Rob Halford, the San Diego-based openly gay lead singer of the heavy metal group Judas Priest, will reunite with his old band for a world tour and a new album next year.

After a 12-year solo career, Halford disbanded his self-titled band and rejoined the group that cranked out metal classics such as “Living After Midnight” and “Hell Bent for Leather.”

“All the grace, majesty and power you experienced with Judas Priest is about to happen again,” Halford said. “We want to go out there and slay people, and have them walking out of the building going ‘Oh my God!”

Halford said speculation that he’s HIV-positive is “a very distasteful rumor.”

“I have lost close friends to HIV and it’s a disservice to them,” the 51-year-old singer said. “I want everyone to know that I am 100 percent healthy and I’ve never felt better.”

Jennifer Beals didn’t think twice about playing a lesbian in the upcoming Showtime television series “The L Word.”

“One of the most important things for me was the fact that it could be so impactful and that it could be so helpful in terms of breaking down stereotypes,” she told the Television Critics Association. “Somebody might tune into the show for one reason and then come away having learned something that they had never even considered.”

Beals describes herself as a “biracial heterosexual woman.” She said the question of her sexuality has come up since the show started filming.

“What becomes interesting is to think about how easy it is for a heterosexual actress or actor to play someone who is homosexual, how that’s somehow permissible, but for a homosexual to be out and portray a homosexual character it becomes sort of much more problematic for an audience to accept,” she said. “As a species, we’re so fixated and curious about this mystery of sexuality.”

The series about the lives and loves of a group of West Hollywood, California, women, many of whom are lesbians, also stars Pam Grier and Mia Kirshner. It debuts in January.

At a press conference on July 14, openly gay Palm Springs Councilmember Ron Oden announced his intention to run for mayor in the November election. During his brief announcement, Oden, a two-plus term city councilmember, leader and political veteran, outlined his vision for the future of Palm Springs.

As an advocate for human rights, Oden stressed that as mayor he would “fully embrace our diversity and utilize this treasure to enrich our community and set the path for our future.”

Ward Connerly, who led the fight to drop race-based admissions at the University of California, wants the system to stop sponsoring race-themed activities such as separate ceremonies for black graduates.

Connerly, a member of UC’s governing board of regents, is proposing a ban on using UC funds for extracurricular events designed for specific race, ethnic or sexual orientation groups.

UC administrators are opposing the resolution.

“Regent Connerly has brought this issue up before, in 1996 and 1998, and the administration still does not believe these activities are cause for concern, but rather that they help further the university’s commitment to diversity,” said UC spokesperson Lavonne Luquis.

Connerly has argued that defining people by race or sexual orientation serves to segregate them.

Berkeley student Anu Joshi, who works with the campus Queer Resource Center, said events such as the annual Lavender Graduation for GLBT students, are important in making students outside of the mainstream feel welcome.

The Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force (LGIRTF) is pleased to announce that the Permanent Partners Immigration Act (PPIA), a landmark legislative act seeking to provide immigration benefits to same-sex couples, has gained the bi-partisan support of over one quarter of the House of Representatives in the 108th Congress. Chris Bell (D-Texas) recently became the 110th Representative to add his support to the bill. Making the total number of co-sponsors, including Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-New York.), the bill’s original sponsor, a record-breaking 111. Two Democratic Presidential candidates, Richard Gephardt (D-Missouri) and Howard Dean, have also endorsed the bill.

“Obtaining one-quarter of the entire House of Representatives demonstrates the critical need for reform of our immigration laws to end discrimination now against a significant group of American families,” said Suzanne Goldberg, LGIRTF board of directors chair. “We are grateful to Representative Nadler and the many other members of Congress who share a vision of immigration equality for same-sex binational couples.”

Originally introduced on Feb. 14, 2000, the PPIA would modify the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide same-sex partners of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents the same immigration rights that legal spouses of U.S. residents enjoy.

A former worker at the Makiki Post Office in Honolulu claims in a federal court lawsuit that he was fired after he disclosed to his supervisors that he was HIV-positive.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Matthew Walker says the dismissal also was a result of an earlier discrimination complaint Walker filed against one of his supervisors.

