Free Republic

In last year’s presidential election, Barack Obama won 70 percent of the gay vote, John McCain just 27 percent. Does that kind of clearly dominant constituency — one that’s more politically-attuned than the rest of the electorate — come with any political obligation regarding gay rights? You bet it does, and this weekend Obama is acknowledging the debt. On the eve of Sunday’s National Equality March, expected to draw thousands to Washington, he’s addressing the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights group. ...Marriage and the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gay men and women in uniform...

Openly gay Congressman Barney Frank says a gay rights march on Washington this weekend is "a waste of time at best." Representative Frank said Sunday's National Equality March was "an emotional release." But he said directly lobbying representatives and senators would be much a more effective way to achieve change. Frank said the only thing marchers are putting pressure on "is the grass."

Strident conservative attacks on two of President Barack Obama’s gay nominees could temper the impatience gay and lesbian activists show as he speaks to a major gay civil rights group Saturday night — but the widespread restlessness still will be palpable. Obama’s speech to the Human Rights Campaign dinner comes just days after a gay Education Department official, Kevin Jennings, and a lesbian nominee to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Chai Feldblum, were targets of a flurry of criticism from conservative groups and some media outlets. “It certainly can’t hurt if people on our side realize the vehemence of the...

Washington D.C., Oct 9, 2009 / 05:35 pm (CNA).- A new survey shows that a majority of Americans continue to oppose same-sex “marriage” and consider homosexual behavior immoral. However, opponents of same-sex “marriage” may have become more favorable towards allowing legal arrangements for homosexual couples.The Washington, D.C.-based Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reported that 53 percent of Americans say they are opposed to same-sex “marriage,” with only 39 percent saying they favor legal recognition for the practice.While only 30 percent of regularly churchgoing non-Hispanic white Catholics favored same-sex “marriage,” 54 percent of those who attend less than...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted Thursday to make it a federal crime to assault people because of their sexual orientation, significantly expanding the hate crimes law enacted in the days after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968. With expected passage by the Senate, federal prosecutors will for the first time be able to intervene in cases of violence perpetrated against gays. Civil rights groups and their Democratic allies have been trying for more than a decade to broaden the reach of hate crimes law. This time it appears they will succeed. The measure is attached to a must-pass...

Caution: The following contains a report on activities many will find objectionable. Peter LaBarbera at Americans for Truth about Homosexuality announced today that a Washington, D.C., inaugural week event that originally was described in an e-mail as a "pig sex" orgy has been cancelled after concerned citizens complained to the Doubletree Hotel hosting the event. "A big 'Thanks' to each of you who called the Doubletree and its parent company, Hilton Hotels," said LaBarbera in a statement, "urging them to not allow this unbelievably depraved and unhealthy homosexual event to occur in public conference rooms." LaBarbera continued, "We learned that...

President Barak Obama is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at a dinner sponsored by Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a homosexual civil rights organization, on Saturday, October 10. HRC calls itself the "nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization" in the country. This weekend's event, the 13th Annual National Dinner for HRC, will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. HRC expects more than 3,000 attendees. Also on the program line-up is the presentation of the Edward M. Kennedy National Leadership Award, a newly created distinction named in honor of the...

"US-based toy retailer Toys"R"Us has been reprimanded for gender discrimination following a complaint filed by a group of Swedish sixth graders about the store’s 2008 Christmas catalogue. Last winter, a sixth grade class at Gustavslund school in Växjö in south central Sweden reported Toys"R"Us to the Reklamombudsmannen (Ro), a self-regulatory agency which polices marketing and advertising communications in Sweden to ensure they are in line with guidelines set out by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). According to the youngsters, the Toys"R"Us Christmas catalogue featured “outdated gender roles because boys and girls were shown playing with different types of toys,...

A father of a high-school student is infuriated after he said a teacher provided "banned books" to her 11th-grade students, including at least one with explicit descriptions of homosexual sex acts, rape, masturbation, profane language and even bestiality. John Davis, father of an 11th-grade student at William Byrd High School in Vinton, Va., told WND that English teacher Kathleen Renard provided her personal copy of a book called "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky to one of her English students, and it was passed to his son. The book is published by MTV Books. Davis found the book...

Why did Lady Gaga and Kanye West call off their joint tour? Still no solid answers, but maybe she was just trading up: On Saturday, it turns out, Gaga will share a stage with none other than President Obama at the annual Human Rights Campaign dinner. The White House confirmed Monday that Obama will keynote the gathering of the national's largest gay and lesbian advocacy organization -- only the second time a sitting president has addressed the HRC (after Bill Clinton in 1997), and the first time a sitting president has headlined with the pantless phenom best known for coining...

