Free Republic

As a defiant Kentucky clerk sat in jail Friday, choosing indefinite imprisonment over licensing gay marriages, her lawyers approached the microphones outside and compared her to Dr. Martin Luther King. Around the country, other supporters reached for Biblical heroes, comparing her to Silas and Daniel, imprisoned for their faith and rescued by God. It's precisely the narrative gay rights advocates had hoped to avoid. But as Davis' mug shot rocketed around the Internet, it became clear that the gay rights movement must battle this idea that Christianity is under siege, said Kenneth Upton, senior counsel for Lambda Legal, a law...

Time to move on. Too juvenile and too much name-calling. Not near the level of critical thinking that used to go on back in the day. I wish the best to all the good ones left out there.

Denver International Airport authorities have released internal videotape of a former Transportation Security Administration screener at DIA allegedly groping male passengers last February. CBS4 obtained the redacted videotape Tuesday after filing a Colorado Open Records Act request for the tape. Authorities had refused to release the tape for months citing an ongoing criminal investigation. But in July the Denver district attorney said there would be no criminal charges in the case clearing the way for the release of the videotape. Although no criminal charges were filed, TSA fired screener Ty Spicha and his coworker Yasmeen Shafi after the alleged groping...

A federal judge has ordered Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis and her deputies to appear in his courtroom Thursday and explain why Davis should not be held in contempt of court for refusing to issue marriage licenses. Shortly after opening her doors Tuesday, Davis told two same-sex couples who asked for marriage licenses that she would not issue them, despite a federal court injunction ordering her to do so. In a brief but tense encounter between Davis and a couple dozen marriage-equality demonstrators who crowded into her office, the clerk repeatedly refused to comply with the court order. "Under whose...

With only two weeks left before the close of a survey about discrimination against Sonoma County’s gay, lesbian and transgendered people, organizers with the county’s Human Rights Commission are reaching out to those people, and especially those on the fringe of the local community, to ensure their voices are heard. The online survey is part of an effort to assess the experience of county residents who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, queer or intersex and to determine what, if any, programs or services may be needed to ensure their full inclusion in housing, employment, social and political arenas. More...

Westchester’s neighborhood council has been taking complaints for years about a boarded-up former Grinder restaurant on Sepulveda Boulevard near Manchester Avenue, which until recently was occupied by a group of homeless men. So when Chick-Fil-A came calling with an interest in taking over the site, it looked like a win-win. Instead, a longstanding ban on drive-thru restaurants in downtown Westchester has Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin opposed to the plan and butting heads with a neighborhood council wanting to make an exception to the rule. The stalemate between Bonin and supporters of the fast-food chain has property owner Perry...

Two days ago, ABC News reported that Vester Flanagan, the murderer of two WDBJ employees, sent a 23-page faxed manifesto to ABC News. ABC reported bits and pieces of the manifesto. Yet we still haven’t seen the full document. ABC hasn’t made it available. Why? John Nolte and others have been busy hammering away at the racial hypocrisy of many in the media after treating Flanagan’s crimes very differently from Dylann Roof’s. Unquestionably, they were both racially motivated. But you’d never know that from reading the headlines in the Washington Post or other mouthpieces that enable the (one way) racial...

August 28: Pope Francis reportedly sent an encouraging letter to lesbian founder of publishing house for children’s books. Today’s Il Giornale reports, “The Pope blesses gender ideology books. To the author he writes: “Go ahead.” The report continues, “Pope Francis still amazes, writing a long letter to the author of the books that the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, wanted to ban from its schools. After the Synod on the family that threatens to split the church, the Pope again lines up in defense of the same-sex couples.” Francesca Pardi, founder with her partner Maria Silvia Fiengo of the publishing...

It appears that both Kate Steinle and Alison Parker were selected for death for being joyful, lovely American women living blessed lives. At the time of her murder, Kate Steinle’s brother said he believed that Francisco Sanchez chose Kate because she was so happy. Friends and family are describing Alison Parker, who was killed yesterday by a "gay" black man named Vester Flanagan, as overjoyed to be living her dream. Kate Steinle and Alison Parker were not killed by guns. They were killed by goaded men.

On August 25, Katholisch.de, the official website of the German Bishops' Conference, published an interview with the German moral theologian Stephan Goertz concerning his new book, Who Am I to Judge? Homosexuality and the Catholic Church. In the interview, Goertz makes the claim that homosexuality should no longer be condemned because the times have changed. In biblical times, says the theologian, "procreation was the first God-given purpose of sexuality." At that time, "sexuality had as its first purpose to secure the survival of the people"; however, "that is obviously not any more our situation, and that is since the [Second...

