LITTLE ROCK (AP) – Those who want the state Supreme Court to allow a ballot question banning same-sex marriage to remain on the November ballot want two justices with connections to gay-rights issues to step aside so the governor opposed to same-sex marriage can replace them.

The Arkansas Marriage Amendment Committee has filed motions asking Justices Robert L. Brown and Annabelle Clinton Imber to recuse themselves from hearing a lawsuit seeking to prohibit the recognition of legal unions among same-sex.

The motions said Brown should step aside because he wrote an article praising a 2002 court opinion that decriminalized sodomy. They said Brown was supporting a purely policy-driven decision in support of gay rights.

The motions also asked Imber to recuse herself because she once worked at the same law firm as a heterosexual man who has joined the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the ballot initiative. Imber pointed out the connection on her own and said there was no conflict in it.

Blake Rutherford, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the Arkansas Marriage Amendment Committee wants Gov. Mike Huckabee to replace the justices for their perceived views on gay rights when Huckabee is clearly opposed to same-sex marriage.

Jerry Cox, the committee’s president, said he didn’t know if Huckabee’s stance would “raise questions or not.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The county Board of Supervisors tentatively approved a law that would require sex clubs and gay bathhouses to obtain health permits in hopes of reducing high HIV rates.

The action follows a federally funded study of two Los Angeles bathhouses in 2001 and 2002 that found 11 percent of the patrons tested positive for HIV – double the rate for gay men nationwide and nearly seven times that of the general public.

“We certainly have a public health risk,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county’s public health director. He estimated the commercial sex venues attract 600,000 patrons a year.

The county has the authority to close any of the nine known gay bathhouses and two sex clubs that allow people to engage in unprotected sex. But health officials said that law was too vague and difficult to enforce because patrons simply avoid inappropriate activity when health inspectors appear.

The new regulations would allow unannounced inspections during peak hours. They would also require clubs to post signs explaining the rules, provide condoms and offer HIV testing and counseling.

The permit could be revoked if customers, who pay entry fees to mingle in swimming pools and hot tubs or rent private rooms with beds, are allowed to have unprotected sex.

The regulations must also be approved by the city council before they can take effect. The county will vote on the issue again for final approval.

Scott Campbell, president of Midtowne Spa, said the three bathhouses his group operates have been offering HIV testing since 1996 and hand out about 500,000 condoms per year.

“We all have the same goal, which is for people to be healthy,” Campbell said. “It doesn’t do any good if you come up with regulations that run them out of the clubs, because then you have no access to them.”

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) – Three breakaway parishes went ahead with services despite moves by the Episcopal bishop of Los Angeles to regain control over the congregations after they linked with an Anglican diocese in Uganda.

More than 100 parishioners sang hymns and prayed at All Saints’ Church in Long Beach, which along with St. James Church in Newport Beach and St. David’s Church in North Hollywood abandoned the Episcopal Church in mid-August out of concern it had strayed from its biblical teachings.

The division has been denounced by Bishop J. Jon Bruno, who has indicated the dispute could end up being resolved not in church but in court. He assigned two assistant bishops to serve the congregations and said he would appoint new lay governing boards. He also blasted the seceding parishes for their literal interpretation of the Bible.

In a letter read Aug. 22 at Episcopal churches throughout Southern California, Bruno said he intends to “protect and preserve the properties of these congregations as part of the Diocese of Los Angeles.”

Rev. William Thompson of All Saints’ Church said after services that since the early 1960s the Episcopal Church has been “veering away from historic Christianity.”

Thompson said he joined the American Anglican Council in 1996 to become more pro-active in reforming the Episcopal church. The decision to secede was cemented by the Episcopal Church’s confirmation in August 2003 of an openly gay bishop, Thompson said.

“We felt that perhaps things couldn’t be reformed,” he said. “The church had taken a position that was counter to the teachings of the Holy Scripture.”

There are an estimated 2.3 million Episcopalians in the United States with about 85,000 in the Los Angeles diocese that spans six Southern California counties. The Episcopal Church in the United States is part of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, a global association of churches.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – A lesbian couple went public with their relationship to “put a face” on the consequences of a proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.

Standing side by side, Kim Peurrung and Beth Bates told a group of gay-rights activists that the proposal could deny them joint healthcare coverage and other benefits enjoyed by Kentucky couples.

“We would like to have the same constitutional protections that any Kentuckians have to pursue a relationship and not have to worry about what you can and can’t have,” Bates said.

Gay-rights proponents promised a vigorous campaign this fall to try to defeat the proposed amendment on the Nov. 2 ballot. The proposal also would deny legal recognition of civil unions.

Sarah Reece, director of a statewide campaign against the measure, said the proposal would go beyond defining marriage by denying basic rights to same-sex couples.

“The Constitution should guarantee protections for you, not take them away,” she said at a news conference at a park.

Peurrung and Bates said they worried the amendment, if enacted, could affect their ability to make lifesaving medical decisions for one another, or end-of-life decisions.

The Rev. Phil Lloyd-Sidle, pastor of James Lee Memorial Presbyterian Church in Louisville, said that the use of Scripture to defend the amendment amounted to “the misuse of the Bible.”

“I simply cannot fathom turning that holy document of love into a bludgeon that batters people’s freedoms, worth and dignity,” he said.

Reece said her organization has $200,000 and has campaign staff in seven communities across Kentucky.

A Bluegrass Poll taken in May and published by The Courier-Journal found that 70 percent of Kentuckians favor the amendment.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – A referendum that would ban same-sex marriage is an attempt at “far-reaching social engineering” that could also ban civil unions and other kinds of domestic partnerships, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma said.

ACLU attorney Mark Henricksen told a state Supreme Court referee the court should stop a planned Nov. 2 statewide vote on State Question 711 because the same-sex marriage ban is “vague, ambiguous and flawed” and would discriminate against gays and lesbians.

Attorneys for Attorney General Drew Edmondson and two state lawmakers who support the ban said the people should be allowed to vote on the issue, arguing before Referee Greg Albert that the Supreme Court has never recognized the right of same-sex couples to marry.

“This case is about the people’s right to vote,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Sandra Rinehart said. “The petitioners are trying to take away that right.”

Albert said there is no timetable for the Supreme Court to decide the issue.

Henricksen said the measure’s language could lead to bizarre interpretations that would ban civil unions, domestic partnerships and even common-law heterosexual marriages and remarriage after divorce or the death of a spouse.

“We believe that State Question 711 was intended to forbid the future occurrence of common-law marriage in Oklahoma,” Henricksen said.

He said it is uncertain whether the measure’s language was due to “sloppy drafting” or a “social agenda” by the measure’s authors and suggested the measure was an attempt at “far-reaching social engineering.”

Rinehart said the ACLU had not shown the measure is unconstitutional and that the people should be allowed to vote on it.

She also said the subject matter “is clearly marriage” and that State Question 711 does not violate the constitutional prohibition against logrolling, or encompassing more than one issue in a ballot measure.

Olsson also said it may be too late to stop the election because the state Election Board has already printed ballots containing State Question 711 and would not have time to print new ones.