The brother of a man who died after being stabbed outside a gay bar in Riverside, California, filed a lawsuit against the nightclub and a neighboring business, alleging both failed to protect him.

Jeffrey Owens, 40, was beaten and stabbed in June 2002, then bled to death at Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley where he received an overdose of an anti-clotting drug.

Police initially alleged that the attack on Owens, who was gay, was a hate crime. A judge, however, dismissed hate-crime allegations against five defendants, citing lack of evidence.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Owens’ brother, Brent Owens, names The Menagerie and owner David St. Pierre, along with a neighboring business, the former Sandy’s Pub, and its then-owner Sandy Beam. It also names the five men and one woman who have been charged in connection with Owens’ death.

The lawsuit was filed last month in Superior Court. It contends Sandy’s Pub and The Menagerie failed to act reasonably when Owens was attacked.

Riverside County paid $257,000 to Owens’ family to settle claims stemming from the drug error that coroner’s officials said contributed to his death.

The lawsuit against the bars also names Dorian Lee Gutierrez, Viviano Cruz Marin, Ramon Rabago, David Leal Martinez and Miguel Ramos, all of whom have been charged with murder. Wendy Plasier, a bartender at Sandy’s, also is named in the lawsuit. She was charged as an accessory after police said she gave a false alibi for Marin.

All the defendants have pleaded innocent.

An HIV-positive gymnast has filed a federal complaint accusing Cirque du Soleil of denying him the chance to take part in an acrobatic act in the circus troupe’s Las Vegas show.

Matthew Cusick, 31, of Maryland, alleges the company violated state and federal discrimination laws by firing him. His complaint was filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Los Angeles.

A spokesperson for the Canada-based Cirque du Soleil declined to comment.

“We won’t be commenting on this subject until the legal process continues on its due course,” said Renee Claude Menard.

According to the complaint, Cusick disclosed his condition to Cirque du Soleil shortly after being hired last July as a catcher for an acrobatic act. He said he also underwent several medical evaluations and was told by Cirque du Soleil’s staff doctor that he was in excellent health and considered fully able to perform with the circus troupe.

But shortly before he was to begin performing for the show “Mystere” in Las Vegas, Cusick said, the company sent him a letter stating his medical condition “will likely pose a direct threat of harm to others, particularly in the case of future injury.”

Sen. Rick Santorum would advise his children to resist any “temptations” of homosexuality, according to an interview published July 15.

In the interview with the magazine GQ, Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) was asked what he would do if one of his six children told him of same-sex urges.

“I would treat it like I would any other thing my child comes to me with,” Santorum answered. “Try to deal with it in a loving, supportive way.”

He continued: “You try to point out to them what is the right thing to do. And we have many temptations to do things we shouldn’t do. That doesn’t mean we have to give in to those temptations. I have temptations, as we all do, all the time, to do things we shouldn’t do.

“Whether we have that disposition because of environmental factors, genetic factors, whatever, it doesn’t mean you have to submit. We are people of free will and free choices.”

The GQ interview focused largely on comments Santorum made to The Associated Press in April, when he said he has “no problem with homosexuality — I have a problem with homosexual acts” and compared homosexuality to bigamy, polygamy, incest and adultery.

Following those comments, some urged him to step down from his leadership post in the Senate, where he is the third-ranking Republican. He is viewed as laying the groundwork to pursue the post of Senate majority leader as early as 2006.

A 15-year-old Boston girl charged in a July 4th attack on a lesbian who had to get 200 stitches in her scalp pleaded innocent July 16 at her arraignment in juvenile court.

The teen, who was not identified because of her age, was arraigned on a charge of assault and battery causing serious bodily harm. She was ordered held on $500 bail and told to stay away from the victim.

The girl was held overnight pending a hearing for a probation violation, said David Procopio, a spokesperson for the Suffolk District Attorney’s office.

Lisa Craig, 35, was punched to the ground and kicked in the head by at least three teenage girls and a boy as she bought ice cream after watching the Independence Day fireworks at East Boston’s Piers Park, police said.

She was with her partner, Debbie Riley, 37, and their two daughters. Earlier in the evening, the teenagers allegedly had shouted anti-gay epithets at the couple.

Craig suffered bleeding in her brain and needed 200 stitches to close her wounds. Her purse also was stolen.

The girl in custody could face more charges, including civil rights violations. She is scheduled to appear in court July 31 for a pretrial hearing.

A jury has awarded a Suffolk County, Massachusetts, correction officer $624,000 after finding he was harassed at work because he’s gay.

Michael Salvi’s car was twice vandalized while parked on the street at work and children’s alphabet blocks glued together to spell “fag” were hand-delivered to his front porch, according to the complaint.

Jurors at Suffolk Superior Court found Salvi — who did not disclose his sexual orientation at work — was harassed by co-workers in the Suffolk County sheriff’s department circulating rumors about him, said his attorney, Robert Berluti. But it did not agree that Salvi’s transfer to different work assignments was retaliation for his complaints about the harassment.

Berluti said his client, who is in his early 30s, attempted suicide by jumping off the Neponset Bridge, but survived. Eventually, he quit the job in April 2000.

Nancy Shilepsky, an employment attorney with Perkins, Smith & Cohen, told The Boston Globe the jury award “is signaling that ... this kind of aggressive homophobia is no longer considered acceptable by jurors in Massachusetts.”

Anne Powers, general counsel for the Suffolk County sheriff’s department, said the department would ask the judge to set aside the verdict, saying the evidence does not support it. She declined to disclose the reasons for the request and would not discuss specifics of the case.

The dean of a Dallas-based Metropolitan Community Church has given up his ministry credentials to his denomination, two days before the church body said it would complete an investigation concerning church finances.

The Rev. Michael Piazza of the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas said he would continue his role as dean and co-pastor.

The complaint hasn’t been made public, but officials said the accusations concerned management of the church’s health insurance, the capital campaign fund and the pastor’s personal expense account. Piazza was not accused of stealing money.

Piazza maintains his innocence.

“It’s just the most ridiculous thing. There isn’t anything that I’m guilty of in the complaint,” he said in Monday editions of The Dallas Morning News. “Most of the charges have nothing to do with me. I’ve not been the personnel director, the person who handles these things.”

Meanwhile, the church board has called a July 27 meeting to ask the congregation to vote to cut ties with the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches.

The MCC launched an investigation in April after Terri Frey of Carrollton, a former Cathedral of Hope board member, filed a complaint.

She and 24 supporters, who call themselves Cathedral of Hope Reform, said they’ve had nothing but the church’s best interest at heart despite being branded as malcontents by cathedral leaders.

Piazza said neither he nor the board was leading his congregation out of the MCC to dodge the investigation.