Early Wednesday morning, Vester Lee Flanagan II, reportedly upset over being fired from Virginia news station WDBJ7 in 2013 as well as the June church massacre in Charleston, S.C., targeted two of his former colleagues and fatally shot them during a live broadcast.

PRINCETON, N.J. -- The American public estimates on average that 23% of Americans are gay or lesbian, little changed from Americans' 25% estimate in 2011, and only slightly higher than separate 2002 estimates of the gay and lesbian population. These estimates are many times higher than the 3.8% of the adult population who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in Gallup Daily tracking in the first four months of this year.

After a month of deliberation following a vote by the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America to allow openly gay Scout leaders, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that they will go forward with the faith's 102-year association with Scouting, according to a statement released Wednesday morning. The statement came from the church's Council of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who said the BSA assured the church it would be able to appoint Scout leaders based on the faith's values. "In the resolution adopted on July 27, 2015, and in...

A fax attributed to Vester Lee Flanagan claims the slayings were a response to the Charleston mass shooting. An apparent suicide note received by ABC News on Wednesday morning and attributed to Virginia shooting suspect Flanagan, aka Bryce Williams, claims the killing of two reporters during an on-air interview was motivated by the Charleston church shooting and a desire to incite a “race war.” ABC News says a man identifying himself as both Flanagan and Williams — Flanagan's on-air name — first contacted it several weeks ago. The man asked for a fax number, claiming he wanted to pitch the...

Authorities arrested the CEO of Rentboy.com, which prosecutors called the largest online male escort service, on Tuesday on prostitution charges. [Snip] Subscriptions to Rentboy start at $59.95 per month and advertisements can cost hundreds of dollars. In total, Rentboy.com was able to generate more than $10 million in revenue between 2010 and 2015.

Asked to plot themselves on a 'sexuality scale', 23% of British people choose something other than 100% heterosexual – and the figure rises to 49% among 18-24 year olds Invented by Alfred Kinsey in the 1940s, the Kinsey scale plots individuals on a range of sexual dispositions from exclusively heterosexual at 0 through to exclusively homosexual at 6. Where the original study had a large number of methods for placing people, YouGov simply asked people to place themselves on the sexuality scale.Taken as a whole, 72% of the British public place themselves at the completely heterosexual end of the scale,...

A vote to include protections for Keller ISD students and employees based on sexual orientation, gender identity and expression has been postponed for further consideration, according to a release sent by the district. “There have been many passionate pleas on both sides of the issue from parents, community members, and current and former students,” district superintendent Randy Reid said in a statement.

The phrase “anti-immigrant” is loose in media land, being used to describe politicians and everyday Americans alike. How can anyone be “anti-immigrant?” Immigrants are hard workers! We are a nation of immigrants! The phrase is used recklessly by the New York Times, U.S. News and of course MSNBC, as well as many others. Never mind that there is a huge difference between immigration and illegal immigration. That’s a difference as profound as renters versus squatters, or even customers versus burglars. To be anti-illegal-immigration is NOT the same as to be anti-immigration. Yet the phrases are being used interchangeably in the...

‘A safe space for those people who feel they need it’ One of the most gay-friendly universities in the country is becoming even friendlier, by offering to shelter its LGBTQ students from the rest of the school. Indiana University-Bloomington is opening a “thematic residence hall” this fall for students who don’t identify as straight men or women. It will have a particular emphasis on transgender students and those who don’t “subscribe to conventional gender distinctions,” the Herald-Times reported, citing GLBT Student Support Services Office Coordinator Doug Bauder. IU’s Residential Programs & Services (RPS) is less specific than Bauder. It says...

Dr. Church’s appeal to take place this Wednesday and Thursday. Physician fired from hospital for discussing medical dangers of homosexual behavior This Wednesday and Thursday, July 29-30, the appeal hearing for Dr. Paul Church will take place. It will include lawyers, “evidence”, and witnesses, as his hospital attempts to seal his firing. On March 30, Dr. Church, a well-respected urologist, was expelled from the medical staff of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), a major Harvard-affiliated hospital in Boston. Dr. Church’s crime? He voiced concerns to his colleagues and hospital staff about the unhealthy nature of homosexual behavior and objected...