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Microsoft Corp. has donated $100,000 to the campaign supporting more partnership rights for Washington state gay couples. That's the largest single donation in favor of Referendum 71, which asks voters to approve or reject a new law that expands domestic partnerships for gay and lesbian couples.

Health care is in the news — but you have to wonder where all the Christians are. This is one of the biggest issues facing our country and our people, yet no one seems to be bringing a Christian voice or tone to that debate. Have you noticed? During the presidential campaign, there was much talk about the 50 million or so who have no health care insurance, many of whom who forgo care altogether and then wind up in emergency rooms with more serious, more fully developed illnesses than would have been the case had they sought preventive care....

The Democratic leader of the US Senate has urged President Barack Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to scrap the ban on gays in the military, in a letter released Thursday. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid appeals to Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to come to Congress with recommendations on how to repeal the law that forbids gays from openly serving in the armed services. "As Congress considers future legislative action, we believe it would be helpful to hear your views on the policy," Reid wrote in the September 24 letter released by his office. "Your leadership in this...

A Dallas judge ruled Thursday that Texas' ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional as she cleared the way for two gay men to divorce, the Dallas Morning News reported. State District Judge Tena Callahan said the state’s bans on same-sex marriage violates the constitutional guarantee to equal protection under the law. While the Texas attorney general had stepped in the case to say that since a gay marriage isn’t recognized in Texas then a Texas court can’t dissolve one through divorce, Tena denied the intervention.

Oh joy. Please God, help us relocate by then..... COLOGNE, Germany — The Federation of Gay Games announced this afternoon that Cleveland will be the site of the 2014 games. The city was chosen over Boston and Washington, D.C., after a year-long site-selection process, the organization said in a news release issued at 1 p.m. "Cleveland demonstrated to the Federation of Gay Games that they understood the mission of the Gay Games and our principles of ‘Participation, Inclusion, and Personal Best’," said Kurt Dahl, of Chicago, and Emy Ritt, of Paris, FGG Co-presidents.

AIPNews.com Report: On Friday, September 25, 2009, an LGBT organization filed paperwork with the California Attorney General's office to overturn Proposition 8 (Marriage Amendment) by presenting a new Amendment to the State Constitution for the people to vote on in the November 2010 election.This may be good news for the personhood movement because not only will the pro-life voters be out in force but so will the pro-marriage voters. It won't hurt for an already energized electorate to have additional reasons to show up at the polls. While some might say that the pro-abortion voters will be out in force...

More Photo Galleries 1 of 13 John Ruys, left, of San Ramon embraces friend Stephen Yardbrough of San Francisco at the annual Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco on Sunday. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2009/09/25/folsom_st_fair.DTL&o= [Sorry, this was filed under animals]

Buju Banton sings about shooting gays in the head and setting them on fireA promoter for a Jamaican reggae star who sings about shooting gays in the head and setting them on fire finds it hard to understand why some gay groups are protesting the singer’s upcoming Miami concert. Andrew Minott of Global Vybz Entertainment says that Buju Banton hasn’t even sung the song Boom Bye Bye in years, so homosexuals should not be complaining, according to The Miami Herald. However, a Youtube video reveals that Buju Banton sang it during a Miami concert in 2006. Still, Minott claims that...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge is considering whether to order the sponsors of California's voter-approved gay marriage ban to produce their internal campaign records to lawyers now suing to overturn the law.

A coalition of groups supporting same-sex marriage submitted ballot measure language for a proposed initiative to repeal Proposition 8 to the Attorney General's office today. The move marks the first official step toward asking California voters to repeal the law prohibiting same-sex marriage, which was approved with 52 percent of the vote during the 2008 election. If the proposed initiative is approved for circulation by the Secretary of State's office, proponents will have to collect nearly 700,000 valid signatures by April 2010 to qualify the measure for the ballot. "We need to get our rights back. It's really just that...

President Obama's "safe schools czar" is a former schoolteacher who has advocated promoting homosexuality in schools, written about his past drug abuse, expressed his contempt for religion and detailed an incident in which he did not report an underage student who told him he was having sex with older men. "What had [God] done for me, other than make me feel shame and guilt? Squat. Screw you, buddy -- I don't need you around anymore, I decided. "The Baptist Church had left me only a legacy of self-hatred, shame, and disappointment, and I wanted no more of it or its...

