Free Republic

Under President Obama, “justice” is anything but blind. Neither is it deaf. In fact, based on recent revelations, it appears to be watching your every move and listening to your every word. Still, if you happen to be a federal employee, now it’s even listening for your silence. The only thing this Obama White House seems to generate is scandal. Well, here’s yet another to add to the growing list. In addition to the Benghazi cover-up, IRS targeting of political dissenters and the illegal seizure of media phone records, whistleblowers within DOJ have contacted Liberty Counsel to express grave concerns...

"There’s a brouhaha a-brewin’ over comments by Niall Ferguson at an investor conference. Ferguson suggested that because John Maynard Keynes was gay, effete, and childless he might have lacked concern for posterity. After all, Keynes famously proclaimed ”in the long run we’re all dead.” In a nigh-upon hysterical and terribly written item, Tom Kostigen of Financial Advisor says Ferguson took “gay-bashing to new heights.” He adds, “Apparently, in Ferguson’s world, if you are gay or childless, you cannot care about future generations nor society.”  Now, I don’t know exactly what Ferguson said, and I don’t trust Kostigen’s version of events either. There are few full quotes and virtually...

BRUSSELS, April 23, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an astonshing display of gentleness in the face of a vile attack, the head of the Catholic Church in Belgium, Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard, remained calmly seated with eyes closed in prayer Tuesday as four topless women attacked him with shouts and curses and doused him with water. It’s not the first time the bishop has been attacked for standing up for the Church’s teachings on homosexuality and expressing his concern for those who live the homosexual lifestyle. The incident took place at the ULB University in Brussels where the archbishop was participating in...

(Snip) As pro-reform interest groups prepare to fight for their specific priorities in pending immigration reform legislation, LGBT activists aren’t standing on the sidelines. “There is a shared struggle among the immigrant and the LGBT communities,” said Steve Ralls of Immigration Equality, an organization that offers legal aid to LGBT immigrants. “There is a growing recognition that if we can get fair immigration reform through Congress we can work on a lot of issues together moving forward.” Gay rights activists say there are several fronts in the immigration fight -- from specific provisions for gay Americans and permanent residents seeking...

CNN's Friday afternoon "panel" was a disgusting display of liberal non-tolerance. Anchor Don Lemon compared defenders of traditional marriage with opponents of interracial marriage and ripped their cause as "discrimination," while a panel member compared them to slave owners. "No one should have to tolerate hate or discrimination," Lemon lectured radio host Ben Ferguson who had expressed his support for traditional marriage. When Ferguson shot back "But I don't hate you," Essence magazine editor Teresa Wiltz snarled, "The slave owners didn't hate the slaves either."

A respected Republican senator has announced he is reversing his stance against gay marriage after his 21-year-old son came out to him and his wife. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican considered as a running mate by the Romney campaign, said the discovery that his son Will, 21, was gay had given him a 'new perspective' and understanding of why equal opportunities matter. Will, a junior at Yale University, came out to his politician father and mother, Jane, two years ago, The Plain Dealer reports. Portman, who backed the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, says since his son's announcement he has...

Public opinion on marriage for gay and lesbian couples has shifted with almost unprecedented speed since California voters banned such unions in 2008. That shift could influence the Supreme Court, in particular Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and possibly Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., as it decides whether to uphold Proposition 8 in coming months. … Kennedy, along with others on the court, probably would also resist going too fast. The current justices, both liberals and conservatives, say the court of the early 1970s made a mistake by striking down all state laws on abortion and capital punishment. Both decisions...

What can you do with a man like Chris Christie? The answer, according to many with the conservative movement: Throw him overboard. And while we're at it, let's toss the gays over the side too. The popular governor of New Jersey has certainly angered many conservatives, including this humble scribe. During the crucial final days of the presidential election, Christie didn't merely embrace President Obama, he all but endorsed him. Then, during the congressional fight over the disaster-relief bill for victims of superstorm Sandy -- a bill with more pork in it than a Jimmy Dean factory -- Christie denounced...

Pope Benedict XVI will officially retire at 8pm tomorrow, but his retirement package is raising a few eyebrows — and resurrecting rumors about his sexuality. Rather than decamp to some monastery in Germany as many expected, Benedict will instead stay living in the Vatican. CNN reports he will be living in the Mater Ecclesiae (Mother of the Church) building, which formerly housed a cloistered convent in the Vatican gardens. He will be referred to as the "emeritus pope" and keep wearing the white — though he will lose his trademark red shoes, perhaps wearing a pair of "handcrafted brown loafers"...

A six-year-old boy who has been told that he cannot use the girls’ restroom at his elementary school is being discriminated against, because he is transgender, an LGBT advocacy group claims in a civil rights complaint, according to a report in a Colorado Springs newspaper, The Gazette. Coy Mathis’ mother said her son has lived as a girl, including dressing in girls’ clothing, using the girls’ bathroom at school and having teachers refer to her as a girl. “We socially transitioned her to a girl, which at that age means merely changing pronouns and growing her hair out,” Kathryn Mathis...

