SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – It must have been the first conference in the history of Abraham Lincoln scholarship to call the Great Emancipator “a terrifically sexual guy.”

Addressing the nation’s top Lincoln scholars on April 17, two historians defended a new book that claims Lincoln was gay and called for more research into his sexuality.

“I could build a Lincoln Log cabin of homophobic denial,” said Civil War historian Michael Chesson. “There’s been a cover-up, a conspiracy of silence for experts to hide what they regard as dirty linen in Abe’s faded carpetbag.”

The reason for the discussion – part of a conference held in conjunction with the opening of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum – is a new book called The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln.

Author and sociologist C.A. Tripp, who died before the book was published, examined Lincoln’s poetry, the recollections of those who knew him and his relationships with other men and concluded Lincoln was “predominantly homosexual.”

Tripp goes into more detail, but he was not the first person to speculate on the subject.

Scholars have long wondered about the relationship between Lincoln and Joshua Speed. The two men slept in the same bed for four years in Springfield and developed a deep friendship.

Seeking to save money and stay warm in crude buildings, men of the day often shared beds. But Lincoln and Speed lived together long after they could afford separate quarters. Though both men married and Lincoln had four children, Tripp concluded they were lovers.

He reached the same conclusion about Lincoln and David Derickson, a soldier assigned to guard the president during the Civil War. Lincoln and Derickson sometimes shared a bed when Mary Todd Lincoln was out of town.

Jean Baker, author of a major biography of Mrs. Lincoln, has concluded that Lincoln was bisexual.

“[Lincoln] loved men, and they loved him, at whatever level,” Baker said.

She also rejected the contention that Lincoln married only to further his political career, saying Abraham and Mary “loved each other and could not be happy apart.”

“It does seem to me that Lincoln is a terrifically sexual guy. He seems to exude testosterone from every pore,” she added.

Many historians have questioned the theory that Lincoln was gay, arguing that if there were anything suspicious about the president’s relationships with Speed and Derickson, his enemies would have used it against him. They say Tripp relied on discredited sources and read too much into conversations that were recalled decades later.

Douglas Wilson, co-director of the Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College, called the book’s evidence “very, very shabby.”

But Illinois state historian Thomas Schwartz suggested skeptics should keep an open mind. “I have found that the traditional assumptions about Lincoln, when carefully tested, fall apart,” he said.

SANTA FE (AP) – A state Health Department study has found gay men in New Mexico are not getting regular tests for HIV, meaning many are finding out they have the virus when they become very ill.

Sixty-three percent of New Mexicans diagnosed with AIDS last year were unaware they had HIV, the virus that destroys cells in the immune system and leads to AIDS, according to the department’s February study.

Two men with AIDS were already so sick that they died in emergency rooms.

Lily Foster, the department’s HIV-AIDS surveillance coordinator and epidemiologist, said the avoidance of tests seems to be a trend.

“It’s a shock,” she said.

AIDS takes years to develop, and the earlier it is diagnosed, the longer the person’s life expectancy.

Some 1,965 New Mexicans are living with HIV-AIDS, considered a low prevalence of the disease.

Nationwide, intravenous drug users make up the largest group of men infected, but the Health Department said that in New Mexico, AIDS hits gay men most.

Complacency about the disease, as well as its stigma, keep people from getting tested, Health Department officials have speculated.

Access to HIV testing doesn’t seem to be the issue, Foster said. Everyone in New Mexico can get free, anonymous screening through public health offices.

Since 1998, more Hispanic gay men than Anglo gay men have been diagnosed with HIV and AIDS simultaneously, but the Health Department didn’t recognize that as a trend until 2003.

“Hispanics are rising in the proportion of cases they contribute to the state,” Foster said. “Not only are there more cases, but they’re coming in sicker.”

The problem is worst among Hispanic gay men between the ages of 30 and 49 who live in Bernalillo County and southern New Mexico.

Now the Health Department is looking at a different approach toward prevention.

“Sometimes the blanket approach of targeting the general population isn’t the most effective approach,” said Dr. Joan Baumbach, a medical epidemiologist at the department.

An estimated 4 percent of adult males – 34,000 in New Mexico – have sex with men.

New Mexico has emphasized all high-risk groups in its efforts to reduce HIV-AIDS. But the Health Department and New Mexico Community Planning and Action Group – made up of people living with HIV-AIDS, prevention workers and affected communities – plan to try a more targeted approach focusing on Hispanic gay men.

Health Department workers first must hold study sessions in communities to understand what’s going on and why some Hispanic men who have sex with men aren’t being tested. That will give prevention workers a better idea how to reach the group.

NEW YORK (AP) – An organization that advocates for gay rights filed a lawsuit on behalf of a gay couple from Long Island who married last year in Canada, but were denied spousal health benefits from the Uniondale Union Free School District, an attorney said.

“New York law is clear that when couples get validly married somewhere else, their marriages are recognized in New York,” said Alphonso David, an attorney at Lambda Legal, which filed the suit in state Supreme Court in Mineola.

“It doesn’t matter that same-sex couples can’t get married in New York right now – if they were married legally somewhere else, the law says they’re legally married here.”

According to the lawsuit, Duke Funderburke, 72, worked as a teacher in Uniondale for more than 20 years before retiring in 1986. He married his partner of 42 years, Brad Davis, 67, in October 2004 in a ceremony in Ontario.

