MESA, Ariz. (AP) — The Scottsdale Unified School District and a former employee who claimed he was fired because he is HIV-positive have reached a $37,500 settlement.

As part of the settlement, the former worker agreed to drop complaints he filed with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and is prevented from pursuing other legal actions.

In addition, the school district did not acknowledge any wrongdoing.

The district’s governing board members agreed to the settlement at a board meeting.

District spokeswoman Carol Hughes called the settlement “prudent and cost-effective.”

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Roman Catholics attending a workshop on gays and the church faced the challenge of following teachings that condemn homosexuality as a sin without shunning gays who want to worship.

“Building Bridges: Gay and Lesbian Christians and the Church,” was held at the Benedict Inn retreat center in Indianapolis, just a few weeks after a Vatican statement condemning same-sex marriage.

The Vatican statement issued July 31 said that same-sex marriage and homosexuality violated “natural moral law.” But it also maintained that gays “must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity.”

About 30 of the nation’s 181 dioceses and archdioceses have ministries to gay people and their families, said Frank DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Maryland-based national organization that seeks reconciliation for gay Catholics.

But “even still sometimes, we hear stories of lesbian-gay people being told they’re not welcome at church,” said DeBernardo, leader of the workshop.

Such practices need to be changed, said DeBernardo and others.

The Rev. Justin Belitz, an Indianapolis priest who says Mass and hears confessions for members of the group, agreed.

“We need to minister to these people and not make judgments,” he said.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — Prosecutors will drop a public indecency charge against a Roman Catholic priest if he avoids interstate rest stops in Indiana and Illinois for a year and undergoes tests for sexually transmitted diseases.

The Rev. Ronald M. Ashmore, charged with exposing himself to an undercover police detective, must provide results of testing for HIV and other diseases to the Hendricks County prosecutor’s office as part of a pretrial diversion agreement filed Monday in Hendricks Superior Court.

Steve Scott, a deputy prosecutor, said he would drop the misdemeanor charge if Ashmore agrees with the conditions. The priest’s compliance will be reviewed in one year.

A telephone message seeking comment was left Wednesday at the office of Ashmore’s attorney, Kevin Hinkle of Danville.

Ashmore, 59, was arrested May 14 at a rest stop along Interstate 70 near Plainfield, about 15 miles west of Indianapolis.

Indiana State Police Detective J. Jason Fajt said Ashmore told him he was “cruising” for sex and asked the detective to join him behind a restroom. Fajt arrested Ashmore when the priest exposed himself, the detective said in an affidavit.

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis placed Ashmore on administrative leave from his position as pastor of St. Margaret Mary Church in Terre Haute.

Ashmore remains on leave, meaning he cannot serve as a minister in any way, said Susan Borcherts, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese. It is too early to say how the diversion agreement will affect his future as a priest, she said.

SUMMIT, Ky. (AP) — School officials in Boyd County have approved a new club meeting policy that differs from a federal judge’s ruling, which allowed the Gay-Straight Alliance to meet during school hours.

The board of education in Boyd County voted to restrict all club meeting times to before and after school. The board said it plans to ask the judge to lift the injunction, which was issued in a lawsuit filed by the Gay-Straight Alliance at Boyd County High School.

“I don’t think (the policy) either comports with the (federal Equal Access) Act or the judge’s order,” said James Esseks, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.

The ACLU is representing the club in its suit, which it filed in January. It accuses the district of violating the act by letting some clubs meet while not allowing the Gay-Straight Alliance to meet. The school continues to treat the club differently from other school activities, Esseks said.

Under the school’s new policy, some activities — including sports and academic teams — would be excused during school hours for trips to competitions.

The board has been working on the policy since late last year, said board chairwoman Sheri Bryan.

“We’ve worked very closely with our attorneys and hopefully can make them congenial to all parties,” Bryan said.

The ACLU had drafted a club policy proposal, which it presented to the district’s attorneys in June. The proposal defined curricular and non-curricular clubs and addressed equal access issues, an ACLU spokeswoman said.

The district hasn’t commented on that proposal, Esseks said.

School board attorney Kim McCann would not say when the motion would be filed.

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — The former president of a St. Louis gay and lesbian advocacy group has been convicted of improper sexual encounters with a teenager.

A St. Louis County jury convicted Rolf Rathmann, 38, of eight counts of second-degree statutory sodomy related to encounters with the teenager, then 14, last year at a suburban park.

Rathmann, former president of Pride St. Louis, faces up to 56 years in prison, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Jurors were to make the decision on punishment in a separate penalty phase.

Rathmann resigned from Pride St. Louis after his arrest last December. The group advocates tolerance for gays and lesbians and sponsors the yearly Pride Festival.

The key instruction before jurors was whether Rathmann reasonably believed, as he testified, that the youth was at least 17 years old.

Defense attorney Brad Kessler had told jurors the alleged victim was a lying manipulator who had told Rathmann he was a high school graduate.

NEW YORK (AP) — Chalk up another convert for the Fab Five.

A Port Authority police officer, who went on television for a makeover courtesy of “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” is in no trouble with his bosses.

“Our police superintendent watched the show and enjoyed it thoroughly,” Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said.

Officer John Verdi, 29, went on the Bravo network show in hopes of changing his image with the help of the show’s five gay consultants. While touring his Staten Island apartment, style gurus Thom Filicia and Carson Kressley tried on Verdi’s uniform shirt.

The Daily News reported that Port Authority officials said Verdi didn’t get clearance to say he was a police officer on television, and that he shouldn’t have let a civilian wear his uniform.

But DiFulco said it’s OK with the Port Authority for its cops to be stylish when it’s off the clock. “The officer did this on his own time. We have no issue with this.”

On the show, the style team took Verdi to have a pedicure, gave his pale feet a spray tan and taught him how to cook a quiche for his vegetarian girlfriend.

“It was good entertainment,” Port Authority Police Benevolent Association President Gus Danese told the News. “What he did, he did on his own time. He didn’t portray the Port Authority in a bad light. It was harmless.”

The episode is scheduled to be re-aired on NBC in prime time.

WESTLAKE, Ohio (AP) — A church janitor suspects three men beat him because the pastor preached against homosexuality, according to police in this Cleveland suburb.

Richard Bilski, 49, of Sheffield Lake, told police that the unidentified men assaulted him Sunday morning outside the nondenominational Church on the Rise after demanding to know when Pastor Paul Endrei would arrive.

Bilski said the men then fled, one yelling, “This is a message for Pastor Paul.”

Capt. Guy Turner said that police had no way of knowing the motive. But Bilski and Endrei said they believe the men were retaliating for an Aug. 10 sermon in which the pastor called homosexuality a sin.

Endrei preached about the Rev. Gene Robinson, who became the first openly gay Episcopalian confirmed as a bishop.

“I told the congregation, ‘The Gospel according to Gene Robinson is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ,’” he said. The point of his sermon was that “we love the homosexual, but we hate the sin.”

Buck Harris, a former host of a gay-themed radio talk show, said such comments can fuel hate crimes. “If they don’t preach tolerance, they are preaching violence,” Harris said.