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Orlando, FL - Heather Barwick, who was raised by two lesbians, shared her compelling story and why she opposes same-sex marriage. Married to a man and raising four children, Heather has come to realize why same-sex marriage is wrong and why it harms children. In her powerful story, Heather wrote in The Federalist: “Growing up, and even into my 20s, I supported and advocated for gay marriage. It’s only with some time and distance from my childhood that I’m able to reflect on my experiences and recognize the long-term consequences that same-sex parenting had on me. And it’s only now,...

A local man was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of a Durham priest. The killer admitted he had met the priest on a gay sex website and attempted to blackmail him after having sex in the woods. The priest had told the murderer he was married.

The nation's largest Presbyterian denomination has rewritten its definition of marriage and has authorized same-sex weddings nationwide. By Tuesday evening, a majority of presbyteries or regional governing bodies had voted to ratify an amendment to the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), allowing but not requiring its pastors to perform same-sex weddings and its churches to host such rites.

The California Supreme Court has instituted a policy that prohibits state judges from participating in the Boy Scouts of America because it doesn't allow openly gay adults to become troop leaders. Earlier this year the court voted unanimously to change the California Code of Judicial Ethics, removing an exemption allowing membership in youth organizations, such as the Boy Scouts, that it claims practice discrimination. While the Boy Scouts voted in 2013 to lift its ban on openly gay youth members, it maintained its policy prohibiting openly gay adults from actively participating in troop activities or becoming troop leaders. The Christian...

Starting in the fall of 2015, the University of Minnesota-Duluth (UMD) will offer a LGBTQ minor and gender-inclusive housing options for students. “This minor will prepare students for life,” Gesa Zinn, head of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department, told Campus Reform. “‘The job’ the LGBTQ minor prepares students for is to understand and embrace all members of an increasingly diverse society.” To complete the minor, students will have to take classes such as An Introduction to LGBTQ Studies, Queer Theory, Queer Cinema in International Perspective, History of the Homosexual Rights Movement 1895 – Present, and Queer Media. Zinn...

SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) An LDS apostle reaffirmed recently that Mormons who support gay marriage are not in danger of losing their temple privileges or church memberships — even though the Utah-based faith opposes the practice.

Members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have voted to make the 1.8-million-member, 10,000-congregation denomination the largest Protestant group to formally recognize gay marriage allow same-sex weddings. The Presbytery of the Palisades in New Jersey cast the necessary 86th vote Tuesday night to establish that a majority of the church’s 171 regional presbyteries now support an amendment to the church constitution that redefines marriage, the Associated Press reported. “Marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman, to love and support each other for the rest of their lives,” the church’s Book of Order will read,...

"All are welcome," eh?

A community is rallying around an Ohio couple who says they were denied wedding services because of their sexual orientation. Jenn Moffitt and her partner Jerra Kincely were on the hunt in February for a wedding videographer. She sent an email asking video production business "Next Door Stories" in Bexley, Ohio, if it would cater to a same-sex couple. She was shocked by the response. "Unfortunately at this time I do not offer services for same-sex weddings," the owner of business wrote in an email Moffitt shared with CNN.

The course of history changes at special moments when courageous individuals step up to take a stand, often at personal risk, on issues burning in controversy. One of those moments was just celebrated with the commemoration of the historic civil rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in March 1965. Another such moment is unfolding before us today. A group of some 150 black pastors, the National Baptist Fellowship of Concerned Pastors, is standing in protest against an invitation from the American Baptist College, in Nashville, Tennessee, to Bishop Yvette Flunder to speak at the college’s annual...

Maybe it is her short, spiky hair, or the cigarettes, which she gives to the men repairing the wiring in her Brooklyn apartment. Maybe it is because she swears. For whatever reason, the Rev. Ann Kansfield does not fit the stereotype of a minister. Not that she is worried about meeting anyone’s expectations for what a clergywoman should say or do. “We shouldn’t have to hide ourselves or worry about being judged,” Ms. Kansfield, who ministers at the Greenpoint Reformed Church, said. In her newest ministry, that self-assuredness is likely to serve her well. Ms. Kansfield, 39, is to...