Nearly 100 members of the U.S. House are working in lockstep with the Obama administration to try to eliminate protections for traditional marriage in the United States with the "Respect for Marriage Act" that has just been introduced in Congress. H.R. 3567 was introduced just days ago by U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, and more than 90 co-sponsors. "This legislation would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a 1996 law which discriminates against lawfully married same-sex couples," Nadler said in a statement on his website.The proposal has been assigned to committee. "The 13-year-old DOMA singles out legally married...

Carrie Prejean to Values Voter Summit: 'God Chose Me' With the Gay-Marriage Question September 18, 2009 It’s easy to make fun of beauty queens -- their plastic smiles, their bottle-blond tresses, their dreams for world peace. But Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California whose declaration that marriage should be between a man and woman earned her the vilification of some in the gay rights community, provided an unanticipated emotional highlight at a conference of Christian conservatives in Washington today. In a heartfelt talk that moved some in the crowd to tears, Prejean recounted for the 1,700 activists gathered for the...

WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- Gay used to be a four letter word in America. It's become a more acceptable lifestyle, but it's by no means an easy path. "Why would you choose something like that? That would put so much discrimination on you,?" says Nicole Leidesdorf, with Compass of Lake Worth. Leidesdorf has helped many teens navigate the troubled road of being gay. She's concerned about a group called NARTH, or the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. The group is holding a convention in West Palm Beach for therapists teaching homosexuality is not genetic, but a...

A San Francisco sex group's four-year strategic plan, aimed to "change the way Americans think about sex" by desensitizing mainstream American culture to aberrant sexual practices, has been leaked. The document reveals a well thought out strategy to acclimatize the American public to everything from the practice of sadomasochism to orgies and every other "consensual" sexual behavior besides. "CSC will be taking the lead in framing the sex positive discourse in our culture," writes the Center for Sex and Culture in its 2007-2011 strategic plan. "In this ambitious vision of the future, certainly more than five years distant, CSC will...

San Francisco -- A San Francisco group billing itself as "the best in LGBT media" is claiming hundreds of public schools in California have signed up to show its films and use accompanying discussion materials. One film features a boy "coming out" by wearing his mother's bikini. Another film incorporates Native American spiritualism to cast LGBT (lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender) persons as "two-spirit" people. The films and school materials are being distributed by Youth in Motion, a partnership between Frameline and Gay-Straight Alliance Network. YIM can be accessed here (warning: may contain offensive content). The films are accompanied by...

The Massachusetts Commission on Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Youth, a bizarre mix of hardcore homosexual activists, men in dresses and hormone-induced breasts, and women with facial hair, spends hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to push homosexual programs targeting schoolchildren, and goes into public schools to "counsel" vulnerable kids and set up "Gay-Straight Alliance" clubs. But since they became an official government commission in 2006, they have been required to make their meetings open to the public. This created a problem for them because MassResistance reported on what they were doing with kids, and showed the public exactly who...

The Six Flags New England amusement park has a new scheme to help bail themselves out of debt: Have the biggest "Gay Day" ever. And that's exactly what they're doing. Earlier this year Six Flags of New England filed for bankruptcy protection. Apparently they feel they need to be creative. Over the last few months Six Flags of New England in Agawam has bought full-page ads in the hard-core homosexual newspaper Bay Windows advertising an "Out in the Park" celebration - a full day of homosexuality in Six Flags.

The "right" for homosexuals to have "public sex" (including not only in parks but in public restrooms too) is something they have fought for quite vigorously over the last several decades. Most people know the homosexual legal group Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) as the group behind the "gay marriage" decision in 2003. But GLAD got its start back in 1978 defending the right of homosexuals to have sex in restrooms at the Boston Public Library. They still brag about that on their web site. GLAD has also gone on to (among other things) successfully intimidate the Massachusetts...

Pacific Justice Institute president Brad Dacus San Francisco, Calif., Sep 18, 2009 / 06:12 am (CNA).- A homosexual activist group is claiming that groups at dozens of high schools and middle schools in California, including at least one Catholic school, have signed up to show and discuss its explicit films. The films include one in which a boy “comes out” by wearing his mother’s bikini.Another film uses Native American spirituality to depict lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people as being “two-spirit” people.Parts of the discussion materials encourage students to question whether religious and cultural celebrations such as bar...

In a rare display of public emotion, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) choked up Thursday morning recalling the anti-gay rhetoric in the late 1970s in San Francisco, which culminated in the assassinations of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay S.F. Board of Supervisors member, and Mayor George Moscone. Pelosi, responding to a question about whether anti-government rhetoric posed a threat of domestic violence, said that protesters on all sides had the right to voice their opposition to legislative proposals in a heated fashion. But then Pelosi -- whose weekly press conferences are legendary for their highly scripted nature and her...

