MESA, Ariz. (AP) – With the creation of a national charter, Arizona State University’s gay fraternity has become the first national, collegiate-based organization of its kind in the country.

Now, five years since it appeared on campus, Sigma Phi Beta hopes to establish chapters at other campuses.

“We definitely want to expand so that we can get other students at other universities the same opportunities that we’ve gotten for ourselves,” said Sam Holdren, president and chair of Sigma Phi Beta.

Holdren said that no one voiced any opposition to making Sigma Phi Beta a national organization, which has about 25 members at ASU, from freshmen to graduate students.

However, the fact that the fraternity gets all the benefits of being a university-recognized organization rubs the right wing the wrong way.

Last November, the Alliance Defense Fund sued ASU on behalf of the Christian Legal Society – a conservative, religious-based organization for attorneys, law students and others in the legal field – demanding that the institution recognize a campus chapter.

ASU does not support the group, arguing that it prohibits discrimination on campus.

Jeremy Tedesco, an attorney for the Scottsdale-based Alliance Defense Fund, said the organization believes ASU is attacking religious-focused groups such as the Christian Legal Society while supporting organizations such as Sigma Phi Beta which have an exclusive membership chosen according to whether they share certain characteristics and values.

“The problem that’s occurring on campuses across the U.S., including Arizona State University, is that they’re prohibiting formation of religious groups,” Tedesco said. “It’s hypocrisy.”

ATLANTA (AP) – An outdoor advertising company has refused to rent billboard space in South Georgia to a gay and lesbian advocacy group because their sign didn’t meet “community standards.”

Lamar Outdoor Advertising’s South Georgia general manager, James Locke, said he turned the group down because of the wording that would have been used on the signs.

The group wanting to buy the space is Atlanta-based Georgia Equality.

“We just didn’t feel the copy was right for those markets,” Locke told Morris News Service in a telephone interview. “These are the markets we do business in, and I know the community standards of these markets.”

The proposed billboards featured images of professionals, such as a male firefighter and a female doctor, and include tag lines that read, “I protect you. And … I am gay. We Are Your Neighbors.”

Similar messages are already being seen in eight counties throughout metro Atlanta, but are displayed on billboards owned by a different company.

Chuck Bowen, executive director of Georgia Equality, expressed disappointment over Lamar’s decision not to sell ad space to the organization in 38 South Georgia counties that include the cities of Albany, Columbus, Douglas, Homerville and Valdosta.

“Lamar’s decision is unacceptable and is further evidence of the hostility and discrimination gays and lesbians face every day,” Bowen said.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Gov. Jennifer Granholm and state Attorney General Mike Cox disagree on whether Michigan’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage also bars governments from providing domestic partner benefits to gay and lesbian couples.

“This is about the issue of domestic partnership benefits,” Granholm spokesperson Liz Boyd said. “This is about whether the constitutional amendment means what proponents said it means.”

In March, Cox issued a legal opinion interpreting the amendment as barring the city of Kalamazoo from providing health insurance and other benefits to same-sex partners in future contracts. Gay and lesbian couples working for Kalamazoo, the state and public universities sued Granholm and later added the city as a defendant.

The couples have asked an Ingham County judge to declare that the ban does not bar government employers from giving benefits to same-sex partners and their children. They say the ballot committee that sponsored the initiative “consistently and repeatedly” assured voters that it only was about protecting marriage.

Cox, a Republican who is responsible for defending the state against the lawsuit, is asking to intervene as a defendant so he can adequately represent his position.

He said Granholm, a Democrat, has a policy goal that differs from his legal interpretation of the amendment, which he said “just doesn’t allow” the government to provide same-sex benefits to employees.

Cox also is asking that Granholm be dismissed from the case. He says the only plaintiffs with legal standing to sue are Kalamazoo employees, but their beef should be with the city – not Granholm – because the governor supported same-sex benefits negotiated for state employees.

Her administration has decided not to offer those benefits until a court rules on their legality.

