LINCOLN (AP) – State lawmakers killed a bill Tuesday, May 22, that would have afforded gays the same workplace protections granted to minorities and other groups.

The state now bans workplace discrimination on the basis of race, religious affiliation, national origin, physical disabilities, age and other factors.

Under the measure voted down, employers would have been barred from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation, providing a shield for gays and bisexuals.

The bill (LB475) would have applied to employers with 15 or more workers, businesses with state contracts regardless of the number of employees, government agencies and political subdivisions, but not churches and other religious entities.

Opponents of the bill said it would have made it unreasonably difficult to fire gay employees for bad job performance and questioned whether they need protection. Gays have attained a favorable cultural status, said Sen. Tony Fulton of Lincoln, who referred to popular television shows where gays are prominent. And as a group they earn relatively high wages, he said.

“There’s a certain amount of credibility, I guess, granted to the homosexual lifestyle,” Fulton said.

He and others also argued that the protected class of people that would be covered was not clearly defined in the bill.

Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff suggested that being gay is the result of a choice, unlike other protected classes of people.

“I don’t believe they should be in the same class of race, color, creed, religion because I believe life is about a series of choices,” Harms said.

But being gay is not a choice, said Sen. Bill Avery of Lincoln, who questioned whether the bill went far enough to protect gays.

“This bill is not doing anything more than giving to a class of people the same kinds of rights you and I enjoy,” he said.

The bill was introduced by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, who has tried to pass similar measures in previous years.

“When we become aware of a distinct, identifiable group who are being targeted for acts of hatred … then the state has the responsibility to provide protection for those people,” Chambers said.

Businesses have not publicly opposed the measure, he pointed out, just “self-righteous” and “sanctimonious” senators.

“We’re not talking about anything other than the right to have a job,” Chambers said later.

Eighteen states have laws similar to the one rejected by Nebraska senators. Similar laws in two states – Colorado and Iowa – are awaiting signatures from governors in those states, and Iowa Gov. Chet Culver is expected to sign the bill there soon.

Similar legislation was recently approved by lawmakers in Oregon and signed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski. And 13 other states considered outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation this year.

“As more and more Americans know gay people in their lives, they’re more open to this type of legislation,” said Marty Rouse, national field director of Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for gay rights nationally.

Rhode Island (AP) – The Rhode Island State Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments on whether a same-sex couple who wed in Massachusetts can get divorced in Rhode Island, where the law is silent on the legality of same-sex marriages.

The justices said they would decide only whether a lower court can recognize a same-sex marriage performed in another state for the purpose of handling a divorce petition. Lawyers for both sides say the divorce case won’t decide whether same-sex couples can get married in Rhode Island.

Cassandra Ormiston and Margaret Chambers were married in 2004 after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts. Last year, the couple filed for divorce in Rhode Island, where they live, citing irreconcilable differences.

In December, Chief Family Court Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr. asked the Rhode Island Supreme Court to decide whether he had jurisdiction to handle what is believed to be the state’s first same-sex divorce case.

The court returned the case to him at first, saying it needed more information about the couple’s marriage. But in an order dated Monday, the justices agreed to take the case and said it would accept written briefs on or before Aug. 1.

The court invited the attorney general, the governor, state legislative leaders and other interested parties to file briefs. Earlier this year, Attorney General Patrick Lynch wrote a legal opinion urging the state to recognize those marriages.

“The fact is, this case will proceed, and we’re hopeful for a resolution before year’s end,” said Louis Pulner, an attorney for Chambers.

If the Supreme Court rules that Jeremiah has jurisdiction over the divorce case, then the matter would be sent back to him to decide, Pulner said. But if the court rules otherwise, the only legal avenue may be for the women to move to Massachusetts and live there long enough to obtain a divorce, Pulner said.

Neither woman is interested in that option, their lawyers said.

“I don’t see how it’s possible for her financially,” said Nancy Palmisciano, an attorney for Ormiston. “That means setting up roots in Massachusetts and becoming a resident there and basically messing up her entire life.”

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – When he was a teenager, Connell O’Donovan opened up to his Mormon seminary teacher and said that he was gay.

O’Donovan was greeted with kindness – and a prescription to chart the frequency of his sexual thoughts; fasting and praying when the urges came were suggested as a means of willing them away.

“He didn’t know what to do,” O’Donovan said of his teacher, who is now a church elder. “He was a super-nice guy, but just misinformed and all he had was the church handbook to go by.”

Raised a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, O’Donovan, a writer and historian, served a church mission and married in the church’s Salt Lake City Temple. He came out in 1985 and eventually left the faith, unable to reconcile his gay identity with the teachings of the church.

“I had to throw the baby out with the bath water. I started from scratch and rebuilt myself,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press last week. “I decided that I can use the word grace, but in a different way.”

Last Sunday, the 43-year-old O’Donovan gave the keynote address at the 30th anniversary of Affirmation, a support group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Mormons in Salt Lake City.

Founded in Provo by a handful of students from the church-owned Brigham Young University, Affirmation grew out of concern about the increasing number of suicides among gay Mormons and from the frustration of living a closeted life. Today, the group, which is not recognized by or connected to the church, has chapters across the United States, in Australia, Canada, England, Italy and South Korea.

For many, Affirmation is the first place they connect with other gay Mormons.

“They helped me through in the beginning,” said Buckley Jeppson, 48, a gay Mormon who lives in Washington, D.C. “That was useful. It was the first time I actually knew I wasn’t the only person out there. It’s comforting.”

Officially, the Mormon church has taught that homosexuality is a sin and that traditional marriage is an institution ordained by God. In the 1990s, church elders modified that position to differentiate between homosexual orientation – same-gender attraction as they call it – and having an active gay sex life.

“The sin is in yielding to temptation,” Elder Dallin H. Oaks said in an interview conducted by a public relations officer posted on the church Web site earlier this year.

Church officials declined to be interviewed for this story, instead referring the Associated Press to an interview with Oaks and Elder Lance B. Wickman.

“What we know is that feelings can be controlled and behavior can be controlled,” Oaks said.

Church President Gordon B. Hinckley has said gays who remain celibate can continue to enjoy full membership in the church, a standard seen in other faith traditions.

Affirmation’s Salt Lake Chapter President Duane Jennings sees both positions as baby steps of progress. “They used to teach that the thoughts were evil,” he said.

And there is other progress, Jennings said, beginning with the acknowledgment by leadership that they don’t fully understand “these problems.”

Marriage was once offered as a “cure” for homosexuality, but leaders now discourage that so women will not be married under false pretenses, Jennings said, adding that change has not been widely publicized since it was first announced in 1986.

It’s almost impossible to imagine the church recognizing same-sex marriage. In fact, in the Web interview, Oaks states clearly that “there is no such thing in the Lord’s eyes as same-gender marriage.”

Civil unions with legal protections equal to those in marriages also seem unlikely to win support. Wickham hedges a bit, saying church leaders have no position on legislation that might offer some lesser, limited rights.

What the church should do, Jennings said, is try to find a more honorable place in the church for gays who are living in celibacy, and for those in monogamous domestic partnerships, allowing them to remain in the church without fear of excommunication.

“It would go a long way in not creating such negative feelings in both gays and lesbians and their families,” he

said.