Following in fellow MSNBC co-host Chris Hayes’s footsteps, the network’s conservative pundit S. E. Cupp has withdrawn from speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference next month over the issue of same-sex marriage and the exclusion of GOProud. Cupp announced her decision to back out on The Cycle earlier this afternoon.

More than perhaps anyone else in America, David Blankenhorn personifies the struggle so many have experienced over same-sex marriage. First he was agnostic, then he was against it, now he’s for it. 306 Comments Weigh InCorrections? Personal Post Kathleen Parker Parker writes a twice-weekly column on politics and culture. Archive FacebookE-mailRSS You may also like... Michael Gerson Does Obama want an immigration deal? Jennifer Rubin One more like that and it's a 'recession' This is to say that Blankenhorn — a long-standing opponent of same-sex marriage — has shifted his energies to saving the institution of marriage, regardless of whom...

A federal appeals court on Friday put the brakes on a first-of-its-kind California law that bans therapy aimed at turning gay minors straight. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency order putting the law on hold until the court can hear full arguments on the measure’s constitutionality. The law was set to take effect Jan. 1. Licensed counselors who practice so-called “reparative therapy” and two families who say their teenage sons have benefited from it sought the injunction after a lower court judge refused the request. The law, which was passed by the...

A school district in Maine is apologizing after middle school students learned about homosexual foreplay during what was supposed to be a “Diversity Day” presentation. “I don’t want my child taught heterosexual foreplay, let alone homosexual foreplay,” outraged parent Kristy Howard told Fox News. The principal of Gorham Middle School sent a letter to parents apologizing for the graphic nature of the presentation by PRYSM, Proud Rainbow Youth of Southern Maine. “They went beyond the scope of our intentions and discussed topics that we do not deem appropriate for our middle school,” Robert Riley wrote in a letter obtained by...

BURIEN, Washington, October 17, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A volunteer working on a campaign in support of traditional marriage, as well as a pregnant bystander, were shaken up after a heated confrontation this weekend with a homosexual activist. Arlene Mark, a volunteer for Preserve Marriage Washington, which is urging voters to reject a ballot measure to legalize homosexual “marriage,” says the attack began while she was waiting in her car to distribute literature to other volunteers. According to Arlene, a man ran at her car, hit the back of it and ripped the Reject 74 campaign sign off the side. Arlene...

A chill has just fallen upon the markets in Vermont as business owners can now be forced to do business against their consciences. A Roman Catholic family was recently sued by two lesbians from New York who wanted to use The Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville, Vermont as the site for a homosexual “wedding” reception. An employee from the inn informed the inquirers of the owners’ feeling about hosting such a reception and politely turned them down. That polite refusal brought down the wrath of the ACLU and Vermont Human Rights Commission upon Jim and Mary O’Reilly, who could not match...

..The Ukraine is considering a move to censor several children's shows after a new study from a conservative commission labeled the shows "a real threat" to the country's youth. The Ukraine's National Expert Commission for Protecting Public Morality released the report, which attacks several U.S. and international programs as detrimental to the country. Psychologist Irina Medvédeva is quoted in the study, alleging that children aged 3 to 5 years old, "pull faces and make jokes in front of adults they don't know, laugh out loud and repeat nonsense phrases in a brazen manner," after viewing the shows. The Ukrainian paper...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/NewsChannel 5) - A federal judge has refused to void the Tennessee Democratic primary for U.S. Senate won by an anti-gay candidate the party has disavowed. District Judge Kevin Sharp ruled that the lawsuit filed by losing candidate Larry Crim was improper because it was not filed against an individual. Crim sued the state Division of Elections and the Tennessee Democratic Party trying to keep the winner of the August 2 primary, Mark Clayton, off the November ballot. The day after the election, the state Democratic Party said it wanted nothing to do with Clayton. A statement disavowing...

IRVING, Texas (BP) -- With 100-plus degree temperatures outside the Boy Scouts of America Museum, the sweating, 7-year-old Cruz Burns couldn't come up with an answer as to why his mom was holding a press conference. "Is all this stuff the adults are talking about just weird?" the journalist asked the Tiger Cub Scout, while 32-year-old Jennifer Tyrrell continued to make her case for allowing homosexuals to serve in Boy Scouts leadership. Staring at the ground, tugging at the scarf of his uniform, the little boy nodded, "Yeah." Burns' participation in an Ohio Cub Scout pack was short-lived. His mother,...

At least one state chapter of the Boy Scouts of America is not prepared to toe the line with the organization’s national ban on LGBTs joining the scouts The Vermont Chapter of the Boy Scouts of America has reaffirmed its non-discriminatory stance allowing LGBTs to be scouts and scout masters in the face of the national organization’s continued refusal to allow LGBTs into the organization.