Free Republic

Same-sex marriages went forward Monday in Alabama, for the most part, notwithstanding an effort by the Chief Justice of the state’s Supreme Court to prevent probate judges from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples: BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Amid conflicting signals from federal courts and the chief justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court, some Alabama counties began granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples on Monday in a legal showdown with echoes of the battles over desegregation in the 1960s. In major county seats like Birmingham, Montgomery and Huntsville, gay couples lined up outside courthouses as they opened, and emerged smiling, licenses in...

<p>Matthew Aune and Derek Jones were...strolling through Main Street Plaza just east of the Salt Lake Temple, the holiest site in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.</p> <p>Aune bussed his partner on the cheek. Church security guards appeared. The twentysomething men said they were cuffed and forced to the ground. The church's official statement said the couple had been "engaged in passionate kissing, groping, profane and lewd language" on private church property, an account the two men vigorously contested.</p>

Americans support women in the pulpit and in senior leadership positions within the church. But they are more hesitant when it comes to supporting openly gay and lesbian religious leaders. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 60% of American Adults favor women in the pulpit, while just 16% are opposed. Twenty-five percent (25%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) Even more (74%) support women in leadership positions in their respective faiths. Just nine percent (9%) are opposed, with 17% undecided. Just 43% of Americans favor openly gay and lesbian individuals in the pulpit. Thirty-eight...

Gov. Tom Wolf stood with a small group of lawmakers Wednesday morning to rally new efforts behind bills that would extend basic anti-discrimination protections statewide on the basis of sexual orientation. For Pennsylvania, a state where in most municipalities a person can still be fired from his job or denied housing because of his or her sexual orientation, Wolf said the extended anti-discrimination bills fit the state's heritage perfectly. "Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn on the basis of tolerance. On the basis of religious freedom," Wolf noted. U.S. District Judge John Jones gave the LGBT movement a push with...

Two gay dads are shocked that a religious private school in Tennessee has refused to accept their children for enrollment. Yahoo reports that Brian Copeland and Greg Bullard applied to the school after a friend said he believed the school would accept their family arrangement. Copeland further explained the situation on his Facebook page. “We chose this school because of its rigorous faith-based K-12 academics and extra curricular activities; and, a friend with a son there asked them if a family like ours would be allowed and was told yes. After a phone conversation, fully disclosing we are a two-dad...

"I support the right of people to believe what they do and say what they wish—in their pews, homes and hearts." So says an influential New York Times journalist. In other words, "Keep your religion in the closet." In his Jan. 10 Times editorial, "Your God and My Dignity: Religious Liberty, Bigotry, and Gays," Frank Bruni writes, "I've been called many unpleasant things in my life, and I've deserved no small number of them. But I chafe at this latest label: A threat to your religious liberty." He finds it "absurd" that the simple act of two men or two...

Dozens gathered outside a Colorado church to protest Tuesday after a bereaved family said the pastor stopped a woman’s funeral when he found out she was a lesbian. According to KMGH, Denver’s New Hope Ministries ended Vanessa Collier’s funeral Saturday after the minister saw a video tribute that showed Collier kissing her significant other, which the family had refused to edit. […] The pastor who called off the funeral defended his actions to KCNC, saying he hadn’t been aware of the video until right before the service, and that he gave the family the chance to edit it. …

A judge in South Dakota ruled the state constitution's definition of marriage is unconstitutional because it does not allow same-sex couples to marry. In a decision rendered Monday, district court judge Karen E. Schreier ruled the South Dakota's Amendment C unconstitutional, but put a stay on her decision pending appeal. Schreier drew a parallel to the Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, which declared interracial marriage bans unlawful. "In Loving, the Supreme Court addressed a traditionally accepted definition of marriage that prohibited Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving from marrying," wrote Schreier. "Plaintiffs have a fundamental right to marry. South Dakota...

Florida's ban on marriages between same-sex couples is headed for a midnight end, with wedding vows planned around the state. A stay expires late Monday in a federal judge's ruling striking down the ban enacted in 2008 by voters. Several court clerks are planning to begin issuing....

It's every parent's nightmare, but true: Major U.S. corporations are funding a campaign of sophisticated, psychologically intrusive "gay" indoctrination programs targeting very young children in elementary schools across America. It’s part of a very well-planned and well-funded effort to reach children as young as possible without their parents’ intervention. The national program, called “Welcoming Schools”, skillfully works on the minds of young children in three ways: (1) Introducing the concept of homosexuality to children. (2) Telling them that homosexuality is normal and natural. (3) Telling them that their parents or friends who portray homosexuality in a less than positive way...

