Carlos Santana, whose upcoming U.S. concert tour will raise funds to fight AIDS in Africa, has invited fans to join him in “spreading a spiritual virus.”

Santana said he hopes to raise between $2.5 million and $3 million during his “Shaman” tour, which begins June 13 in Raleigh, North Carolina, and ends in Los Angeles on July 14.

Net proceeds will go to the Artists for a New South Africa fund, which supports South African groups fighting the spread of HIV and AIDS.

“We invite you to join us in spreading a spiritual virus,” the 55-year-old Grammy-winning guitarist told a press conference June 5, attended by South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. “We invite you to create a masterpiece of joy on this planet.”

AIDS awareness booths will be set up at the concerts to provide information to fans.

Tutu and celebrities including Samuel Jackson, Alfre Woodard and Blair Underwood praised Santana and his wife, Deborah, for supporting the cause.

City leaders in La Quinta, California, said vandalism and intolerance will not change plans to showcase a rainbow art piece in the city’s 20th anniversary logo.

Last month, the large multicolored rainbow artwork at Fritz Burns Park was defaced with antigay statements.

City leaders said they are moving forward with plans to paint the fading artwork to match the multi-colors of the city’s anniversary logo.

“I’m not going to be pressured by people who are only working with one oar in the water,” Mayor Don Adolph said. “If they want to associate (the art piece) with gay pride, positive or negative, that’s their prerogative.”

Councilmember Terry Henderson said she refuses to eliminate the logo’s rainbow.

“It is a rainbow. Rainbows come in various colors. I don’t see why we need to walk away from that,” she said.

Samuel Silver, a former circuit judge who presided over a landmark Florida gay rights case in 1977, has died of natural causes. He was 89.

Silver was appointed as a Dade County circuit judge in 1972 by Gov. Reubin Askew.

In 1977, Silver presided over the case in which Dade’s gay rights ordinance was challenged by a group led by singer Anita Bryant. Silver ruled the ordinance banning discrimination against gays was constitutional.

At the time, Silver said the controversy over the Dade County law “created a chaotic, divisive, restless, emotional atmosphere in our community.”

Miami-Dade County has since passed and upheld a gay rights ordinance.

In 1984, Silver went to the Florida Supreme Court requesting to be allowed to run for re-election. The state Constitution contained an age mandate that required him to step down.

A southern Indiana community theater group has abandoned plans to stage a play centered on the reaction of a rural Wyoming community to the killing of Matthew Shepard, an openly gay college student.

Gibson Southern High School drama teacher Matt Hart said a community theater group had intended to put on The Laramie Project until some ministers began opposing what would have been the group’s first performance.

Charlie Dietz, minister of the Princeton Christian Church, said he was worried the play would promote the acceptance of homosexuality.

“We believe what the Bible teaches, that it is a sin,” Dietz said. “We abhor the death of Mr. Shepard that the play is written around. But we would not in any way endorse or condone homosexuality.”

Hart told cast members the play had some rough language, but he was sensitive to community standards. Still, Hart was reluctant to edit the script, the subject of an acclaimed HBO documentary.

Dietz said he and others in the city about 25 miles north of Evansville would “like to see a community theater here where we could go and enjoy a good, wholesome play.”

An attorney for a man sentenced to death for the murder that inspired the movie Boys Don’t Cry asked for DNA testing June 5 to prove his client’s innocence in the killing of a transgender man.

Death-row inmate John Lotter claims that another man convicted in the crime, Marvin Nissen, actually murdered Teena Brandon and two witnesses on New Year’s Eve 1993. Lotter’s attorney, Jerry Soucie, asked the Nebraska Supreme Court to order DNA testing on gloves that Nissen wore the night of the killings.

An earlier request for the tests was rejected by Richardson County District Judge Daniel Bryan.

Nissen has testified that he stabbed Brandon, but he said it was Lotter who shot Brandon, 21, and the witnesses, Lisa Lambert, 24, and Philip DeVine, 22. Nissen is serving a life sentence.

Prosecutors said Brandon, a biological woman who identified as a man, was killed because she accused the men of raping her after learning she was a woman. The killings outraged gay activists and led to several documentaries and films, including the 1999 movie.

Assistant Attorney General Marie Colleen Clarke said that Lotter took Nissen’s gloves after the killing and wrapped the gun and knife in them. Thus, she said, it would be no surprise if blood from all three victims was found on the gloves.

“What would it prove?” she asked.

A Baptist church with a lesbian pastor was voted out of the Tennessee Baptist Convention.

Laurann Whetham, president of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, said Glendale Baptist Church went too far by placing a lesbian in a leadership position. Associate pastor April Baker is the only full-time ministerial staffer at Glendale, which has about 200 members.

“We’re not elevating homosexuality above other sins by this action,” Whetham said.

The vote was held May 30. It’s likely that Glendale’s relationship with the national Southern Baptist Convention will be addressed this week at national meetings in Phoenix.

Glendale officials said in a statement that they accepted the decision.

“We ... appreciate the prayer and dialogue with representatives of the executive board of the Tennessee Baptist Convention and accept the decision of the executive board to dissolve our relationship,” the statement read.

The Southern Baptist Convention has severed ties with more than 10 other congregations since 1988 over the issue of homosexuality.

Glendale spokesperson Stewart Clifton said the church will still consider itself Baptist, and continue to support Baker.

“She’s doing a great job,” he said. “She has total confidence in the church.”

HIV infection rates among gay men in King County, Washington, appear to be soaring, prompting warnings from health officials to take more precautions.

HIV infections diagnosed in public health clinics rose 40 percent last year and are projected to increase by another 60 percent this year, “the most dramatic increase since the beginning of the epidemic” more than 20 years ago, said Dr. Robert Wood, director of AIDS control for the Seattle-King County Health Department.

The agency’s clinics reported 94 new HIV infections in gay men tested last year, and testing through April indicates there could be more than 150 cases by the end of this year.

“The new information is frightening. It’s astounding,” Wood said.

Health officials based their analysis on reports from public clinics, where patients generally have high infection risks. Increases in private clinics likely are lower, Wood said.

Officials estimate there are 400 to 500 new HIV infections in the county each year, including those found at private clinics.

Lacking a count from private clinics, however, the overall increase in HIV infections remains unknown.

Last year there was an increase of about 11 percent in the number of gay men tested for HIV in public clinics, which Wood said was encouraging but could not account for the increase in infections.

He estimated about 8,400 county residents are HIV-positive, including about 3,000 with full-blown AIDS, compared to 7,500 individuals with HIV two years ago.