“This is not about gay marriage,” Boyd said. “The governor opposes gay marriage. There is a legal disagreement over [the amendment] and the impact on domestic partnership benefits. It will become more clear when our brief is filed.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – The American Civil Liberties Union has asked a court to overturn the state Department of Social Services’ decision to deny a woman’s application for a foster parent license because she is a lesbian.

The ACLU filed a motion for summary judgment in Jackson County Circuit Court on July 21.

At issue is an unwritten state policy that prevents people who are openly gay from becoming foster parents. The ACLU says that policy is the only reason the state would not allow Lisa Johnston – who hoped to raise a child with her partner, Dawn Roginski – to become a foster parent.

Johnston, who has a bachelor’s degree in human development and family, with special emphasis on child development, is an educational consultant who also has worked for an organization that trains foster parents.

Deborah Scott, a spokesperson for DSS, said the agency had been expecting the legal filing. She said DSS now has 30 days to respond, but would not comment further. DSS previously has said that DSS has a long-standing practice not to knowingly license as foster parents people who declare themselves to be gay.

After Johnston’s application was turned down, the case went to an administrative hearing, where the agency’s decision was upheld.

“Missouri’s anti-gay foster care ban does a huge disservice to children,” Ken Choe, an attorney with the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, said in a news release. “We hope that once the court sees how arbitrary DSS’s denial of Lisa Johnston’s application was, this decision will be reversed.”

CAMDEN, N.C. (AP) – Two teenagers have been charged with a series of vandalism incidents in Camden County that included damage to a church and removal of a grave stone.

David Alexander Leon and Corby Howard Hilscher, both 18, were charged with “injury to a church and defacing or desecrating a grave site,” said Camden County Sheriff Tony Perry.

Perry said the arrests followed an investigation of a vandalism spree in which obscene remarks about Mormons were sprayed with black paint on a car and a church sign was defaced with the words, “God is gay.”

Perry said the young men also were believed responsible for a January vandalism in which a tombstone stolen from a cemetery was placed against a wall of a Baptist church, and a pentagram symbol spray-painted on the church wall.

Leon and Hilscher denied involvement in the crimes, Perry said.

The sheriff said the incidents qualify as hate crimes because many of the acts included the use of satanic symbols, obscene and profane words and desecration.

At the home of Kit and Amber Harris, vandals smashed the windshield and spray-painted an obscene remark about Mormons on the hood of a car in the driveway.

“That they could so crudely mock our religious beliefs was really hurtful,” said Amber Harris.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) – A fire that nearly destroyed a gay nightclub appears to have been caused by arson, investigators said.

No injuries were reported at Heart Rock, which was closed when the fire began. Officials said they were unsure whether the fire was a hate crime.

The club’s interior was vandalized, and several cans of gasoline were used to fuel the fire that gutted the windowless cement building, Assistant Fire Chief Randy Russell told the Brownsville Herald.

The club opened two months ago. Owner Sylvia Armente said she hoped to “create an environment where people can enjoy themselves and not hide who they are.”

A 25-foot flag symbolizing gay pride was draped over the front of the building when it opened but was destroyed in an accidental fire in June, officials said.

Armente said the club had not received any threats but had been subject to minor vandalism.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – The state of Utah can’t block a woman from using her license plate to tell the world “GAYSROK,” a judge has ruled.

The state has no good reason to prevent Elizabeth Solomon from having that plate – which can be read “Gays are OK” or “Gays Rock” – or another one saying “GAYRYTS,” according to Jane Phan, an administrative law judge with the Utah State Tax Commission.

“The narrow issue before us is whether a reasonable person would believe the terms ‘gays are OK’ and ‘gay rights’ are, themselves, offensive to good taste and decency. It is the conclusion of the commission that a reasonable person would not,” Phan wrote.

The state can appeal the July 19 decision.

“We’re discussing it, and we have 30 days to do that,” said Barry Conover, deputy director of the commission, which oversees Utah’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

“It kind of opens up the door for all types of people who want to make a license plate a public forum, for every initiative,” he said.

Dani Eyer, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, which represented Solomon, countered: “The government can’t pick and choose what subjects it likes and does not like.”

Solomon, of Park City, said she considered the judge’s decision as a victory for her daughter, who is gay, and for two gay male friends.