Free Republic

Conservative groups have denounced the recently signed executive order by President Barack Obama on LGBT employment discrimination, arguing that the measure does not offer sufficient religious liberty protection. Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for Policy Studies at the Family Research Council, said in a statement that with the executive order "Obama has ordered employers to put aside their principles, and practices in the name of political correctness." "This level of coercion is nothing less than viewpoint blackmail that bullies into silence every contractor and subcontractor who has moral objections to homosexual behavior," stated Sprigg. "This order gives activists a license to...

It’s hard to tell if the near-constant stream of millennial-centric political think-pieces are perpetuating or reflecting growing curmudgeonly fears about the future of the country. Maybe it’s a little of both, and Fox is probably observing within its competency when it pegs more than a handful of us as “deluded narcissists” – but it appears there’s room for some political optimism among all the moral panic and the reign of the religious right. With millennial religious and political attitudes in flux compared to our predecessors, the upcoming years could be the Christian left’s big moment. Which isn’t to say the...

A Missouri woman who is civilly married to a female Lutheran minister has sued Bishop Robert Finn and the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph after she was dismissed from her position as her parish’s coordinator of social ministry. Colleen Simon said that she told both the current and former pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church, a Jesuit parish in Kansas City, that she was part of a same-sex marriage, and neither objected. After her relationship was discussed in a local newsmagazine, she was dismissed, the Kansas City Star reported. Simon, whose same-sex marriage ceremony took place in Iowa,...

A new report offers good and bad news about the AIDS epidemic in the United States: The annual diagnosis rate of HIV, the virus that causes the disease, has dropped by one-third in the general population but has climbed among young gay and bisexual males. Significantly fewer heterosexuals, drug users and women were diagnosed each year with HIV, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the annual diagnosis rate more than doubled for young gay and bisexual males. The push for safer sex may be falling on deaf ears in a generation too...

I never thought it would happen to me. I’m technologically savvy, hyper-vigilant about parental controls, and frequently check the search and browser histories of my kids’ electronic devices. As a writer for LSN, I’m more aware than most people of the filth that’s out there and the harmful effects it can have on a developing brain (not to mention a developing soul). So that’s why I was surprised and heartbroken the day I discovered my ten-year-old son had been watching hardcore pornography on his iPhone. It was the first day of final exams. At the bus stop that morning, my...

WASHINGTON — President Obama, declaring himself on “the right side of history,” called on Congress on Monday to ban job discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans as he signed an executive order doing so for workers of federal contractors. In a ceremony at the White House, Mr. Obama noted that in much of the country, companies can fire employees based on their sexual orientation. “That’s wrong,” he said to an audience of supporters. “We’re here to do what we can to make it right — to bend that arc of justice just a little bit in a better direction.” President...

When I'm in a, shall we say, mellow mood with friends, I can occasionally launch into accounts of politics in seventeenth-century England. This usually results in incredulous stares, followed by, "Oh, so sorry. Fascinating story, I'm sure. But it's really just hours past my bedtime." It's a shame anybody should feel that way, though. Because even in the hands of a dreary lecturer and deadly bore (um, not saying I am one), the story of seventeenth-century England is one of riotously awful chaos -- and the birth of modern freedom. Sit down. Have another drink. Let's talk about it.

Yahoo News is becoming a daily pimp bulletin board for Democrats and all left wing causes. It actively promotes pro-abortion and pro-gay news items and demeans conservatives and religious causes. Of course this is being directed from the top- the Yahoo CEOs and directors who are large campaign donors to the Obamas and GLTB causes. The nerds at Yahoo pick up "news items" from Huffington Post, Slate etc and highlight the positive spin on left wing issues or amplify the negative accounts on conservative policies and religious beliefs. The same goes for AOL etc. What is the conservative response to...

Thank you for your petition requesting that the executive branch legally recognize genders outside of the male-female binary and provide an option for these genders on all legal documents and records. We know how important this issue is, and we understand the profound impact, both symbolic and otherwise, of having official documents that accurately reflect an individual’s identity. These documents play an essential, functional role, but also demonstrate the measure of dignity and respect afforded to our nation’s citizens. We cannot overstate the care and seriousness that should be brought to bear on the issue. We recognize the importance...

The annual rate of diagnosis with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, fell by a third in the United States between 2002 and 2011, researchers reported on Saturday. Fewer people in all U.S. groups tested positive for human immunodeficiency virus except for gay and bisexual men ages 13 to 24 and over 45, they wrote in a special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Among men who have sex with men, unprotected risk behaviors in the presence of high prevalence and unsuppressed viral load may continue to drive HIV transmission," the report said. From 2002 to 2011,...

