Free Republic

Quelle surprise. The Boy Scouts of America has faced pressure for decades to end its national policy barring gay men as Scout leaders, finding itself barred from schools and other public venues for its stand even as churches and other civic organizations supported them. Yesterday, BSA’s national office changed its policy to end hiring discrimination within the organization and remove its bar on openly gay volunteer Scout leaders, while allowing church-sponsored troops to make their own leadership choices. Will that end the controversy? Don’t bet on it: The Boy Scouts of America, facing litigation, shrinking membership and sweeping acceptance...

NAIROBI, Kenya -- President Barack Obama heads to Kenya this week for a global economic summit. It will be Obama's first visit as president to his father's homeland. While some hope the trip will bring closer ties between our two countries, there's one subject many Kenyans don't want the president to talk about: gay rights and same-sex marriage. The streets are already buzzing in anticipation of his arrival, with polls showing Obama enjoys widespread popularity among Kenyans. "I think this is a guy who really appreciates his roots," said one resident of the capital city. "Because he is our brother,...

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush says he's "fine" with transgender people openly serving in the military – as long as it doesn't compromise morale, Yahoo News reports. Bush's view – echoing that of Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, the Washington Post has reported – marks the first time he has commented on the issue. And it comes in the wake of the Defense Department decision this week to issue two directives bringing the Pentagon closer to rescinding its ban on open service by transgender people. Carter ordered a 6-month review to examine how allowing transgenders to serve openly in the military...

While gays are our siblings in Christ, the gay lifestyle is nothing like the straight lifestyle. That’s why we have to condemn the gay lifestyle because we love gays as people, just as we condemn smoking out of love for smokers. One of the key reasons that gay “marriage” has won as much public support as it has is that few people understand how harmful the massively promiscuous gay lifestyle is.  The Big Gay Lie (BGL) is that the gay lifestyle is the same as the straight lifestyle. The BGL has a number of facets including: Lots of people are...

While Gays are our siblings in Christ, the gay lifestyle is nothing like the straight lifestyle. That is why we have to condemn the gay lifestyle because we love gays as people, just as we condemn smoking out of love for smokers. One of the key reasons that gay “marriage” has won as much public support as it has is that few people realize how harmful the massively promiscuous gay lifestyle is. The Big Gay Lie (BGL) is that the gay lifestyle is the same as the straight lifestyle. The BGL has a number of facets including: •Lots of people...

WASHINGTON — A key leadership panel of the Boy Scouts of America voted unanimously last week to end the ban on gay leaders in scouting, the organization told local leaders on Monday. The move — raised as a necessary step by the organization’s head in May — came from the executive committee of the Boy Scouts on July 10. A vote of the full executive board is scheduled for July 27, at which point the change is immediately effective. The resolution passed by the committee does not require councils or troops to allow out gay leaders, but lifts the prior...

The chilling redefinition of the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin and the Senate’s only lesbian, is a looming threat to religious liberty. With the possible loss of tax exemptions for churches and institutions that don’t comply with the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision, an era of religious persecution may be upon us. Baldwin made her remarks on the June 27 broadcast of Up With Steve Kornacki on MSNBC. In a transcript of her remarks posted on Newsbusters, Baldwin ignored the fact that it was religious persecution in Europe that led to people...

Homophobic Everyone knew that the Supremes’ obscene gay marriage decree would lead to churches being sued for not betraying their faith with sacrilegious parodies of wedding ceremonies. But this enterprising homofascist decided to cut to the chase and go right after the Bible: A homosexual man has filed a $70 million lawsuit against Bible publishers Zondervan and Thomas Nelson, alleging that their version of the Bible that refers to homosexuality as a sin violates his constitutional rights and has caused him emotional distress. According to the Christian Post, ex-con turned author Bradley LaShawn Fowler filed the federal suit in the...

An Islamist group identified as “Young Islamic Defense” has flooded Turkey’s capital Ankara with posters allegedly quoting a Muslim teaching that calls for Muslims to “kill the perpetrator and the receiver on sight” should they ever see an LGBT person. The posters surface a week after the Turkish government attacked the now-traditional Istanbul Pride Parade with tear gas. Multiple translations have surfaced of the posters, which generated significant conversation on social media in the past week. The Turkish newspaper Hurriyet translates the poster as stating: “Should those who engage in ugly behavior and adhere to the practice of the people...

Before the White House was bathed in rainbow light to celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage nationwide, a secret gay wedding was conducted in the building by former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett. Lovett, who worked for Obama during his first term, reveals that he used his White House privileges to sneak in a pair of gay men under the guise of giving them a tour, then performed a wedding ceremony in the Rose Garden without the knowledge of the president. “We were very nervous. They were nervous because they were getting married. I was nervous because I...

