ATLANTA (AP) – A federal appeals court has ruled in favor of a gay Venezuelan citizen seeking asylum in the U.S. because he says he was persecuted due to his sexual orientation and political views.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a decision by an immigration board that denied Leonel Euro Ayala’s asylum application was “riddled with error.” The ruling, issued Friday, sends Ayala’s case back to the board.

Ayala said that in December 2004 several Venezuelan police officers assaulted him after he left a gay night club in Caracas. He says they placed a hood over his head, forced him to perform oral sex on one of the officers and threatened to jail him.

He lawfully entered the U.S. in February 2005 and requested asylum a year later.

ATLANTA (AP) – Clergy, elected officials, the medical community, activists and advocates for HIV/AIDS prevention are coming together and using public policy to fight the disease in the African-American community.

The National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS is opening an Atlanta affiliate. The Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, will chair the group.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that Atlanta has the 11th-highest AIDS rate in the country.

Warnock says most efforts n the city have been centered around education, treatment, prevention and basic services. The commission’s work will focus on public policy issues including legislation, school curriculum and educating clergy on addressing the disease.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Republican lawmaker is angry that a state agency wants to allow same-sex couples to qualify as a family when seeking camping permits at state parks.

Sen. Merlin Bartz of Grafton says the Department of Natural Resources’ proposal was part of an “insidious pattern” of state agencies seeking such changes.

Agency officials bought the proposal to a legislative panel Monday, saying it was needed after an Iowa Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in the state. The Legislature also earlier protected sexual orientation under Iowa’s civil rights laws.

Bartz says agencies are seeking such changes without specific direction from the Legislature, but others say they’re only abiding by the court’s ruling.

Family permits don’t lower rates but allow campers to erect more than one tent on a site.

BALTIMORE (AP) – Plans are in place to open Baltimore’s first community center solely for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youths.

Leaders of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center say they hope to open the youth center by the start of the school year in the fall.

Andrew Ansel, programs manager for the center, says many of the facilities available to assist young people in the city are not “gay-friendly.”

He says he recently spoke to a homeless 16-year-old boy whose parents kicked him out for being gay and who reported being harassed at a homeless shelter for youths.

Ansel says circumstances like that are common, especially as youths come out of the closet at younger ages. He says gay teens are prone to alienation, abuse and homelessness.

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) – Judge plans a written ruling about whether to dismiss a charge under Michigan’s bioterrorism law against an HIV-positive Detroit-area man accused of biting his neighbor on the lip.

Judge Peter Maceroni heard arguments Monday in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens. A pretrial conference for 44-year-old Daniel Allen of Clinton Township is June 3.

Police say Allen bit Winifred Fernandis in October during an argument over a football that was thrown into his yard. Allen maintains Fernandis started the fight and actually bit his fingers.

Prosecutors say Allen tried to use HIV as a weapon. The defense wants the charge dismissed.

Allen has been charged with possession or use of a harmful device, which falls under the bioterrorism law, and assault.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – Gay students are getting some special recognition as they graduate from the University of Missouri.

For the second year at the school, something called the Lavender Graduation was held at Wrench Auditorium in Memorial Union. Eleven students participated Friday night.

The Columbia Tribune reported that lavender is symbolic because it blends the colors homosexuals wore in Nazi Germany: Gay men were forced to wear pink triangles, and lesbians were made to wear black.

Associate professor Elisa Glick praised the students during the unofficial ceremony, saying she knows the “courage it take to live your lives openly as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered people.” She said she was in closet when she graduated from college and told them they should be honored for their contribution to campus.

NEW YORK (AP) – A New York City jury has resumed deliberations in the trial of a second man charged with murder and assault as a hate crime in the death of an Ecuadorean immigrant.

Keith Phoenix has pleaded not guilty in the death of Jose Sucuzhanay (Soo-KOO’-suh-neye) and attempted assault of his brother, Romel, on Dec. 7, 2008.

The jury got the case late Thursday and resumed deliberating Monday in state Supreme Court.

Phoenix’s co-defendant, Hakim Scott, was convicted of manslaughter last week but acquitted of the more serious hate crime charge.

Prosecutors say the defendants thought the brothers were gay, and yelled anti-Hispanic and anti-gay slurs at them.

Two juries were hearing the case because the defendants had implicated each other.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Zions Bancorp’s board is pledging to prohibit discrimination based on someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Several weeks ago, the board was opposing a measure to amend its anti-discrimination policy.

“Initially the board felt that since Zions already had a zero-tolerance policy in place prohibiting any kind of discrimination, the additional language wasn’t necessary,” said spokesman Rob Brough.

But the board has since become concerned that its stand might send the wrong message and somehow imply that the company was unwilling to fully protect certain employees, Brough said.

The board is now planning to amend the Slt Lake City company’s equal employment opportunity policy to explicitly prohibit discrimination against gays and lesbians.

In early April, investors represented by the New York City comptroller said Zions Bancorp wasn’t doing enough to protect those employees.

The group included several pension funds that own about 918,000 shares of Zions common stock – roughly 0.6 percent of its outstanding shares.

The banking company’s 10-member board initially decided unanimously to oppose the investors’ proposal, which was scheduled to be presented at Zions’ annual shareholders meeting May 28. They said the company’s current policies already “fully achieved” the goals of the proposal.

Greg Bell, a spokesman for the comptroller’s office in New York, said he wasn’t sure if the pension fund representatives had heard about Zions’ change of position.

Brough said the investment group had already been notified and that they agreed there was no longer any reason to bring up their proposal.

Brandie Balken, executive director of Equality Utah, said that while Zions has always had a nondiscrimination policy, she was happy to see the company be more explicit in what will be prohibited.

“It is a wonderful step forward for everyone, and I celebrate their decision,” Balken said.