SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) – A former police officer sued the Santa Barbara Police Department alleging he was subject to harassment and discrimination because he’s gay.

Ruben Lino’s Superior Court lawsuit claimed he was the victim of various hostile actions, including failure to offer backup on emergency calls, retaliation when he complained about antigay behavior and refusing to reinstate him after he resigned to further his education.

The suit comes less than a year after the city reached confidential settlements with two former police officers who sued claiming they were discriminated against because they are women.

Those officers were awarded $2.7 million following a jury trial. After the city threatened to appeal, they settled for undisclosed sums in November 2003.

Police Chief Cam Sanchez didn’t comment, but a department statement said the chief “is committed to having a workplace free of discriminatory practices.”

“Under his direction, all SBPD personnel attended mandatory workplace sensitivity and diversity awareness courses in 2003,” the statement read.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – State officials fined two companies more than $30,000 each for allowing actors to perform without using condoms – the first time the state has taken such action.

The fines against Evasive Angles and TTB Productions follow an investigation into a complaint filed by an adult film industry worker, as well as an HIV outbreak that forced a temporary shutdown of adult film production in Southern California.

The companies have 15 days to appeal the decision by the state Division of Occupational Health and Safety.

Three women contracted the virus that causes AIDS from a male performer while working for either Evasive Angles or TTB Productions. Regulators could not determine exactly which company had hired the performers at the time, but found both companies are owned by the same person, said Dean Fryer, an agency spokesperson.

The four actors were diagnosed earlier this year, prompting an investigation.

Susan Gard, who also is a spokesperson for the agency, said the companies violated California law when actors performed sex scenes without using condoms. She said state law requires employers to protect workers who are exposed to blood or bodily fluids on the job.

“Any bodily fluid is considered infectious,” she said. “That means barrier equipment must be used.”

The citations also included an accusation the companies failed to notify authorities about actors who contracted HIV on the job.

ATLANTA (AP) – A lawsuit asks Georgia courts to remove a proposal to ban same-sex marriage from the ballot because it’s misleading to voters.

The lawsuit says the ballot question is deceptive because voters will only see the part of the amendment that would prohibit same-sex marriage. The amendment also bars civil unions and limits the jurisdiction of state courts.

“The legislation will try to trick the voters,” said Rep. Karla Drenner, a Democrat from Avondale Estates and the Legislature’s only openly gay member. “This vote is not just about gay marriage. … It cuts much broader and much deeper than just defining marriage.”

The lawsuit was filed in Fulton County superior court by the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia and Lamda Legal, a civil rights organization that supports gay rights. It seeks a quick hearing so there would be time to remove the measure before the Nov. 2 election.

But a co-sponsor of the proposal said Georgians deserve a chance to vote on the law.

Same-sex marriage is already illegal in Georgia, and this proposed amendment would make that ban part of the state’s constitution.

The lawsuit focuses on the state law requiring that residents only vote on one proposed amendment at a time. This amendment deals with several issues at once that should be treated separately, said Jack Senterfitt, senior staff attorney for Lambda Legal.

“The civil rights of a group of people in this state should not be decided by the whims of the popular vote,” Senterfitt said.

Georgia is expected to overwhelmingly approve the same-sex marriage ban, as Missouri voters did last month.

CONWAY, Ark. (AP) – A judge set court dates for two radio personalities who face felony charges for allegedly distributing pornography to a 16-year-old boy as a stunt during a Pride parade.

Phillip Beard and Christine Brown, both of Little Rock, were charged with possessing and distributing pornographic materials, offenses that allegedly occurred at the June 27 march.

A pretrial hearing in the case is set in Faulkner County Circuit Court for Jan. 21, and trial is to begin Jan. 31.

A civil suit filed by the 16-year-old’s mother charges that Beard, Brown and Stanley Knox, another radio station employee, set out to boost ratings by humiliating participants in the parade.

Brown and Beard, who was known on the radio as Phlip Satchel, were dismissed by Little Rock radio station KABZ-FM after the stunt.

They would face maximum terms of five years in prison and $2,000 fines on each of two felony counts if convicted.

The civil trial is set for 9:00 a.m. Oct. 25.

LITTLE ROCK (AP) – The American Civil Liberties Union says in a filing with the state Supreme Court that a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage is vague and misleading.

The ACLU said in its filings that the general election ballot item’s popular name does not meet a requirement that it be “intelligible, honest and impartial.”

The organization wants the item removed from the Nov. 2 ballot even though it has already been certified by the Secretary of State’s office.

About 200,000 Arkansans signed a petition circulated by the Arkansas Marriage Amendment Committee seeking to place the item on the ballot.

Secretary of State Charlie Daniels, Attorney General Mike Beebe and the marriage amendment committee also submitted arguments.

The committee told the court that the ballot item is “written in perfectly intelligible English.”

But the ACLU said the amendment could affect the granting of benefits to domestic partners and would bar civil unions and other terms used to describe “state recognized” same-sex unions.

Chris Stewart, spokesman for the marriage amendment committee, said the language in the ballot item is clear.

“The voter can clearly read and understand that. What the ACLU says is the voter is too dumb to understand a basic concept,” he said.

The state Attorney General’s office defended the amendment, saying that “there is no credible argument” the ballot title is insufficient.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Christian evangelist Jimmy Swaggart apologized for joking in a televised worship service that he would kill any gay man who looked at him romantically.

A complaint was filed with a Canadian broadcasting group and Swaggart said his Baton Rouge-based Jimmy Swaggart Ministries has also received complaints from gay groups over the remark he made Sept. 12.

In the broadcast, Swaggart was discussing his opposition to same-sex marriage when he said “I’ve never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry.”

“And I’m going to be blunt and plain: If one ever looks at me like that, I’m going to kill him and tell God he died,” Swaggart says, to laughter and applause from the congregation.

Afterwards, Swaggart said he’s jokingly used the expression “killing someone and telling God he died” thousands of times, about all sorts of people. He said the expression is figurative, and not meant to harm.

“It’s a humorous statement that doesn’t mean anything. You can’t lie to God – it’s ridiculous,” Swaggart told The Associated Press. “If it’s an insult, I certainly didn’t think it was, but if they are offended, then I certainly offer an apology.”

Audio recordings of the Sept. 12 statements have circulated on gay-themed websites.

One complaint was sent to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, a self-regulating industry group that enforces broadcast standards, after a Toronto television station broadcast the service, said Ann Mainville-Neeson, the group’s executive director.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – A state appeals court refused a request to throw out petitions to put a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage on the Ohio ballot.

The two-sentence judgment from a three-judge panel said opponents of the proposal did not “demonstrate their right” to get a court order.

“You don’t throw out all these petitions at this point on a technicality that has already been ruled upon four or five months ago,” said Donald Brey, special counsel to Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell.

Alan Melamed, head of the campaign to stop the amendment, said the group had not yet decided whether to appeal but will continue other challenges to the petitions.