SACRAMENTO (AP) – Registered domestic partners will continue to get the same tax benefits as married couples who transfer property under a recent court ruling that upheld a 2003 decision granting that right.

The ruling by Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Jack Sapunor upheld the California Board of Equalization decision to extend to domestic partners a property tax exemption originally written for spouses.

Under tax code dating back to 1979, people who inherit property after the death of their spouses are exempt from the category of “change in ownership,” which would subject them to reassessment of the property’s value.

The board’s rule change was inspired by several cases in which surviving partners were forced to sell their homes because they couldn’t afford to pay the higher taxes once the property was reassessed.

But county tax assessors who opposed the rule change sued last year, fearing it could invite tax cheating and cut revenue. They argued that the board’s decision was unconstitutional because domestic partners were not included in the original tax law passed by voters.

Sapunor rejected that argument, in part citing a law that since was passed by state lawmakers that explicitly granted property transfer rights to domestic partners. The law – authored by state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, who also had spearheaded the board’s decision as its then-chair – took effect in January.

Shannon Minter, an attorney who represented Equality California, one of the intervening defendants in the lawsuit, called it “a significant victory” for gay rights.

“We’re very relieved that the court affirmed this commonsense and humanitarian rule,” he said.

Attorneys for the lead plaintiff, Sutter County Tax Assessor Michael Strong, did not return a call for comment.

ST. PAUL (AP) – Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson’s assertion that he spoke with Supreme Court justices about same-sex marriage or gay rights could have some truth to it, two senators who decided an ethics complaint against Johnson said.

GOP Sen. Tom Neuville of Northfield and DFL Sen. Wes Skoglund of Minneapolis said they couldn’t dismiss the possibility that conversations took place.

Johnson apologized to the Senate last week for making inaccurate statements about the extent of the purported conversations, which came to light after a secret recording of him addressing pastors surfaced.

“I think it is possible he had a meeting and the topic came up,” said Sen. Thomas Neuville, R-Northfield. “If push had come to shove, I think [Johnson] would have had witnesses. I didn’t sense he was gaming or bluffing.”

Chief Justice Russell Anderson has flatly denied any such conversations.

Since the recording surfaced, Johnson has talked of having a conversation about the fate of Minnesota’s marriage law with a single justice. But his attorney told the committee in the closed session that there were conversations between Johnson and more than one justice.

“If the committee tells us to name them, we will name them and we will call the witnesses who were in those meetings and heard those conversations,” Ellen Sampson told the panel. “The issue of gay rights was part of these discussions.”

HELENA (AP) – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana plans to make its domestic partners insurance coverage available to employees of small businesses, starting in July.

The domestic partner coverage will be available to same-sex or opposite-sex partners of the covered employee, if the business buying the policy decides to offer it.

“It’s something we had been looking at for some time,” said Tanya Ask, vice president of government affairs for Blue Cross. “We wanted to make sure it could be offered as an option for employees.”

Blue Cross, which writes or administers health insurance for 232,000 people in Montana, already has large-group policies that cover domestic partners of the insured employee, regardless of sex.

The company had previously offered domestic partner coverage for common-law spouses to businesses with two to 50 employees, but dropped it last fall in light of a Montana Supreme Court ruling that said the state cannot discriminate between same-sex couples and heterosexual, unmarried couples when it comes to health insurance benefits.

Ask said the company doesn’t have figures on how many domestic partners are covered under the large-group policies in effect now. She said the company has no way to estimate how many people might be eligible for the domestic partner coverage when it’s extended to small businesses.

Rep. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena and co-director of the Montana Human Rights Network, said the change helps reduce discrimination against same-sex couples in the workplace.

“I think [Blue Cross] knows that small businesses and groups are looking for this type of policy to provide to their employees, to be competitive in the work force,” Kaufmann said. “For those of us who care that we live in a society that is attempting to rid itself of discrimination, this is a victory.”

The Human Rights Network has advocated for civil rights and other legal protections for the GLBT community.

Kaufmann conceded the change will affect “a minority of clients,” but said it’s still a significant move.

NEW YORK (AP) – Brokeback Mountain lost out in the best-picture Oscar race, but the film about the troubled love affair between two cowboys has taken the top film prize from a leading GLBT organization that monitors the media.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation presented the award last week at a ceremony recognizing mainstream media for “fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community,” the group said in a statement.

“To end our Brokeback journey here tonight is like coming home,” Ang Lee, the film’s Oscar-winning director, said in his acceptance speech.

“The fact is this: that Brokeback Mountain has helped to change the world. And it is such a privilege and honor to have joined you, and all the people all over the world, who struggle for compassion and equality.”

Brokeback Mountain won numerous awards in the run-up to the Academy Awards, and was considered the front-runner for the best picture Oscar, but it was Crash that took home the big prize.

Other winners at the GLAAD awards included Newsweek for magazine reporting; “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for an episode focused on gay and lesbian people’s coming-out stories; USA Today for newspaper coverage; and Melissa Etheridge for best music artist.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – GlaxoSmithKline PLC will fight counterfeiting of an HIV medication by tagging each medicine bottle with a tiny radio beacon, the British-based pharmaceutical company said.

The tracking system, about the size of a postage stamp, is attached to each bottle to authenticate that the drug Trizivir was made and shipped within approved channels in the United States, said the company, which has U.S. headquarters in Research Triangle Park and Philadelphia.

The drug is listed by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy as one of 32 drugs most susceptible to counterfeiting and theft. The company said the Food and Drug Administration has asked the pharmaceutical industry to begin tracking medications with radio frequency identification technology.

The drug is made at a plant in Zebulon, near Raleigh, where it will be bottled and tagged, spokesperson Mary Anne Rhyne said.

The technology uses a tiny silicon chip attached to a package that stores information about the drug’s manufacturing and shipping history. An antenna transmits the data to an electronic reader placed within 18 inches of the tag.

GlaxoSmithKline said the technology would not collect any patient data. It worked with IBM Corp. to develop the technology.

WILLISTON, Vt. (AP) – The principal of the Williston Central School is planning to send parents a letter explaining why he canceled an anti-bullying presentation by the gay and lesbian group Outright Vermont.

A series of workshops for seventh and eighth graders were canceled after some parents objected.

Principal Walter Nardelli said there were a variety of objections.

“It was obvious to me that there was confusion about the breadth and range of the topic and how it was going to be discussed,” Nardelli said. “There was definitely some confusion in people’s mind of, ‘What are you going to talk about?’”

The Outright Vermont presentation has not been rescheduled.

The public will get a chance to discuss the issue at a future school board meeting. Nardelli said he did not know when the school board meeting would be.

The canceled workshops were to be part of Outright Vermont’s Safe and Supportive Schools series.

Parents were told of the presentation in advance and told they could keep their children out of the program. Nardelli said about 20 of the school’s 260 students were not going to attend.

A gay teenager was to have spoken with seventh and eighth graders about his own experiences dealing with hostility from other students because of his sexual orientation.

Parents were invited to an orientation before the event was to begin.

Parent Chris Geffken, a father of four, said parents should have participated in the decision to invite the group and he objected to their message on religious grounds.

“They are promoting a lifestyle that is against our belief system and our faith,” said Geffken, a Roman Catholic.

Nardelli apologized to Outright officials and the 17-year-old Outright volunteer who was to have spoken.