But when Funderburke requested that his retirement health benefits be extended to Davis, the school district refused.

A spokesperson for Uniondale Superintendent of Schools Dr. William K. Lloyd said he declined to comment.

David said Lambda Legal served the school district with notice of claim papers a month ago, indicating that a lawsuit would be filed if the matter was not resolved within 30 days, but said the school district did not respond.

The lawsuit claims the district violated its contractual obligations, as well as common law and the state constitution, in refusing spousal coverage to Funderburke and Davis.

“The law is clear in this area, but we keep hearing from couples like Duke and Brad who are being denied critical health coverage even though they’re legally married,” David said.

GRESHAM, Ore. (AP) – A jury ruled that a gay man who worked at a local Shari’s restaurant faced a hostile work environment because he failed to display traditional male behavior.

The jury awarded Kevin Turner, 33, of Gresham $122,225 in the gender discrimination suit filed against Shari’s Corp. in U.S. District Court.

A Shari’s spokesperson told The Oregonian newspaper that the company disagreed with the jury’s conclusion and was considering an appeal.

The franchise “strives to provide a safe and respectful environment for all our employees and guests,” said spokesperson Dick Olsen in a statement read by Shari’s attorney Glen McClendon.

According to court documents, Turner alleged that he faced constant harassment while working at Shari’s in 2002 and 2003. In one incident co-workers, according to the court record, put bananas in their pants and rubbed up against him. In another, a supervisor grabbed a woman’s purse and referred to Turner as “Kevina” during an employee morale-boosting forum.

In addition, Turner said he was called other female monikers, including “she” and “princess.”

He also alleges that he did not complain for fear of losing his job.

In 2003, Turner was fired from Shari’s. According to the company, Turner grabbed a co-workers’ breasts. Turner counters that the female colleague jumped in his arms during horseplay and that he touched her chest accidentally.

He claims that in the course of the investigation of the woman’s accusation, he brought up his treatment by his colleagues and supervisors. Turner alleges that he was fired in retaliation.

The jury sided with Shari’s in the retaliation claim.

Because federal anti-discrimination law does not directly protect people based on their sexual orientation, Turner’s lawyers litigated the case as a form of gender discrimination.

Under the theory of gender-stereotyping harassment, Turner faced discrimination because he did not exhibit traditional masculine behavior, said his attorney Kevin Lafky.

DALLAS (AP) – A state district court judge rejected a bid by an alternative weekly newspaper to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a church volunteer who said the paper reported without his permission that he was HIV-positive.

A lawyer for The Dallas Observer, James Hemphill, said the paper would appeal the judge’s ruling to the state appeals court in Dallas. No date was set for a trial pending that appeal.

The plaintiff is seeking $550,000 to $1.1 billion in damages against the Observer, charging that the newspaper violated a Texas confidentiality law. The law forbids disclosing medical test results without a patient’s written consent, except to government health agencies.

The man, named John Doe in the lawsuit, sued the newspaper; its parent company, Phoenix-based New Times Inc.; and J.D. Sparks, a freelancer who wrote the article. The plaintiff has moved to drop as a defendant a former church official who told the newspaper that the man was HIV-positive.

Lawyers for the newspaper said the law was intended to apply to hospitals and insurance companies, not news organizations. They also said that the man had already disclosed his HIV status by letting his picture and name appear on a CD by Positive Voices, an openly HIV-positive chorale group.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – The state Supreme Court ruled April 22 that the state must provide new birth certificates for children born in Virginia who are adopted by out-of-state same-sex couples.

A lower court had ruled otherwise because of a state policy that bans joint adoptions by unmarried couples.

“This case is about issuing birth certificates under the provisions of Virginia law,” the high court wrote in its 5-2 decision. “It is not about homosexual marriage, nor is it about ‘same-sex’ relationships, nor is it about adoption policy in Virginia.”

Three couples sued in 2002 after they were unable to get birth certificates from the state of Virginia that substituted their names for the names of their children’s birth parents. The lower court ruled last year that Virginia adoption law did not obligate the Department of Vital Records to issue the new documents.

Adoptions by same-sex couples are prohibited within Virginia.

Lambda Legal, a gay civil rights group that filed a friend-of-the-court brief on the couples’ behalf, said the vast majority of states provide accurate birth certificates in such cases, though a few do not.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – Six lesbian state employees backed by the American Civil Liberties Union went to court, saying Wisconsin’s refusal to provide health insurance for their partners violates the state constitution.

If successful, their lawsuit would force all state government agencies to offer gay and lesbian state employees the same health insurance and family leave benefits to their partners that are currently provided to married workers.

The lawsuit filed April 20 claims a state law excluding gay and lesbian partners of state employees from health benefits violates the Wisconsin Constitution’s equal-rights protection clause, which guarantees equal treatment for people in similar situations.

“It is unfair that these people who work as hard as their neighbor in the next cubicle, the teacher in the next classroom, are not able to share in the kind of benefits that their co-workers share in,” said Larry Dupuis, legal director of ACLU of Wisconsin.

The lawsuit comes one month after Republican lawmakers expressed their opposition to a call from the governor to provide domestic partner benefits to employees of the University of Wisconsin System.

Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, accused the ACLU of trying to legislate its agenda through the court system.

“This is not an issue that should be decided by one liberal judge in Madison,” Gard said in a statement. “This is an issue that the taxpayers of the state of Wisconsin should get to decide through their elected representatives.”