Free Republic

WASHINGTON — Washington D.C.'s City Council has voted to legalize gay marriage in the nation's capital. Mayor Adrian Fenty has promised to sign the bill, which was co-sponsored by 10 of the council's 13 members. The final vote Tuesday was 11-2. The bill now goes to Congress, which has final say over the district's laws. Opponents say they'll try to get Congress or voters to overturn it. Passage of the bill is a victory for gay marriage supporters, who have been dealt a recent string of defeats... Gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont. New Hampshire will...

The Stooges, Genesis, ABBA, the Hollies and Jimmy Cliff will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the shrine's 25th annual ceremony on March 15 at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. They'll be joined by David Geffen and a cadre of songwriters -- Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry, Jesse Stone, Mort Shuman and Otis Blackwell -- who will receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award for non-performers. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Fuse TV. Surprisingly not making the cut were KISS and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court in San Francisco has reversed a judge's order that backers of Proposition 8, the state initiative that banned same-sex marriage, give their campaign strategy documents to opponents trying to overturn the measure. In a unanimous ruling today, the Ninth U.S. Circuit of Appeals tossed out the order that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker issued in October against backers of Prop. 8, which state voters approved in November 2008. Walker had said lawyers for two same-sex couples and a gay-rights group were entitled to see internal memos and e-mails between Yes on 8...

A former Duke University employee and adoptive gay father charged with molesting his five-year-old son--and offering the boy as a sex object to pedophiles online--is expected to make a plea bargain, according to a Dec. 1 article in local newspaper the Durham Herald Sun. Frank Lombard faces charges stemming from alleged instances in which he molested his young adopted son and chatted about the deeds online even as he carried them out. It’s thought that the U.S, Attorney’s Office is positioning the case for a plea arrangement because the Office is set to file an "information," which allows the prosecution...

This veteran teacher says that if parents believe that keeping their children out of sex-ed classes will prevent the children from hearing and believing the agenda that permeates our schools, they are wrong. It might make the parent feel good and give a false sense of security that all is okay under his roof. But what about GLSEN's "Integrated Curriculum Plan?" How does a parent remove his child from math, science, English, social studies, and foreign languages when teachers have been taught to plant little contaminated seeds into the fertilized ground of the usual daily lessons? This teacher's name will...

GLSEN’s stated mission is to empower gay youth in the schools and to stop harassment by other students. It encourages the formation of Gay Student Alliances and condemns the use of hateful words. GLSEN also strives to influence the educational curriculum to include materials which the group believes will increase tolerance of gay students and decrease bullying. To that end, GLSEN maintains a recommended reading list of books that it claims “furthers our mission to ensure safe schools for all students.” In other words, these are the books that GLSEN’s directors think all kids should be reading: gay kids should...

email from Equality VA, a pro-homosexual group in VA: Exciting news! The Kaine administration has started the rulemaking process that could result in state employees being able to choose either to include either a spouse or an “otherwise qualified adult” on their state health insurance plan. Equality Virginia has been working to achieve this goal for the past year. These efforts finally have resulted in publication of aNotice of Intended Regulatory Action that is the first step in a long process that will not conclude until months after Governor-elect McDonnell takes office in January. To move this proposal from suggestion...

When Vallejo Mayor Osby Davis told the New York Times in a recent interview that gay people don't get to heaven, he broke not one, but two cardinal rules of politics in a single sentence. With a simple phrase, Davis breached the separation between church and state and grabbed the electrified "third-rail" in Bay Area politics with both hands. He told the reporter that gays are "committing sins and those sins will keep them out of heaven." After the Nov. 20 article, the mayor claimed his words were taken out of context. The Times responded by providing an audio link...

First on TVNewser: American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert won't be appearing on "Good Morning America" tomorrow. TVNewser has learned ABC News canceled the concert after Lambert's sexually charged performance at the American Music Awards Sunday night. Lambert led men on leashes, dragged a woman by her foot, and smashed a man's head into his crotch, all while singing his new single "For Your Entertainment." ABC, which aired the awards show, received about 1,500 phone calls from people complaining about the performance, a number ABC calls "moderate." An ABC News spokesperson tells TVNewser, "given his controversial live performance on the AMAs...

The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics ruled Tuesday that a proposed ballot initiative defining marriage as between a man and a woman cannot go forward, reaffirming an earlier ruling that such a vote would be discriminatory. The board cited the city Human Rights Act, which bans discrimination against gay men and lesbians. The board decision, which will probably be challenged in court, means the D.C. Council can move forward with its plans to vote on a bill next month to legalize same-sex marriage. The council on Tuesday scheduled a vote for Dec. 1. "We have considered all of the...

