Free Republic

The New York Blade, one of the two major gay and lesbian newspapers in New York City, has laid off its editor in chief and suspended publication, the chief executive of its publishing company said on Wednesday. “Everyone was let go, but the people on The Blade know that they may come back if The Blade is coming back,” said the executive, Matthew Bank, of HX Media, which was formed in 2005 by the merger of The Blade and HX Magazine. The moves came on Tuesday after HX was sold to undisclosed buyers. The Blade, a biweekly paper with a...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday that the Pentagon is looking into “more humane” ways to comply with a law that bans openly gay people from serving in the military. Gates said that the Pentagon’s general counsel is exploring ways of making the law, known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” more flexible until it is eventually changed, according to the Pentagon’s news service. Gates' remarks, made aboard a military plane on the way to Germany on Tuesday, come one day after President Obama reiterated his support for repealing the 1993 ban during a reception with gay and lesbian advocacy...

Service members and veterans will be marching to the White House on Saturday afternoon to urge President Obama to take action on the repeal of a controversial law which bans openly gay people from serving in the military. Obama committed during the presidential campaign to repeal the Clinton-era law known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” However, Obama and Pentagon leaders have not yet taken any steps to repeal that law, despite strong pressure from gay-rights advocates and a growing push from members of Congress. Congress will write the legislation repealing the ban, but lawmakers are waiting for a cue from...

NEW DELHI: Two years after the gay rights movement kicked off around the world, India did the first review in 1971 of its colonial-vintage law criminalising "carnal intercourse against the order of nature." Now, when a gay march is due to be held this Sunday in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bhubaneswar to mark the 40th anniversary of the global movement, the Delhi HC is in the process of delivering its much-awaited verdict on whether section 377 of the Indian Penal Code should be "read down" to decriminalise private, consensual sex between adults. While making a case last year before the...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to announce that she will grant the domestic partners of gay and lesbian diplomats many of the same rights and protections as the spouses of heterosexual Foreign Service officers. But there are limits to what she can promise. Clinton can open the door to diplomatic passports, emergency evacuations, medical clinics and language classes, and she can offer preferential consideration for certain jobs. But she can't extend coveted benefits such as membership in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program to domestic partners. The State Department situation illustrates a challenge for agency heads who want to...

President Obama will sign a presidential memorandum on Wednesday to extend benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, administration officials said Tuesday evening, but he will stop short of pledging full health insurance coverage. Mr. Obama, in an Oval Office announcement, is expected to offer details about which benefits will be provided. It is the most significant statement he has made on gay issues, and it comes as he faces intense criticism from several gay rights leaders over what they suggest has been a failure to live up to campaign promises in the first months of his presidency. Mr. Obama...

Pride Parade, celebration has a political bent Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, June 14, 2009 The 39th annual San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade is June 28 and is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., traveling west along Market Street from Beale Street to Eighth Street. The party will continue at Civic Center, with live music, speakers, food and drinks. All ages are welcome. The event is free. The Pride Parade caps a month of gay-themed festivities and is expected to draw its regular cast of colorful characters and city leaders, gawkers and cheering spectators. There will...

Catholic group likens S.F. supervisors to Nazis Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer Tuesday, June 9, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO -- Lawyers for a Catholic advocacy group that sued San Francisco for condemning the Vatican's policy on same-sex adoptions are comparing the city's supervisors to Nazis laying the groundwork for the slaughter of Jews. In a statement responding to last week's ruling by a federal appeals court in the city's favor, Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, used a German term for the Nazi policy of forced conformity to party doctrine and the elimination of opposition...

Apparently most of us were ill served by our high school education. But, don't worry, our children will have that fixed for them. You see, we oldsters were thoroughly misinformed into thinking that there was only two genders in the human animal: male and female. But now, through the wonders of the modern, radical re-education racket, comes the new-new way of seeing "a whole world out there full of different genders." Confused? Well, that's because the radical gender lobby hasn't gotten hold of your schooling like it has in Vermont where high schoolers are exposed to the fantasy science of...

QUINCY — For the fourth time in nine months, the gay pride flag flying outside the Church of the Presidents has been vandalized. The flag was stolen last August, and again last September. Two months later it was burned, and this week it was stolen yet again. The pastor, the Rev. Sheldon Bennett, said the rainbow flag was taken sometime Monday night, after the church office closed. The flag flies outside the Parish Hall entrance to the church on Washington Street in Quincy Center. It’s a symbol of the congregation’s support for equal rights for gays, lesbian, bisexuals and transgendered...

