Free Republic

The Walt Disney Company will cut funding to the Boy Scouts of America, beginning in 2015, because of a policy that bans gay adult leaders in the organisation. In December the defence and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin said it would no longer donate to the Boy Scouts, because of the same policy. Last May, the California Senate voted to revoke the organisation’s charitable status. The Boy Scouts organisation said it was “disappointed” by Disney’s decision, which will affect its ability to serve children, Deron Smith, a Boy Scouts spokesman, said in a statement on Sunday. Disney does not provide direct...

Alasdair MacIntyre once quipped that “facts, like telescopes and wigs for gentlemen, were a seventeenth-century invention.” Something similar can be said about sexual orientation: Heterosexuals, like typewriters and urinals (also, obviously, for gentlemen), were an invention of the 1860s. Contrary to our cultural preconceptions and the lies of what has come to be called “orientation essentialism,” “straight” and “gay” are not ageless absolutes. Sexual orientation is a conceptual scheme with a history, and a dark one at that. It is a history that began far more recently than most people know, and it is one that will likely end much...

So a lesbian walks into a Muslim barbershop, and asks for a “businessmen’s haircut”. It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it really happened, and now a government agency called the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario will hear her complaint. Faith McGregor is the lesbian who doesn’t like the girly cuts that they do at a salon. She wants the boy’s hairdo. Omar Mahrouk is the owner of the Terminal Barber Shop in Toronto. He follows Shariah law, so he thinks women have cooties. As Mahrouk and the other barbers there say, they don’t believe in touching women...

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was right to veto SB1062, which would have amended the Arizona Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The bill, per most interpretations I’ve read, would have given broad discretion to business owners, because of their religious convictions, to refuse to do business with anyone associated with homosexual lifestyles. Religious freedom is about protection of your right to practice your religion and not being forced to violate it. However, the right to religious freedom does not mean the right to write-off and marginalize into non-existence a whole class of citizens whom you don’t like or agree with. Under Jim...

ROME, February 27, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “I am a homosexual, but I’m against ‘gay marriage,’” a French pro-family activist told an Italian Catholic opinion paper earlier this month. Jean-Pier-Delaume Myard, spokesman for Manif Pour Tous, told La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana that the “sole purpose” of the homosexualist “gay rights” movement is “destroying the family.” Myard gave the interview following the first big pro-family Manif Pour Tous event in Italy on February 11. Myard noted that in a recent talk, he said “we must break the silence” about the real nature of the homosexualist movement, noting that many homosexuals “have nothing to...

He’s only on a ten-day contract, but Jason Collins’s Brooklyn Nets jersey was the NBA’s top-selling jersey on Tuesday, its first day on the market. The league decided to start selling the merchandise after Collins became the first openly gay player in major American professional sports history on Sunday. ... snip ...

Michael Sam — who is hoping to become the first openly gay player in NFL history — made a good impression during his media press conference on Saturday. But on on the field Monday he couldn't do the same thing. Sam needed to show he has more athleticism, but the suddenly scrutinized Missouri defensive end struggled to do that.

Support for Governor Brewer to veto a bill to protect religious freedom among Arizona business owners is lagging by 56 points in an online TV poll the results of which will likely be used this evening. Excerpt follows. PHOENIX - All eyes are on Arizona after lawmakers sent SB1062 to Gov. Jan Brewer's desk last week. The controversial “Religious Freedom" bill would allow business owners to deny service to customers solely based on their religious beliefs. What do you think Brewer should do? Now is your chance to sound-off in our ABC15 poll: SB1062: Should Arizona Governor Jan Brewer veto...

"Authorities say Fleetwood Peeples, 76, confessed to abusing and taking nude photos of young boys while they were in his care in the early 1980s."

PHOENIX — The Arizona Legislature gave final approval Thursday to legislation that allows business owners asserting their religious beliefs to refuse service to gays and others, drawing backlash from Democrats who called the proposal "state-sanctioned discrimination" and an embarrassment.

