FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – Dozens of gays and lesbians sued a Florida court clerk in a challenge to the state’s law prohibiting marriage for gays and lesbians.

The lawsuit – apparently the first legal challenge to the law – names only Broward County Clerk Howard Forman, who issues wedding licenses for the county.

“An idea whose time has come can never be stopped,” said Ellis Rubin, attorney for the 175 plaintiffs. “This idea’s time is now.”

The move came a day after President Bush asked for a constitutional amendment prohibiting marriage for gays and lesbians. The president’s request followed a decision by officials in San Francisco to allow gays and lesbians to wed, possibly in violation of California law.

Jacob DiPietre, a spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush, said the president’s brother stands behind the state law. Florida is among 38 states that prohibit marriage for gays and lesbians.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – Legislation to amend the state constitution to ban marriage for gays and lesbians was withdrawn abruptly amid a push to force a vote by the full House.

The move prompted a bitter exchange between a ranking House Democrat and the top Republican leader.

The proposed amendment, if ratified by voters, would have defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman. It was introduced in early January but had languished in committee.

A group of legislators filed a “discharge petition” – a device to sidestep a committee and bring a bill to the full House. Before the petition could be debated, Majority Leader Rocky Adkins made a motion to withdraw the bill at the request of its primary sponsor, Democratic Rep. J.R. Gray. House Speaker Jody Richards granted the motion over shouted objections.

Gray said he asked to have it withdrawn “rather than the thing become a political football” with a discharge petition.

Minority Leader Jeff Hoover then accused top Democrats of abusing House rules. Hoover, R-Jamestown, said Democrats “pulled a trick” to prevent the petition from being debated.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – School districts would have to adopt discipline codes aimed at protecting pupils from “deliberate and repeated” bullying by their peers, under a measure the House Education Committee approved.

Offending bullies could be suspended or expelled from school for creating a hostile environment by continually harassing a peer under the plan.

A different measure aimed at curbing school bullies has been tied up in the Senate by some conservatives who believe it unnecessarily protects gay and lesbian rights. The Senate proposal would protect people from being bullied for any reason and draws from the state’s hate crime law.

While proponents of the House version say it would protect all students from being violently bullied, some opponents say it doesn’t go far enough because it doesn’t spell out protections for students who are or are perceived to be gay or lesbian.

But Cherry said the House version, in its current form, was based on parts of the Senate version and he thought it had the best chance of passing both chambers of the Legislature.

All students would be protected from bullies because peers could not interfere with the physical or psychological well-being of others at school, Cherry said.

Andrea Hildebran, executive director of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, said the measure would not adequately protect victims bullied because of their perceived or actual sexual orientation.

Instead, the law needs to spell out exactly what’s not acceptable and what should be done in those instances, she said.

LAS VEGAS (AP) – Mayor Oscar Goodman has been accused of promoting a “homosexual agenda” by a Republican activist who has mounted a computerized telephone campaign.

Goodman vowed not to be drawn into a national debate about marriage for gays and lesbians after activist Tony Dane criticized Goodman’s support for a businessman who was refused a lease for a drag-themed club at a struggling downtown entertainment complex.

“There’s no room in my town for hate-mongering,” Goodman said. “The American way allows people to say whatever they want to say. I will not be pulled into the trap he’s trying to set.”

Dane said his firm, Dane & Associates, made about 30,000 computerized phone calls Tuesday to Las Vegas residents and would make about 70,000 more, in a city of about 529,000.

“It’s my voice. I’m paying for it,” Dane said of the campaign he estimated was costing $1,000.

“Tell him to keep his homosexual agenda to himself,” Dane’s telephone recording says, accusing Goodman of “pushing his own agenda, just like the mayor of San Francisco.”

Goodman, who has been mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for governor in 2006, said he hoped Dane’s personal attack didn’t represent “gay-bashing and intolerance for political motivation.”

In 1996 Dane ran against David Parks, who won a state Assembly seat as an openly gay Democrat. Dane has been involved in other campaigns, but not as a candidate, he said.

Dane said he was angered by Goodman’s support for Donald Troxel, whose drag-themed nightclub was rejected by managers at Neonopolis, a $99 million movie, arcade, bar and retail complex built partly with taxpayer funds.

Goodman said Neonopolis managers had defaulted on their lease, citing discrimination against Troxel and their failure to provide financial statements to the city.

Neonopolis representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

Contacted at his Celebrity Show and Dance Club in Dayton, Ohio, Troxel said he appreciated Goodman’s support.

“It’s crazy how they’re doing this and connecting it with gay marriages,” Troxel said. “Las Vegas ought to be glad they’ve got a mayor willing to stand up for people’s rights. All he’s doing is trying to back an honest businessman.”

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A bipartisan group of lawmakers plans to introduce an all-encompassing sex education bill to retool the state’s 15-year-old curriculum that they say has lacked clarity in recent years.

The Comprehensive Family Life and Sexuality Education Act expands the definition of what constitutes comprehensive sexual education to give clear direction to school districts. Another key change would be applying the mandate only to grades 7-12, making sex education an option for lower grades.

Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, said a state-sponsored abstinence-only program confused school districts on what the requirements were for sex education in Minnesota.

“It’s not really clear what is meant by comprehensive sex education,” said Pappas, the bill’s lead author in the Senate. “We want to look at what will protect kids and what parents want for their kids.”

Under the bill, sex education curriculum would include various topics – abstinence, values, relationships, the uses of contraception to avoid pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. It also requires notification of parents to give them the option to remove their children from the classes.

A recent study commissioned by the Minnesota Department of Health found that the abstinence-only program – Education Now and Babies Later – didn’t help decrease sexual activity at three schools where it was taught. Sexual activity for those kids doubled between 2001 and 2002.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Gov. Brad Henry favors protections for traditional marriage but says a federal constitutional amendment banning marriage for gays and lesbians may affect states’ rights.

Henry, in Washington for a National Governors Association conference, said he hadn’t seen the language of any proposed amendment and noted that Oklahoma laws already ban non-traditional marriage.

“It would be a federal amendment that would govern all of the states,” Henry said shortly after President Bush announced his support for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning gay marriage. “Obviously, that raises states’ rights concerns.”

The Democratic governor said gay and lesbian couples should be able to live together and make certain decisions about their relationship, but that nothing should be done to erode traditional marriage.

“I think we should protect the traditional marriage, but I don’t think government should interfere in the lives of two individuals who want to live together,” Henry said in an interview with Washington-based reporters for The Oklahoman and Tulsa World.

Henry was asked about couples having property division agreements and permission to make medical decisions for their partners.

“I think that is certainly a reasonable request for homosexuals to make,” Henry said. “I don’t think we should discriminate against anyone on the basis of race or sex or sexual lifestyle. I just don’t think we should discriminate against people. But I’m not to the point where I’m ready to officially sanction gay marriage.”