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(CBS News) Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday backed away from his support of adoptions by same-sex couples, saying that he simply "acknowledges" the legality of such adoptions in many states. A day earlier, Romney, in an interview with Fox News' Neil Cavuto, had indicated that while he does not support same-sex marriage, he considers the adoption of children by same-sex couples a "right." He said on Thursday: "And if two people of the same gender want to live together, want to have a loving relationship, or even to adopt a child -- in my state individuals of...

A memo sent out by a Republican pollster has been making the rounds online for its conclusion that the party needs to embrace gay marriage as part of its platform because of recent trends showing increased support for this important social issue. Jan van Lohuizen, who worked as a pollster for George W. Bush in 2004, made the case that the GOP should be fighting for gay marriage as a conservative issue, by emphasizing that “freedom means freedom for everyone.” The memo contains polling data showing that not only is support of gay marriage steadily increasing with the American people...

Bishop James D. Conley of Denver says that the civil unions bill being debated in Colorado is an attempt by the government to redefine and change the public's perception of marriage. “The purpose of the law is to reorient people’s values,” Bishop Conley told CNA on May 10, “and that isn’t what government should be about.” The intent of the bill, Bishop Conley said, is not to secure “legitimacy for social arrangements and personal behaviors,” but rather to “change viewpoints” of the general population about the definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The 2012...

President Barack Obama's recent announcement in support of “gay marriage” reflects what he is already doing on an international level, said the head of a United Nations watchdog group. Promoting gay causes overseas is a “key part of his foreign policy,” said Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, which monitors social policy debate at international institutions. Ruse told EWTN News on May 11 that the Obama administration has been pushing an alarming homosexual advocacy agenda overseas, despite objections from many other countries. In a groundbreaking statement on May 9, Obama announced his support for “gay...

President Barack Obama delighted his liberal base by coming down on the side of gay marriage, but he cheered the opposition, too. Republican activists now want to use Obama's stance on the issue - public opinion is about evenly split - to paint the president as a flip-flopper and to boost Mitt Romney's image in the eyes of conservatives who are still warming to him. Yet, across the Republican Party, from leaders to activists interviewed since Obama's announcement, there's been wide agreement to use the gay marriage issue selectively - in battleground states that have banned gay marriage, for example-...

Legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is garnering new attention from lawmakers in the wake of President Obama's support of same-sex marriage. The Respect for Marriage Act would repeal DOMA and afford federal protections to legally-married same-sex married couples, like those in New York state and elsewhere, that male and female couples already enjoy. Since Obama's statement Wednesday, the bill has picked up new co-sponsors and Democratic leaders, like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.), have said they would support legalizing same-sex marriage. That has given new hope to activists...

Just hours after President Barack Obama publicly backed gay marriage, the House struck back and passed a measure aimed at reinforcing the Defense of Marriage Act. With a 245-171 vote, the House voted to stop the Justice Department from using taxpayer funds to actively oppose DOMA -- the Clinton-era law defining marriage as between a man and a woman that the Obama administration stopped enforcing in February 2011. "It is not President Obama's prerogative to decide which laws matter and which do not, nor his right to challenge constitutional amendments duly passed by the various states," said the measure's sponsor,...

As gay rights advocates waited for a much-anticipated interview with President Obama regarding gay marriage, one called Wednesday “a big day for all Americans.” Speaking from his office in Washington, D.C., Human Rights Campaign communications director Fred Sainz said the president’s expected comments could be the end to his “evolving” views on the issue. “I think the term ‘evolving’ implies constant motion with an end. I think at some point, the evolution has to end,” Sainz said. “I’m hopeful that it will be today.” ABC’s Robin Roberts was scheduled to interview Obama on Wednesday in a hastily scheduled interview that...

President Barack Obama has seen an uptick in fundraising since he announced his shift on gay marriage, with some Democratic rainmakers citing renewed interest from gay and lesbian donors who had been urging the president to clarify his stance on the divisive social issue. "The phone calls went on until one in the morning after the president spoke — people calling saying `Where do I go, what can I do to help, what events are coming up,'" said Robert Zimmerman, a Long Island, N.Y., Obama bundler. "People I've been seeking out for campaign support for months have been calling me...

The President’s disclosure that he now accepts so-called “Gay marriage” has received a good bit of political analysis. I am no political prognosticator and this is not a political blog. But when the President invokes Christ and the “golden rule,” to justify his decision, now I think we have something to discuss on a blog like this.We have discussed at great length the problem with homosexual “marriage” before HERE, HERE HERE, and HERE) there is no reason restate it all again. Just click through to read those sorts of articles. Further I make reference in this post to Scripture’s consistent...