BAGHDAD, May 28 (UPI) -- About 30 people have been killed in Iraq in the past three months because they were homosexual or believed to be gay, a U.N. agency says. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Human Rights made its estimate after several men were killed in Baghdad and two others survived torture and mutilation, ABC News reports. Amnesty International wrote Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asking him to take "urgent and concerted action" to protect homosexuals from violence. A government source said Asaieb al-Haq, a little-known Shiite militia that appeared after the Mahdi Army declared a cease-fire,...

have been pretty silent on the whole gay marriage subject, but I have finally had enough of this debate. It is time for me to chime in with my observations and opinions. First off, Every gay person in America has the right to get married. Every single one. What they do not have the right to do is get married to someone of the same sex. So in fact a gay person has the exact same right as I do. I have the right to marry the women of my choice and my wife has the right to marry the...

The Equality Bill currently going through Parliament is the latest and potentially most oppressive attempt to impose politically acceptable attitudes and drive out any that fall foul of these criteria. Since the attitudes being imposed constitute an ideological agenda to destroy Britain’s foundational ethical principles and replace them by a nihilistic values and lifestyle free-for-all, they represent a direct onslaught on the Judeo-Christian morality underpinning British society. The most neuralgic of these issues is gay rights. This is because the tolerance of homosexuality that a liberal society should properly show has long been hijacked by an agenda which aims at...

Catholic churches in southern New Jersey are taking extra precautions since the Diocese of Camden received a letter saying biological agents would be placed in holy-water fonts and ventilation systems, a diocesan spokesman said Tuesday. The diocese received an anonymous letter last week threatening to put biological contaminants in Catholic churches in New Jersey, said Andrew Walton, a spokesman for the diocese. The letter, which was mailed May 1 and has a Bellmawr postmark, was received in the Camden office May 4 and opened May 5. The letter has been turned over to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, which is...

If the Left had its way, President Obama would promptly rescind the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gays in the military and apply it to govern the conduct of another demographic -- Christians. Or at least that is the impression you’re left with following some recent events. This week, GQ magazine published a hit piece on former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Among other supposedly evil acts, Rumsfeld was called out for sending top secret briefings on Iraq and national security to President Bush that included Bible verses. The Left has seized upon this revelation as yet more proof...

A 60-year-old Mormon Church in Massachusetts burned to the ground on Sunday, May 17. A story about the incident appeared in the Washington Post that same day. It's an AP entry discussing the fire that chased worshippers out of the building in a panic on Sunday. But it is accompanied by a rather odd choice of images. Is it a photo of the fire-damaged church? Perhaps it is a snap of frightened churchgoers or a resolute minister vowing to rebuild? Well, none of those really. The odd choice of photos accompanying the story of a fire at a Mormon Church...

A Law suit was filed in federal court May 13, 2009 against a radical anarchist group that openly advocates the use of riots and crime to further its views in favor of homosexual behavior. The complaint was filed on behalf of Delta Township’s Mount Hope Church in Michigan against the group “Bash Back!,” which invaded the church’s building during a worship service on Nov. 9 of last year. “The use of violent threats and criminal behavior to make a political point should never be acceptable in America,” said ADF attorney Gary McCaleb. “Bash Back! revealed how dangerous the homosexual agenda...

Peter Tatchell, Britain’s well-known defender of the rights of sexual minorities, is going to visit Moscow to participate in the gay pride parade in Russia’s capital. Tatchell is arriving in Moscow despite the decision of the Moscow government to ban the march of homosexual individuals. The parade is to take place on May 16, Saturday, to coincide with the final night of the Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow. The contest enjoys stable popularity among the people of untraditional sexual orientation, RIA Novosti news agency reports. The organizers of the Moscow gay march intend to make it become a common Slavic...

‘THEY KILL PEOPLE LIKE US,’ SAYS GAY IRAQI May 04, 2009 By Cheryll Simpson BAGHDAD – Widespread violence is down across Baghdad, but not for one minority group. Iraq’s gay population is being targeted by militia groups in a wave of killings that has claimed the lives of up to 25 young men and boys in the past month. "They know I am gay. I don’t know if I am going to be killed, this is up to God," said Moyad, a 38-year-old Baghdad resident who would not give his last name out of fear for his safety. Visibly frightened,...

