CHICAGO (AP) – Alan Keyes would ban abortion and same-sex marriage, take back the Panama Canal, repeal the federal income tax and even leave the selection of U.S. senators up to state lawmakers rather than ordinary voters.

The 53-year-old Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, a former diplomat and talk show host from Maryland, preaches conservatism with a provocative edge.

Keyes, who believes abortion is murder and would make no exceptions for rape or incest.

His strongly held positions are one of the reasons that conservative state Republicans brought him into the race in August after the party’s more moderate leaders failed to find an acceptable homegrown candidate to replace Jack Ryan.

His selection to oppose Barack Obama, a liberal-leaning state lawmaker from Chicago who is a rising star in the Democratic Party, offers a stark philosophical contrast for voters in Illinois, who have typically backed moderate candidates for statewide office and have leaned Democratic in recent elections.

Keyes’ views have kept him in the headlines through three Senate campaigns in Maryland and two presidential races. And he says sooner or later voters will see how right he is.

“I would rather lose every single election, starting with this one, without a single vote, than support something that God condemns,” Keyes once said.

Being for abortion, he says, is “the slaveholder’s position.”

Keyes also opposes same-sex marriage.

“We as human beings cannot assert that our sexual desires cannot be controlled,” says Keyes.

He was criticized by some Illinois Republicans at the national convention when he described gay people as “selfish hedonists.” An interviewer asked if that included Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughter, Mary, who is a lesbian.

“Of course, she is,” Keyes said. “That goes by definition. Of course, she is.”

HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) – A gay rights group has complained that three singers whose lyrics suggest that homosexuals be hanged, drowned, burned or shot will be among those performing at a reggae festival in Newark.

The performers Bounty Killer, Vybz Kartel and Capleton headline the fourth annual New Jersey Reggae Fest at the Terrace.

“When an artist like Capleton sings, ‘Burn out a queer, blood out a queer,’ that’s an extremely violent statement that needs to be challenged,” Glennda Testone, spokesperson for the national Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, told The Record of Hackensack. “These dance-hall artists can’t hide behind the word ‘culture’ to mask the violent homophobia in their music.”

Dance-hall music is reggae with a rock bass beat. Some of the songs use derogatory terms for gays such as “chi-chi man” and “batty man.”

Festival promoter Kacy Rankine said there would be “no explicit lyrics, period” because the concert is a family event.

“This nonsense about gay-bashing is irrelevant to our festival. We are trying to encourage Caribbean people to come together to enjoy music and art, not to talk about gay-this or gay-that,” Rankine told the newspaper.

He said his company, G. City Entertainment of Irvington, will donate $2 from each $40 ticket to hurricane relief efforts in the Caribbean. About 3,000 fans are expected, and they are being urged to bring canned goods, blankets and cash to donate to hurricane victims.

FORT WORTH (AP) – A federal appeals court has ruled that seven Texas prison officials can be sued for discrimination based on sexual orientation, claims brought by a former inmate who says he was repeatedly raped while behind bars.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled in the case of Roderick Keith Johnson, a gay inmate who said he was raped almost daily for 18 months by prison gangs and sold as a sex slave for $5 while in the Allred Unit near Wichita Falls.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued 15 Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials on Johnson’s behalf in 2002, saying employees ignored his pleas to be moved to a “safekeeping” area for gay and other vulnerable inmates until the ACLU intervened.

“There is a big, big problem out there, and it’s not going to stop unless [the department] has to pay for this behavior,” said Margaret Winter, Johnson’s attorney. Winter is associate director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project.

She said the case would be scheduled for trial.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials were reviewing the ruling and had no comment, spokesperson Mike Viesca said. The department had argued that the employees were immune from being sued because the law did not clearly establish whether their conduct violated Johnson’s rights.

The appeals court agreed in part, and said just seven defendants could be sued. Those dropped from the lawsuit included the department’s executive director and the prison’s senior warden.

DALLAS (AP) – A church volunteer is suing an alternative weekly newspaper for up to $1.1 billion in damages, charging the publication violated a Texas law when it reported that he is HIV-positive without getting his permission.

The Dallas Observer identified the man in a December article about a preacher who led the Cathedral of Hope, a once-booming gay and lesbian church in Dallas that has struggled with financial problems, internal strife and a steep decline in membership.

The man doesn’t dispute that he has the virus that causes AIDS, but he contends the newspaper broke a state law that forbids disclosure of medical test results without a patient’s written consent, except to government health agencies.

Defense attorneys say the privacy law cited by the man applies to hospitals and insurance companies, not media organizations. They have asked the 192nd District Court to throw out the case, and a hearing on the request is scheduled for Oct. 19.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A new poll shows the proposed amendment to ban same-sex marriage enjoys strong support among Utah voters, though some have misgivings about its second part.

The proposed state constitutional amendment, which goes before voters in November, says: “Marriage consists only of the legal union between a man and a woman. No other domestic union, however denominated, may be recognized as a marriage or given the same or substantially equivalent effect.”

Opponents, including all three candidates for Utah attorney general, say the second part at wording could prevent basic legal protections for unmarried couples, such as hospital visitation or inheritance.

Supporters say the second part is essential to prevent domestic partnerships, civil unions or other arrangements they call “counterfeit marriages.”

A survey conducted by Dan Jones & Associates for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV found 63 percent of the 915 registered voters polled statewide said they would vote in favor of the amendment.

JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) – Nearly six years after the beating death of Matthew Shepard, a group of Jackson residents are holding a symposium to open dialogue on attitudes and ways to reduce violence towards GLBT individuals.

Shepard’s mother, Judy, has been invited to speak at the three-day “Stopping Hatred” symposium.

The event includes a reading of the play centered on the murder called The Laramie Project and a wine and cheese reception with Judy Shepard.

One of the organizers is Cory Curtis, who came out after leaving Jackson to attend college in Oregon.

For Britta Houser, 24, she found plenty of support within her family and circle of friends – her father is one of the founders of the Wyoming Teen Human Rights Network – but she saw others who didn’t have that advantage.

“I didn’t suffer a lot of violence and targeted for homophobia,” she said. “There’s definitely a climate of homophobia within cliques and school.”

Both Curtis and Houser said they found safety and a larger, structured support arena.

Curtis, 29, said he came out in college and has gone to work with the Human Rights Coalition in Washington, D.C., where he helped organize a prayer vigil on the steps of the Capitol after Shepard’s murder.

The fact that the brutal crime happened in his home state hit Curtis’ parents and friends the hardest.

Houser said Shepard’s murder hit her hard, but she was struck most by the national media coverage, which she said portrayed Wyoming as unsafe and played up stereotypes of the rural population.

Curtis returned to his hometown two years ago with his partner, knowing that living openly in a small town would be different from it had been in large cities.

“We just decided we would have to be out front about it,” he said. “It was kind of a scary step.”

According to statistics from the Human Rights Coalition taken from Census data, there were 807 same-sex households in Wyoming in 2000, up from 30 in 1990. Also, 72 percent of same-sex households were in rural areas.