Free Republic

'I am a girl': The plight of Tammy, the adopted son of two lesbians who started sex change aged 8 because he has always maintained he is a girl   'As soon as we let him put on a dress his personality changed to a very happy little girl thrilled to be alive'A boy who started the process of changing sex at age eight has told how he always knew he was meant to be a girl. Thomas Lobel, who now calls himself Tammy, is undergoing controversial hormone blocking treatment in Berkeley, California to stop him going through puberty...

A state panel advising Gov. Cuomo wants taxpayers to foot the bill for transgender residents to get “sexual-reassignment surgery,” allowing them to change their physical characteristics from a man to a woman or woman to man, The Post has learned. New York’s costliest-in-the-nation Medicaid program would cover the tab. “Provide Medicaid coverage for transgender surgery/hormone replace-ment therapy and treatment,” read the proposal submitted by the state “health disparities work group.’’ The panel is submitting recommendations to Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team for possible inclusion in the governor’s budget plan.

President Obama of late is making the rounds of aggrieved Democratic constituencies. Next up, a Saturday address to the Human Rights Campaign. "Some LGBT rights supporters are hoping that Obama will take advantage of the opportunity to endorse marriage equality and to denounce initiatives that would ban marriage rights for same-sex couples in Minnesota and North Carolina," reports the Washington Blade. Probably not, for at least two reasons: While Obama has said his stance opposing gay marriage is "evolving," he has given no signal it's fully evolved since he declined to endorse gay marriage in June.

Britain's most prominent pro-family lawyer told activists they had better fight now or it will be too late. His message was blunt: "You've got to stop this now in America while you still can." Diamond compared today's U.S. society to Britain's in 1997. "We thought it was stable; we'd had centuries of religious tolerance," he said. Then in 1997 came a huge change in the political culture. "Human rights, equality, and non-discrimination" became buzz words backed by law, and began to be forcefully enforced against Christians by the courts. Now 14 years later, a British couple cannot be foster parents...

Rose Marie Belforti, a small town cheese maker in rural New York, is at the epicenter of the effort to banish Christians from living out their faith in public office. Belforti, a Bible-believing Christian, has been the elected town clerk for nearly a decade. After the New York legislature redefined marriage and ordered clerks to issue same-sex "marriage" licenses, Belforti had a surprise visit from a lesbian who wanted a marriage license. Rose did what she would do for anyone--she offered an appointment. Just not with her. The women weren't denied a license, but Rose, in anticipation of a conflict...

Gay pride parade Mayor Betsy Price will be one of three grand marshals in Saturday's "Ride the Rainbow" 30th Anniversary Pride Parade and Street Festival downtown. The parade begins at 10 a.m. at General Worth Square. Burns, who is gay and gained national attention last year when he spoke out against bullying, will also take part in the parade.

The Christian Post reported that on August 21, 2011, Mike Weatherley, a MP [Member of Parliament] for Hove, wrote a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron saying, "As long as religious groups can refuse to preside over ceremonies for same-sex couples, there will be inequality." In 2004, The United Kingdom passed laws legalizing same-sex unions, but churches were not required to participate in these unions. In 2010, the Conservative - Liberal Democrat Coalition proposed an amendment to those laws which allowed places of worship to "opt-in" to register same-sex ceremonies, something that MP Weatherley called a "messy compromise." But...

Police in Lancashire have told the owner of a Christian café to stop displaying Bible texts on a video screen, because it breaches public order laws. Officers attended the Salt & Light Coffee House on Layton Road, Blackpool, on Monday 19 September, following a complaint about “insulting” and “homophobic” material. The café’s owner, Mr Jamie Murray, says the officers did not specify which Bible texts had caused the offence. He says the officers told him that displaying offensive or insulting words is a breach of Section 5 of the Public Order Act, and told him to stop displaying the Bible....

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) has signed on as the first Republican co-sponsor of the bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. “I voted against the constitutional amendment defining marriage so I’m pleased to co-sponsor the repeal of DOMA and work with my colleagues on marriage equality,” said Ros-Lehtinen in a statement. The DOMA-repeal bill, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, now has 125 cosponsors. Under DOMA, which was signed into law in 1996, states are allowed to not recognize valid same-sex unions performed in other states. Same-sex couples are also denied federal benefits afforded to opposite-sex...

Gay hackers attack pro-family petition in defense of Julio Severo and other Christians By Julio Severo A pro-family petition website to support me and other Christians has been hacked today. Attack by hackers on Sunday, September 25 The petition was created by LifeSiteNews in response to a massive campaign by homo-fascist group AllOut, which boasts more than 500,000 adherents. The campaign of AllOut pressured PayPal to block services to me and pro-family groups. PayPal readily yielded, firstly blocking my account, effectively hindering me from receiving voluntary donations from friends. Now, to make sure that a positive pro-family campaign may pressure...

