LOS ANGELES (AP) – Former Colorado governor and Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent Roy Romer’s name and picture were allegedly posted on a website containing gay pornography.

Romer and the school district filed a lawsuit against David M. Grant of Malibu, Calif., asking a federal court to order the man to shut down the site. The school district and Romer are not seeking monetary damages, said Kevin Reed, a lawyer for the school district.

The lawsuit alleges Grant promoted the for-profit site by sending illegal spam email to more than 500 district employees.

The website, which displays dozens of full-color photographs of young men engaged in sex acts, features a picture of the superintendent beside the title “Roy Romer’s House of Ill Repute.”

Romer and the district claim in the suit that Grant intended to lure the district’s nearly 700,000 students to the site.

The site includes the statement “We don’t want kids visiting this Web site,” but Grant didn’t implement any industry-standard techniques for verifying the age of visitors or blocking minors from accessing the pornography, the lawsuit states.

Grant’s phone number was not listed and he could not be reached for comment.

Reed said Grant had threatened the superintendent with bodily harm in November 2002. School detectives investigated and school police put appropriate security in place.

No charges were filed against Grant at the time, Reed said, and there were no further incidents until he published the offending website.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) – Marin County voters have elected the county’s first openly gay or lesbian judge, bolstering the county’s progressive reputation.

Faye D’Opal won a seat on the Superior Court bench Nov. 2, beating Paul Haakenson, 41, a deputy district attorney with more than 50 trials under his belt and the support of prominent members in Marin’s legal and law enforcement communities.

D’Opal, 64, a Greenbrae lawyer, had the full backing of county Democratic leaders, including Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

D’Opal will be sworn in to the $139,000-per-year job in January.

DENVER (AP) – Firebrand Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, who championed a failed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, beat back a tough challenge from former state lawmaker Stan Matsunaka in a rematch of their 2002 race.

With 80 percent of precincts counted, Musgrave held a 12-point lead over Matsunaka in the 4th District, which spans northern Colorado and the sprawling eastern plains. Musgrave beat Matsunaka by a 13-point margin in 2002.

“I think the fact that I’m winning tonight is a repudiation of Stan Matsunaka and his friends and their sleazy ads,” Musgrave said, referring to a series of attack ads that portrayed her as a thief who stole resources from U.S. troops.

Matsunaka refused to concede, saying none of the district’s 57 precincts in Boulder County had reported. “I think it’s going to be real close,” he said.

Five other Colorado incumbents easily won reelection: Republican Reps. Joel Hefley, Bob Beauprez and Tom Tancredo and Democrats Diana DeGette and Mark Udall.

“I’m feeling relieved, extremely relieved,” said Beauprez, who won by 121 votes two years ago after five weeks of court fights over ballot counting. “I guess this is how it’s supposed to feel, but I’m still adjusting.”

Matsunaka, a Loveland attorney, had accused Musgrave of neglecting the mostly rural district by focusing more on the same-sex marriage than on such issues as the economy, education and healthcare.

He accused Musgrave of “fighting for right-wing agendas in Massachusetts and California” and not paying attention to the issues important to Coloradoans.

Musgrave was targeted by campaign ads showing a look-alike stealing a watch from a dead man and picking the pocket of a soldier in battle. Those spots were paid for in part by Democratic donor and former software developer Tim Gill, who established a foundation that advocates for gay rights.

Musgrave fought back by asking for donations to help resist the “radical homosexual agenda” trying to oust her from office.

Her campaign received a boost when President Bush paid a visit to Greeley in her district and urged voters to reelect her.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – A liberal district in one of the most conservative states in the nation has elected Idaho’s first openly gay elected official.

Nicole LeFavour, a 40-year-old writing teacher, lobbyist and central Idaho native, will serve in the Idaho House of Representatives, representing Boise’s District 19.

Throughout the campaign, LeFavour has downplayed her sexual orientation. But neither did she run from it, receiving strong financial and volunteer support from Boise’s low-profile GLBT community.

LeFavour defeated Republican Alicia Cassarino, who ran a mostly inactive race.

LeFavour said that she was overwhelmed with her 35-point victory.

“After so many months of work, so many months of talking to people, I have to re-imagine the next couple of years,” she said. “It’s just being able to have a voice in the Legislature… It’s very sobering to me.”

LeFavour’s candidacy comes on the heels of one of the Legislature’s most divisive fights over gay rights.

Last winter, lawmakers fought bitterly over a proposed change to the state constitution that would have banned same-sex marriage. The bill passed the conservative House, but stalled in the more moderate Senate.

The failure was a rare setback for the GOP in Idaho, where for more than four decades Republicans have firmly controlled most local and state elected offices.

LeFavour raised more than $73,000 in campaign contributions, more than any House candidate in recent memory.

BETTENDORF, Iowa (AP) – The city council voted to add sexual orientation to its civil rights ordinance, becoming the sixth Iowa city to extend protection from discrimination to gays and lesbians.

The ordinance passed 6-2, the same margin it received on two previous readings. Aldermen Tim Stecker and Norm Voelliger voted against the ordinance.

Nearly 100 people packed the council chambers, most of them opposed to extending civil rights protection to gays and lesbians.

Several called for a public referendum on the issue, asking the council to refrain from voting.

“This is an outrage,” Guy Stevenson said. “You have gone way beyond your elected duties.”

Those supporting the ordinance said they were disturbed by the intensity from many of the opponents.

Kris Clements said she, as a lesbian, was surprised to hear rumors about having an agenda and what a threat she was.

“Given the crowd here tonight, the pickets and protesters, it would seem I’m a threat,” she said. “If these allegations were true, I’d possess more power than the Wicked Witch of the West.”

Alderman Joe Douglas said the concerns brought forward by opponents are overblown.

“One of the basic functions of government is to provide a fair and just society. We’re confronted here with a class of people who are not assured of basic rights,” he said.

Five other Iowa cities have included sexual orientation in their ordinances: Ames, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Des Moines and Iowa City.

CINCINNATI (AP) – Eleven years after Cincinnati became the nation’s only city to have a ban on gay-rights laws, voters repealed it.

Gay-rights activists and business leaders worked together to persuade voters to rescind a charter amendment that forbid the city to enact or enforce laws based on sexual orientation.

“We’re naturally very, very happy to have won this election,” Gary Wright, chair of Citizens to Restore Fairness, the organization that urged voters to repeal the ban, said after the results were known.

Wright said he was pleased with the support of the voters and of hundreds of volunteers who worked for the repeal campaign.

“It was almost two years in the making,” Wright said of the campaign. “I think that kind of dedication really pays off in the end.”

This year’s election in the historically conservative city was the first time voters were asked to reconsider the ban.

Opponents said the ban had given Cincinnati a reputation of intolerance, cost the city business and made it harder for corporations to attract new employees.

The ban’s supporters said there was no evidence either of harm to the economy or of changing attitudes since 62 percent of voters approved the restriction in 1993.

A coalition named Equal Rights, No Special Rights contended that repealing the amendment would amount to giving “special rights” to gays and lesbians.

The activists persuaded voters in 1993 to approve the amendment. The movement’s leaders said that changing the charter – on which a city’s laws are based – would make it more difficult to undo the prohibition because a public vote was needed.