BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) – A company that was sued by a pair of gay skaters who alleged they were harassed for holding hands has agreed to hold monthly gay-straight skate nights, to sign an anti-discrimination pledge and to contribute $5,000 to two gay groups as part of a legal settlement.

As part of the settlement, the skaters, John Manzon-Santos and Alan Lessik, also will get free admission for one year to the weekly “pairs preferred” skating sessions Berkeley Iceland plans to offer. East Bay Iceland, which owns the Berkeley rink and two others, also agreed to post placards advertising its efforts to promote diversity and to require its workers to undergo sensitivity training.

Manzon-Santos and Lessik, amateur skaters who are training to compete in the Gay Games taking place this summer in Chicago, alleged in a lawsuit filed last month that Berkeley Iceland’s manager twice told them to stop skating together. The manager said he was concerned about safety, but the two men suspected they were targets of gay bias because they saw male-female couples holding hands while skating, Manzon-Santos said.

“This is partly about perceived homophobia, but it’s also about normalizing the interaction between gay and straight people. It’s about we all love to skate,” Manzon-Santos said, adding that he and Lessik were pleased with the settlement terms.

East Bay Iceland’s general manager was unavailable and an employee in the box office at Berkeley Iceland said the company had no comment on the case. The settlement calls for the company to issue a public apology.

Karen Doering, a lawyer with the National Center for Lesbian Rights who represented the two men, said she was glad the ice rink company was willing to settle the dispute so quickly. Under the deal, East Bay Iceland will contribute $2,500 to both NCLR and the Federation of Gay Games.

“East Bay Iceland is a model partner,” Doering said. “They seriously listened to our concerns, recognized discrimination is damaging, and are taking every step to ensure discrimination does not happen at their establishments.”

NAMPA, Idaho (AP) – After twice being rejected by the Nampa Public Library Board, a Nampa man has asked the Nampa City Council to remove The Joy of Sex and The Joy of Gay Sex from library shelves.

The council on May 15 took no action, but told Randy Jackson and about 15 of his supporters that the Library Board will reconsider.

“We have a lot of kids in there,” said Nampa Mayor Tom Dale. “We need to have a safe place for them.”

Jackson said the 15-year-old son of a friend told him the books were there, and when Jackson went to the library last fall he found them.

The instructional books contain drawings and photos of sexual activity. The book also gives descriptions of various sex acts.

After finding the books, he sent a letter to the Library Board in January, but was told the books would remain. He appealed later in the winter to have the books removed or have them moved where children couldn’t get to them.

The board unanimously decided the books would stay. Library Board Chair Sharon Brooks said the decision was “based on the principle of freedom of information rather than that book.”

“We want to be a neutral provider for both a social and political role, to meet the needs of a diverse group in our community,” she told the Idaho Press-Tribune after the meeting. “We are open to working with the public, with the council.”

Bryan Fischer of the Idaho Values Alliance, who supports Jackson, said removing The Joy of Gay Sex from the library is not censorship, but selectivity.

“Libraries can’t stock every book in print,” he said, “so they make decisions every day based on content and suitability.”

The Library Board is scheduled to next meet on June 12. Councilmember Stephen Kren will represent the council at the meeting, Dale said.

The libraries in Boise and Caldwell do not carry The Joy of Gay Sex, the newspaper reported.

BOSTON (AP) – Lawmakers will wait until July to consider several proposed constitutional amendments, including making health care access a right and outlawing same-sex marriage.

The proposal to amend the constitution to ban same-sex marriage is currently being considered by the Supreme Judicial Court, and Senate President Robert Travaglini’s spokesperson said the Legislature would likely postpone its debate on the question until the court rules.

The justices are considering whether citizens have the right to get around their 2003 ruling by amending the state constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey would become the 12th state to legalize marijuana for people with debilitating medical conditions under a bill slated to be discussed next month by state lawmakers.

Sen. Joseph Vitale, chair of a Senate health panel, said he’s scheduled a June 8 discussion to hear from experts on the bill proposed by Sen. Nicholas Scutari. Vitale said he supports the concept, but has questions.

“It’s really an effort to provide some sort of relief for people and some compassion,” said Vitale, D-Middlesex.

The legislation has long been proposed by Scutari, D-Union, but has never received a legislative hearing.

Though 11 states allow medical marijuana, in June 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the federal government can prosecute people who use marijuana no matter what a state law says.

Terrence P. Farley, an Ocean County assistant prosecutor and spokesperson for two state anti-drug law enforcement groups, said the bill is a veiled attempt to legalize drugs.

“This is how they’re trying to get marijuana legalized,” said Farley, who also is director of the county anti-narcotics force.

Scutari said he has no hidden agenda.

“We’re walking in the front door to attempt the legalization of a substance that has been utilized for pain relief for centuries,” he said. “This is about compassion for people who are at their weakest or on their death beds.”

The Assembly hasn’t scheduled any hearings on the bill, but Gov. Jon S. Corzine said last year that he would sign a medical marijuana bill into law.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently reiterated its opposition on medical marijuana. The American Medical Association, National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society and National Multiple Sclerosis Society reject its use. An April report by federal Department of Human Services agencies found no data supported marijuana for general medical use.

The National Academy of Sciences has found marijuana can help patients with AIDS wasting and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.

Scutari’s bill lists cancer, glaucoma, HIV and AIDS, chronic pain, wasting syndrome, severe nausea, seizures and persistent muscle spasms as among the conditions eligible for medical marijuana usage.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Some election-year advice to Republicans from a high-ranking source who has the president’s ear: Don’t use a proposed constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage as a campaign tool.

Just who is that political strategist? Laura Bush.

The first lady told “FOX News Sunday” that she thinks the American people want a debate on the issue. But, she said, “I don’t think it should be used as a campaign tool, obviously.”

“It requires a lot of sensitivity to just talk about the issue – a lot of sensitivity,” she said.

The Senate will debate legislation that would have the Constitution define marriage as the union between a man and a woman early next month, Majority Leader Bill Frist said on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

President Bush supports the amendment but Vice President Dick Cheney does not. Cheney’s daughter, Mary, is a lesbian and has been speaking out against the marriage amendment as she promotes her new book, Now It’s My Turn.

Mary Cheney wrote that she almost quit working on the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004 because of Bush’s position on same-sex marriage. Asked about reports that White House political adviser Karl Rove and other Republicans want to use the issue to mobilize conservatives for the midterm election, she said she hoped “no one would think about trying to amend the Constitution as a political strategy.”

“I certainly don’t know what conversations have gone on between Karl and anybody up on the Hill,” Cheney added in her appearance on FOX. “But, you know, what I can say is, look, amending the Constitution with this amendment, this piece of legislation, is a bad piece of legislation. It is writing discrimination into the Constitution, and, as I say, it is fundamentally wrong.”

But Frist said he would defend the amendment even to Dick Cheney.

“I basically say, Mr. Vice President, right now marriage is under attack in this country,” Frist said on CNN. “And we’ve seen activist judges overturning state by state law, where state legislatures have passed laws defining marriage between a man and a woman, and that’s being overturned by a handful of activist judges around the country. And that is why we need an amendment to come to the floor of the United States Senate to define marriage as that union between one man and one woman.”