LOS ANGELES (AP) – Nineteen adult movie performers have been cleared to return to work following an HIV outbreak that shook the multibillion-dollar porn industry.

About 50 performers were put on a voluntary quarantine list that prevented them from doing sex scenes after the outbreak was discovered.

The 19 were cleared to return to work, about a month earlier than expected, said Sharon Mitchell, executive director of Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation.

Mitchell said healthcare professionals from the nonprofit group, which tests adult film stars for sexually transmitted diseases, are now confident that the 19 are free of HIV.

DENVER (AP) – Republicans in the home county of GOP Rep. Marilyn Musgrave have balked at supporting her proposal to outlaw same-sex marriage.

At their assembly earlier this month, Morgan County Republicans fell one vote short of approving a resolution to support the proposed constitutional amendment backed by Musgrave and other Republicans, including President Bush and Sen. Wayne Allard of Colorado.

Among those who didn’t vote for the resolution were Musgrave and her husband, who left the assembly early. Her chief of staff, Guy Short, said the resolution would have passed had she and her husband voted or if three unmarked ballots weren’t counted.

“The congresswoman has more important things to do than fiddle with spoiled ballots in Morgan County,” Short said.

Meanwhile, the Log Cabin Republicans, a GOP gay rights group, has put together a statewide ad campaign criticizing the proposal.

“Either you believe that all American families are entitled to the same rights, privileges and responsibilities or you don’t,” said Patrick Guerriero, the group’s executive director.

The spot uses a 2000 video clip in which Vice President Dick Cheney says same-sex marriage should be left up to the states to decide and that people should have the freedom to choose when it comes to relationships.

Cheney, who has a gay daughter, has since said he would side with Bush.

Short said the ads misrepresent Cheney’s stance on same-sex marriage.

“They ought to at least be a little honest in their exercise of their political rights,” Short said.

STORRS, Conn. (AP) – The heated dispute between a nationally prominent physicist and the University of Connecticut has been resolved with his transfer to the school’s Avery Point campus.

Moshe Gai, 54, had gone to federal court more than two years ago to stop a university disciplinary hearing and bar UConn from firing him.

In pressing for his dismissal the university had claimed Gai disrupted the physics department, made disparaging remarks about a gay colleague and humiliated graduate students.

The university also claimed that Gai threatened to kill a fellow physics professor in August 2000.

Gai, for his part, claimed that UConn started to build what he described as a trumped-up case against him in 1997, when he criticized the laboratories and curriculum of the physics department.

Lawyers for each side said they could not comment on the details of the settlement, which was reached about two months ago, according to Gai’s lawyer, John Williams.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A prominent gay rights group and the American Civil Liberties Union have asked the Iowa Supreme Court to uphold a divorce granted by an Iowa judge to a lesbian couple.

The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund filed its friend-of-the-court brief May 10.

The state’s high court in February agreed to review a divorce decree granted last November by Woodbury County District Judge Jeffrey Neary to two Sioux City women. Neary later reworded the decree to refer to civil union instead of marriage.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, six state lawmakers and an Iowa church had appealed Neary’s ruling, arguing that he overstepped his authority because Iowa law does not recognize same-sex marriage.

The brief from Lambda, a New York-based gay rights organization, urges the court to dismiss the appeal, arguing that none of the plaintiffs was injured by the ruling or has legal standing to bring the challenge.

In an unusual legal maneuver, attorneys for the Iowa lawmakers unsuccessfully asked the court last month not to allow the gay rights group to file its brief.

“This is a matter wholly within the realm and expertise of this court to decide without the need of outside assistance from experts regarding homosexual issues,” attorneys wrote.

The Iowa Supreme Court has not set a date to hear arguments in the case.

LAS VEGAS (AP) – Counter-protesters far outnumbered anti-gay picketers from a Kansas church who rallied against a high school play based on the 1998 beating death of a University of Wyoming student.

