LOS ANGELES – About 100 teenagers carried handwritten signs and chanted slogans at a rally supporting the legalization of same-sex marriage.

The demonstration was organized by two members of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Winward School in West Los Angeles. The event drew gay and straight students from high schools across Orange, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, as well as parents and teachers.

Student Stephanie Gross, 16, compared the push for same-sex marriage to the struggle against segregation.

“It’s part of something a lot bigger than any of us,” she said as she helped make posters with phrases including, “Love Is Marriage”.

John Duran, mayor of West Hollywood, where three of the five council members are gay, smiled at the cheering youths and people who honked car horns in support.

“They are part of changing America,” he said.

Polls show that young people are more likely than their elders to back the legalization of same-sex marriage.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) – Roman Catholic Bishop Michael Sheridan used his latest column to clarify what he said were misunderstandings that he would deny people communion over how they vote.

Sheridan, head of the Diocese of Colorado Springs, wrote last month that Catholic politicians “may not” receive communion if they disagree with the church’s stands against abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage and stem-cell research.

Unlike other U.S. bishops, Sheridan went further by saying Catholics who vote for such candidates should be held to the same standards. He did not write that he would refuse the sacrament to anyone based on how they vote.

However, Sheridan said, the church teaches that those who sin seriously must refrain from communion until they repent and confess.

Sheridan wrote in his latest column for the diocesan newspaper that voting in bad conscience, especially on issues like abortion, is a sinful act.

“It is at this point that the Church calls upon sinners to withhold themselves from receiving Holy Communion until they have been forgiven of their sins,” Sheridan wrote in The Catholic Herald. “This is a far cry from denying someone Communion.”

Sheridan said his column was meant to explain church teaching and that he is not using the Eucharist as a weapon to force certain behaviors.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State alleged Sheridan was essentially telling Catholics how to vote in his column and was therefore jeopardizing the diocese’s tax-exempt status. It asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) – An Episcopal assistant rector received a warning about a commitment ceremony she participated in with her lesbian partner as the church works to clarify its stance on the issue.

Rev. Bonnie Sarah Spencer of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church took part in the ceremony with a church member on April 24, according to a written warning sent by Colorado Episcopal Bishop Rob O’Neill.

O’Neill said Spencer used “very poor judgment” and her unilateral action was of “grave concern.” However, he also said the ceremony at the church did not violate church canons, diocesan ethics guidelines or its sexual misconduct policy.

Spencer wrote a letter of apology to her colleagues and took a leave of absence.

O’Neill pledged no major changes to church policy involving same-sex couples after becoming the leader of Colorado’s 35,000 Episcopalians in January.

Following last year’s divisive General Convention, some dioceses across the country have developed same-sex blessing rites that stop short of marriage.

A task force established by O’Neill is expected to issue its preliminary recommendations by the end of June.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) – For the fourth time in a decade, Colorado State University faculty and staff are urging the school to offer benefits to employees’ domestic partners, including same-sex partners.

“Basically, we believe in fair treatment of individuals, and this seemed like a good way to do that,” said C.W. Miller, chair of the Faculty Council and professor of biomedical sciences.

Faculty and staff have passed a resolution seeking benefits for partners who share an exclusive, committed relationship with a university employee. Faculty at CSU-Pueblo have passed a similar resolution.

The University of Colorado already offers similar benefits, Miller said.

CSU’s Benefits Committee asked the administration to adopt domestic-partner benefits in 1995, 2000 and 2001, but the proposals never made it to the CSU Board of Governors.

“I don’t know why it didn’t go forward in the past,” said Gerry Bomotti, vice president of Administrative Services. “It happened during a different administration at a different time.”

Randy McCrillis, director of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Services at CSU, said 14 CSU employees have said they would use domestic-partner benefits. Employees would pay the full cost of premiums to cover their partners.

Two previous faculty and administrative staff surveys have shown most support domestic-partner benefits.

“It’s interesting that the campus community has been passing this through over the years, and it always seems to be squashed at the upper echelons,” McCrillis said.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A Kansas church group conducting an anti-gay protest was met with a larger counter-protest during Iowa City High School’s graduation ceremony.

As the 330 graduates marched to their seats at the event, a group of about 15 protesters, including three children, from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., stood outside denouncing what they said was the school’s enabling of the “gay lifestyle” by awarding the Matthew Shepard scholarship.

The scholarship is a state award given to a high-achieving openly gay or lesbian student. It is named for a gay Wyoming college student who was tortured and killed in 1998.

Across the street from the church’s protest was a counter-protest of about 75 people supporting graduate Ilse Bendorf, who was presented with the Matthew Shepard scholarship.

Connie Concepcion of Iowa City was part of the counter-protest. She said she was there to support Bendorf and counter the Westboro church’s message.

“You can protest, but don’t expect us to be silent,” Concepcion said. “These people do not go away. There are too many [gay and lesbian] youth who are struggling in high school.”

Westboro member Charles Hockenbarger said the church was serious in telling the Iowa community about the consequences of what it called a “sinful lifestyle” and “God’s hate for America.” He carried a sign that declared “Thank God for AIDS” and dragged an American flag.

“We take what we’re about very seriously,” Hockenbarger said. “If you don’t believe these things, you’re going to hell.”

Bendorf declined to comment on the protests, but was given a loud cheer from classmates as she was presented with her diploma.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – David Adkins, the only member of the Kansas Senate to publicly support same-sex marriage, is not seeking re-election.

Adkins’ decision will end a 12-year career during which the Leawood Republican grew influential in budget and juvenile justice policy and ran unsuccessfully for attorney general.

However, this year, Adkins received more attention for opposing a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution to ban same-sex marriage and deny benefits associated with marriage to other relationships, such as same-sex civil unions.

He argued that the proposal on same-sex marriage, which most GOP senators favored, would write discrimination into the state constitution. Asked during one debate whether he supported same-sex marriage, he said yes. The Senate adopted a version of the proposed ban, but it failed in the House.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) – Springfield will soon no longer offer health benefits to unmarried domestic partners of city employees now that same-sex couples are legally allowed to marry in Massachusetts.

Mayor Charles Ryan notified the city clerk that he has rescinded all prior executive orders allowing unmarried domestic partners to participate in the city’s group health insurance program.

Unmarried domestic partners will not be cut off from access to health insurance immediately. Ryan offered a 90-day grace period to become legally married and retain insurance coverage.

Ryan’s move raised concerns among same-sex marriage advocates, who said it would force gay and lesbian couples to get married, or put them at risk to lose benefits they are not currently entitled to under federal laws.

“We feel very strongly that it is grossly inappropriate and terribly unfair for any employer to rescind domestic partner benefits until gay people have complete and total marriage rights, which we don’t right now,” said Arline Isaacson, co-chair of the Massachusetts Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus.