Free Republic

A homework project that asks pupils to look out for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender characters in TV shows has been criticized by campaigners. The project includes a bingo-style game where children are asked to cross off squares when they come across an LGBT character or reference. The game encourages children as young as 11 to analyze how the media portrays same-sex relationships. It is part of a series of teaching resources developed by the Sex Education Forum, which lobbies for compulsory sex education in all schools. The Forum launched the game in its latest e-magazine for teachers in primary...

The US Virgin Islands -– St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John -– are facing a “gay marriage” battle. A bill was drafted in their legislature in May, and although it hasn’t yet been formally filed, the fight has already started. Pastors have organized across the territory and have begun to confront the “gay marriage” threat. The bill was written by Sen. Judi Buckley, a liberal who is not running for re-election this year. (The Virgin Islands has a unicameral legislature with 15 senators, each with 2-year terms.) Being a lame-duck – and not having to face voters -- is part...

Speaking at a breakfast in Iowa, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said last week he supports marriage as the union of a man and a woman. “I am in favor of traditional marriage, and I think that’s been the foundation for civilization for thousands of years,” he said in response to a question about whether he would support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution protecting marriage. But while he said he favored the “concept,” he added he would oppose a federal amendment, because he does not believe the federal government should have a role in defining marriage. “I’d rather see it...

First such prohibition to withstand a constitutional challenge since June 2013 Tennessee’s same-sex marriage ban has survived a constitutional challenge in court, the first prohibition to withstand such a challenge in almost 14 months. Roane County Circuit Judge Russell Simmons ruled that “neither the Federal Government nor another state should be allowed to dictate to Tennessee what has traditionally been a state’s responsibility,” in ruling from last Tuesday, SCOTUSblog reports. More than two dozen federal and state court rulings since the Supreme Court’s United States v. Windsor decision in June 2013 have successfully challenged and/or nullified bans. Simmons’ ruling rejects...

Israel’s Right of Return also gives citizenship to spouses of the same sex when Jews choose to immigrate to Israel together, Interior Minister Gidon Sa’ar (Likud) decided Tuesday. According to Sa’ar’s decision, gay and lesbian Jews married abroad wishing to immigrate to Israel could do so—even if one of the partners is not Jewish—and both would receive Israeli citizenship. “The gates of Israel will be open to every Jew and his family without any discrimination against his lifestyle,” Sa’ar stated, in the precedent-setting decision. […] The landmark decision surfaces amid ongoing tension over what defines a “family” in Israel, and...

Churchgoing Christians who support same-sex marriage are more likely to think pornography, cohabitation, hook-ups, adultery, polyamory, and abortion are acceptable. And it’s reasonable to expect continued change in more permissive directions. As mainline Protestant denominations increasingly accept the ordination of gay clergy and publicly affirm same-sex unions, the sociologist in me wishes to understand what this development means for people in those denominations. I’m not talking about subtle linguistic shifts. While the difference between speaking of marriage as a “civil contract between a woman and a man” and as “a unique commitment between two people” is obvious to those who...

Homosexuals Often Had a High Status in Native American Tribes Native American males were expected to become warriors and hunters, but it was also recognized that the stress of being under such burdens often demanded spiritual advice and healing. This duty would usually fall upon a homosexual Shaman. In the Native culture, to be gay meant to be "from the outside world," to be "spiritually gifted." However, Homosexual only included men who preferred social and sexual "female roles." Needless to say, they were highly respected within the community. In fact, straight men could have sex with a homosexual without having...

There is this notion, one we hear more and more, that the Republican Party has to shed the social issues to seize the future. "Social issues are not the business of government!" says thoroughly modern millennial. It's a seductive cry, one repeated this past Tuesday in an article about how some young libertarians dubbed the "Liberty Kids" are taking over the moribund Los Angeles GOP. Oh, wouldn't the political landscape be simple if we could just boil things down to fiscal responsibility? But life is seldom simple. If you would claim to be purely fiscal, or assert that "social issues"...

President Barack Obama has helped kick off the international Gay Games in Cleveland with a surprise video message shown at the opening ceremonies. […] The president said the United States has come a long way in its commitment to equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. He also noted that some athletes come from places where publicly acknowledging their sexual orientation can put them at risk. …

President Obama made a surprise video appearance at the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland on Saturday. Joining Greg Louganis, Lance Bass, the Pointer Sisters, and Broadway’s Andrea McArdle and Alex Newell in celebrating the event, Obama said, “Since 1982 the Gay Games have given lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender athletes and supporters around the world a chance to come together to compete, celebrate, and inspire others.” President Obama, who is vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, noted how the country has changed since the games began in 1982. “We’ve also seen America change in that time, even since...

