Free Republic

In their first response since the case sparked a national race debate months ago, lawyers for Midwest Sperm Bank this week pushed for the suit's dismissal because they said Illinois law does not recognize damages or extra costs associated with raising a healthy child. In her lawsuit, filed last fall, Jennifer Cramblett said she became pregnant in December 2011 through artificial insemination with sperm donated by a black man instead of a white donor as she and her same-sex partner had intended. Cramblett said she learned of the alleged mistake five months into her pregnancy, when she called the sperm...

Green party leader Natalie Bennett has revealed she is open to the idea of legalising three-way marriages. Party members could get the chance to formulate policy to permit so-called polyamorous relationships, which would allow more than two people to enter into marriages or have civil partnerships. Ms Bennett said the Greens had already led the way in calling for the liberalisation of marriage laws and is 'open' to going further.

The GOP-controlled House Thursday barely rejected a bid by supporters of medical marijuana to permit veterans to receive information about the drug from their government doctors. The 213-210 vote came on a failed amendment to a bill funding the budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The proposal by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., would have lifted a rule blocking VA doctors from discussing the pros or cons of medical pot. They would still not have been able to prescribe it. He said marijuana is less addicting and dangerous than drugs like opiates that are commonly prescribed. "States are listening to...

A group of female webcomic artists and online radio hosts have been ejected from the Calgary Expo, a Canadian pop culture convention, after publicly disagreeing with members of a feminist panel discussion. Staff at the expo informed them that they had received reports of ‘harassment’ at the panel, but footage of the discussion shows that no such behaviour took place. Consumers accused the Calgary Expo of engaging in political intolerance, and have begun a boycott of the convention’s sponsors.

Cameras placed along Texas' 1,200-mile border with Mexico have captured the stream of illegal immigrants sneaking into the country on a daily basis. The network of more than 1,000 motion detectors, similar to those used to film wildlife, have been placed strategically in areas that have not been secured - where Mexican citizens can cross and evade capture with ease. They helped border guards apprehend nearly 30,000 suspects and led to 88,400 pounds of drugs being seized in 2014 as part of Operation Drawbridge. The system has also had a significant impact on Mexican cartels and their ability to smuggle...

With seven words—“It is going to be an issue”—the U.S. government signaled to orthodox Christian colleges and universities that if they don’t drop their opposition to same-sex marriage they will lose their tax exempt status. Those words came yesterday when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, a case concerning whether the Fourteenth Amendment’s must guarantee the right for same-sex couples to marry. While the primary issue is whether gay marriage will be required in every state in the union, one exchange highlighted how the upcoming ruling could affect religious liberty. Justice Samuel Alito asked Solicitor General...

Cruz guilty of demagoguery Sunday morning I arose early, turned on the news to the headline, “There is no room for Christians in today’s Democratic Party”— Republican candidate for president, Ted Cruz. To say that I was incensed would be an understatement. I could not believe a candidate for president, or anyone in a position of leadership, could make such an assertion. For a person to set himself up in judgment to decide who is Christian and who is not, puts himself in the position of God.... ...Until war’s end, Jews and others were killed by the millions to rid...

GoFundMe’s old policy on crowdfunding may not have been enough to justify its decision last weekend to kill campaigns on behalf of a Christian-owned florist and bakery — but its new policy is. The website quietly expanded its list of banned crowdfunding activities this week shortly after The Washington Times questioned GoFundMe’s reliance on its policy against campaigns in defense of “formal charges of heinous crimes” to pull fundraisers for Arlene’s Flowers and for Sweet Cakes by Melissa. The new policy, which includes a ban on campaigns in defense of “claims of discriminatory acts,” would appear to make it more...

In what is almost certainly a presidential first, President Obama highlighted an historic gay rights riot as he issued the annual “Loyalty Day” proclamation Thursday. In the presidential decree, Mr. Obama said it was “the understanding that our Union is a constant work in progress that guided our forebears through places like Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall.” Stonewall is a reference to riots in New York City in 1969 by the gay community against a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, an event credited with starting the modern fight for LGBT rights in the U.S.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Some feel it is oppressive when police officers in New York arrest people for seemingly minor offenses like cycling on a sidewalk. And although these types of arrests are down dramatically, there is a move in the City Council to decriminalize low-level offenses like littering, fare evasion, public drinking, public urination, cycling on a sidewalk and loitering after hours in a city park. Supporters of the plan say they should be treated like parking violations, not crimes. In Park Slope, just eight people were arrested for sidewalk cycling from 2008 to 2011, but there were more...

