SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – More than 1,600 students and staff at the University of Notre Dame and neighboring Saint Mary’s College wore T-shirts to show support for gays and lesbians after the school declined to recognize a gay student group.

The bright orange T-shirts bore the slogan, “Gay? Fine by me.”

“The shirt says it all. I don’t have a problem with gay people. I have a lot of gay friends,” said Rebecca Spohrer of South Bend, a Notre Dame sophomore who wore one of the shirts.

Earlier this month, Notre Dame’s Office of Student Activities rejected a request for formal recognition from a gay-straight student group, Unity in Diversity. The university has turned down similar requests over the past two decades.

“Not recognizing a student group is just another form of discrimination,” Spohrer said.

Notre Dame officials said the school already provides educational programs and support on matters concerning sexual orientation.

The university sponsors a Standing Committee for Gay and Lesbian Student Needs. The committee hosts monthly coffee get-togethers and support group meetings and provides training about issues of sexual orientation for resident assistants and incoming freshmen.

“It’s a complex issue, and having students out on their own dealing with it is not the best way,” said Brian Coughlin, director of student activities. “We prefer that students walk with faculty, administrators and ministers in dealing with these issues.”

Joe Dickmann, a gay Notre Dame senior from St. Louis, said Unity in Diversity was disappointed but would continue to work as an unofficial group. Without recognition, however, it is not permitted to share in student activities funds or advertise on campus.

OutreachND, another unrecognized gay student club formed in about 1986, also continues to operate on campus.

“The university has not exactly been homosexual-friendly,” said Daniel Arney, a senior from New York. “It’s changing now, but it’s decades behind other universities.”

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) – Further legislative votes are expected on a bill to extend to domestic partners inheritance rights already given to spouses.

The House of Representatives gave the bill initial approval by a 72-60 vote.

The bill’s supporters say it would establish equality and parity in the treatment of domestic partners who are faced with the death of their partner.

“With this vote, the Maine House has recognized that this bill is about fairness and justice for today’s families,” said the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ben Dudley, D-Portland.

The bill addresses situations in which a person dies without a will or other estate plan. It provides that the surviving domestic partner inherit property of the deceased in the same manner as a surviving spouse.

It also provides that the surviving domestic partner would be considered first next of kin when determining who has the right to make funeral and burial arrangements.

The bill applies to all domestic partners as defined in Maine law, including both heterosexual and same-sex partnerships.

Opponents of the bill say it opens the door to same-sex marriages.

Marc Mutty of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland said the bill falls far short of endorsing same-sex marriage. But Mutty said it reflects the same kinds of steps the Massachusetts Legislature sent its supreme court before it affirmed the concept of same-sex marriages.

BOSTON (AP) – Same-sex marriage foes have filed a petition that would put a ban on both same-sex marriage and civil unions on the 2008 ballot.

The petition was filed by the Rev. Michael Carl, a minister at the Greenwood Union Church in Wakefield. Carl said he is concerned lawmakers either will not act or will forward a proposed constitutional amendment allowing civil unions to voters for the 2006 ballot.

If that happens, he said he will move forward with the petition, which he filed Feb. 27 with state Attorney General Thomas Reilly’s office.

“In the event the Legislature either fails to act or passes a proposed amendment that includes civil unions, that is incrementalism, and I just can’t agree with that,” Carl said.

“We’re talking about the benchmark foundational institution of all civilization since time immemorial,” he said.

Carl’s proposal would amend the state constitution to read, in part: “Marriage ... shall henceforth be defined in the Commonwealth as the voluntary, consensual union between one man and one woman. All statutes and laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts shall henceforth conform thereto.”

Arline Isaacson, co-chairwoman of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus, said the petition was a “fallback” for same-sex marriage opponents in case things don’t go their way in the Legislature.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – Gays and lesbians at Southwest Missouri State were blocked again in their fight to get protection for sexual orientation added to the school’s nondiscrimination policy.

The university’s Board of Governors refused to vote on a motion that would have ended a 12-year fight to include gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals in the policy.

The board’s decision came a day after the university’s president called homosexuality “a biological perversion” and said adding sexual orientation to the university’s nondiscrimination policy would wrongly protect a specific group of people.

President John Keiser’s position on gays and lesbians and stand against revising the policy at Missouri’s second largest public university was delivered during a debate with two leaders of Lambda Alliance.

The school’s policy already protects against discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, national origin, ancestry, age, disability and veteran status.

The university has rejected similar efforts since 1991 by the Lambda Alliance, which represents gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered faculty and staff on the Springfield campus.

While the debate was on the policy change, Lambda Alliance and some in the audience were focused on Keiser’s personal beliefs about sexual orientation. The Springfield News-Leader published a letter written by Keiser in 1995 to a major donor who had questioned the appearance of a gay speaker on campus.

Keiser, who outlined his beliefs on sexual orientation in the letter, reiterated that he believes homosexuality is biologically perverse based on the inability of same-sex couples to procreate.

“What that statement means is that to create, you need a male and a female to perpetuate every race,” said Keiser, who has maintained that his personal beliefs have nothing to do with his position on the policy.

His answer drew groans from many of the approximately 400 people watching the debate at the university’s Robert Plaster Student Union, named for the donor who Keiser addressed in his letter.

“I’m sorry that you see me as a biological perversion,” said Holly Baggett, president of Lambda Alliance, who spoke in support of the change. “I’m sorry that you don’t feel we’re valid members of the community. The one thing we do know is that history is on our side.”

After the board decision, Bagget said the group is not giving up.

“We will be back tomorrow. That’s the problem with this whole thing,” she said.

Jim Giglio, chairman of the faculty senate, said changing the policy would show the university respects diversity.

“We would be ending a vexing controversy that has gone on for far too long,” he said.

NEW YORK (AP) – At least 10 people reportedly received fake letters telling them that one of their sexual partners tested positive for HIV and warning that they might be infected with the virus.

The letters claimed to be from Mount Sinai Hospital’s “HIV/AIDS Notification Service” and were postmarked in Manhattan, The New York Times reported.

The hospital told the Times that such a service does not exist, and that it does not inform people of possible HIV infection by mail.

Mount Sinai spokesman Mel Granick told the Times that the hospital knew of no connection between the victims, and that the logo used on the fake letterhead was not the same one that is used on the hospital’s real letterhead.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office is investigating, the Times said.

NEW PALTZ, New York (AP) – Six ministers of the Unitarian Universalist Church performed marriage ceremonies for 25 same-sex couples, defying prosecutors who view the practice as illegal.

There were no arrests, said James Fallarino, a spokesman for the ceremony organizers.

The Revs. Kay Greenleaf and Dawn Sangrey were scheduled to be arraigned on misdemeanor charges for allegedly solemnizing marriages of same-sex couples who have no civil marriage license.

Greenleaf was among those performing ceremonies.

Although Unitarian ministers have performed same-sex marriage ceremonies across the country for years, Greenleaf and Sangrey departed from that tradition when they said they view the ceremonies as civil and legal.

Greenleaf and Sangrey will plead not guilty and are ready go to court, said their lawyer Robert Gottlieb.

Greenleaf and Sangrey face the same charges filed against New Paltz Mayor Jason West, who last month drew the state into a national debate over same-sex unions. West married 25 gay and lesbian couples Feb. 27.