DENVER (AP) – The conservative Christian group Focus on the Family says it is withdrawing its funds from Wells Fargo because of the bank’s support of gay organizations.

“Focus on the Family has elected to end its banking relationship with Wells Fargo, motivated primarily by the bank’s ongoing efforts to advance the radical homosexual agenda,” says a statement on the Focus Web site attributed to Focus President and CEO Jim Daly.

“Our decision is not personal, but principled, and we trust our constituents and others will respect it,” it says.

The statement does not say how much money the group had deposited with Wells Fargo, and calls to the group’s Colorado Springs headquarters seeking further information were not returned.

Chris Hammond, a vice president of business development for Wells Fargo & Co., the fifth largest U.S. bank by assets, said the bank provided a $50,000 grant to support the leadership counsel of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. He said it did not, however, agree to match contributions as GLAAD had advertised and Focus criticized.

“That being said, we do support many communities, and we’re proud to be a diverse organization,” Hammond said. “We’re proud of our support of the GLBT community.”

Hammond said he told Focus officials that the San Francisco-based bank contributes to many charities, “including nonprofit agencies Focus on the Family believes in.”

Glennda Testone, spokesperson for GLAAD, issued a written statement saying: “Thankfully, corporate America knows that discriminating against a group of people based on who they love is not only bad for business, it’s just plain wrong.”

“Let’s just call this what it is – another attempt by an anti-gay group to try and intimidate companies into not supporting or doing business with gays and lesbians,” Testone said of the action by Focus.

BOSTON (AP) – Massachusetts’ chief justice has apologized for a remark she made about “red states” during a commencement speech last spring after a citizen complaint was filed with the state’s Commission on Judicial Conduct.

In greeting the audience at the Brandeis University commencement last May, Chief Justice Margaret Marshall commented on the hundreds of blue and white balloons held in nets tied to the rafters.

“No red states here,” Marshall told the crowd, using a term used to describe Republican-leaning states.

In her apology, the chief justice said she regretted making the comment.

Marshall said it was “an unconsidered, spontaneous attempt to connect with the exuberant celebratory feeling in the audience, reflecting the balloons I had seen.”

“The reference to ‘red states’ was not part of my written, prepared speech. I regret the comment, and I apologize for it,” she said. “I did not intend to say anything of a political nature.”

Marshall’s attorney, Hugh Scott, emphasized that the commission did not bring any charges against Marshall.

“After the complaint was received by the commission, there was a series of mutual discussions between the commission and the chief justice, and she concurred with the commission that this was an appropriate way to resolve the matter,” Scott said.

Jill Pearson, executive director of the commission, declined to comment.

Marshall drew international attention to her state in 2003 after authoring the landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. The state Supreme Court justices, particularly Marshall, were criticized by opponents as an example of “activist judges” who allowed their political views to influence their decisions.

In her apology, Marshall addressed that criticism as well, saying: “I hold sacred my oath to decide every case fairly and impartially and according to law.”

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A gay political organization is asking for an investigation of a drag show at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

The president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Greater St. Louis, Charles Stadtlander, said he attended the Oct. 14 drag show.

He raised concerns that the show mocked heterosexual audience members and that performers wore revealing outfits, used inappropriate language and simulated sex acts.

He said university officials should not have allowed the event, and raised concerns that tax dollars were involved.

University spokesperson Bob Samples said Stadtlander’s complaint was the only one received about the event.

Taxpayer money was not used to fund the event and proper procedures were followed, he said. Samples said the matter was a First Amendment issue. He said campuses have hundreds of events annually, and not everyone finds them appropriate.

The second annual show was sponsored by several groups, including PRIZM, an organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – A gay and lesbian rights group bought airtime for a 30-second television ad to back legislation that would expand state anti-discrimination law to include transgender people.

Titled “Carol,” Garden State Equality’s spot features Carol Barlow, a Clifton woman who claims to have been cold-shouldered by 1,000 potential employers because she is transgender.

“Transgender people are being treated like dirt and it’s disgraceful,” said Steven Goldstein, the group’s chair. “The passage of this legislation would rank right up there with legalizing marriage of gay couples as one of the top two priorities of New Jersey’s gay and lesbian community.”