Fox News journalist, Shep Smith, welcomed President Obama into the 21st century and declared those who still oppose same-sex marriage to be on the wrong side of history. May 9, 2012 was indeed an historic moment. Though President Obama bathed his decision in Christian principles: “…our faith…is not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf but it’s also the golden rule…treat others the way you’d want to be treated...” For the first time ever, a sitting US president, considered the most powerful political leader in the world, has endorsed a marital arrangement that formally constitutes the pagan “worship of the...

Obama's Foreign Policy is a Mess, period. Consider for a moment that the US Department of State actively supports Gays in the Foreign Service (Read the end of this). Because there are so many Foreign Service Officers, and their partners now serving openly abroad, it may eventually become a policy issue with other countries. What would happen if France or one of the Islamic countries declared a sitting Ambassador or Political Officer persona nongrata and demanded their removal or recall for being GAY, or being the openly GAY State Department funded domestic partner? Does a country have the leverage to...

Gallup is out with a new poll suggesting a whopping 40 percent of Americans say President Obama's newly public support of gay marriage will affect their votes. Of those, 26 percent say it will make them less likely to vote for Obama, while 13 percent say it will make them more likely to vote for him. The critical number in the poll, though is for independents - 23 percent of whom said the gay marriage support makes it less likely they will vote for Obama. The survey is the first since the president publicly endorsed gay marriage on Wednesday with...

ROBIN Roberts was worried Barack Obama would out her as a lesbian. According to a Gawker report, the ABC news anchor — who scored the President Obama gay marriage interview — wasn’t overly enthusiastic about the scoop because she thought it would bring her own sexuality to the forefront. “Most of the discussions [among TV people] today about why Robin got the interview have to do with her being gay,” a source said. “Not that she’s black, or friends of the Obamas. “Obviously they picked her because she’s black and gay.

(CBS News) Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Thursday that while he opposes same-sex marriage, he is "fine" with gay couples adopting children. The presumptive nominee also declined to criticize President Obama's reversal on the issue, saying he would "respect the right of the president to reach the conclusion he has." In his most detailed comments to date on the issue of civil rights for gay people, Romney told Fox News television host Neil Cavuto, "I know many gay couples that are able to adopt children. That's fine. But my preference is that we ... continue to define marriage as...

Now that President Obama has "evolved" on the matter of same-sex marriage to the position favored by "enlightened" Americans, this would seem to be a good time for some rhetorical hygiene. There are modest and civil proponents of same-sex marriage. But the tone of many advocates has been shrill to the point of frothing. The Southern Poverty Law Center, for example, put the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research Council on its 2010 list of "hate groups" because of their opposition to gay marriage. A religion professor at a Midwest state university explained Catholic opposition to same-sex marriage...

One in five gay/bisexual men in the 21 U.S. cities hardest hit by AIDS have HIV infections -- and nearly half don't know it, a CDC survey finds. Black gay/bi men and under-30 gay/bi adults are least likely to know of their HIV infections. The findings show that HIV infection rates remain strikingly high among gay and bisexual men, says Kevin Fenton, MD, PhD, director of the CDC's center for HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, STD, and TB prevention. "The number of new HIV infections each year is increasing among men who have sex with men [MSM], while remaining stable or decreasing...

The day after President Obama endorsed gay marriage, Mitt Romney found himself responding to allegations that as a teenager he taunted a prep school classmate who later came out as gay.

One day after President Obama made a landmark public statement announcing his support for gay marriage, which some say was nudged forward by Vice President Joe Biden's announced support for it this past weekend, another world leader also came forward. Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand broke his longtime silence on issue, providing a statement to the Associated Press in which he declared that he was "not personally opposed to gay marriage." President Obama's opponent in this fall's general election, Mitt Romney, confirmed his position opposing gay marriage yesterday, but according to the Washington Post, refrained from further comment...

Long a lightning rod for conservative criticism, the Girl Scouts of the USA are now facing their highest-level challenge yet: An official inquiry by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. At issue are concerns about program materials that some Catholics find offensive, as well as assertions that the Scouts associate with other groups espousing stances that conflict with church teaching. The Scouts, who have numerous parish-sponsored troops, deny many of the claims and defend their alliances. The inquiry coincides with the Scouts' 100th anniversary celebrations and follows a chain of other controversies. Earlier this year, legislators in Indiana and Alaska...