Free Republic

Children Raised in the Intact Biological Family Fare Better by the Vast Majority of Objective Measures Notre Dame University has denied official recognition of a student group promoting policymaking that places primary emphasis on advocacy explicitly for the interests of children in considerations about so-called “Gay Marriage”. The quest for recognition by Students for Child-Oriented Policy (SCOP), was rejected in an April 30 letter from the university’s Student Activities Office. In evaluating a proposal, approval is based on several things.…There was not a need for another similar-type club. The Club Coordination Council SCOP’s Notre Dame Marriage Petition cites Pope Francis...

The terms “husband” and “wife” have been deleted from California’s marriage law under a bill signed into law Monday by Gov. Jerry Brown. The terms will be replaced with “spouse” to accommodate same-sex marriage, which became legal in the state last year after the Supreme Court struck down a voter-approved ban on it. SB1306, the bill signed Monday by Brown, takes effect Jan. 1 and reflects the legality of gay marriage after a decade of litigation. The law also removes limits on recognizing same-sex marriages performed out of state.

On Friday, Vice President Joe Biden used an Independence Day celebration and speech in Philadelphia to compare gay marriage to the Civil Rights Movement and push for more gay marriage. According to The Hill, "[Biden] said he was reminded of two Philadelphias, one where the Declaration of Independence was signed 238 years ago and the other in Mississippi where civil rights workers were murdered in June 1964, two weeks before President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act." After saying that the two Philadelphias helped give meaning to the words “all men are created equal," Biden reportedly said that gay...

“Oh no!”, they rush to exclaim, “We’re all about freedom! Freedom for you and for me and for… everyone! Even Catholics! We’ll never force you to marry homosexuals.”First, never accept the premise that the same-sex “marriage” issue is a matter of civil rights. It. Is. Not. In the same way that feminists have gotten everyone to believe abortion is a “women’s issue”, (It. Is. Not.), homsexualists have gotten everyone to believe same-sex “marriage” is a civil-rights issue.This from The Telegraph: Gay Danish couples win right to marry in church [a Lutheran church, btw ... the state church of Denmark] Homosexual...

What will our first Fourth of July be like, once we have completely lost our freedom? It won't matter which pet cause of the Disinformational Elites is then-currently mandatory.Gay Marriage won't have any special favor over the long run. As soon as the Elites have determined that our population is waning too much, they could just as easily forbid any sterile sexual relations, where now fruitful sexual relations are severely sanctioned.Or as soon as the Elites have completely broken the spirit of the people by disintegrating their national identity, they may decide that unregulated immigration is forbidden. American Government immigration...

Kentucky's same-sex marriage ban was struck down Tuesday by a federal judge who ruled that it is a violation of the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment. "In America even sincere and long-held religious views do not trump the constitutional rights of those who happen to have been out-voted," U.S. District Judge John Heyburn in Louisville argued. The ruling follows similar decisions in Utah and Indiana where gay marriage bans were also dismissed. In his decision, Heyburn stated that his ruling does not "diminish the freedom of others to any degree." There is an "utter lack of...

This is Noteworthy for three reasons. One: The judge is a Bush 41 appointee, nominated to the federal bench by, er, Mitch McConnell. Two: This decision doesn’t matter much on the ground because the Sixth Circuit, the federal appellate court with jurisdiction in Kentucky, is set to hear arguments on gay marriage on August 6th. They’re going to end up superseding this decision one way or the other in the next few months anyway.Three: Heyburn, the judge, went out of his way to make clear that he thinks this issue is a no-brainer. Usually when a court examines the...

I didn’t expect to wake up this morning. Why? Because I thought the world was going to come to an end yesterday. At least that’s what i was led to believe after listening to the wailing and gnashing of teeth over federal Judge Richard Young’s common sense ruling that Indiana’s ban on same-sex marriage, like bans in most jurisdictions, has no rational basis so it was thrown out as unconstitutional. Hundreds of people lined up at the Marion County Clerk’s Office to tie the knot. A number of them had been together longer as partners than most heterosexual couples have...

Pop star Elton John called the Pope “wonderful” and said that Jesus would approve of marriage equality in an interview Sunday, the same weekend gay pride events occurred all over the world.Pop star Elton John called the Pope “wonderful” and said that Jesus would approve of marriage equality in an interview Sunday, the same weekend gay pride events occurred all over the world. Although Pope Francis does not support same-sex marriage, John praised the Pope’s attitude toward LGBT people as a sign of progress in an interview with Sky News, the AFP reports.

