BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – Georgia minister Joan S. Gray is a lot like the denomination she will head for the next two years – personally conflicted and uncomfortable on the question of whether the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) should ordain gays and lesbians.

Gray, from Atlanta, is the new moderator of the nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination. She was elected June 15 as the 2.3 million-member group opened its eight-day General Assembly, held every two years.

Gray told the more than 530 voting commissioners that she was “comfortable being uncomfortable” with her inner turmoil over whether the church should let gay men and lesbians serve as ministers.

As moderator, Gray will serve as a spokesperson and titular leader for the denomination, which is trying to reserve decades of declining membership. She said she’d leave it up to God to come up with a plan for reconciling factions within the group.

“I don’t have all the answers,” she said. “But I have a passionate faith in the God who, through us, is able to do more than we could ever imagine.”

Gray was elected on the third ballot, defeating three other candidates who drew sharper lines on the issue of ordaining gays and lesbians.

One, the Rev. Kerry Carson of Conrad, Iowa, called homosexuality “not within God’s will” and said he opposed ordination of gays and lesbians. The Rev. Tim Halverson of Cape Coral, Fla., said ordaining gays and lesbians was “my dream,” but added that the church hadn’t yet made a biblical case for ordination.

Carson and Halverson trailed badly after two ballots. On the last vote, Gray won a majority over the Rev. Deborah Block of Milwaukee, who has been a leader of a Presbyterian group that supports ordaining gays and lesbians.

Based in Louisville, Ky., the denomination is the largest of several U.S. Presbyterian groups with almost 11,000 congregations.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – The Kentucky Supreme Court turned away an argument from a woman seeking to share custody of a child with her former partner.

In a 7-0 decision, Chief Justice Joseph Lambert ruled that Brenda Fawbush didn’t qualify as the child’s “de facto custodian” because she was not the primary caregiver, despite “participating substantially in the support and rearing of a child for a significant period of time.”

Fawbush and Teresa Davis of Louisville raised the girl together for six years, with Davis serving as the parent who legally adopted her because of questions about whether same-sex couples can jointly adopt in Kentucky.

When the couple split three years ago, Davis took the girl and cut off contact with Fawbush. Fawbush sued for visitation and custody rights, saying she had served as the girl’s parent.

The justices made note that Kentucky’s law could impact all nontraditional caregivers, such as grandparents who care for a child while a mother cannot.

Fawbush’s Louisville lawyer, Bryan Gatewood, said the court had “missed a great opportunity to affirm that children should be raised by both parents who love them.” Fawbush hasn’t seen the child, now 9, for three years.

Family Court Judge Kevin Garvey initially ruled in Fawbush’s lawsuit that she was the primary breadwinner but not the primary caregiver. Under Kentucky law, that meant she could not apply for custody or visitation, Garvey ruled.

COLUMBUS,Ohio(AP) – Both conservative and liberal Episcopalians left a national meeting upset by a measure that won last-minute approval asking for restraint on electing more gay bishops.

Conservatives called the General Convention resolution meaningless since it fell far short of demands from top Anglican leaders for a moratorium. Liberals said the call for any restriction, no matter how mild, was offensive to gays and lesbians – and one bishop vowed to defy it.

But Episcopal leaders said the legislation, however inadequate, was critical to buy time for talks over whether the world’s Anglican churches can stay together despite their deep differences over the Bible and same-sex relationships.

Nevada Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who will become Episcopal presiding bishop in November, told delegates in the final hours of the meeting that she did not like the resolution, since “I am fully committed to the full inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians in this church.”

But she said it would give the church a chance to find a “common mind.”

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. arm of the world Anglican Communion. Many Anglican leaders were angered by the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the communion’s spiritual leader, has been trying to broker a truce between conservative and liberal archbishops worldwide ever since.

Williams released a statement saying that the “devoted work” of the convention over a nine-day assembly shows how strong its concern is “to seek reconciliation” with Anglicans. Leaders had asked for a much stronger response – a moratorium on choosing gays with same-sex partners to lead dioceses. The resolution that passed is nonbinding.

But Williams said the communion will “need to reflect carefully on the significance of what has been decided before we respond more fully.”

American conservatives will be reflecting as well.

The Anglican Communion Network, a group of 10 conservative Episcopal dioceses and more than 900 parishes, is considering splitting from the church and will meet at the end of July to decide its next step.

The Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, which rejects the ordination of women, has appealed to Williams to be placed under the leadership of another Anglican official because of the election of Jefferts Schori.