American figure skater Johnny Weir has made quite an impression in Sochi working as a commentator for NBC during the Olympics. He frequently sports bright outfits, proclaimed his fearlessness in the face of Russia's anti-gay policies, and painted the town red (OK, pink) with fellow commentator Tara Lipinski. But on Wednesday, with his eyes on figure skating but his heart and mind on more pressing matters elsewhere, he used his fashion and his flamboyance to make a political statement. As only he can. Here is the statement:

NORFOLK, Va. (WTVR) – A federal judge declared late Thursday night that Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, confirmed Michael Kelly, Director of Communications for Attorney General Mark Herring. The update was first made on Herring’s Facebook page and his Twitter account. MT “@AGMarkHerring: *ALERT* Federal judge declares state's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. Issues stay pending appeal.”— Mark Herring (@MarkHerringVA) February 14, 2014 “Equality in Virginia took a big step forward tonight as a federal district judge declared Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional,” Herring wrote. “The judge issued a stay with her injunction pending appeal, meaning...

You'll probably read about it first here, but last week another "party" asked to join in the lawsuit filed last October to have declared unconstitutional a part of Tennessee's constitutional amendment defining marriage as the relationship between one man and one woman. "Legitimate" media outlets probably won't report on the motion filed to join in the lawsuit, because it shows how silly things get when society decides it can redefine marriage. But it may not be as silly as one might think.

Feel that? Something “historic” and “important” just happened. It might even be a “teachable moment,” and it’s certainly therapeutic. Why, liberals will be able to like their country just little bit more. Come on people, feel the love! A potential fourth round NFL draft pick has declared is “own truth,” and come out as gay. Having taken the “courageous” step of joining society’s most trendy and celebrated grievance group, Missouri defensive end Michael Sam is now basking in the media adulation. ESPN’s Chris Connelly stressed to Sam, “You could become the first openly gay player in the NFL, that’s a...

Imagine in America that as a precondition to receiving your welfare or social security check, the government demanded and forced you to accept homosexuality and same-sex marriage as a normal way of life or imagine that as a precondition to receiving humanitarian aid you were forced to change your religion. It's an understatement to say that the majority of Americans would be outraged that the government would have the audacity to do such a thing.   Not only is it unethical, but it is unAmerican. The ethics and morality of conditional aid aside,  there is something morally incongruous, whereas as...

According to the police, Musab Mohamed Masmari tried to torch a crowded gay bar. It was just after midnight on New Year’s Eve while nearly 700 people crammed into Neighbours for a celebration when customers noticed the staircase at the iconic gay club was on fire. Management at the iconic gay club in Capitol Hill later discovered a gasoline container near the stairs. Neighbours released surveillance video that police believe shows Masmari as he walks into the club. The video was captured around the time of the countdown to midnight on New Year’s Eve. Masmari is carrying something in his hand. -snip...

Desperate to distract from the ongoing Obamacare disaster, alleged marital discord between Barack and Michelle Obama is being strategically leaked by White House insiders, and beginning to break into the mainstream media via familiar channels. Anyone who stood in a supermarket checkout line last week (a sizable portion of the adult female population, and not inconsiderable portion of the males) saw the National Enquirer cover story blaring allegations of a screaming match between the Obamas in the wake of Michelle's star-studded fiftieth birthday party. That story has now broken into the  mainstream media via the world's most popular English...

A middle-aged woman (names withheld) yesterday in Lafia, Nasarawa State, publicly disowned her cat whom she had kept as a pet for seven years for what she termed “an unnatural sexual behavior” which she finds disturbing and “a contradiction of the laws of nature.” By this, the cat has made a record as the first cat to be so publicly declared gay and disowned by its owner. The cat, named Bull, was alleged to be in the habit of making sexual advances only to other male cats in the house even though there are several other female cats. Neighbours attested...

Conner Mertens, a redshirt freshman kicker at D-III Willamette University in Oregon, did something on Monday night that no college football player on any level had ever done before. He came out, while still an active player. First to his coach, then to his team, and now Conner Mertens is coming out publicly. “I'm bisexual,” Mertens told head coach Glen Fowles via Outsports.com, who informed his young kicker prior to his message that all the coach cared about was his kicker's accuracy. His off the field actions wouldn't affect his playing time, Fowles told Mertens. In fact, when Mertens asked...

Anti-gay: a misleading charge used by gay activists to attach a negative label to anything a born-again Christian says that opposes the “gay agenda.” We are anti-sin (of all kinds) and pro-people (of all kinds). It is a blessing to be called “anti-gay” by a gay activist. Bigot: a born-again Christian who steadfastly refuses to deny anything that the Bible says about homosexuality. It is a blessing to be called a “bigot” by a gay activist.