GAY rights activists are outraged over a church conference that aims to help people struggling with "unwanted homosexuality". Activists have vowed to protests outside this weekend's Lovelinx conference at Mitcham Baptist Church, the Whitehorse Leader reports. The conference, organised through various Christian ministiries and the Exodus Global Alliance, aims to heal "sexual brokenness" Their website says the event is not homophobic, but offers "hope and practical help to people struggling with sexual struggles or unwanted homosexuality". But gay rights campaigner Tim Wright said the conference was hurtful and encouraged people to repress their sexuality. Start of sidebar. Skip to end...

House lawmakers are poised to introduce legislation that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). The law, which was signed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, defines marriage as between a man and a woman, and prevents same-sex married couples from receiving the same federal benefits as heterosexual married couples. Reps. Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) -- who is the first openly gay member elected to the House -- plan to introduce a bill this week that would scrap DOMA. Baldwin is also gay. In the 13 years since the bill was signed into...

President Obama's choice to monitor school safety once boasted that he introduced homosexual advocacy into the school system in Massachusetts by manipulating the message presented to lawmakers. The revelations about Kevin Jennings, who was named assistant deputy secretary for the office of Safe & Drug Free Schools in the U.S. Department of Education, come just as several of Obama's "czars" have come under scrutiny for their actions, opinions and affiliations. Environmental adviser Van Jones resigned last weekend after revelations of his links to communism and his advocacy for the movement that contends the U.S. government conspired to allow or cause...

Concert canceled after gays' protest Saturday, September 12, 2009 3:25 AM By Kevin Joy THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH The Lifestyle Communities Pavilion has canceled an Oct. 3 show featuring reggae singer Buju Banton after protests by advocates for Columbus' gay community. Taking issue with some content in the singer's music, several groups -- including Equality Ohio and Stonewall Democrats of Ohio -- circulated an e-mail yesterday urging people to voice their disapproval and shut down the show. "The targeted audience for his message and the proximity to the OSU campus neighborhood creates a tangible threat to the safety and well-being …...

've decided to move out of the Sunshine State. It's a bit more chilly here than I had expected. Some may say good riddance, but I'm no longer willing to live in a place where I can't get married, can't adopt children and where there are no state laws to protect me from being fired because I'm gay. And so my partner Keith and I have decided to sell the house, load up the dogs and head north, toward a decidedly warmer climate. To those who visit here, Florida must seem somewhat schizophrenic. We sell ourselves as a great place...

Caster Semenya, woman who rocked athletics world, 'is hermaphrodite' Rick Broadbent and Fred Bridgland in Johannesburg Sex tests carried out on Caster Semenya, the world 800 metres champion, show that she is a hermaphrodite, a source close to the case claimed last night. If the allegation is backed up by the official results, the South African may find herself stripped of her gold medal and banned from racing. The IAAF, the world governing body, refused to comment on the claim last night, but earlier in the day its general secretary, Pierre Weiss, said: “It is clear that she is a...

A homosexual man is suing a third national Bible publisher for "mental anguish" after he says the company published Bibles with a negative connotation toward homosexuals. Bradley LaShawn Fowler of Canton, Mich., alleges William Tyndale Publishing manipulated Scripture when it published Tyndale’s New Living Translation Holy Bible and the New Life Application Study Bible by using the term "homosexuals" in a New Testament passage, 1 Corinthians 6:9. "One Bible dictates homosexuals will not inherit the Kingdom of God, while the other is completely void on the issue altogether," Fowler wrote in a statement on his blog.

Public health officials are considering promoting routine circumcision for all baby boys born in the United States to reduce the spread of H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The topic is a delicate one that has already generated controversy, even though a formal draft of the proposed recommendations, due out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by the end of the year, has yet to be released. Experts are also considering whether the surgery should be offered to adult heterosexual men whose sexual practices put them at high risk of infection. But they acknowledge that a circumcision drive...

Barney Frank wants Cabinet post By Bob Cusack - 09/07/09 05:07 PM ET Rep. Barney Frank is interested in capping his political career as a member of the president’s Cabinet, according to a new biography of the Financial Services Committee chairman. Frank (D-Mass.) told author Stuart Weisberg that he would like to be Housing and Urban Development secretary. However, the 69-year-old lawmaker stresses that his departure from Congress is not imminent. He first wants to pass more legislation on affordable housing, saying, “I want at least two years with President Obama and a solidly Democratic Senate so that we can...