The Defendant in the lawsuit filed by Honolulu attorney Clayton Ikei is U.S. Postmaster General John Potter.

Ikei said that despite federal laws, administrative regulations and even a U.S. Supreme Court decision, once the Postal Service learned of Walker’s HIV-positive status, he became a target of discrimination.

Ikei said he believes the lawsuit is the first to be filed in Hawaii on behalf of an employee who claims to have been fired by an employer as a result of testing positive for HIV.

The Postal Service said it considers personnel matters to be private and confidential.

Walker’s firing occurred just days after his doctors submitted verification that he was HIV-positive to support his request for reasonable accommodations to enable him to better perform his job, according to the lawsuit.

Walker, 43, a 13-year Postal Service employee, was notified on Jan. 15 that he would be fired effective Feb. 8, according to the lawsuit.

He is asking that he be returned to his former position and is seeking damages, including $300,000 in compensation.

The city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, quietly added protections for gay and lesbian employees to its nondiscrimination policy in April.

An update of the city-parish’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy dated April 29 forbids discrimination or harassment based on sexual orientation as well as race, age, religion, gender and other protected groups.

It is the first written rule protecting gay city-parish government workers and applicants.

There is no Louisiana or federal law against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Most state employees are not similarly protected, and only one other city in the state has such a policy: New Orleans, which adopted its rule in 1991.

“Strategically, we find it especially important that this is happening in the capital city,” said Christopher Daigle, chair of the Louisiana Lesbian and Gay Political Action Caucus. “The capital city has so much of an influence.”

The new policy is the result of a request by the Capital City Alliance, a gay-rights support group, meeting with Mayor Bobby Simpson last fall.

Simpson, a conservative Republican, said the decision was easy to make, calling the policy “just something you should have.”

Massachusetts’ highest court did not issue its decision on gay marriage July 14, as many had expected, exceeding an internal but non-binding deadline for considering cases. The high-profile case, which was filed by seven gay couples who were denied marriage licenses, has attracted international attention, with advocates on both sides predicting that the Massachusetts court could become the first in the nation to legalize gay marriage. Under its internal guidelines, the Supreme Judicial Court tries to issue decisions within 130 days of hearing oral arguments, which in this case occurred on March 4. That is a non-binding deadline, however, which court officials have repeatedly said the justices could exceed if necessary.

The high court took the case on appeal from a Superior Court decision, which determined that nothing in the state’s laws or constitution requires Massachusetts to recognize gay marriage.

Backers of a domestic-partner registry saw their campaign in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, took a step forward July 7 when their petition calling for a public vote on the issue was certified.

The registry would give legal recognition to unmarried partners, whether gay or straight. Couples could use the document in attempts to share employment benefits or inherit property. However, the registry would not be binding on courts, governments, hospitals or private companies.

“We anticipate council will want to send the issue to the voters and let them decide,” said David Caldwell, a spokesman for a group that circulated petitions.

Although registries have been created by municipal councils or state legislatures across the country, Cleveland Heights would be the first to create one through a vote, according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Heights Families for Equality submitted 5,746 signatures, needing 3,750 to get the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot. Caldwell said about 50 members of the group talked with more than 7,000 people in the city of 50,000.

A teenage boy from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, beat his brother at least 18 times in the head with a hammer and a club out of hatred, and because he thought he was gay, one witness testified during the boy’s murder trial.

Ian Bishop, 15, told Heather Exton that he also had “a plan to kill his whole family” the night of April 19, 2002, at their home in Hempfield, Exton testified July 7.

Westmoreland County prosecutors say Bishop, who was 14 at the time, beat his 18-year-old brother, Adam, to death, put him in a bathtub and bragged about it to his friends. Prosecutors are seeking a first-degree murder conviction, which carries a life sentence without parole.

Defense attorneys say Bishop is innocent and that the fatal blows were struck by someone else. Defense attorney Tom Ceraso suggested it was Robert Laskowski, now 16, who struck most of the blows.

Laskowski also is charged with first-degree murder in connection with Adam Bishop’s death.

Exton, 17, said she sat with Ian Bishop alone in a car parked outside a mall and she asked him why he killed his brother.

“He said because of hate and because he said he was (gay),” Exton testified.