“Wherever they are, that’s where we’ll be,” said Christian Jose, 20, a property agent carrying a rainbow flag and a sign reading, “Hate Kills.”

Jose joined more than 250 people who jammed a sidewalk in front of the Las Vegas Academy, facing about 10 picketers on the other curb from Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan.

The church group held posters and sang songs to highlight what they call the “homosexual message” in The Laramie Project.

“God does not love everyone,” said protest organizer Shirley Phelps-Roper. “You cannot live like the devil himself and expect to get into heaven.”

Students have been staging the play about how Laramie, Wyo., responded to the slaying of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard.

Students prayed in the inner courtyard of the school while Principal Stephen Clark joined about 50 police officers and the American Civil Liberties Union keeping watch on the protest.

“I think our kids, who’ve learned about tolerance and bigotry, have seen that here,” Clark said.

Las Vegas police detained one man after he ran into the street, but said he was released without arrest.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) – About 200 people gathered for a vigil on the spot a 15-year-old lesbian was stabbed to death one year earlier.

The hour-long, candlelight vigil for Sakia Gunn at the corner of Broad and Market streets included the reading of a proclamation from Gov. James E. McGreevey declaring May 11, 2004 “No Name Calling Day”.

The day was named in honor of Gunn and youths who were the victims of bias crimes. Newark schools held a moment of silence earlier in the day.

The proclamation was read by Laquetta Nelson, founder of the Newark Pride Alliance, a gay and lesbian advocacy group.

“Sakia gave her life so that we could say to the people of Newark that it is no longer acceptable to call us names because it hurts,” Nelson said.

She told the crowd of mostly young, black women that heterosexuals have a role to play in the well being of gays and lesbians.

“If you have gay family or friends, go to them; tell them you know who they are and that you love them with all your heart,” Nelson said. “Set them free. Set them free.”

Gunn was stabbed to death last year waiting for a bus after she told her attacker that she and the friends he was propositioning were lesbians.

Candles, roses and handwritten inscriptions in black marker adorned the spot where she was killed. “We miss you Kia,” read one inscription that used shorthand and referenced a gay pride symbol, “see u over the rainbow.”

Richard McCullough, 29, of Newark, was charged with Gunn’s murder and with bias intimidation after he turned himself in shortly after she died. McCullough has pleaded not guilty and is in Essex County Jail awaiting trial.

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. (AP) – Cherokee Nation officials are scrambling to clarify their marriage laws after a lesbian couple obtained an application for marriage.

A day after the application was issued, a tribal judge issued a moratorium on same-sex marriage applications while tribal officials worked to clarify their marriage laws to include the definition of a marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

“We believe the definition of marriage is only between a man and woman,” said Principal Chief Chad Smith. “Any other marriage application would not be valid.”

Marriage applications are issued by the tribe instead of licenses. After the ceremony, the person conducting the wedding signs the application, and the couple returns it to the tribal court for certification, said tribal spokesman Mike Miller.

The marriage application was obtained by two Tulsa-area women, who are planning a wedding, said David Cornsilk, a Cherokee activist who instigated the application.

“They want it to be private. They don’t want to be crusaders,” Cornsilk said. “They’re just wanting to enjoy the benefits of the tribe to which they belong.”

Same-sex marriages are illegal in Oklahoma. The state honors marriage applications from the tribe.

Attorney General Drew Edmondson has said that federal law does not require Oklahoma to recognize same-sex marriages from other states.

It was not immediately clear if the Cherokee Nation’s sovereign status would change that, but gay rights advocates said they hoped it would.

“The fact remains that the Cherokee Nation is rightfully a sovereign nation and their decision on their sovereign property takes precedent,” said Jim Craig, coordinator of the Interfaith Diversity and Equality Association.

Mark Bonney, president of Tulsa Oklahomans for Human Rights, said the women got no opposition when they went to Tahlequah to pick up the marriage application.

“But after that there was quite a buzz,” he said.