ATLANTA (AP) – A judge’s decision to limit defendants in a same-sex marriage lawsuit was blasted by the marriage ban’s original sponsor.

Sen. Mike Crotts, a Republican from Conyers who sponsored Georgia’s constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions, said he and any other interested lawmakers should be free to join the governor in defending the amendment, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters last November.

A group of gay rights supporters has challenged the amendment in court, saying it was misleading because voters only saw part of the new constitutional language.

Earlier, Fulton County Superior Judge Constance Russell denied a request by Crotts and the Christian Coalition of Georgia to become intervenors in the case, meaning they could not help Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue defend the amendment.

“I think it’s only fair” to allow lawmakers and other supporters help defend the amendment, Crotts told reporters.

Crotts is not returning to the Legislature – he made an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Congress last year – but he vowed that no court in Georgia would be able to defeat a same-sex marriage amendment.

“If a judge throws it out, I think you’re going to see it again. Not only are you going to see it again, it’ll pass again,” Crotts said.

Same-sex marriage and civil unions were illegal in Georgia before the amendment, but the matter wasn’t addressed in the state constitution.

In her decision, Judge Russell wrote that people who support a law or amendment are not therefore entitled to get involved in a later lawsuit about it. She noted that the governor didn’t say he needed help defending the amendment.

“The proposed intervenors do not dispute that the governor … is vigorously defending the litigation,” she wrote.

A hearing on the amendment language has not been scheduled.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – Two parents want school officials to review a decision that restricts the reading of a book with a gay character in it.

Jerry Gahard and Sara Slagle, both of LeClaire, want the Iowa Department of Education to overturn a decision by the Pleasant Valley School Board that says The Misfits by James Howe may no longer be read to elementary school students.

The parents claim the decision violates constitutional protections for teachers and students. They also said the process was not as open as it should have been and that the board violated its own policies.

In a letter accompanying the appeal, Gahard wrote: “ … I strongly believe the message of the hurtfulness of labeling and name-calling will have the greatest impact when read and discussed in a setting of peers.”

The board decided in December to keep the book in school libraries but against teachers reading it aloud in class.

The Misfits is about four middle-school students in a small town in New York and their efforts to reduce name-calling in their school.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) – More than 80 church leaders have signed a petition supporting a proposed city ordinance to add sexual orientation to Dubuque’s nondiscrimination code.

The city council is expected to receive the ordinance at its Feb. 7 meeting. It will be the third time since 1988 that the Human Rights Commission has attempted to include sexual orientation in the code.

Previously, the council defeated the proposal in 1988 and 1999, the last by a 5-2 vote.

Members of the Human Rights Commission’s sexual-orientation subcommittee said they collected signatures through a campaign approach. They said although individuals in the religious community may be opposed to the practice of the gay and lesbian lifestyle, they agree that everyone should be afforded equal rights.

“It has nothing to do with personal feelings and has everything to do with rights everyone should be able to enjoy,” said Judy Haley Giesen, chair of the Human Rights Commission.

“Many members of the religious leadership in the community are willing to support the ordinance because it is a way of reducing discrimination and ensuring the rights of all people,” said the Rev. Jerry Oakland, pastor of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church and member of the sexual orientation subcommittee. “We see ourselves as advocates of justice.”

GAITHERSBURG, Md. (Dow Jones/AP) – Panacos Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it has received fast-track status from the Food and Drug Administration for PA-457, the company’s once-daily oral drug candidate for HIV.

Fast-track status is designed to expedite development and approval of new drugs that may have the potential to improve treatment for serious or life-threatening diseases.

Panacos has demonstrated that the drug was well tolerated by uninfected volunteers and is now running a trial to see what effect it has on HIV-infected patients who aren’t on other antiretroviral therapy.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Episcopal bishops seeking ways to mend the rift over homosexuality that has strained relations between the American denomination and its sister churches worldwide planned to gather for a closed-door strategy session in Utah.

U.S. bishops will discuss their response to recommendations from an emergency panel of Anglican leaders on how the loose, global association of churches called the Anglican Communion can remain unified.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of Anglicanism.

The gathering is the first of several meetings in which Episcopalians will discuss the study, called the Windsor Report, which chastised the U.S. church for consecrating its first openly gay bishop without fully consulting overseas Anglican leaders who opposed his election.

New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who lives with his longtime male partner, is expected to attend the meeting. Conservative American bishops who had boycotted previous meetings with him plan to attend this gathering as well.

It is unlikely that the bishops will take dramatic steps to address global tensions ahead of a critical gathering of Anglican leaders next month in Northern Ireland.

The task for American bishops is made more difficult by the fact that many Episcopalians – and even members of the emergency panel – disagree over what the Windsor Report has asked of them.

Generally, the report sought apologies from Episcopal bishops who consecrated Robinson and suggested a moratorium on electing bishops who are in same-sex relationships.

The report also discouraged dioceses from authorizing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples. Some Episcopalians argue the report only asked bishops to refrain from developing official prayers for such ceremonies, while others contend the study recommended an outright moratorium on same-sex union ceremonies.

The report also criticized conservative bishops who have crossed boundaries, unauthorized, to lead North American parishes that cannot accept the authority of their liberal bishops.

Utah bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish declined to comment before the meeting, but is on record supporting Robinson and the blessing of same-sex unions. Last year, Irish called for Utah churches to create formal rites for such unions.

The 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church is a small but important part of the 77 million-member communion.

The Rev. Dan Webster, spokesperson for the Utah diocese, said he is encouraged by the return of the conservative bishops.

“Their voices will be heard at the table and it will be much better,” Webster said. “I suspect there will be frank and earnest discussion and I believe there will be direct conversations between bishops.”

Still, it is possible that no progress will be made on divisions within the church, Webster said. The House of Bishops typically issues statements following meetings.

“They could come in and leave just as divided as when they arrived,” Webster said.

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) – Middle school and high school students in Casper participated in an abstinence-only sex education program despite criticism the program recently received in Congress.

The WAIT (Why Am I Tempted) Training program was used as part of Casper’s overall sex education program, said Ellen Klym, who first learned about the program to deal with questions from teens in her church youth group.

“We’re not fanatics,” Klym said. “WAIT is a component [some teachers] use for activities. It’s not the end-all. We just want kids to have healthy choices.”

But last month, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-R.I., released a study that found factual errors in WAIT and several other abstinence-only programs.

In one WAIT exercise, for example, students were asked to determine whether substances were “high risk,” “at risk” or “no risk.” The curriculum put tears, sweat and saliva in the “at risk” category, even though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says HIV cannot be transmitted through those fluids.

Joneen Krauth, a registered nurse and executive director of the Abstinence and Relationship Training Center in Colorado, which developed the WAIT program, said the criticism is unfounded, but also said she would change that portion of the program.

“Since there is confusion about this in medical literature, I am taking the sweat card out of the ‘at risk’ column and putting it in the ‘no risk’ column on the activity in WAIT Training,” she wrote in an email to the Casper Star-Tribune.