Oprah.com and CNN have decided that there is a growing "new" trend in American sexual relations. The two Internet giants have teamed up and have decided that increasingly "women are leaving men for other women." Shocking news, I know. Only one little problem. Oprah.com has no proof for any such proclamation. After the shocking headline and the first three paragraphs proclaiming a new lesbian revolution in America today, though, the piece admits that there are no real statistics to prove the thesis. The whole claim is merely based on the anecdotal stories of the "experts" that Oprah.com dug up to...

Parents are being purposely excluded from multisexual issues in schools, as seen in mounting evidence from California school districts, the National Educational Association, and more. Students discuss different kinds of families, including kids raised by a mom and dad, grandparents, and same-sex parents. In all age groups, the multisexual message is being woven into everyday instruction. “This is a mainstream effort to force parents out of the classroom. If it’s not this way in your school, it is only a matter of time before your school is confronted with efforts to exclude parents,” said Karen England, Executive Director of Capitol...

Two states have legalized same-sex marriage in the past two weeks, but when it comes to public opinion, supporters of gay marriage are still a minority. That minority is on an upward trajectory though and Scott Barclay, political scientist at the State University of New York at Albany, explains why: newspapers. In the last two weeks, two states have legalized same-sex marriage. First, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a law banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Then Vermont became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage through its legislature. When it comes to public opinion, supporters of gay marriage are...

WASHINGTON — Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize same-sex “marriage” — and the first to do so with a legislature’s vote. With traditional marriage, religious liberty has also come under an avalanche of attacks. Overturning the governor’s veto by one vote, Vermont joins Iowa, Connecticut and Massachusetts in giving homosexual and lesbian couples the right to “marry.” On the same day Vermont fell, the Washington, D.C., Council voted to recognize same-sex “marriages” performed in other states. Last month, 15 homosexuals and lesbians in Massachusetts also filed a suit to challenge the federal 1996 Defense of Marriage Act as...

No earthly society is above or outside cultural anthropological study. Therefore I propose to examine the possibility of a functioning clown society in America. They call themselves many things, but are most commonly known as homosexuals. Clown society is defined in wikipedia: "Clown society is a term used in anthropology and sociology for an organization of comedic entertainers...who have a formalized role in a culture or society." With a little more help from wiki we learn: Sometimes...the purpose served by members of a clown society is only to parody excessive seriousness, or to deflate pomposity.In the sense of how clowns...

Our friend from Detroit, Jacob Appel, thinks that gays need government reparations and the Detroit Free Press was so enamored of his idea that it published his plea in its April 7 issue. One has a suspicion that they missed a deadline because this story would have more properly been published on April 1, a day well known as April Fool's Day. This one simply must be a joke. Appel is so filled with absurd pronouncements, anti-hetero bias, and outright hatred in his piece that one simply cannot take his central thesis seriously. But his mode of thinking here does...

A dissident faction of gay conservatives is launching a rival group to the traditional voice of gay Republicans: the Log Cabin Republicans. GOPROUD, the new 527 group, will launch next week, according to a media advisory. The contact given for the group is Christopher Barron, a former Log Cabin political director who broke with the group. "Essentially, there's no voice for gay Republicans or gay conservatives in particular in D.C. right now. Log Cabin has been completely and totally absent here in D.C. for months and months," Barron said. "It has simply moved way too far to the left and...

I really wanted to go through Holy Week without doing any fisking or public pulling of air or wild rolling of the eyes, but I had the misfortune of reading this piece, just posted by BBC News: "Blair questions Papal gay policy." It reports on a recent interview given by Tony Blair to Attitude, a popular British "gay" magazine (a PDF of the interview, sans advertising, can be accesssed here), which opens by stating Blair "is probably the most prominent pro-gay religious figure in the world." All of those who criticized or expressed serious doubts about the former Prime Minister's...

DETROIT — School officials at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) dismissed a student from the school’s counseling program for not affirming homosexual behavior as morally acceptable. The school ousted Julea Ward from the program because she would not agree prior to a counseling session to affirm a client’s homosexual behavior and would not retract her stance in subsequent disciplinary proceedings. EMU requires students in its program to affirm or validate homosexual behavior within the context of a counseling relationship and prohibits students from advising clients that they can change their homosexual behavior. Ward has never addressed homosexual behavior in any form...

BAGHDAD – The bodies of two gay men have been found in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City after a leading cleric repeatedly condemned homosexuality, an Iraqi police official said Saturday. The killings come after Shiite cleric Sattar al-Battat repeatedly condemned homosexuality during recent Friday prayers, saying Islam prohibits homosexuality. Homosexual acts are punishable by up to seven years in prison in Iraq. The two men were believed killed Thursday by relatives who were shamed by their behavior, said the official. Police said they suspected the killings were at the hands of family members because no one has claimed the...

