LOS ANGELES (AP) – An immigration judge who previously denied a gay man’s asylum bid on the grounds that he could conceal his sexual orientation if he returned to his native Mexico reversed the decision Tuesday.

In allowing Jorge Sota Vega to remain in the United States, Judge John D. Taylor said that gays should not be required to dress or act a certain way to avoid persecution and that Vega’s lawyers proved he would be at risk if he were deported to Mexico.

Vega’s case attracted attention from national gay rights groups when Taylor denied his application and said that Vega could live safely in Mexico because he did not look gay and could hide the fact that he was.

“It seemed to us this is a real double standard,” said Jon W. Davidson, legal director of Lambda Legal. “Courts don’t deny asylum to someone based on their political beliefs by saying, ‘If you just didn’t tell other people what you believed, you would be fine.’”

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage advanced out of committee Wednesday after three hours of debate and a group of gay-rights activists being escorted from the Senate gallery for singing “We Shall Overcome” in protest.

Proponents said the amendment was needed to protect the sanctity of traditional marriage from lawsuits and activist judges. Some opponents argued that it was simply discriminatory, but others said a provision could have unintended consequences on laws and policies that affect all unmarried couples.

The General Assembly two years ago overwhelmingly approved a resolution on the amendment. It still must pass this session or the next without any changes and then be approved in a statewide vote in the 2008 general election before it could become official.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 7-4 along party lines to move the proposed amendment to the full Senate, with all seven Republicans voting for it and all four Democrats against. After two attempts to amend the resolution failed, several people in the gallery stood and sang in protest.

They began singing softly at first, but got louder as a senator spoke in favor of the amendment before the committee vote.

Republican Sen. Richard Bray of Martinsville, the committee chairman, said demonstrations were out of order, and after slapping a gavel on the Senate podium a few times, the protesters were escorted out of the gallery. They continued singing for a short while in the hall and some prayed.

A few boos rang out from the floor as the Republicans announced their yes votes.

The amendment has two sections, the first saying that marriage in Indiana is solely the union of one man and one woman. The second says that the state constitution or state law cannot be construed to provide the benefits of marriage on unmarried couples or groups.

Opponents said the second provision was vague and could be used to nullify domestic violence laws that apply to married and unmarried couples, as well as contracts that unmarried senior couples sometimes have to retain inheritances and share legal, financial and health care decisions.

Walter Botich, president of a group called Stop the Amendment, said the second section would not only place restrictions on same-sex couples but those who are single.

“Nowhere in the second line does it say anything about same-sex couples,” he said. “It says unmarried couples. We’re talking about anyone who isn’t married.”

Kerry Hyatt Blomquist, legal counsel for the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said the section would make Indiana’s domestic battery laws unconstitutional because they currently cover spouses and those who are unmarried but considered “live-in spouses.”

The Ohio Supreme Court is considering whether its same-sex marriage amendment conflicts with that state’s domestic battery laws. The case stems from a judge’s decision to dismiss a domestic violence charge against a man who argued that it conflicted with the amendment. The charge was later reinstated by an appeals court and the man appealed to the state’s highest court.

Attorney James Bopp told the Indiana Senate committee that Ohio’s provision is significantly different from Indiana’s proposed amendment.

He said the Ohio amendment barred the Ohio Legislature from applying benefits of marriage on unmarried couples, but Indiana’s proposed amendment would only prohibit a court from ordering that unmarried couples receive marriage-like benefits. The General Assembly could still pass laws giving such benefits to unmarried couples, as it has done in the past, he said.

DES MOINES (AP) – The Senate approved new protections for gay and lesbian students on Tuesday, sending a measure to the House that would prohibit harassment based on sexual orientation.

Majority Democrats rejected several efforts to alter the measure, including broadening the scope to bar bullying against all students.

Supporters of the bill said they should focus protections on the students who need them most.

The bill would require schools to report harassment incidents to the state and indicate what the school did in response. Lawmakers said such requirements would help the state determine where the problem areas are and whether administrators are effectively deterring future harassment.

Former Gov. Tom Vilsack initially proposed the measure in his Condition of the State Speech in 2004, but it has languished until this session.

The Senate approved the measure on a 36-14 vote. The House is expected to approve the bill and send it to Gov. Chet Culver, who has said he supports the measure.

