Free Republic

Fascinating data released from the Center for Disease Control about homosexuality. Homosexuality is not becoming more common. Out of 300 million Americans, only 2 million are homosexual men. 98% of men are heterosexual. And the share of the young-adult (18-45) public which is homosexual (1.9%) is almost the same as that of the middle-aged (45-64) public (1.8%), despite AIDS having ravaged the gay population which is now largely middle-aged. Bisexuality may well be another matter. Young adults are three times more likely than middle-aged adults to be bisexual, although that's still just over 1% of the total population. (Women are...

A new Connecticut Supreme Court ruling is adding to the debate on whether gay marriage rights should be applied retroactively and qualify same-sex couples for rights and benefits for which they weren’t entitled before state laws allowed them to marry. Although no states that allow gay marriage have made their laws retroactive, many same-sex partners believe they should have received Social Security survivor payments, tax breaks, inheritances and other benefits that were afforded only to heterosexual married couples before gay marriage laws were passed. …

A Finnish citizen who wanted the state to recognize her new gender after surgery and remain legally married to woman at the same time lost her case at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday (16 July). Heil Hamalainen underwent male-to-female gender reassignment surgery in 2009, years after she married her partner. But Finnish law does not recognize same-sex marriages. State authorities said that for Hamalainen to have her new gender recognized, she would need to turn the marriage into a civil partnership or get a divorce—something the couple refused. …

A group supporting the North Carolina Pastors Network demanded the state's governor defend the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in the state despite lawsuits from same-sex couples at the local and national level at a rally on Tuesday. Leaders from the group of about 30 people who gathered on the steps of the old Capitol building, are sending North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory a petition asking him to use his executive powers to defend the amendment that was approved by 61 percent of voters in 2012, The Associated Press reported. In a recent column for The Christian Post, Rev....

Famed homemaking company Betty Crocker once promoted couples making up over a cake. Now, the 90-year old company says it is adjusting to the times by promoting all relationships -- including homosexual couples and cohabitating couples -- as equal to married couples with children. The change in Betty Crocker's focus became well known in August 2013, when the company – a subsidiary of General Mills, which supports same-sex "marriage” -- released a video promoting same-sex couples. At the same time, it provided cakes to homosexual couples who "married" in Minnesota after the ceremony was allowed. Last month, Betty Crocker...

The Brand Uses Social Media and Rainbow Desserts in High-Profile Push.(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Known as the "first lady of food," Betty Crocker has spent more than 90 years dispatching kitchen advice, including selling more than 75 million cookbooks since its first one was published in 1942. But of late, the fictional brand icon has taken on a new mission as a supporter of gay marriage. The General Mills-owned brand began winning attention for the cause in August of last year by providing cakes to same-sex couples who got married in Minnesota after the state legalized gay married. Now Betty is following up on...

Inside the offices of Republican gay-rights groups, a strategy is forming to convince party leaders to strip opposition to gay marriage from the GOP platform. The target, operatives say, is to see party leaders drop their support for a gay-marriage ban in time for the Republican National Convention in summer 2016. It's a long shot, but Republican gay-rights lobbyists think they can build on the momentum provided by courts nationwide and the belief that, philosophically, the GOP's social conservatives are fighting a battle that puts them well out of step with the majority of the country, and that could demographically...

Must Evangelical churches change or downplay their position on homosexuality to attract millennials? Millennials, generally defined as those ages 18 to mid-30s, are the most supportive of redefining marriage to include same-sex couples, many polls show. A recent Public Religion Research Institute poll had their support at 69 percent, the highest of any age group. Even among self-described Evangelicals, the millennials showed the highest level of support at 43 percent (though the poll only included white Evangelicals), compared to 33 percent for generation X, 22 percent for Baby Boomers and 19 percent for those 68 and older. The poll also...

A judge in Australia has been criticised after saying incest may no longer be a taboo and that the community may now accept consensual sex between adult siblings. Judge Garry Neilson, from the district court in the state of New South Wales, likened incest to homosexuality, which was once regarded as criminal and "unnatural" but is now widely accepted. He said incest was now only a crime because it may lead to abnormalities in offspring but this rationale was increasingly irrelevant because of the availability of contraception and abortion.

Suddenly it's a possibility that experts are contemplating: marriage equality could be the law of the land all across the United States within one year. On Wednesday, Utah asked the Supreme Court to resolve its dispute with the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals which two weeks ago became the first U.S. circuit court to declare that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. Legal experts say the Supreme Court is likely to accept the case. With lawsuits piling up, and gay marriage on an undefeated legal streak since the Court axed the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, the...

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...