LOVELAND, Colo. (AP) – A 66-year-old pastor says he will challenge freshman Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave as a Green Party candidate this fall.

Bob Kinsey, a former Jefferson County teacher, formally announced his candidacy April 16.

“I felt I had a legitimate call to provide voters a choice in the race,” said Kinsey, who plans to move from Castle Rock to Longmont so he can run in the fourth District.

Republican Bob Faust of Johnstown has already announced plans to challenge Musgrave, who has gained national notoriety for her proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage.

“She’s got this smoke-screen issue of defining marriage,” Kinsey said. “It’s divisive and certainly unconstitutional.”

A self-described lifelong Democrat, Kinsey said he joined the Green Party because national Democratic Party leaders were taking the party “in the wrong direction.”

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) – The executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine has returned to work after a one-month suspension for sending an online newsletter seeking information about legislators who might be gay or lesbian.

Michael Heath said he spent the last 30 days praying and reflecting.

“I stayed away from the office and I prayed and I thought and I spent time with my wife and sons,” said Heath, 42, of South China. “I reflected on what happened and what the next steps should be.”

Heath’s online newsletter unleashed a firestorm of criticism from Gov. John Baldacci and members of the Legislature. Heath, who has served as spokesman for the conservative Christian group for more than a decade, issued a public apology.

In announcing his suspension, the league’s board of directors said that by calling for personal information about the sexual orientation of public officials, Heath had “crossed a line of ethical behavior into a realm of sinful gossip.”

The episode followed a legislative debate on same-sex marriage. The civic league held a rally at the Capitol in which hundreds of people spoke of the need to amend the state’s constitution to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

“I need to learn to count to 10, especially after a success like the marriage rally,” Heath said. “I need to be careful not to become headstrong and push too hard and come up with ideas that ought not to be ideas at all.”

Heath said he will have to mend fences with legislators who will be taking votes on issues important to the civic league, such as gambling and gay rights.

BOSTON (AP) – The state is preparing to train city and town clerks on issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbians couples, but that doesn’t mean the governor has given up on finding a way to stop issuing them, a spokesman for Gov. Mitt Romney said.

Eric Fehrnstrom said the state anticipates holding training sessions for the clerks soon, but the Republican governor was still looking at his “legal options.”

“We are now preparing for every contingency and, while we continue to review our legal options, we are also making preparations to license same-sex couples to marry,” Fehrnstrom said.

“It’s just smart to prepare for every contingency,” he said.

Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus, said, “It’s good to see that someone in the administration realizes they had better set up training for town clerks or they will find themselves, not only in a compromising situation legally, but they’ll also be creating an administrative nightmare.”

ST. PAUL (AP) – A former church music director wasn’t protected under the Minnesota Human Rights Act when he was dismissed for calling a church member “homophobic,” the state Court of Appeals ruled.

Hamline United Methodist Church of St. Paul dismissed Randall Egan after he refused to apologize for making the remark during a conversation in the church’s parking lot. Egan is bisexual and the church had been contemplating a declaration that it would welcome gay, lesbian and bisexual parishioners into its membership.

In court, he argued that his discharge constituted discrimination and retaliation on the basis of his sexual orientation in violation of the state Human Rights Act.

A lower court ruled that the act didn’t protect him because the law exempts church employees involved in religious work.

Egan argued his position was essentially secular.

The three-member appeals panel disagreed, writing: “We recognize that music generally has a central and substantial role in expressing religious faith; it is often described as a ‘ministry of music.’”

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) – Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson had about 120 people at Daniel Webster College laughing by describing gay rights as toothpaste that will not go back into the tube.

The first openly gay bishop in Christendom said homosexuality used to be discussed as an “issue” but times are different.

“There’s hardly a family that doesn’t know that one of them – someone’s daughter, sister, brother, father, mother, uncle, whatever – is gay. So all of a sudden when you talk about it, it isn’t an issue anymore because Uncle Henry’s face comes to mind,” he said.

“I think that’s why we can’t put this in the tube anymore,” he said. Even the death threats he said he has received will not turn the tide.

“We just decided not to let it ruin our lives,” he said of himself and his longtime partner, Mark Andrew.

Robinson spoke as part of the college’s lecture series and took questions from the audience on his views on Iraq, same-sex marriage, biblical interpretation and abortion.

When it comes to prohibition against same-sex marriage, gay couples are in a terrible bind, he said. “It’s an awful catch-22 churches put people in to say we can only have sex within marriage but there are some of you who can never get married,” he said.

Many of those who heard Robinson speak walked away smiling.

“I was very impressed, very moved. I can see why he was elected. They made a wise choice,” said Francesca Denton, who works at the college library.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The Oklahoma Senate approved an amendment that says the state will not recognize same-sex adoptions from other states or countries.

Sen. James Williamson, GOP leader of the Senate, said “a key component of the radical homosexual agenda is to take away the right of states to regulate and define adoptions – just as they are trying to redefine marriage across the nation.”

Williamson’s amendment to clarify state law was attached to a bill dealing with how foreign adoptions are registered in the state.

Only five senators voted against the amendment, then the bill was passed, 44-0.

Republican legislators have criticized a recent legal opinion by Attorney General Drew Edmondson that said the state’s adoption code required state courts to recognize adoptions in other states, regardless of whether they involve same-sex couples.

The Department of Health sought the opinion, saying it needed direction on how to handle the issuance of birth certificates requested by same-sex couples who adopted the children from Oklahoma.

Edmondson issued another opinion at the time stating that Oklahoma law bars same-sex marriages and does not recognize same-sex unions in other states.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Little art was to be found at a recent student exhibit at the Memphis College of Art after artists protested the removal of another’s work.

The main gallery’s walls were nearly bare after a student was forced to remove her artwork from a collective exhibition, and others volunteered to keep their work out of the show.

Eight of the 12 student exhibitors, all candidates for the Master of Fine Arts degree, took down their work in a show of solidarity.

Hillary Pesson, 24, had her work in the college’s main gallery when she was asked to remove it because it depicts nude women wearing sexually oriented devices.

Pesson said she was told that “some faculty and students were offended.”

Pesson, describing herself as a lesbian who grew up in the South, said her art reflects her interest in queer theory, the study of gay and lesbian roles in society and history.

Two MCA board members contacted by The Memphis Commercial Appeal said the board last met about three weeks ago and was not consulted about the decision to remove the work.

“I want to find out about it,” said board member Robert Towery.

Cynthia Thompson, director of exhibitions, said the gallery committee originally approved Pesson’s work for display.

“I believe in the work that Hillary does,” Thompson said. “I don’t know the reasons behind why it was removed or who ordered it, but I know that we will be meeting to figure out what to do.”

The exhibition now includes only four pieces.