CHICAGO (AP) – Mayor Richard Daley launched a campaign May 5 against methamphetamine use in the city, with a particular focus on Chicago’s gay population, where authorities say it is an increasing problem.

The police and health departments, social service providers, medical personnel and leaders of the gay community will be involved in the campaign, Daley said.

Use of the drug has spread across the nation in the last decade, especially in rural areas where makeshift methamphetamine labs are less likely to be noticed.

But the drug is also becoming a problem in urban areas, sometimes first catching on in the club scene and sometimes among particular populations, such as gay men, according to experts.

The Department of Public Health and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago have set up a task force to distribute posters and brochures about meth’s dangers, and will also send outreach teams to talk with people seen as at-risk.

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) – A federal judge blocked Montgomery County public schools from instituting a new health curriculum that includes discussions of homosexuality and a videotaped demonstration of how to use a condom.

U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams issued a temporary restraining order that prevents the system from using a pilot program in six schools.

Williams agreed with the two groups that filed the lawsuit who said the curriculum’s frank discussion of homosexuality amounted to preference of one religion over the other, taking the viewpoint held by some faiths that gay and lesbian lifestyles are acceptable. That would discriminate against members of religions that are opposed to homosexuality, argued Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum and the Virginia-based Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, the two groups that filed the suit.

Williams noted that the program depicts some Christian sects, notably Baptists, as unenlightened and Biblically misguided.

“The court is extremely troubled by the willingness of the defendants to venture, or perhaps more correctly, bound, into the crossroads of controversy where religion, morality and homosexuality converge,” Williams said.

Montgomery’s school board approved the new curriculum in November for students in eighth and 10th grades. County educators say the changes were needed to teach students about the dangers of unprotected sex. The county planned to use it in all schools after testing it this spring.

Previously, health teachers could only discuss homosexuality in response to questions. Under the new program, they can bring up the issue on their own. The 10th-grade class will include a seven-minute video that discusses abstinence and includes a segment where a woman puts a condom on a cucumber to demonstrate its use.

Students and parents who choose not to take part are offered alternatives that include abstinence-only programs.

School system attorney Judith Bresler says the program is “neutral,” and that it simply provides information on homosexuality without forcing students to make judgments.

But in his questions to Bresler during the hearing, Judge Williams implied the system is taking a position by urging sensitivity toward gays and lesbians.

“We seem to be tilting toward a particular view,” he said.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A federal judge on May 12 declared Nebraska’s one-of-a-kind ban on same-sex marriages unconstitutional.

The constitutional amendment, known as Initiative 416, passed in 2000 with 70 percent of the vote. It prevents gays and lesbians who work for the state or the University of Nebraska system from sharing health insurance and other benefits with their partners.

In a 42-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Joseph Joseph Bataillon said the ban “imposes significant burdens on both the expressive and intimate associational rights” of gays and lesbians “and creates a significant barrier to the plaintiffs’ right to petition or to participate in the political process.”

“Although not central to disposition of this case, the court finds” the ban “burdens rights of intimate association,” he said.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey voters favor allowing same-sex couples to marry and oppose any attempts by lawmakers to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage, according to a poll commissioned by a gay rights group.

The Garden State Equality-Zogby International poll also suggests a comeback is possible for former Gov. James E. McGreevey, whose political career was dashed by his announcement last year that he is gay and had engaged in an extramarital affair with another man.

Forty-nine percent of the respondents said they would consider voting for McGreevey if he ran for office again; 6 percent said his sexuality is a reason they would never vote for him. An additional 43 percent said he has forever lost their vote but that his being gay didn’t contribute to their decision.

According to the poll, 55 percent of those surveyed favor allowing same-sex couples to marry, while 40 percent were opposed.

Additionally, 61 percent said they disagree with having a constitutional amendment blocking same-sex couples from marrying. Respondents overwhelmingly said the Legislature has more pressing business to handle.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Opponents of same-sex marriage are calling on Multnomah County to reimburse their legal fees.

To win its lawsuit last month, the Defense of Marriage Coalition spent a total of $399,023.25, according to official records.

In a petition filed with the Oregon Supreme Court, the anti-same-sex marriage coalition claims its four experienced attorneys billed 2,477.68 hours during a yearlong legal battle over Multnomah County’s March 2004 decision to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

In Oregon under certain circumstances, parties that prevail in a lawsuit can get attorney fees from the losers. It is unclear whether the Defense of Marriage Coalition will meet the test to get the fees in this case.

Multnomah County Attorney Agnes Sowle said she could not comment because she had not seen the request for attorney fees.

Sowle concluded in a legal opinion last year that state marriage law violated the constitutional rights of gays and lesbians – refusing to give the couples marriage licenses would put the county on the losing end of a lawsuit.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Basic Rights Oregon eventually sued the state, which had refused to accept the county-issued marriage licenses.

Multnomah County intervened to defend its actions, as did the Defense of Marriage Coalition, which countersued, claiming the county had no authority to issue the licenses.

In April, the Oregon Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit and ruled that the 3,000-plus same-sex marriage licenses issued by Multnomah County were invalid.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A Virginia man has agreed to pay $200,000 in damages to the family of the Knoxville gay rights activist he strangled three years ago.

Chad Allen Conyers, of Virginia Beach, Va., entered a settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit that the late Joseph Camber’s relatives filed in Knox County Circuit Court.

In the settlement, Conyers agreed to pay Camber’s father, James R. Woodcock, and his mother, Corinne M. Woodcock, more than $185,000 in pecuniary and compensatory damages and another $15,000 in punitive damages.

Conyers admitted in the civil court settlement that he severely beat and strangled Camber in April 2002 after the pair left a gay nightclub together. He then dragged his body to a secluded location and fled.

The only motive listed in the settlement for the slaying was “ill will, hatred and/or personal spite.”

Conyers pleaded guilty in 2003 in Knox County Criminal Court to voluntary manslaughter for Camber’s slaying as part of a plea deal that kept him out of jail. The deal outraged relatives and friends of Camber, a well-known gay rights activist who helped HIV/AIDS patients.

MIDLAND, Texas (AP) – Almost 90 percent of the congregation at St. Nicholas’ Episcopal Church want to disassociate with the national Episcopal Church. Instead, diocese officials have given the unhappy parishioners until June 1 to leave church property.

They are upset by the 2003 decision naming the first openly gay bishop, Gene V. Robinson of New Hampshire, and by the approval of same-sex marriage blessings.

The order to leave church property came after negotiations between the two sides in the parish and Bishop Wallis Ohl of the Diocese of Northwest Texas, the Midland Reporter-Telegram reported.

Ohl informed the congregation of his decision in a May 3 letter.

“I believe that in the long run, delaying the decision would have been much more difficult for all involved. The animosity between the factions of what currently constitutes St. Nicholas’ Episcopal Church was not ameliorating; in fact it was becoming more exacerbated with each passing week,” he wrote. “I do not believe that is good for the souls of those wishing to remain or those who wish to depart the Episcopal Church to remain in the close proximity relationship that currently exists.”