LOS ANGELES (AP) – A fourth pornography actor has tested positive for the AIDS virus in an outbreak that has prompted Southern California’s adult-movie industry to halt production, according to an organization that tests the performers for HIV.

The actor, a transsexual named Jennifer, was diagnosed May 4 in a case that appeared to be unrelated to the three earlier cases, according to a statement from the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation.

Two of Jennifer’s on-screen sex partners have tested negative at least once since their last encounter with the actress Feb. 27. Jennifer has not worked in the industry since then, so the foundation said it considered the case isolated.

In April, an actor with the screen name Darren James and a woman he performed with tested positive. Their cases prompted a voluntary quarantine of more than 50 adult-movie performers and halted productions by about 30 film companies, most of which operate in the San Fernando Valley.

James apparently contracted HIV while filming unprotected sex scenes in Brazil, health officials have said.

AIM is run by former porn star Sharon Mitchell, who holds a doctorate in human sexuality. Since the organization opened in 1998, Mitchell has provided testing for sexually transmitted diseases along with drug and psychological counseling for porn performers.

The last HIV scare in the porn industry was in 1999 and involved a single case.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – The state’s highest court ruled May 3 that the virus that causes AIDS is a job hazard for certain prison guards, clearing the way for them to receive workers’ compensation for the deadly disease.

The 5-2 ruling extends the protection to members of prison emergency response teams and lays the foundation for every state correction officer to be covered.

The court held that the state must consider a workers’ compensation claim by the family of an unidentified Bridgeport correction officer who was diagnosed with HIV in 1992 and died a year later.

The court pointed to the high rate of HIV infection among prisoners as a unique and hazardous job environment.

“Breaking up altercations and riots in an inmate population with an HIV infection level of one in 20 – more than 70 times greater than the infection rate of the non-incarcerated population – is peculiar to the decedent’s occupation,” Justice Flemming L. Norcott Jr. wrote.

The ruling allows emergency response team members to apply for compensation. They still must prove they contracted HIV on the job.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A new sign of rancor within the Episcopal Church came when five retired bishops who were denounced by fellow bishops for defying church rules said they would only meet with church authorities to discuss the conflict under certain conditions.

The five are part of a conservative movement that opposes gay and lesbian clergy and the election of gay Bishop Gene Robinson. On March 14, they led a large confirmation service for Ohio parishes without required approval from the local bishop.

The national House of Bishops decided not to discipline the five, but warned that leading future unauthorized services would mean they’d be disciplined under church law. They said the five must meet with a bishops’ panel called the Council of Advice.

The five said the meeting should discuss such matters as bishops who have “denied or attempted to rewrite the faith,” and relations with overseas Anglican churches that broke ties with the Episcopal Church over gay and lesbian policies.

Meanwhile, the Episcopalians’ first openly gay bishop, Otis Charles, married Felipe Sanchez Paris at a San Francisco parish. Charles, 78, is divorced from his wife of 42 years. Paris, 62, had four previous marriages.

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. (AP) – A supporter of the mayor who brought this small village into the national debate on same-sex marriage has won election to the Village Board.

Michael Zierler defeated Rick Remsnyder 444-306, a margin of 59-41 percent, in a special election some saw as a referendum on Mayor Jason West’s performance.

Remsnyder, 57, son of a former New Paltz mayor, ran on a promise to “take back the village” from West, 26, and the Green Party majority that took control of the five-member board last spring.

Zierler was elected to serve only one year. His victory gives the West team a 4-1 majority on the board. The lone member of the minority is 11-year incumbent Robert Hebel.

New Paltz has been a flashpoint in the national same-sex marriage debate since West performed rapid-fire marriages for 25 gay and lesbian couples Feb. 27. West faces misdemeanor charges of solemnizing marriages without a license.

Remsnyder said the influence of the Green Party on the SUNY New Paltz campus drew a large number of students to the polls and swung the election to Zierler.

“Students cannot think for themselves,” he said. “They do village elections as a political exercise or as a protest vote against what they see as the establishment.”

Hebel filed a suit against West after the mayor performed the same-sex weddings.

CINCINNATI (AP) – A church court ruled that a Presbyterian minister did not violate church law by marrying same-sex couples, reversing a ruling by a lower court.

The permanent judicial commission of the Presbyterian Church (USA) synod that oversees churches in Ohio and Michigan ruled 6-4 that the denomination’s constitution does not prohibit ministers from marrying same-sex couples.

The ruling reverses the lower church court’s conviction of the Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken for marrying same-sex couples.

The constitution of the 2.5 million-member denomination defines marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman. The church’s highest court ruled in 2000 that ministers may bless same-sex unions, but cannot marry those couples.

That interpretation makes same-sex marriages impermissible, but “it avoids an outright prohibition by using the words ‘should’ and ‘should not’ in guidance for church bodies and ministers,” the judicial commission ruled.

The commission also said that the 2000 ruling also fails to define the performance of a same-sex marriage by a minister as an offense subject to disciplinary trial.

The commission ordered that the lower court’s decision be reversed and a rebuke of Van Kuiken dismissed.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The Senate’s Republican leader is praising a new law designed to overturn an attorney general’s opinion on recognizing adoptions by same-sex couples in other states.

But a lawyer for an organization that represents gay and lesbian couples says the measure puts children of gay and lesbian parents at risk.

The bill was signed into law without comment by Democratic Gov. Brad Henry.

Sen. James Williamson, R-Tulsa, author of an amendment on gay and lesbian adoptions, said he is pleased with Henry’s action.

“I believe it is important to affirm the voice of the majority of Oklahomans who don’t feel like homosexual couples should be recognized as adoptive parents of children,” the Senate’s GOP leader said.

The issue came up after out-of-state couples who adopted Oklahoma children sought birth certificates from the state Department of Health.

Williamson said the law change will permit the health agency to issue birth certificates to only one member of a gay or lesbian couple, a policy it had before Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s opinion was rendered.

Edmondson, while saying same-sex marriage is unlawful in Oklahoma, said state law required agencies to recognize same-sex unions in other states.

“This amendment made it clear that the statutory basis for that opinion was no longer valid,” Williamson said.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – A Superior Court judge has rejected a complaint challenging Portland’s domestic partnership ordinance.

The Washington-based American Center for Law & Justice had recruited several married couples in Portland to challenge the ordinance on grounds it violated the state’s Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1997.

Justice Thomas Humphrey concluded that the domestic partnership ordinance doesn’t violate state law, and that Portland acted within its home-rule authority when the city council passed the ordinance in 2001.

“The ordinance applies to the extension of limited municipal rights and benefits to domestic partners, not to the regulation of marriage per se,” Humphrey wrote. “It does not conflict with any of the state’s provisions regarding the licensing or recognition of marriage.”

The city of Portland began offering health benefits to employees’ domestic partners in 1999. Two years later, the domestic partnership ordinance established a registry for committed, unmarried couples.