After weeks of sacking villages and destroying church buildings around Nigeria’s northeastern town of Gwoza, Islamic extremist group Boko Haram on Wednesday (Aug. 6) killed an estimated 100 people in the predominantly Christian town, sources said. The shooting, fire-bombing and slashing of men, women and children in Gwoza, Borno state, as initially the military reportedly fled before an insurgent force backed by international terrorist groups, began at about 4 a.m., producing eyewitness assertions that Boko Haram, which seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria, had taken control of the town of more than 276,000 people. “You have been fleeing...

You know, being a fan of the Minnesota Vikings is difficult enough just based on what happens on the field. We’re 0-4 in Super Bowls. We’ve got to deal with the stomach-curdling memories of the 1999 NFC Championship Game, not to mention 41-doughnut in the same game two years later, and the bounty-hunting Saints putting out a contract on Brett Favre in 2010. But on a cultural level . . . hey, what the heck did we do? We were just sitting here minding our own business. First we got stuck with a petulant, attention-mongering punter who couldn’t and can’t...

The nation’s first-ever memorial to gay military veterans will be placed in the “gay corner” of the historic Congressional Cemetery on Capitol Hill, home to the gravesites of senators, congressmen, Supreme Court justices and vice presidents. In announcing the new memorial, cemetery President Paul K. Williams said the stone structure will be put close to “the ‘gay corner,’ thought to be the only LGBT cemetery section in the world.” The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Veterans Memorial Project and the cemetery announced the design this week. It consists of three black granite panels standing 11 feet high, 5 feet wide...

Did you know that it is perfectly normal for a man to appear in public wearing pink pony ears and tail? No, really.  There is nothing at all unusual about that. And if you don't believe me then I will write an overlong article trying to convince you of its complete normalcy. Such is the attitude of Jennifer Goforth Gregory of The Atlantic who tries a bit too hard to convince the readers that men wearing flashy pony costumes is absolutely normal. The funniest thing about Gregory plugging such men aka "Bronies" is how much obvious effort she puts into...

“Of course I am a doctor and I want to preserve life. And out of respect for human life I would remove a gangrenous appendix from a diseased body. The Jew is the diseased body. The Jew is the gangrenous appendix in the body of mankind.”  These words are taken from Robert Lifton’s book, The Nazi Doctors.  They summarize the total enmification (the making into an enemy) of Jews by the Nazi government in the belief that Jewishness personifies physical disease in the body of humanity.  The concept of homophobia, as used by progressives to psychodiagnose Christians, is a variation...

...Charlie Crist, the former Republican governor turned independent turned Democrat, was endorsed by SAVE, the gay rights group based in Miami-Dade County. The gay and lesbian community has become an important element of the Democratic Party’s coalition.

Listed as a third-stringer on the depth chart and expected by many to not make the 53-man team, Michael Sam’s quest to become the first openly-gay player on a regular-season roster moved on Friday night to an actual game.

Julie Atwood was standing at her son's casket when the phone rang. The church where her son's funeral was scheduled to be held the next day decided to abruptly cancel the service, after the pastor learned the deceased was gay and his obituary listed a surviving "husband." Atwood said she was told it would be "blasphemous" to hold the services at the church because her son, Julion Evans, 42, was gay. "It was devastating," she said. "I did feel like he was being denied the dignity of death." Evans' husband, Kendall Capers, says the pair were partners for 17 years...

Nova Scotia’s first gay-friendly mosque is set to open in the next few weeks. The Halifax Unity Mosque is an expansion of the Toronto Unity Mosque, also called el-Tawhid Juma Circle. The mosque is a “gender-equal, LGBTI/queer-affirming” place for Muslims to worship, according to its Facebook page. Syed Adnan Hussein has been building support for the Halifax Unity Mosque for a while. He found a space this week and hopes to start worship by next month. He hopes it will welcome people with a range of sexual identities. Many Muslims live in countries where being gay is a crime. Often,...

The Target Corporation has traditional marriage and family in the crosshairs of its bulls-eye. Target has now declared its support for homosexual “marriage.” However, the Minnesota-based retailer has gone past the point of articulating support for gay “marriage” and has jumped into the fray to wield its influence with the courts on this issue. Working to overturn the vote of the people regarding the true definition of marriage, Target has filed an amicus brief with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals pushing for so-called marriage “equality” regarding the ban on same-sex marriage in Wisconsin and Indiana. (The case is before...