Live Nation has canceled the concerts of a controversial reggae artist who was scheduled to perform at the House of Blues. Buju Banton, known for singing violent anti-gay lyrics, was booked to perform at the House of Blues in Chicago Oct. 1. Live Nation announced late Thursday night that all scheduled concerts by Banton have been canceled, including in Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas and Houston. Live Nation did not state a reason for the cancellation. Anyone who bought tickets can get refunds. Gay rights groups had been pressuring Live Nation to cancel Banton's concerts, calling his music "murder music." In...

Momentum is building for Congress to pass the first major civil rights act protecting gays and transsexuals, supporters say, and one of the stars in the debate is a barrier-breaking transgender staffer on Capitol Hill. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, would prohibit workplace discrimination - including decisions about hiring, firing and wages - based on sexual orientation or gender identity. It would exempt religious organizations, the military and businesses with less than 15 workers. The driving force behind the bill has been Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the longest-serving of the three openly gay members of Congress. He expects hearings...

Either because they wanted conservatives blamed or because of the natural antipathy radical young leftists have for establishment liberals, two anarchists reportedly smashed up the Colorado Democratic party headquarters. [ center ] TPM Muckraker tracked a down posting from Infoshop, an anarchist news service, about the arrest of an activist named Ariel Attack. But TPM thinks this is the second perpetrator. It's not. It's Maurice. Cops have only arrested one person. And here's the word Ariel's Denver friends would like spread:" At this moment, we do not know Ariel's status within the jail, especially regarding her gender classification. We have...

A June report from the United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) suggests children of all countries and cultures are entitled to sexual and reproductive education beginning at age five. The report, called International Guidelines on Sexual Education, was released in June in conjunction with the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), an organization which works for universal access to “reproductive health care.” In its rationale for creating the guidelines, the UNESCO report said it is “essential to recognize the need and entitlement of all young people to sexuality education.” An appendix backed that claim by pointing to a 2008 report...

Montclair might be one of New Jersey's more progressive communities, but even in a town known for its tolerance, a working fetish "dungeon" -- complete with a spanking bench, "interrogation cell" and stocks -- doesn't belong on the busy downtown strip. So says the township attorney in a decision that has bitterly disappointed Ed and Karen Dougherty, aka "Master Ed" and "slave Duchess," the owners of Dressing for Pleasure, a Bloomfield Avenue shop that sells fetish clothing and tools of the bondage-and-discipline trade, from flogs and paddles to masks and spiked collars. For years, the couple hosted discreet "play parties"...

On Thursday, August 20, the homosexual movement formally began its massive multi-million dollar campaign to win - for the first time in America - a state-wide vote on homosexual "marriage". The Maine homosexual lobby, which is largely organized and funded (through GLAD and others) in Massachusetts, began broadcasting a slick, well-honed TV commercial statewide . Also on Thursday the homosexual lobby revealed their plans to bring in waves of "volunteers" from other states to campaign on the ground up until the November election.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Leaders of the country's largest Lutheran denomination have moved toward a more welcoming view of homosexuality. Delegates of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, meeting in Minneapolis, approved a "social statement on human sexuality" that acknowledges differing views on homosexuality. It says the ELCA is strong enough to accommodate such differences. -snip- Wednesday's vote was a prelude to votes scheduled Friday on whether to let people in same-sex relationships serve as Lutheran ministers.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A federal court case which could legalize gay marriage in the United States will begin trial in January 2010 with high-profile lawyers but not longtime gay and conservative antagonists lined up on opposite sides of the debate, a district judge ruled on Wednesday. Aiming to speed a contentious case that could be destined for the U.S. Supreme Court, San Francisco District Court Judge Vaughn Walker denied requests to join the case from gay advocacy groups and social conservatives who said they would not be adequately represented. Ted Olson, the conservative lawyer whose Supreme Court arguments put...

Opponents of same-sex marriage reject it on religious and moral grounds but also on practical ones. If we let homosexuals marry, they believe, a parade of horribles will follow -- the weakening of marriage as an institution, children at increased risk of broken homes, the eventual legalization of polygamy and who knows what all. Well, guess what? We're about to find out if they're right. Unlike most public policy debates, this one is the subject of a gigantic experiment, which should definitively answer whether same-sex marriage will have a broad, destructive social impact. Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, Maine and New...

Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a "homophobe" in a recent interview with the gay news Web site 365gay.com . The Democratic lawmaker, who is gay, was discussing gay marriage and his expectation that the high court would some day be called upon to decide whether the Constitution allows the federal government to deny recognition to same-sex marriages. "I wouldn't want it to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court," said Frank. The video of the interview is available online. Frank's office...