A legal challenge to Arizona’s ban on same-sex marriages has put two philosophically opposed camps on the same side.

Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard, a political ally of gay-rights activists, and social conservatives are both urging the Arizona Court of Appeals to reject the challenge filed by two Phoenix men who want to get married.

A three-judge panel of the midlevel court was scheduled to hear arguments Aug. 19 on the special-action lawsuit filed July 7 by Harold Donald Standhardt, 34, and Todd Alan Keltner, 37.

They want the Court of Appeals to overturn two state laws that allow marriages only between men and women. They also want a court clerk to be ordered to give them a marriage license.

The two Arizonans’ lawsuit said the ban on gay marriages, enacted in 1996, violates various state and federal constitutional protections, including the Arizona Constitution’s right to privacy.

Goddard’s office is urging the Court of Appeals not to hear the lawsuit, saying that Standhardt and Keltner can file a regular lawsuit in trial court and appeal it to higher courts if necessary.

But if the appellate court agrees to rule on the challenge, it would probably deny it, according to a 40-page brief signed by Assistant Attorney General Kathleen P. Sweeney.

There is no fundamental right under the U.S. or Arizona constitutions to same-sex marriage, the brief argued.

A car salesperson from Oklahoma has joined the crowded California gubernatorial ballot.

Jim Vandeventer Jr., a gay Republican and former Beverly Hills BMW salesperson, paid a $3,500 fee to be on the ballot. The California secretary of state notified him that his candidacy had been verified.

The 40-year-old Miami, Oklahoma, native believes Gov. Gray Davis should’ve been allowed to finish his second term.

“Frankly, I think Davis has the personality of a cantaloupe, but things are turning around here. That’s what no one wants to say,” said Vandeventer, who considers himself 90 percent Democrat and 10 percent Republican, despite his registration.

He accused the Bush administration of “hijacking the state” by backing movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger’s run for the office.

Vandeventer considers himself to be a pro-choice, relatively pro-gun environmentalist who supports same-sex unions and bringing back family values and ethics to society.

He said his issues for the campaign include fiscal responsibility, the environment and legal unions for gays.

“Let marriage be a sanctity for heterosexuals. The gay community has to come up with another vocabulary word,” said Vandeventer, who has a partner of nearly eight years.

The U.S. National Rifle Association has plenty of company in a major gun rights case that the Supreme Court is considering hearing.

Among the organizations that have joined the case are the Pink Pistols, a group of gay and lesbian gun owners; the Second Amendment Sisters; and Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. They are asking the court to consider if the Constitution’s Second Amendment guarantees the right to own a gun.

At issue is an appeal filed this summer by some rugby teammates and friends who challenged California’s assault weapons ban. They lost at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which ruled the Constitution protects gun rights of militias but not individuals.

Their lawyer, Gary Gorski of Fair Oaks, California, mainly expected to receive support from conservative, male-dominated organizations. Instead, friend-of-the-court briefs backing the appeal were filed by, among others, the gay gun owners.

Pink Pistols lawyer Lisa Steele of Bolton, Massachusetts, said justices have an opportunity to save the lives of gays who face hate crimes. A gun will help them “lawfully defend themselves against would-be gay bashers,” she wrote.

More than half of Americans favor a law barring gay marriage and specifying wedlock be between a man and a woman, an Associated Press poll found.

The survey also found presidential candidates could face a backlash if they support gay marriage or civil unions, which provide gay couples the legal rights and benefits of marriage.

The poll, conducted for the AP by ICR-International Communications Research of Media, Pennsylvania, found 52 percent favor a law banning gay marriages, while 41 percent oppose it.

About four in 10 — 41 percent — support allowing civil unions, roughly the same level found in an AP poll three years ago. But 53 percent now say they oppose civil unions, up from 46 percent in the earlier survey.

The increase came largely from people who previously were undecided, the polls suggested.

Close to half those surveyed said they would be less likely to support a presidential candidate who backs civil unions (44 percent) or gay marriage (49 percent), while only around 10 percent said they would be more likely.

The Masschusetts Supreme Judicial Court is considering a lawsuit seeking to legalize gay marriage, and a similar lawsuit is making its way through the New Jersey courts.

He emerged as one of America’s most militant abortion opponents of the 1980s and early 1990s, jailed dozens of times for blocking clinics and for having a human fetus delivered to Bill Clinton.

But Randall Terry, the founder of Operation Rescue, has been largely quiet for the past five years — until now. With a rally last week in Jacksonville, Florida, and another Saturday in Savannah, Georgia, the 44-year-old activist hopes to stage a comeback by speaking out against gay marriage.

Terry is calling for Congress to impeach six Supreme Court justices who formed the majority in a June decision throwing out a Texas law banning private, consensual sex among gays and lesbians. Terry believes the 6-3 ruling opens the door for the high court to legalize gay marriage.

“Overnight, you’ll have the court saying ... homosexual marriage is a protected right,” Terry said in a phone interview. “I would call it a blitzkrieg of the homosexual juggernaut. It’s not an erosion. It’s a frontal assault on decency and morality.”

Terry’s last high-profile foray was a failed campaign for Congress in New York in 1998.

Terry’s rally in Savannah was a quiet, uneventful affair.

“Hold your signs where they can be seen, don’t get in any verbal altercations with anyone, talk quietly with your neighbors,” he told the group of about 15 supporters, who marched around the city’s Wright Square.

A counter demonstration nearby, organized by a local gay activist, attracted nearly four times the crowd.

Georgia’s push to collect the names of people who test positive for HIV in doctor’s offices is being fought by AIDS activists who fear the new proposal will threaten confidentiality and deter testing.

Georgia is the last state in the country that does not collect HIV case data with personal identifiers, such as a patient’s name or an ID code. State officials have tried unsuccessfully several times over the years to win activist support for such a system.

The Georgia Division of Public Health says that HIV data is useless without a name or code because the federal government requires more details when determining how much AIDS funding states should get.

State health officials say HIV test results will remain confidential under the proposal. Only the state health department will have access to the names.

But activists say people will avoid HIV testing and treatment if they know a positive test result means their names will be reported to the government.

The division is expected to release a state report later this month that will detail the proposal.

Although doctors in Georgia report the names of AIDS cases, they only submit HIV patients’ demographic data such as age, sex or race to health authorities.