After getting hit with a financially-crushing $135,000 fine Thursday for their decision to not bake a cake for a lesbian wedding, the owner of the Oregon "Sweetcakes by Melissa" bakery has a dire warning for Americans. "For years, we've heard same-sex marriage will not affect anybody," Aaron Klein said in an interview with The Blaze. "I'm here firsthand to tell everyone in America that it has already impacted people." Aaron and his wife Melissa are required to immediately write a $135,000 check to the lesbian couple they refused to bake a wedding cake for, Rachel Cryer-Bowman and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, to...

Once again, this time by the New York Times, it has been proven that the only group that it is politically correct to bash or offend is Christians. They turn the other cheek and forgive those who trespass, rather than behead and bomb, or storm newspaper offices to murder and maim. That much was admitted by New York Times editor for standards Phil Corbett in defending the newspaper’s decision to publish Monday a picture of Pope Benedict XVI fashioned out of condoms, after being among those that refused to publish the Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Mohammed that prompted a...

Love Didn’t Win—It Was Redefined Frank Turek | Jul 01, 2015 “Love wins” is the hashtag of choice for those in support of the newest Supreme Court decision that passed that legislative body by a 5-4 vote. If you’re not content with that, you’re just an evil bigot who needs to shut up and support this new legislation. Forget the fact that you have very rational reasons for keeping marriage between a man and a woman: genderless marriage changes the cultural understanding of marriage from the well being of children to merely the romantic desires of adults. For kids who...

On a slow news day, it was either this or the fact that Twitter’s blowing up right now over the NYT’s suggestion that peas would make a fine addition to guacamole. Since only one of those stories has seeped into other major newspapers (so far), that’s the one I’m blogging. Although, for the record, I like peas and think they’d be an intriguing, if not necessarily triumphant, ingredient in guac from a textural perspective. Let’s not wet ourselves over experimental recipes after we, as a people, just got done spending two weeks debating the pros and cons of pizza with...

Now, the real fight begins, say leaders in the LGBT movement. And it won’t be for the faint of heart. So-called “marriage equality” is not the end-game, according to the activists. It’s merely a window through which they will push for other rights, in housing, education, health care, employment and religious practice. An op-ed in the Nation, a left-of-center magazine, provided a playbook for LGBT rights activists moving forward from last Friday’s 5-4 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court proclaiming same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. In that op-ed, LGBT activists were encouraged to take the offensive against any...

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case to determine whether the Constitution requires states to issue same-sex marriage licenses and requires other states to honor same-sex marriages performed in those states. A primary argument by the plaintiffs is that gay marriage is covered under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and that if straights can marry, then so can gays. The counterargument is that marriage is a privilege and not a right, a union of one man and one woman sanctioned over millennia by virtually every culture and country over time as the stable...

Lost in the celebrations over universal gay marriage, like abortion, being deemed a right found in the “penumbras and emanations” of the Constitution is the chilling effect the ruling has on religious liberty. In a telling exchange between the Obama administration’s Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. and Justice Samuel Alito, detailed by Tom Blumer at Newsbusters.com, in which Verrilli admitted that churches could lose their tax exemptions if they refuse to perform gay weddings: Justice Alito: Well, in the Bob Jones case, the Court held that a college was not entitled to tax­exempt status if it opposed interracial marriage...

(Snip) No, the real intent of removing tax-exempt status is to cripple the institutions that continue their dissent from the sexual revolution. When tax exemptions are removed, donors will give far less than they are giving now. Churches will become liable to property taxes. That means that many churches will have to forfeit their property to the government because they won’t be able to afford the taxes they have to pay on it. Many of them wouldn’t be able to pay them now. If donations went down, they would be that much further from being able to pay them. As...

Coeur d‘Alene, Idaho, city officials have laid down the law to Christian pastors within their community, telling them bluntly via an ordinance that if they refuse to marry homosexuals, they will face jail time and fines. The dictate comes on the heels of a legal battle with Donald and Evelyn Knapp, ordained ministers who own the Hitching Post wedding chapel in the city, but who oppose gay marriage, The Daily Caller reported. A federal judge recently ruled that the state’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, while the city of Coeur d‘Alene has an ordinance that prevents discrimination based on...

American-Statesman County clerks can refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples based on religious objections to gay marriage, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Sunday. Paxton noted that clerks who refuse to issue licenses can expect to be sued, but added that “numerous lawyers stand ready to assist clerks defending their religious beliefs,” in many cases without charge. Paxton said Friday’s “flawed” opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned bans against same-sex marriage in Texas and other states, placed religious people in conflict between following their faith and the U.S. Constitution