Critics of the bill said there was no reason to single out classifications of students, and said they favored a broad ban against all bullying in schools.

Critics also said schools should decide individually how to enforce harassment policies. However, Connolly noted that only 77 of the state’s 365 school districts have adopted such policies.

A main backer of the effort is the Iowa Pride Network, a group of students demanding new protections. Ryan Roemerman, who heads that group, said some studies have shown that a majority of openly gay students report being harassed and don’t feel safe in school.

Some worried about problems at private religious schools, some of which teach that homosexuality is a sin.

“There are some theological traditions that teach that homosexual behavior ruins counter to their faith tradition,” said Sen. Jeff Angelo, R-Creston. “It is quite possible that religious schools would be subject to a civil action.”

Connolly said there are more private, church-affiliated schools in his hometown than any city in the state, and they haven’t expressed any worries.

TRENTON (AP) – The nation’s first openly gay governor filed for divorce Friday from his wife of seven years.

Lawyers for former Gov. James E. McGreevey filed a two-page document in Union County Superior Court in Elizabeth seeking to dissolve his union with Dina Matos McGreevey.

The two have lived apart since November 2004, when McGreevey resigned following a stunning public announcement that he was “a gay American” who had had an affair with a male staffer.

McGreevey has been married twice. He has a 14-year-old daughter, Morag, from his first marriage, which also ended in divorce.

The staffer with whom McGreevey acknowledged having an affair, homeland security adviser Golan Cipel, has denied being gay and said McGreevey sexually harassed him. McGreevey said Cipel tried to blackmail him and that he resigned rather than succumb to the man’s threats.

Matos McGreevey has 35 days to answer her husband’s filing or file a counterclaim.

The filing says McGreevey and his wife have lived apart for 26 months. “This separation has continued to the present time and there exists no reasonable prospect for reconciliation,” according to the divorce complaint.

The document says the parties entered into a settlement agreement on Jan. 12, “which resolves all issues pertaining to custody, parenting time, alimony, child support, equitable distribution and counsel fees.”

McGreevey’s lawyers ask in the filing that the marriage be dissolved incorporating the terms of that agreement. The terms are not spelled out in the divorce complaint filed with the court on Friday, and McGreevey’s lawyer David Wildstein would not disclose them.

But Matos McGreevey said through her lawyer that substantial differences remain.

“I note from news accounts of my husband’s filing that he claims we have reached a comprehensive agreement. That is not true,” Matos McGreevey said through her lawyer, John N. Post. “We continue to have profound differences about what our daughter should be exposed to, and until they are resolved, there will be no agreement.”

SANTA FE (AP) – A state-sponsored annual conference on aging has moved from the Baptist-owned Glorieta Conference Center because the center tried to restrict discussions on gay issues.

A spokesperson for the state Aging and Long-Term Services Department said the annual conference will be held this August at Sandia Pueblo’s resort just north of Albuquerque, The New Mexican of Santa Fe reported in a copyright story Wednesday.

Last year’s conference drew about 1,000 people to the LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center, about 20 miles from Santa Fe that is owned by a Southern Baptist organization in Nashville, Tenn. The state agency paid about $51,000 to hold the three-day event at the conference center, which also rented rooms and sold meals to some of the participants.

The annual conference, which discusses subjects of interest to older New Mexicans, has been held at Glorieta for 26 years.

Last year, marketers for RainbowVision, a Santa Fe residential community that caters to older gays, made a presentation at the conference on “Designing Communities for the Gay and Gray.”

No one made an issue of it during the conference, said Joy Silver, president of RainbowVision Properties Inc.

However, the center’s manager, Hal Hill, later questioned why the department’s contract shouldn’t prohibit teachings that do not reflect Baptist heritage.

The conference’s planning committee voted unanimously last week to schedule the event at the Sandia Pueblo’s resort .

CLEVELAND (AP) – Tourism officials hope to bring gay visitors to the city by designing a travel guide that features gay-owned businesses, along with other attractions.

The Convention and Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland has asked the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center of Greater Cleveland for help with content, design and distribution. The guide should be finished this year.

About 65 other cities have also made a noticeable effort to attract tourists who are gay, said Ed Salvato, editor of The Out Traveler magazine.

The designers of Cleveland’s plan have to work around a 2004 ballot initiative that amended the Ohio Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.