Thousands of Americans, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and famed evangelist Franklin Graham, have come to the defense of a chaplain who could be thrown out of the Navy because of his Christian faith. Lt. Cmdr. Wes Modder has been accused of failing to show “tolerance and respect” in private counseling sessions regarding issues pertaining to faith, marriage and sexuality – specifically homosexuality. Modder, who is endorsed by the Assemblies of God, has also been accused of being unable to “function in the diverse and pluralistic environment” of the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Goose Creek, S.C. The...

The president of a black pastors coalition has expressed his anger that President Barack Obama compared the civil rights movement to that for same-sex marriage at the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” march, when black American citizens were beaten while demanding voting rights they were being denied. “Ask your gay friend if it’s easier to be out and proud in America now than it was 30 years ago,” Obama said in Selma, Alabama, on Saturday, as he characterized the movement for same-sex marriage as another civil rights struggle. “I marched with many people back in those days and I...

Almost six in ten Americans say they favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to enter into same-sex marriages, the highest level of support ever recorded in a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. In the new survey released Monday, 59 percent of Americans said that they favor same-sex marriages while just 33 percent said they oppose them.

Why are so many conservatives, not just Republicans but I mean social-conservatives, unable to form communicate a coherent argument against this logic in interviews and debates? The latest was Ben Carson’s meltdown where he was asked on CNN if being gay was ‘a choice’ and he replied absolutely, then he offered up prisoners who engage in same sex as his example, then later repudiated and apologized for his response, Ben Carson :” I do not pretend to know how every individual came to their sexual orientation. I regret that my words to express that concept were hurtful and divisive. For...

Dear homosexual, We are your fellow sinners and no better than you. We know this. We are saved from eternal torment, self-wrought, by the grace of Christ alone. If you are an unrepentant, “out and proud” homosexual practitioner, then you are not. It is our deepest prayer that you, too, will accept the free gift of eternal salvation, repent and “go and sin no more.” The alternative is a living hell. Let us be direct. According to the unequivocal moral precepts of biblical Christianity, explicit throughout both the Old and New Testaments, your homosexual behavior is sin. Sin is evil....

Three gay men from Thailand have tied the knot in what is thought to be the world's first three-way same-sex marriage. Happy newlyweds Joke, 29, Bell, 21 and Art, 26, took the plunge on Valentine's Day after exchanging their vows in a fairy-tale ceremony at their home in Uthai Thani Province, Thailand.

On Wednesday, perpetually controversial conservative Ben Carson told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that being gay is “absolutely” a choice. I agree, kind of. Last week I wrote an essay for the Washington Post in which I talked about wanting my daughter to be gay—implicitly and explicitly challenging the idea long advanced by gay rights advocates that being gay is not a choice. I’m not saying being gay necessarily is a conscious choice for many queer folks today, but I am saying it should be able to be a choice—and one that is “equally desirable to being straight.” In other words, for...

Does prison sex prove that sexual orientation is a choice? Given that much of what constitutes “sex” in prison occurs under some sort of duress, using it as an example of “choice” seems like … a stretch, to say the least. Dr. Ben Carson, who just announced the formation of a presidential exploration committee, defended the traditional definition of marriage in an interview this morning with CNN’s Chris Cuomo by relying on that argument to differentiate same-sex marriage advocacy from the civil rights movement (via Twitchy):CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon and potential Republican...

ROSIE O’DONNELL wrecked her marriage when she “went nuts” in a Thanksgiving Day tantrum fueled by booze and drugs! In a blockbuster world exclusive, The National ENQUIRER can reveal the untold story of Rosie’s relationship-ending meltdown, which left terrified wife Michelle Rounds locked in a bathroom and fearing for the safety of both herself and their 2-year-old daughter. Multiple sources have confirmed the shocking incident took place last November at Rosie’s home on Casey Key – north of Sarasota, Fla. – with raging Rosie throwing a holiday tantrum in front of Michelle’s visiting relatives!