RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) – A reputed gang member was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing a gay man outside a Riverside nightclub nearly three years ago.

Dorian Lee Gutierrez was convicted of second-degree murder in February.

Police said Gutierrez, 22, was one of five reputed gang members who attacked Jeffrey Owens, 40, and his friends in a parking lot outside the club. Two of the five pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and one to accessory to murder. The other pleaded guilty to attempted murder.

Gutierrez was also charged with a hate crime, but a judge threw that charge out before trial.

Owens, who suffered a punctured lung and ruptured artery, bled to death at a hospital after he was mistakenly given 100,000 units of a blood-thinning drug – a dose 100 times greater than was necessary, according to a coroner’s report.

Riverside County prosecutor John Davis downplayed that in court, contending Owens’ wounds were severe and his brief survival after the stabbing was only “through the grace of God.”

Riverside County previously paid $257,000 to Owens’ family to settle claims resulting from the hospital error.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A design by two New York architects was declared the winner in a competition to create a centerpiece for a 7-acre (2.8-hectare) garden in Golden Gate Park, the only federally recognized AIDS memorial in the country.

“Living Memorial,” by Janette Kim and Chloe Town, features a stand of black carbon-fiber trees, a charred wood deck and a burned, bark-like walkway that in time will sprout greenery – elements borrowed from a fire-scarred forest to evoke a sense of loss and renewal.

“While the design is at first frightening, it is also rich with the eventual triumph of life,” said Ken Ruebush, who co-chaired the international contest that drew 201 submissions from 24 countries.

Conceived in 1989 by a group of residents, the National AIDS Memorial Grove originally was designed as a living memorial that relied more on its natural setting than man-made features to send a message.

Its board of directors started talking about installing a more imposing structure once Congress gave the grove national memorial status in 1996, a designation shared by American icons ranging from the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor to Mt. Rushmore, according to Ruebush.

The directors have not yet committed to fulfilling the vision of the winning architects.

First there is the matter of raising the $2 million needed to build it. Then there has been continuing debate among the site’s founders and volunteers over whether the memorial needs to be enhanced at all or is fine the way it is.

The winning design was displayed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art April 1.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) – City officials have told a Kansas minister who leads anti-gay protests that he is not welcome.

When protesters from Westboro Baptist Church returned to Colorado Springs, to protest outside a downtown restaurant owned by a council member who defends gay rights, they were given a letter from the city council telling them their message was unwelcome.

Two weeks prior the council had declined to act against the group but when the protesters began carrying signs saying “God hates Colorado Springs,” council members reconsidered.

“I kind of take that personally, and that kind of speech is not welcome in my community,” Mayor Lionel Rivera said.

Sixteen people from the Topeka, Kan.-based church carried signs outside City Hall proclaiming “Fags are violent” and “God hates America.” Many were children, and almost all are related to church pastor Fred Phelps.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps’ daughter, said they came to deliver a message “It’s not OK to be gay.”

The Kansas church plans to return to Colorado Springs at the end of April to picket outside the headquarters of Christian ministry Focus on the Family, which it accuses of being too liberal toward homosexuals.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) – A day after an emotional hearing on Gov. John Baldacci’s gay rights bill, a committee’s majority voted to support the bill when it comes up for House and Senate debate.

Nine members of the Judiciary Committee voted to add protections for gays and lesbians to the Maine Human Rights Act, while only one member voted against it. Three other members are supporting an option to send the bill to voters.

In two previous referendums, similar proposals have been rejected by Maine voters.

The bill would make discrimination in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations and education based on sexual orientation or gender identity illegal.

In other action, the committee killed a gay rights bill that would have exempted religious organizations that do not receive public funds.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – Legislation supported by gay rights activists that would create a registry giving unmarried couples the right to make medical decisions for each other was approved by the Maryland Senate.

The bill cleared the Senate on a 31-16 roll call, seven votes more than the number required for passage. It now goes to the House of Delegates, which passed similar legislation last year but which was waiting for Senate action before taking up this year’s bill.

While the bill was promoted by gay rights groups, it would apply to any unmarried couples who want to register with the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Registration would guarantee partners the right to make medical decisions for each other, visit their partners’ hospital rooms, share rooms in nursing homes, share ambulance rides and make decisions about whether to bury or cremate after death.

Most opponents who spoke during brief but emotional debate said they opposed the bill because it is not needed. Sen. Alex Mooney, R-Frederick, called the bill “a step toward homosexual marriage” and said its purpose is “promoting the radical homosexual agenda.”

Sen. Paul Pinsky, D-Prince George’s, said the bill is not about same-sex marriage but is needed to help deal with “a homophobic problem.”

“What the bill does is give fair rights in a reasoned way,” he said, saying a vote in favor of it “is a vote for civil rights and decency.”

Sen. Joan Carter Conway, D-Baltimore, the sponsor, said her bill applies to heterosexual and homosexual couples, including elderly people whose spouses have died and who can’t afford to get married because they would lose Social Security and pension payments.

New Jersey, Maine and California also have domestic partner registries, but those states offer a broader range of rights to registry members, said gay rights lobbyist Dan Furmansky, executive director of Equality Maryland. Maryland’s bill is limited to offering medical- and hospital-related rights.

“It’s about peace of mind for thousands of Maryland families,” Furmansky said. “It’s basic common decency to pass it into law as soon as possible.”

A second bill championed by Equality Maryland, which would add crimes motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation to the state’s hate crimes law, has passed the House of Delegates and is awaiting action in the Senate.

NEW YORK (AP) – Health officials have identified several patients potentially infected with a rare strain of highly drug-resistant HIV, but are not sure if the cases are related.

The first case of the strain was reported in February in a man who had unprotected sex with dozens of other men while under the influence of crystal methamphetamine.

Officials then contacted sex partners identified by the infected man, and began surveying city HIV laboratories for patients with possibly related strains, the New York Times reported.

City officials would not say how many patients had been identified as possibly being infected with the strain, and said it could take months to determine for sure whether their infections are related to the first case.

“The extent to which this strain has spread remains under investigation,” the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement.

ELLENSBURG, Wash. (AP) – Central Washington University has became the third university in the state and one of 25 nationwide to bar discrimination against openly gay, bisexual and transgender staff and students.

With little fanfare after more than a year of consideration, the Board of Trustees voted March 4 to add gender identity and expression to the school’s nondiscrimination policy, which already covered race, color, creed, religion and other group identifiers.

“We want to make Central a community where people feel welcome and are not intimidated,” said Nancy Howard, the school’s equal opportunity chief. “It also sends a clear message to our university community that individuals are not to be singled out and treated poorly because of these characteristics.”

Other universities in the state that specifically bar discrimination against people who express themselves as gay, bisexual and transgender are the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.

“It’s one of the most oppressed populations on college campuses across the state,” said Leslie Webb, director of Central’s diversity education center, which sought the change.

Next month Central hosts the first tri-state lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender conference, “The Power of One: LGBT Leadership Conference,” which is expected to draw about 200 college and university students and staff from Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was added to Central’s policy about 10 years ago, Howard said. The policy change allows those who feel they have been subjected to discrimination or harassment to turn to the university’s informal and formal grievance processes.

“The idea is that we want Central to be a place where employees can pursue their careers and be successful, and students can come and study and have a social life without worry that these type of incidents occur,” Howard said.