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz is taking heat for his anti-gay views and vocal opposition to marriage equality by none other than a fellow Republican figure. Prominent Republican lawyer, Ted Olson, who is a strong supporter of LGBT rights, thought Cruz's comments on marriage equality were "very, very sad." Cruz had a lot to say to the crowds at the Texas GOP convention about the "threat" that is gay marriage. His speech appeared on an article of The New Yorker (emphasis mine): "Marriage is under assault," Ted Cruz said to the crowd. "It is under assault in a way that is...

A solid majority of Americans now support equal treatment for same-sex couples despite religious objections, according to the State of the First Amendment survey released this week by the First Amendment Center. Sixty-one percent of respondents agree that the government should require religiously affiliated groups that receive government funding to provide health-care benefits to same-sex partners of employees – even when the religious group opposes same-sex marriage. And 54% of the public agree that a business providing wedding services to the public should be required to serve same-sex couples, even if the business owner objects to gay marriage on religious...

The normalization of polygamy would undermine our commitment to human dignity—our sense that each human being is to be valued as an end in him- or herself, and not merely as a means to others’ ends. Conservatives have long warned that the redefinition of marriage sought by the proponents of same-sex unions will prepare the way for a further redefinition of marriage to include polygamy. Some liberals have already done their part to fulfill this prophecy by assuming that the argument over same-sex marriage is over and by beginning to argue for a normalization of plural marriages. As I have...

Last week, a top GOP House candidate in Washington state compared gay marriage to polygamy. "Marriage is something more for religion to decide," Republican front-runner Pedro Celis said Thursday when asked about his stance on same-sex marriage at a GOP candidate forum, the Seattle Times reported. "Is this marriage or not? Polygamy—is it fine or not? It's a religion thing." The National Republican Congressional Committee has backed Celis, a former Microsoft engineer, to run against Democratic Rep. Suzan DelBene in Washington's first congressional district. DelBene is expected to hold onto her seat in November, but national Republicans are trying extra...

The Rev. Peter Gregory of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne said he’s not surprised by Wednesday’s court ruling that overturns Indiana’s ban on same-sex marriages. “It’s a disappointment, but not a surprise the judge ruled in this way,” Gregory said. “The disappointment is that he failed to recognize what marriage is – a union between one man and one woman – and the unique social good that marriage between a man and a woman is.” While the courts may be sending the nation in a headlong rush toward gay marriage, Gregory said they will not be the final...

The counter counterculture uprising social conservatives promised us after the Supreme Court's neutering of the Defense of Marriage Act never quite manifested.... But in the days before the high court delivered its rulings on DOMA and California's Proposition 8, Tony Perkins, the president of the Christian conservative Family Research Council, was desperately admonitory that the country's top jurists not invite ruin on America by accurately interpreting the Constitution. "If the Supreme Court steps in and says, 'We're redefining marriage, same-sex marriage will be the law across the land,' it will create a firestorm of opposition," Perkins' Magic 8-Ball warned. "This...

In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Kitchen v. Hebert affirmed a lower court’s ruling holding that traditional marriage laws violate the Constitution. The case will likely soon go to the U.S. Supreme Court. Breitbart News examined this case last year when an Obama-appointed federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah invalidated that state’s law providing that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, comparing such laws to racism and saying they are literally irrational. Despite the fact that neither marriage nor homosexuality is mentioned...

Utah and Indiana became the latest U.S. states to see their bans on same-sex marriage struck down following separate rulings in federal court on Wednesday. "It is wholly illogical to believe that state recognition of love and commitment of same-sex couples will alter the most intimate and personal decisions of opposite-sex couples," a three-judge panel in the Utah case said while upholding a lower court ruling, NPR reported. Back in December, Utah briefly became the 18th state where gay couples received the right to marry, after a federal district judge ruled that the state's same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional. The...

AUGUSTA, Maine — After receiving the endorsement of the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy group, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins on Wednesday indicated for the first time her personal support for same-sex marriage. “A number of states, including my home state of Maine, have now legalized same-sex marriage, and I agree with …

In politics, it's called The Pivot. When the news is bad, or if you don't want to answer the question, ignore it. Change the subject. Wisconsin Republican leaders are leaving divots as they pivot from U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb's decision voiding the state Constitution's ban of same-sex marriages. Many of the same Republicans who drafted the constitutional amendment, pushed it through two consecutive legislative sessions, and then in 2006 got voters to approve it, had no reaction to Crabb's ruling and no defense of their old position. The May 15-18 statewide poll by Marquette University's Law School may offer...

A federal judge struck down Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage Wednesday in a ruling that immediately allowed gay couples to wed. The court clerk in Marion County, home to Indianapolis, began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couple about an hour after U.S. District Judge Richard Young ruled that the state law violates the U.S. Constitution's equal-protection clause. "Same-sex couples, who would otherwise qualify to marry in Indiana, have the right to marry in Indiana," he wrote.