Houston (CNN)Mike Huckabee rallied a crowd of Hispanic evangelicals on Wednesday night, pushing back in the debate over religious freedom just one day after the Supreme Court heard oral arguments to determine whether states have the right to ban same-sex marriage.

Rosie O'Donnell's estranged wife claims she wants custody because Rosie drinks too much, smokes too much and has a laissez-faire manner when it comes to raising kids. Rosie's reaction ... her wife's delusional.

Kate Reese, a 13-year-old living in Reno, Nevada, used to think there was something wrong with her. “I began realizing I wasn’t necessarily straight when I was around 5 or 6,” Reese said. “I saw girls holding hands and thought, I could go for that. Girls were just more interesting.” Reese may have gone quite a few more years thinking that the innocent schoolyard crushes she harbored were indications of her deviance. But she was able to seek the language to describe herself, and assuage her worries, in a way older LGBT people never could — she had the internet.

The immediacy of social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook, offers us a window into the prejudices of others that is unprecedented in the history of our society. Not a day passes in the United States when some person does not commit career suicide, achieve viral fame, or both by posting to Twitter or Facebook. A hundred and forty characters or less can make a hero or freshly mint a villain. All it takes is an ill-chosen word or, perhaps more accurately, a moment of honesty. We are all creatures of prejudice to one degree or another; we all harbor likes,...

One moment in the Supreme Court's oral arguments over same-sex “marriage” reveals what an embarrassment Sonia Sotomayor is as a justice. John J. Bursch, who argued on behalf of marriage, said that the people, not five unelected justices, should be able to decide whether to redefine a pillar of society that predates the government and written history. “This case isn't about how to define marriage,” he said. “It's about who gets to decide that question. Is it the people acting through the democratic process, or is it the federal courts? And we're asking you to affirm every individual's fundamental liberty...

April 28, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- I’ve been saying for quite some time that pornography is dangerous for more reasons than those that we typically discuss. Pornography is not dangerous just because it is spiritually dangerous. Pornography is not dangerous just because it is addictive, unhealthy, and unrealistic. Pornography is dangerous because it is becoming a new ideology of sex, in which women are objects to be abused and consumed and men are sexual aggressors, using the girls and women to physically extract as much so-called “pleasure” as possible.When I first spoke on this issue at the University of Ottawa with...

The drug war means never having to say you’re sorry. A Houston-based federal judge ruled that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration does not owe the owner of a small Texas trucking company anything, not even the cost of repairing the bullet holes to a tractor-trailer truck that the agency used without his permission for a wild 2011 drug cartel sting that resulted in the execution-style murder of the truck’s driver, who was secretly working as a government informant. The Houston Chronicle story also points out that the ruling will spare the DEA a “potentially embarrassing trial.” Another way to phrase...

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case to determine whether the Constitution requires states to issue same-sex marriage licenses and requires other states to honor same-sex marriages performed in those states. A primary argument by the plaintiffs is that gay marriage is covered under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and that if straights can marry, then so can gays. The counterargument is that marriage is a privilege and not a right, a union of one man and one woman sanctioned over millennia by virtually every culture and country over time as the stable...

Likely presidential candidate had previously seen GOP reducing focus on issue.If presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) tries to push forward a constitutional amendment guaranteeing state control over marriage laws, he'd have support from at least one potential rival. While speaking in Iowa over the weekend, Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker made it clear that he, like Cruz (and Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio) thinks states should have the authority to decide whether to recognize same-sex marriages. In front of a crowd in Waukee, Iowa, he said: "I still hold out hope that the Supreme Court will rule, as...

Get ready to live out your Magic Mike fantasies with a side of fries. For decades, customers have had the chance to ogle scantily clad women at Hooters as they chug some beer and chow down on some wings. For everyone that has wondered why there isn't a male version of Hooters — yeah, why isn't there a male version of Hooters? — today is your lucky day.