LOS ANGELES (AP) – John Amaechi, the first NBA player to publicly come out of the closet, will be the grand marshal for a Pride festival in West Hollywood this summer.

Amaechi, a former Orlando Magic player who is now retired from basketball, recently released a book called Man in the Middle, which chronicles his life as a gay man.

“We are inspired by Amaechi’s courage and convictions. Despite personal risk, he opened himself up to the world and showed his authentic self,” said Rodney Scott, president of Christopher Street West, an organization that advocates for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. The organization said Amaechi was selected because he showed courage and conviction despite personal risk.

The Los Angeles LGBT Pride Celebration is set for June 8-10 and includes a parade on Santa Monica Boulevard.

MIAMI (AP) – A high school club that promotes tolerance of gays must be allowed to meet while a lawsuit is pending, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore ruled Friday that Okeechobee High School must grant the same privileges to the Gay Straight Alliance that it grants other clubs, as mandated by the federal Equal Access Act.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Okeechobee school board in November on behalf of the high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance after school officials said the group was a “sex-based” organization that would violate its abstinence-only education policy.

In his 12-page ruling, Moore wrote that the group and its founder, high school senior Yasmin Gonzalez, have “demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success” on their claim that the school violated federal law when it prohibited the club from meeting.

ACLU attorney Robert Rosenwald called Friday’s order a “strong indication of what will happen in the end.”

In his ruling, the judge said the school showed no evidence to back its concern that the group would encourage students to share “obscene or sexual explicit material,” and that the school had made that assumption based on the group’s name.

David Gibbs, the lawyer for the school board, said Friday he had not spoken to the school board about whether it would press forward for trial. He said he believes the judge’s decision honors the school’s desire that the club steer clear of discussions related to sex.

“The kids are getting the name they wanted,” he said, “but we’re pleased that the students are limited to discussing discrimination issues.”

Gonzalez said she was happy with the decision and issued a statement saying she hoped future students “will benefit from a more open environment and not have to endure the same treatment from our school.”

BOSTON (AP) – Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick ordered state officials to record the marriages of 26 out-of-state same-sex couples whose unions in the state were blocked by his predecessor, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Registering the marriages in Massachusetts’ vital records will not change the legal marriage status of the couples in their home states. The United States has a patchwork of marriage laws, and same-sex marriage is specifically forbidden in almost all of them.

Patrick suggested that Romney was scoring political points by not allowing the marriages to be registered, since putting the marriages on Massachusetts records does not change their illegal status in other states.

“I think that the previous administration was using a gimmick to make what I feel was a discriminatory point,” Patrick, a Democrat, said in announcing the move. “It’s a simple gesture to include the information on the register. Keeping it out was the gimmick.”

About 8,000 same-sex couples have wed in Massachusetts since the Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2003 that the state constitution guarantees gays the right to marry.

Massachusetts is the only U.S. state where same-sex marriage is recognized. A few other states offer civil unions with similar rights for same-sex couples.

Last spring, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that Romney could use a 1913 law to prohibit out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their home states explicitly prohibit same-sex marriage.

The 26 couples affected by Patrick’s decision had obtained marriage licenses in four towns where clerks defied Romney’s order not to issue marriage licenses to out-of-state same-sex couples.

Romney spokesperson Eric Fehrnstrom said the former governor was right to refuse to record the marriages because Massachusetts law does not recognize marriages between same-sex couples from outside the state.

“It was Governor Romney’s enforcement of this law that stopped same-sex marriage from being visited on every other state in the country,” Fehrnstrom told The Boston Globe. “Now that Governor Romney is out of office, we are seeing an erosion of the previously strong defense of traditional marriage coming out of the executive branch.”

State Department of Public Health Commission John Auerbach said Monday he will move quickly to act on Patrick’s request. He called it “fitting and welcome that our state will now treat the recording of all marriage certificates equally.”

CONCORD (AP) – The House took a historic step Wednesday toward joining neighboring Vermont and a handful of other states in approving civil unions for same-sex couples.

The House voted 243-129 for civil unions that would give same-sex couples the same rights, responsibilities and obligations as married couples. Same-sex unions from other states would be recognized if they were legal in the state where they were performed.

Supporters pushed a message of equality: “Please do the right thing – what you know in your heart is right,” said Rep. Bette Lasky, D-Nashua.

“Help our daughters, friends, sons and neighbors live their lives the way I believe we all want to live with the people we love – in peace and dignity.”

The bill was expected to pass, but the debate dragged to three hours, with opponents throwing out last-minute changes and plenty of lawmakers on both sides wanting to be heard.

One legislator tried to sidetrack civil unions by proposing relationship contracts for unmarried adults. That failed. Then Rep. Maureen Mooney, R-Merrimack, submitted a proposal to expand civil unions to any two unmarried people. It was a challenge to advocates of same-sex unions that used their argument for equality against them.

“Why shut the door after same gender couples? I’ve been told repeatedly that a civil union is not a marriage,” she said. “If this is the case, then why can’t a civil union – a domestic contract between parties – be opened to any two unmarried people?”

She said restricting civil unions to same sex-couples amounted to discrimination against heterosexual couples, roommates and others who might want to share legal benefits as a couple.

“We in New Hampshire will establish ourselves as a leader in caring for all combinations of family relationships,” she said. “I say let’s get to equality today.”

Democrats called it an attempt to confuse the issue.

“I’ve not received one e-mail, one letter, one phone call from any two brothers seeking to enter a relationship. Have you?” asked Rep. David Pierce, D-Hanover.

The House used a competing bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage to launch a study committee. Same-sex-marriage supporters argue that civil unions would amount to separate-but-equal discrimination.

The civil unions bill now goes to the Senate, where Republican Bob Clegg has proposed legalizing “contractual cohabitation” as an alternative. His bill would give gays and other adults who don’t choose to marry the same legal rights as married couples.

Gov. John Lynch opposes same-sex marriage but has avoided taking a position on civil unions.

“I will weigh in on it once I make up my mind on it,” he said Wednesday.

Lynch supports providing health care benefits to state workers’ same-sex partners.

If the bill becomes law, New Hampshire will join Vermont, New Jersey and Connecticut in allowing civil unions. Massachusetts is the only state that allows same-sex couples to marry.

California authorizes domestic partnerships with benefits similar to civil unions.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A student newspaper at a Catholic university drew a rebuke from school officials for its April Fools edition, which called Philadelphia’s cardinal gay and included a mock ad in which the college president, a priest, endorsed a condom.

Student journalists at Saint Joseph’s University apologized Wednesday for the satirical material in The Squawk, an annual parody traditionally written by seniors at the student newspaper, The Hawk.

Some students and administrators were upset by the newspaper’s content.

“Most of the university community really found it very offensive, very disrespectful,” school spokesperson Harriet Goodheart said Wednesday. “They did cross the line of what was appropriate even in a so-called humor issue.”