Actress Kristin Chenoweth is a self-identifying Christian who has sparked controversy by speaking out about her support of the gay community in an interview with lesbian and gay publication The Advocate. The LBGT publication asked the TV and theater star: "What would you ask people who cite Christianity as their justification for passing laws that discriminate against people?" Chenoweth replied, "I would ask, 'What would Jesus do?' It sounds so cliché and Pollyanna-ish, but I have a feeling if he were on the earth today, he wouldn't be walking around saying, 'You’re going to hell' and 'You're wrong, you're wrong,...

Arabic news media reported over the weekend... a Russian company has agreed to conduct the search in cooperation with Jordanian authorities, picking up all costs -- in exchange for exclusive rights to film a documentary of the search... The Russian company that was chosen as a partner for the search has special underwater exploration equipment that can stand up to the extreme salinity of the Dead Sea, the reports said. Biblical archaeologists have several theories as to where the Sodom and its associated cities were located. According to the Torah, God overturned Sodom, Gomorrah, and three other cities because of...

People find what they want in the Bible. If one looks hard enough, he can find "biblical" support for reincarnation, Eastern religions, Jesus as a guru, divorce for any reason, and flying saucers. Every cult of Christianity uses the Bible to validate its claims and so does some of the occult. It's not surprising, then, that a recent trend in biblical scholarship holds that a careful reading of Genesis in its historical context offers no solid basis to conclude that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah had anything to do with homosexuality. This view may seem far-fetched to biblical conservatives,...

CNSNews.com) – Taxpayers will pay almost $900 million over the next 10 years to extend federal employee benefits to homosexual couples, according to an analysis of “domestic partners” legislation by the Congressional Budget Office. However, supporters of the bill say the costs will be offset in other areas. President Barack Obama has voiced support for the measure. The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee approved the measure last Wednesday, while the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee approved a measure last month.

As historical analysis goes, I’m not sure it’s quite up there with Carr or Elton. According to Pauline Howe, the “perverted sexual practises” of “sodomites” were responsible for “the downfall of every empire”. I always thought the British Empire fell because of the exhaustion caused by the First World War, or specifically the fall of Singapore in World War 2, or perhaps the rise of Third World nationalism and American pressure. Maybe I was wrong and it was all down to Greek “practises”. Still, whether or not one agrees with Mrs Howe’s radical revisionist history, or her objecting to the...

The Cave Of Lot's Seduction And The Monestary It InspiredBy konstantine D. Politis Special to The Daily Star Monday, October 25, 2004The cave of Lot's seduction and the monastery it inspired Jordanian site of Deir Ain Abata testifies to a thriving Byzantine and Umayyad-era Christian community Amman: The ruins were first discovered during an archaeological survey at the south-east end of the Dead Sea in 1986, near a spring named Ain Abata. After further investigations it was evident that the site - near today's Ghor al-Safi, the biblical city of Zoara - was none other that the Sanctuary of Agios...

A clay tablet that has baffled scientists for 150 years has been identified as a witness's account of the asteroid suspected of being behind the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Researchers who cracked the cuneiform symbols on the Planisphere tablet believe that recorded an asteroid thought to have been more than half a mile across. The tablet, found by Henry Layard in the remains of the library in the royal place at Nineveh in the mid-19th century, is thought to be a 700 B.C. copy of notes made by a Sumerian astronomer watching the night sky. He referred to the...

New York City is frequently referred to by its slogan, "the Big Apple." But if some in city government have their way, New York may soon be known as the town to "get some." "Get Some" is the 2008 slogan for New York City's taxpayer-funded condom distribution program. Robert Peters, with Morality in Media, objects to the program both for its promotion of promiscuous sex and its false promise of safety. "I think it will be perceived by many people -- young people, in particular -- not just to get condoms but to get promiscuous sex," he remarks. "It's like...

The chairman of Boston University's religion department offers this proposal: Public high schools should require one course in the Bible for all their students and another in world religions He cites surveys showing that most Americans can't even name one of the four biblical gospels and that many high school students think that Sodom and Gomorrah were a married couple.

The man deemed by San Francisco officials to be a potential threat to Mayor Gavin Newsom has suffered several mental breakdowns, was arrested last year on suspicion of threatening his elderly parents and shined a laser light in a prosecutor's eye during a court appearance, public records show. Han Sup Shin, 42, of Union City entered Newsom's Russian Hill apartment building early Feb. 15 and has been showing increasingly bizarre behavior at the mayor's public events, according to declarations filed in court as part of a request for a temporary restraining order by City Attorney Dennis Herrera. "We've had several...