He was born in a barn to penniless parents who were part of a people under occupation. Get it? So why do so many of us not get it? I’m against the War on Christmas. No not that one! Wishing someone “Happy Holidays” doesn’t rob Christmas of its meaning—after all, being sensitive to others’ religious beliefs ought to be the attitude of every Christian. And not the one that says we have over-commercialized Christmas—after all, there’s nothing wrong with a time of year when we purchase thoughtful gifts for those we love.

America's Christophobes have been plenty busy lately. Maybe the Christmas season makes them especially nervous. A few weeks ago, Atlanta Fire Rescue Department Chief Kelvin Cochran was suspended for a month without pay for the unforgivable sin of self-publishing a Christian book in which he expressed his disapproving views about homosexual behavior, among other things. City spokeswoman Anne Torres said: "We understand that (Cochran) was distributing the book to other employees. We are still not sure yet what the circumstances surrounding that are. ... The bottom line is that the (Mayor Kasim) Reed administration does not tolerate discrimination of any...

The Catholic Church must help parents stand by their gay children, Pope Francis said in a new interview about his papal ministry. The pontiff’s comments come a day after Francis urged top church officials to pay attention to the “signs of the times” and listen to ordinary Catholics, according to The Independent. “We come across this reality all the time in the confessional: a father and a mother whose son or daughter is in that situation. This happened to me several times in Buenos Aires.... We have to find a way to help that father or that mother to stand...

The Benefits of Being Politically Correct By Anna North November 10, 2014 1:20 pm 30 Comments When people bring up political correctness, they’re often talking about how much they hate it. Unlike, say, “diversity” or “inclusion,” the term is perhaps most frequently used by those who object to what it stands for, who feel that calls to change the way they speak harm them or society in some way. These objections inspired Jack Goncalo, a professor of organizational behavior at Cornell, and his team to study the actual effects of political correctness. They’d heard “this idea that the effort to...

Slovakia will hold a referendum on same-sex marriage in the predominantly Roman Catholic country on Feb. 7, the president said Thursday. President Andrej Kiska’s move comes after the Alliance for Family conservative group gathered about 400,000 signatures supporting the vote. Slovaks will be asked whether they agree that a marriage can be called only a union between a man and a woman, same-sex partners can’t adopt children, and that children wouldn’t have to attend school classes on sex education if their parents don't agree with them. …

Rob and Linda Robertson did what they believed was expected of them as good Christians. When their 12-year-old son Ryan said he was gay, they told him they loved him, but he had to change. He entered “reparative therapy,” met regularly with his pastor and immersed himself in Bible study and his church youth group. After six years, nothing changed. A despondent Ryan cut off from his parents and his faith, started taking drugs and in 2009, died of an overdose. “Now we realize we were so wrongly taught,” said Rob Robertson, a firefighter for more than 30 years who...

[2 Billy Gilman Reveals He’s Gay By Billy Dukes 34 minutes ago Hours after one country artist revealed he is gay, another followed. Billy Gilman followed. On Thursday afternoon, he took to YouTube to reveal he is gay.

VATICAN CITY, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- After speaking out against statements of Pope Francis that appear to be very lenient toward homosexuals in the church, Cardinal Raymond Burke has been removed from his position as leader of the Vatican's highest court. The pope has worked on a draft of the synod of bishops that included welcoming homosexual people into the Catholic church, to some degree. That part did not make it to the final draft, but it did stir things up in the church. Around this time, Cardinal Raymond Burke told Buzzfeed "the pope is not free to change the...

I see that Apple CEO Tim Cook has announced that he is gay and thanks God for this gift. In a separate story, I see that he is widely quoted in the business press as anticipating an "iPad Christmas". I also notice a picture of a Christmas tree at Apple Headquarters in an insider newsletter. Recall earlier this year that Brenden Eich was forced to resign as CEO of Mozilla because it was revealed that he had donated to a ballot initiative that opposed same-sex marriage. It was claimed that his donation showed that he deserved to lose his job...

After a federal judge in Idaho recently ruled that the state’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, ordained ministers Donald and Evelyn Knapp who own the Hitching Post wedding chapel in the city of Coeur d‘Alene, were asked by a gay couple to perform their wedding ceremony. According to Fox News , the ministers declined to perform the wedding due to their opposition to same-sex marriage. However, because the Hitching Post wedding chapel is registered as a for-profit business rather than a church or place of worship (although the wedding chapel is registered with the state as a “religious corporation”...