Gays, persecution and lies: the eternal soap opera By alleging “persecution” in the pro-sodomy Brazil, Brazilian gay requests asylum in the pro-sodomy US By Julio SeveroAguinaldo Silva, a writer of soap operas for the Brazilian TV Globo Network, invented in his soap opera “Duas Caras” scenarios where evangelicals are violent, irrational and dangerous against gays. And homosexuals are portrayed as innocent little angels…Faced with this kind of scenarios, any nation would be supposed to grant asylum to the “victims”. The big problem is that the real victims of the soap operas of Aguinaldo Silva — and of TV Globo —...

A change to the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gays in the military will be delayed despite promises by the Obama administration to overturn the rule, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday."The president and I feel like we've got a lot on our plates right now and let's push that one down the road a little bit," Gates told "FOX News Sunday."In January, President Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, was asked whether his boss would overturn "don't ask, don't tell.” Gibbs' reply -- videotaped for YouTube -- was unequivocal."You don't hear politicians give a one-word answer much. But it's...

Threats of protest halt Pink Swastika author's scheduled talk by Temecula Valley News staff The Murrieta/Temecula Republican Assembly’s (MTRA) next meeting was scheduled to be April 3; however, that meeting and location are now in doubt as a result of threats of protest. According to MTRA president Bob Kowell, their speaker was scheduled to be Pastor Scott Lively from Abiding Truth Ministries in Massachusetts. Pastor Lively’s book, “The Pink Swastika,” has gained the attention and protest of gays and gay activists across the world. “The meeting was to be held at Temeku Hills Country Club,” said Kowell. “Temeku Country Club...

A change to the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward gays in the military will be delayed despite promises by the Obama administration to overturn the rule, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday. "The president and I feel like we've got a lot on our plates right now and let's push that one down the road a little bit," Gates told "FOX News Sunday." In January, President Obama's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, was asked whether his boss would overturn "don't ask, don't tell.” Gibbs' reply -- videotaped for YouTube -- was unequivocal. "You don't hear politicians give a one-word answer...

The semi-annual conference of the LDS church is coming up next week. Thousands of Mormons will gather in the Conference Center to receive instruction from our leaders on the best way to get to heaven. Meanwhile, demonstrators will gather outside and loudly insist that we are instead going to hell for all sorts of reasons, but mostly just for being Mormons. In the past, anti-LDS demonstrators have come mainly from the ranks of ultra-conservative Christian groups protesting what they see as our heretical approach to the Bible. But this conference could have been different. Mormons and the Christian Gestapo might...

A teenager with a Web site describing him as a sadomasochist and featuring photos of a knife collection was arrested Wednesday in the stabbing death of a veteran New York City radio reporter he met on the Internet.

A study released on Friday by the Williams Institute at the UCLA College of Law found that gay and lesbian couples face higher rates of poverty than heterosexual married couples.

The Obama Administration’s well-known desire to introduce open homosexuality to the ranks of the US military creates a new front in the debate over military efficiency and transparency. But just how honest and open Mr. Obama and his liberal friends will be with respect to this critical issue remains unsurprisingly uncertain.

WILKES-BARRE – Harlow Cuadra slumped in his chair when he heard the jury foreperson say “guilty,” convicting him for the brutal slaying of Bryan Kocis in January 2007. The verdict, which came after more than three hours of deliberation on Thursday, carries 12 convictions, including first-degree homicide. The jury will return today to determine whether Cuadra, 27, should be sentenced to death or spend the rest of his life in prison. Cuadra showed little emotion other than slumping in the chair. He appeared withdrawn and said nothing when escorted out of the Luzerne County Courthouse about an hour after the...

This year, the City of San Francisco is spending $122,575 in scarce budget dollars to grow the "Healthy Penis" campaign. No advocates of flaccid government, THIS city council, I gotta tell you! Only a good stiff effort will do. So what is the "Healthy Penis" campaign? It's a city wide effort to drive a stake in the heart of syphilis in the Bay Area, that's what. Yes, Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to give the shaft to VD and he's willing to screw the budget to get it done. We all stand against a fowled phallus, of course, but is over...

Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel whose investigation of the Monica Lewinsky scandal led to President Clinton's impeachment, is carrying the mantle of the right again, defending California's gay marriage ban. The former solicitor general under President George H.W. Bush has been dean of Pepperdine University's law school since 2004. In December, Proposition 8 supporters announced that Starr would be lead counsel in fighting the legal challenges brought by gay-rights groups. "The addition of Dean Starr to this legal conversation will provide useful guidance for the Court in resolving these important issues," Andrew Pugno, general counsel for ProtectMarriage.com and the Proposition...

