Oct 17, 2008   | COMMENTS     

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Allan Spear, a former Minnesota state senator who was one of the nation’s first openly gay legislators, has died. He was 71. He died Saturday of complications after heart surgery performed Thursday, said Don Jorovsky, a longtime friend who used to work for Spear. Spear, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party — Minnesota’s version of the Democratic Party — was first elected in 1972 and was state Senate president from 1993 to 2000, when he retired. He was the first non-attorney to lead the Senate Judiciary Committee. Spear announced he was gay in a 1974 interview with the Minneapolis Star, becoming one of only two openly gay legislators in the country. Spear started working that decade to amend Minnesota’s Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. The legislation passed in 1993. Former DFL state Sen. Roger Moe, who served as the Senate’s majority leader while Spear was president, said his colleague never became impatient when the legislation failed to pass. “He was an excellent student of the legislative process,” Moe said. “He knew that you had to be tenacious and you had to educate people.”

Arkansas says it plans to drop unmarried foster ban

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas plans to reverse course and allow unmarried or same-sex couples to take on foster children on a case-by-case basis, even as voters prepare to decide the issue in November, the state Department of Human Services said last week. The agency announced Oct. 9 that it would halt its plans to formalize a prohibition on unmarried foster parents that has been in place since an executive directive was signed in 2005. DHS says it will instead propose a policy allowing workers to place foster children on a case-by-case basis. “Recognizing that this is a sensitive societal issue, it’s important to expand our recruitment base so that we can to find a family that best meets the needs of every child,” DHS director John Selig said. The prohibition on unmarried foster parents will remain in effect while the agency formalizes the new policy, a process that is expected to take about four months, a DHS spokeswoman said. The change comes as a conservative group is campaigning for an initiative on the ballot in November that would ban unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children.

N.J. school board member resigns over anti-gay slur

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — A Robbinsville school board member has resigned after using a common anti-gay slur. School officials and gay rights advocates had condemned Joseph Armenti’s statement. The word was used at the Sept. 23 board meeting in response to remarks made by a high school student who advocated a program to report students who use offensive language. Armenti said the student used the gay slur first. Armenti told The Times of Trenton that the comment was taken out of context and he would apologize.

Idaho officials say recent online hookups led to HIV

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) — About half of the 19 HIV cases reported in southeastern Idaho this year have been traced to couples who met over the Internet, according to the Southeastern District Health Department. The department reported that within the past three weeks, 10 men and one woman testified positive for HIV. Online hookups proved to be a common thread in most of those cases, said department investigator Maggie Mann. “That’s one thing most of them acknowledged,” Mann told the Idaho State Journal. “This is the largest group of positives I can remember in such a short period of time.”

Wyoming officials can’t find Matthew Shepard autopsy

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Albany County Coroner Tom Furgeson says he is looking into missing records from his predecessor, including a missing autopsy report in the 1998 Matthew Shepard murder. In a letter drafted to Albany County commissioners, Furgeson detailed efforts to obtain records from former coroner Julie Heggie in 2007, which reports are missing and his future plans. “I am getting this information together because I was advised by the county attorney that the next step is to file a criminal complaint with the Albany County Sheriff’s Office,” Furgeson stated. Any such criminal complaint would fall under a Wyoming law regarding “fraud against testamentary instruments and government records,” which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine, according to the letter. Autopsies missing from the coroner’s office include those of Shepard, Furgeson stated in the letter.