in the late 1990s. He says he doesn’t remember being told by health officials that he was HIV-positive.

Williams now goes by the name Shyteek Johnson.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – A civil rights march that was organized in response to Maine’s rejection of gay marriage has been postponed indefinitely.

The Maine Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Civil Rights March was to begin on May 28 and finish two days later with a rally at Augusta’s Capitol Park.

A notice posted on a website dedicated to the march said logistics weren’t a problem. But it said there was not “enough participation from grassroots organizers on the ground within Maine itself to give it a life of its own.”

The Maine Legislature approved gay marriage last year and the bill was signed by Gov. John Baldacci. But the law was ultimately rejected in a statewide vote last November.

ABERDEEN, Miss. (AP) – The lesbian teenager from Mississippi who challenged her school district’s ban of same-sex prom dates is seeking monetary damages, claiming she suffered from public humiliation.

The lawsuit was filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union in U.S. District Court in Aberdeen. The Itawamba County School District and school officials are named as defendants.

Constance McMillen, 18, is a senior at Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton, Miss. In the lawsuit, her attorneys said McMillen has taken medical leave from classes and wants to transfer out of the school district.

She and the ACLU challenged her school district’s rule that banned same-sex prom dates and a stipulation that only male students be allowed to wear tuxedos to the event. In response, the school district canceled its April 2 prom and later announced parents would sponsor another dance. That dance was not sponsored by the school.

The ACLU believes the parent-sponsored dance that McMillen attended was a ruse because only seven students showed up. McMillen said the rest of her peers partied at another location.

“I really hoped that prom night would make all that I’ve been through worth it, then April 2 came and those hopes when out the window,” McMillen said in a statement issued by the ACLU. “All I ever wanted was to go to my high school prom with my classmates and my date, like anyone else, and instead I was the target of a mean, nasty joke.”

The lawsuit also contends harassment against McMillen since the prom incidents. The lawsuit doesn’t describe that alleged harassment in detail.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages to be determined at a trial for McMillen’s “public humiliation and disparagement,” as well as mental health, medical and educational impact she’s felt.

Itawamba County school board attorney Michele Floyd was not immediately available for comment.

DALLAS (AP) – A Texas court is set to hear arguments after the attorney general appealed a judge’s ruling that granted a divorce to two men and said the state’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.

The hearing is set for Wednesday afternoon in 5th District Court of Appeals in Dallas.

Attorney General Greg Abbott says a union granted in a state where same-sex marriage is legal can’t be dissolved with a divorce in a state where it’s not. He has argued in court filings that because the state doesn’t recognize gay marriage there can be no divorce, but a gay or lesbian Texas couple may have a marriage voided.

A judge in Dallas had granted the divorce.

The state is also appealing after an Austin judge this spring granted a divorce to two women.

PARIS, Tenn. (AP) – Republican candidates in the 8th Congressional District made candid comments about gays during a recent Tea Party forum that included discussion about the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy.

Physicians Ron Kirkland of Jackson and George Flinn of Memphis were among the candidates Thursday night who talked largely about how they’re against the Obama administration and its policies, according to The Jackson Sun.

The candidates criticized the administration for wanting to overturn the gay policy, which prevents gays from serving openly in the military. President Barack Obama has called on Congress to lift the ban, and military officials are examining how to do that.

The candidates said ending the policy is “political correctness” that adds an unnecessary stress on the military.

Kirkland, a Vietnam veteran, said of his time in the military: “I can tell you if there were any homosexuals in that group, they were taken care of in ways I can’t describe to you.”

Smith, who served in the first Iraqi war, added: “I definitely wouldn’t want to share a shower with a homosexual. We took care of that kind of stuff, just like (Kirkland) said.”

The Tennessee Republican Party had no comment about the candidates statements when contacted by The Associated Press on Friday.

Meanwhile, Chris Sanders, chairman of the Tennessee Equality Project, bemoaned the candidates’ comments in a statement Friday that said “violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender service members is unacceptable.”

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna says he’s ready to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court that the release of names of initiative and referendum supporters is constitutional.

The nation’s highest court is holding a hearing on April 28 on whether the release of more than 138,000 names on petitions who supported a domestic partnership referendum in November would chill the First Amendment rights of those who signed them.

McKenna said Monday he will leave Tuesday for Washington, D.C. for final preparations before the hearing.

Protect Marriage Washington unsuccessfully opposed a new law giving gay couples expanded rights. The group wants to shield petition-signers’ names from public release.

The court’s ruling would affect all referenda and initiatives.