It wasn't enough that Hobby Lobby won in a landmark Supreme Courty case for employers being able to deny women reproductive healthcare coverage. Now, the conservative-led company wants to also dictate which restrooms women can use at work. That is, if you happen to be a transgender woman. Megan Sommerville, a 16-year veteran of the arts and crafts franchise, began her transition in 2009 and had her name legally changed in 2010. But she was nevertheless recently written up at her Aurora, Ill., store when she began using the women's restroom. According to Sommerville, store managment said that she'd only...

FULL TITLE: Art teacher, 45, who engaged in sexually explicit conversations with 17 male students as young as 12 is sentenced to 15 years jail A high school teacher who engaged in sexually explicit conversations with male students, including asking them for semen-stained tissues to make art projects, has been sentenced to 15 years jail. Charles Reilly admitted he also instructed the 17 boys, aged 12 to 16, at New Jersey's Pine Hill Middle School how to masturbate over a five year period. Authorities said the 45-year-old soccer coach, who'd worked at the school for more than a decade, also...

The leader of the youth arm of the British National Party has launched an attack on someone that he perceives to ‘challenge his principles’ – his own ‘gay’ dog. Jack Renshaw, a student at Manchester University and the head of the BNP Youth, wrote the Facebook post alongside a picture of Derek the dog, in which he criticised the mutt for ‘licking the (organ) of other male dogs’. ‘I wish my dog would stop licking the (organ) of other male dogs,’ he wrote. ‘I love you, Derek (my dog) – but – don’t challenge my principles because my principles will...

Dylan Paul, 24, said she was more than hurt when she complained that a customer mis-gendered her while she was working last Monday. “I was working the salad station near the entrance to the restaurant of Broadway Paggliacci’s. Working there, your function is greeting customers, taking and making salad orders, and bidding customers farewell. It was in the evening on a shift I’d picked up from a coworker when I was saying goodbye to one of our regular customers. He returned the gesture, misgendering me as “man,” which isn’t something too unusual in my life. I corrected him, “It’s ma’am...

There has not been much good, or encouraging, news in America over the past months, and it is due to the perpetual assault on the people by a cabal of un-American groups led by Republicans and empowered by conservatives on the Supreme Court. To their credit, Democrats have attempted to assuage the damage imposed by the conservative Court, particularly the Hobby Lobby ruling, but Republicans dutifully protected the religious right and betrayed American women. There were plenty of Americans concerned the religious right would use the Court’s ruling as freedom to discriminate against the gay community, and within 24 hours...

Although there will be no religious privileges included in the order. an older executive order still applies to some groups: No further exemption for religious entities will be included in the executive order, but the update also won't repeal President George W. Bush's amendment to EO 11246, which allows religious-affiliated federal contractors to discriminate on the basis of religion, officials said. "You can use religion to only hire people who share your religion, but you can't discriminate against somebody who is of your faith who happens to be LGBT, unless they fall within the ministerial exemption," officials said. It's great...

FULL TITLE: Duane Youngblood: Pastor Who Wrote Book About Overcoming Homosexuality Arrested For Molesting Teen Boy Duane Youngblood once wrote a book about how he was able to de-convert from homosexuality, but police say the Pittsburgh pastor was actually sexually abusing a teenage boy over the course of several years. Youngblood, who leads the Higher Call World Outreach Church, was arrested this week and charged with corrupting a minor. The boy, who has since turned 21, told police that Youngblood abused him over the course of nearly three years. The young man claimed that the sexual assaults took place inside...

From behind a smoking sniper rifle high atop his ivory tower peers the secular-”progressive.” He surveys his many victims, strewn across the American landscape below and mockingly sneers, “War on Christianity? What war on Christianity?” He then resumes shooting, all the while insisting that those uncooperative Christians who scatter for cover behind the word of God and the U.S. Constitution somehow suffer from a “persecution complex” (the baker, the photographer, the florist, the innkeeper, the Christian school administrator, etc.). Though there are many, it is plain for all to see that abortion and “sexual liberation” remain the two principal theaters...

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) - A teacher and former councilman in Camden County faces prison after admitting he engaged in inappropriate sexual communications with 17 male students. Charles Reilly is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after he pleaded guilty to official misconduct, child endangerment and attempted child endangerment.

An aquatics instructor at a summer camp for youngsters at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore has been charged with sexual solicitation of a minor, police said. Charles David Beaver, 58, a former teacher at Westminster High School, was arrested Tuesday at a Baltimore County hotel, police said. Police said the Carroll County man had communicated online with a person he believed was a pimp to arrange a meeting at the hotel with two teenage boys for sex. The supposed pimp was actually a Baltimore County detective. When Beaver showed up at the hotel, he was taken into custody....