CHICAGO (AP) - A three-judge panel in Chicago heard testimony last week in a Naperville high school student's appeal to wear a T-shirt expressing opposition to homosexuality. Alexander Nuxoll, a Neuqua Valley High School sophomore, was banned from wearing a T-shirt reading 'Be Happy, Not Gay' to school. Nuxoll and one-time student Heidi Zamecnik, who wore a similar T-shirt to school in 2006, filed a lawsuit saying their civil rights had been violated. Indian Prairie Unit District 204 later said the students could wear a T-shirt that read 'Be Happy, Be Straight,' but the students refused. Last year, a judge ruled against them. Zamecnik has since graduated. On April 4, the federal appeals court in Chicago heard arguments from attorneys in Nuxoll's case. Appellate Judge Richard Posner argued that the T-shirt's message was just a play on words to reinforce the students'
message. "It's so tepid," Posner said. "It's just a pun because gay once meant happy. It's a joke." But school district attorney Thomas Canna said the shirt's message is no laughing matter. "I don't believe it's a joke at all," he said, "especially for someone struggling with their identity."
BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania transsexual serving time for the castration death of her husband has been sentenced to more time for threatening prosecutors and witnesses in her first trial. Tammy Felbaum, 48, of Marion, Pa., pleaded guilty to three counts of making terroristic threats and one count of aggravated harassment by a prisoner in February. She was sentenced to 21 to 60 more months on April 1. Felbaum is serving 5 to 11 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and related crimes in the February 2001 death of James Felbaum.
FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — Eleven conservative church congregations seeking to break away from the Episcopal Church in a dispute over homosexuality and other theological issues have won a preliminary victory in a closely watched lawsuit that will decide who controls church property. A Fairfax County judge ruled April 3 that he will decide the case under a Virginia law governing religious divisions that dates to the Civil War era. The language in that law is favorable to the departing congregations because it allows each congregation to realign by a simple majority vote. The judge is still a long way from deciding who ultimately controls church property. He still must rule on the constitutionality of that state law and must decide whether the departing congregations conducted their realignment votes properly. The dispute began in 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Truro Church in Fairfax in the Falls Church in Falls Church trace their history to Colonial times and control property that is worth tens of millions of dollars.
From staff and wire reports