The legislation is currently before the Judiciary committees of both the Assembly and Senate.

The ad aired 21 times on News 12 New Jersey between Dec. 5 and Dec. 11, most heavily during commercial breaks of its “Power and Politics” program.

Garden State Equality’s legal adviser, Leslie Ann Farber, 49, was born a male but started living as a female more than a year ago.

“I’ve lost a few clients since I’ve become a woman,” Farber said. “Doors get closed in people’s faces, so this bill is crucial.”

Transgender people include those who have not only altered themselves physically or sexually to appear like the opposite gender, but those who dress or act, even occasionally, like the opposite sex, Farber said.

Current state anti-discrimination law includes only sexual orientation or affection, not gender identity.

NEW YORK (AP) – A Vatican letter sent privately to Roman Catholic bishops worldwide instructs them to bar men “with homosexual tendencies” from being rectors or teachers at seminaries.

The cover letter, dated Nov. 4, accompanied advance copies of the “instruction” on gays in the priesthood that was released publicly by Rome’s Congregation for Catholic Education. That congregation also is currently supervising inspections of all 229 U.S. seminaries and has directed visiting teams to look for “evidence of homosexuality” on campus.

The cover letter was first reported on by America’s Catholic News Service and will be published in Origins, its periodical that prints texts of church documents.

The letter tells bishops that the new Vatican document “does not call into question the validity of” previous ordinations of priests “with homosexual tendencies” or of priests for whom “such tendencies have manifested themselves after ordination,” although they are expected to maintain celibacy.

It then prohibits gays from leading or teaching at seminaries. “Because of the particular responsibility of those charged with the formation of future priests, they are not to be appointed as rectors or educators in seminaries,” the letter says.

The Vatican instruction itself prohibits seminary enrollment and ordination for men who are actively gay, have “deeply rooted homosexual tendencies” or “support so-called gay culture.” Those with only “transitory” homosexual tendencies must be celibate three years before ordination.

The letter also reports that the Vatican has been working on the issue of gays in the priesthood since 1996, long before a massive sex abuse crisis hit the American clergy.

The idea originated when the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith led by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict XVI – asked the education congregation to prepare an instruction on homosexuals and priestly vocations.

The panel of cardinals that supervises the education congregation discussed drafts in 1998, 2002 and 2005. During the process, the emerging text was reviewed by Ratzinger’s doctrinal congregation and six other Vatican agencies. Benedict approved publication of the final text on Aug. 31.

The cover letter does not say what role the late Pope John Paul II had in the project.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The case of a lesbian couple fighting to have their union recognized by their tribe was taken under advisement by three Cherokee Nation justices.

Dawn McKinley and Kathy Reynolds have asked the tribe’s highest court to throw out a lawsuit that halted their effort to file their tribe-issued marriage certificate.

They contend that Todd Hembree, the tribe member and attorney who brought the complaint, had no standing to do so because he hasn’t been harmed by their attempt to be recognized as a married couple.

Only someone who can demonstrate that they are being personally affected by the couple’s marriage, such as a relative or an employer who would need to award spousal benefits, would have standing, argued the defendants’ lawyer, Lena Ayoub.

“The women seem to be in high spirits,” Ayoub said. “They are hoping this challenge will be dismissed so they can get back to living their lives in private.”

Hembree, who is also representing nine tribal counselors who are opposed to the marriage, said tribal law clearly prohibits same-sex marriage.

“If we aren’t the appropriate people to bring it up then who is?” Hembree asked. “My clients took an oath to always promote the heritage, culture and language of the Cherokee Nation, and same-sex marriage has never been a part of the Cherokee culture.”

Hembree said tribal laws previously used gender-specific terms such as “husband” and “wife” to define marriage. McKinley and Reynolds contend those terms are not gender specific and that in Cherokee, the words used in a marriage ceremony are “cooker” for wife and “companion” for husband.

“They have misinterpreted the statute,” he said. “The statute itself says that marriage will be between husband and wife. Both terms have a very distinct, legal meaning and are gender-specific.”

Both parties are awaiting a written opinion from the justices on whether the case will be dismissed or will continue.