Among progressives, a group of 20 bishops issued a statement saying the language in the resolution “too much echoes past attempts by the church to limit participation of those perceived to be inadequate for full inclusion in the ordained ministry.”

Bishop John Chane of the Diocese of Washington, D.C., said he would not follow it.

“My own understanding of my responsibility as a bishop is to live into the integrity of my office,” Chane said in a statement.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Betsy Smittle, a bass guitar player from Tulsa who has toured with her brother, Garth Brooks, headlined two days of Pride events in Oklahoma City last weekend.

Smittle, who is openly lesbian, performed June 25 with her band, The Edge.

Drew Emery of Seattle, director and producer of the independent film Inlaws & Outlaws, was a parade grand marshal, along with a lesbian couple featured in the documentary.

Smittle, 53, debuted a song she wrote after her brother revealed her sexuality to the world during an interview in the early 1990s with television journalist Barbara Walters. Smittle spent about five years touring with her brother.

She said she has a good relationship with him and his wife, Trisha Yearwood.

“We’re actually much closer than we were on the road,” Smittle said.

NEW YORK (AP) – A group of Brooklyn College students, claiming censorship, has sued the school and the city over last month’s closing of an exhibit containing their sexually explicit artwork.

The exhibit at the city-owned Brooklyn War Memorial featured watercolor paintings depicting gay sex and sculpted male genitalia illuminated in a box. City Parks Department officials closed down the exhibit one day after it opened, and it was relocated to the college campus.

But the 21-page lawsuit, filed in federal court, claims city officials acted arbitrarily in shutting down the show on May 4 and censoring the works created by the 18 students in the college’s Master of Fine Arts Program. It also claims that several of the pieces, which included a display with a live rat, were damaged when the show was dismantled.

“None of the artwork was obscene,” the lawsuit says. “In displaying their artwork, the students did not violate any laws, park rules or terms in the special events permit.”

The suit asks for unspecified compensation for damage to the artwork and emotional distress, along with a judgment protecting the constitutional rights of art students in the future.

“We hope this case will set a precedent, especially within the city of New York, which is supposed to be an international center of the arts,” said one of the students, Marni Kotak. “Censorship cannot be allowed to thrive in New York City.”

When the artwork was moved from the city-owned War Memorial to the college campus, the suit claimed, college employees with “no special expertise in moving fragile artwork” dismantled the exhibit and returned it to the campus in trucks.

The artwork was kept in a locked room on campus for a week. Once the students were permitted access to their work, they found “many of their pieces had been badly damaged, and, in some cases, completely destroyed,” the suit alleges.

One piece of art bore a footprint, while some paintings were stained and scratched, according to the suit. Sculptures from the exhibit were allegedly bent, torn, ripped or coated with dirt.

Kimberly Miu, spokesperson for the city law department, said there was no immediate comment on the suit.

Brooklyn College spokesperson John Hamill, while declining to comment on the suit, noted that the school found another location for the art exhibit to continue. “We are gratified that the college was able to secure a suitable alternative venue,” he said.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Celebrity event producer David Gest has been sued by a former employee who claims he was sexually harassed.

Gest, the estranged husband of Liza Minnelli, moved to Memphis in 2004, when he staged the “David Gest’s All-Star Holiday Extravaganza” featuring Jane Russell, Petula Clark, Gale Storm, Patricia Neal and Tippi Hedren.

Charles R. Beyer of Lakeland claims in a federal court lawsuit that he was harassed and humiliated by Gest while working as his personal assistant last July.

“David A. Gest made sexual comments, touched plaintiff in a sexual nature, wrote sexual comments in plaintiff’s calendar, paid another employee to touch plaintiff,” Beyer, 35, wrote in a complaint he filed himself.

The lawsuit claims Gest told friends Beyer was gay and had undergone a sex change operation.

Gest’s attorney, Edward Bearman, said his client tried to do Beyer a favor by giving him a temporary job that lasted only nine weeks.

“The guy just wouldn’t go away,” Bearman said. “I think this is just a bogus attempt to get some money out of a celebrity and I’m not even sure he qualifies as an employee.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigated, but was unable to substantiate Beyer’s claims.

Beyer also says in the suit that he once watched Gest pour paint on some record albums that belonged to Minnelli.

Minnelli and Gest married March 16, 2002, at a celebrity-studded ceremony with Michael Jackson as best man and Elizabeth Taylor as maid of honor. They separated in July 2003 and filed for divorce later that year.