Gay twins who worked as servers at a Los Feliz restaurant were sexually harassed by the homosexual men who owned the eatery, a jury determined today in awarding each plaintiff $1,000. The Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated for a little more than a half day before finding that the 32-year-old twins were forced to work in a hostile work environment. However, the panel rejected Jed and Wyatt Lorenzen's other claims, including retaliation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Elaine Donnelly, President of the Center for Military Readiness, predicted today that efforts by liberals in Congress to repeal the 1993 law regarding homosexuals in the military would not succeed. “Members of Congress are starting to take this issue seriously,” she said. “Indications are that repeal of the 1993 law would hurt the ‘Three R’s,’ recruiting, retention, and overall readiness in the volunteer force.” On Monday Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) announced that she will soon re-introduce legislation to repeal the 1993 law, Section 654, Title 10 click here , which is commonly mislabeled “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” In response, Donnelly...

The New Mexico Senate just voted down a bill that would have recognized domestic partnerships by a 25-17 vote. Ten Democrats joined the body’s 15 Republicans in voting against the bill, which would have given many of the same benefits enjoyed by married couples to couples who don’t currently have the right, or the desire, to marry.

The 24-page booklet by the National Education Association and American Psychological Association, tells students that homosexuality is a "normal expression of human sexuality". "What's so scary and dogmatic about this report is that it communicates that religious-based viewpoints are harmful, and even dangerous," said Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family Action. The booklet particularly targets the idea that homosexuality is a condition that can be changed. It instructs educators, "Schools should be careful to avoid discussions of transformational ministry in their curriculum." Brian Raum, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said that the talk of...

Two Georgia lawmakers are trying to make a stand against some of the insane things being taught in college classrooms. A class on male prostitution? Yep. One on orla sex? Yep. Gay sexuality? Of course, that could make a whole department.../nWe should support these two state lawmakers for speaking out about this perversion (pun intended) of education.

SANTA FE — "Technically alive" was the best supporters could say about the future of a domestic partnerships bill Monday after a possibly fatal 5-5 vote in a Senate committee. The tie vote left Senate Bill 12 stalled — perhaps permanently — in the Senate Judiciary Committee as one Democrat sided with Republican opponents and another Democrat left the committee room before the vote was taken. Though supporters of the measure described Monday's vote as a setback, Gov. Bill Richardson, who supports the idea of domestic partnerships, might seek to exert his influence in an attempt to move the bill...

Issue returns as congresswoman prepares bill that removes 'Don't Ask' NEW YORK – The issue of gays in the military is about to resurface in Congress in the early days of the Obama administration, with the possibility it could dog the new president much as it derailed President Bill Clinton's agenda as he took office early in 1993, WND has learned. The House Armed Services Committee told WND that Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., is preparing to submit legislation to the panel that would reverse the 15-year-old "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and bar discrimination based on sexual orientation. The Clinton...

The Obama administration is telling the Pentagon and gay-rights advocates that it will have to study the implications for national security and enlist more support in Congress before trying to overturn the so-called "don't ask, don't tell" law and allow gays to serve openly in the military, according to people involved in the discussions. They said Obama, who pledged during the campaign to overturn the law, does not want to ask lawmakers to do so until the military has completed a comprehensive assessment of the impact that such a move would have on military discipline. Then, the president hopes to...

No rush to repeal 'don't ask, don't tell' BY BRYAN BENDER WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is telling the Pentagon and gay-rights advocates that it will have to study the implications for national security and enlist more support in Congress before trying to overturn the so-called "don't ask, don't tell" law and allow gays to serve openly in the military, according to people involved in the discussions. They said Obama, who pledged during the campaign to overturn the law, does not want to ask lawmakers to do so until the military has completed a comprehensive assessment of the impact that...

If you gave money to the successful Proposition 8 campaign to outlaw same-sex marriage in California, you'd better watch out. Anonymous gay-marriage activists have mashed up public data with Google mapping technology to create Eightmaps.com, an online map to your home. And it's perfectly legal. Also Online Alarmed Prop 8 backers recently filed a federal lawsuit seeking an injunction against a state law forcing citizens who give $100 or more to campaigns to disclose their names and addresses. We had all better hope they prevail. "I don't get the fear," gay-marriage campaigner Andrew Sullivan disingenuously wrote on his popular blog....