Gay newspapers in several U.S. cities, including the Washington Blade, shut down on Monday, as the company that owned them, Window Media, abruptly went out of business. Window Media had been in serious financial trouble, but employees said they had expected a reorganization or sale, not a liquidation. “We found out when two of the corporate officers were waiting for us when we got to work this morning,” said Kevin Naff, editor of the Blade, a 40-year-old paper that was one of the most important publications written for a gay audience. “It’s not a complete surprise. The abruptness of it...

ATLANTA — The nation's largest publisher of newspapers serving the gay and lesbian community has shut down. Laura Douglas-Brown, editor of Southern Voice newspaper in Atlanta, says she arrived at work Monday to find the locks changed and a note saying parent company Window Media LLC has closed down.

It looks like the leftist partisans who violated Joe the Plumber’s privacy, rifled through Linda Tripp’s confidential records, and spent weeks literally navel-gazing at Bristol Palin’s real and imagined pregnancies have hit a new low: leaking an underage pornographic video to smear Carrie Prejean. By now, the media have ensured millions of people who never learned the names of Van Jones, Valerie Jarrett, or Anita Dunn have heard that the former Miss California once made a solo sex tape -- or, as the seasoned gatekeepers of reliable journalism often report it, simply a “sex tape.” Prejean told Sean Hannity...

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, issued the following statement today on the American Medical Association’s (AMA) announcements regarding LGBT rights. AMA members voted to join the effort to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and declared that bans on same-sex marriage result in health disparities for LGBT couples and families.

Carrie Prejean confessed that she has a sex tape, but said she regrets it. The former Miss California, who caused controversy during the Miss USA pageant when she said she didn't support same-sex marriage, appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News Channel show Monday night to address the rumor. "It was the biggest mistake of my life," Prejean told Hannity. "I was all by myself. I was sending a boyfriend at the time, who I loved and cared about, a video of me. "I was a teenager at the time," she told Hannity. "Never did I think it would ever come...

Carrie Prejean on Tuesday defended a recently surfaced erotic video of her as a youthful indiscretion and questioned whether it could actually be called a “sex tape” since no one else appears in it. Prejean admitted to making the video of herself and sending it to her boyfriend when she was 17 years old.

Nicole Kidman and Gwyneth Paltrow are to play husband and wife in a new film about the world's first post-operative transsexual. Kidman will play Einar Wegener, the Danish artist who was born a man and married illustrator Gerda Gottlieb in 1904. Charlize Theron was originally attached to play Gottlieb, but Paltrow has now signed on for the role, according to Variety. The film, The Danish Girl, will be produced by Kidman's own company, Blossom Films. It is based on the international best-seller of the same name by David Ebershoff. Eimar was said to have discovered his true inclinations when he...

It’s an Obama infomercial! No, a Lesbian Night on the Fox channel? Wait, it’s a soft porn comedy hour on a major American television network. Actually, it's none of the above. It’s the premiere of the Wanda Sykes Show, a new one-hour program competing in the late night lineup. But at this juncture, it’s hard to tell what the show really is. The much buzzed “late-night show by the first gay black woman” with warnings of adult language and content conjures up an array of possibilities. Sadly, none of them really go anywhere in this perplexing presentation masquerading as hip....

It's one of America's most haunting crime stories: four members of a Kansas family brutally murdered on Nov. 15, 1959, at their rural farmhouse. The slayings of the Clutters — chronicled in Truman Capote's book, "In Cold Blood" — have overshadowed the town of Holcomb for the past half century and the trial and execution of the culprits has brought little, if any, closure. For many townsfolk, the wounds have been slow to heal partly because of Capote's critically acclaimed, nonfiction novel that spawned a new literary genre. The book has been reviled in its birthplace by residents because of...

"[Wikipedia Authors] are 80 percent male, more than 65 percent single, more than 85 percent without children, and around 70 percent of them are under the age of 30."

"Is Anderson Cooper gay?" That's the big question once again circulating around the Web ... only this time it's not so much is he, but who is he dating and why hasn't he come out yet. Last week, Gawker, Page Six and Perez Hilton started buzzing about supposedly closeted Cooper's rumored new beau, and the glut of attention was accompanied by an almost crushing sense of déjà vu. Why? Because Cooper's sexuality is hardly a fresh topic. As Gawker's Brian Moylan said in an October 29th post on the subject: "Saying Cooper is gay is no longer a scoop. It's...

Carrie Prejean demanded more than a million dollars during her settlement negotiations with Miss California USA Pageant officials -- that is, until the lawyer for the Pageant showed Carrie an XXX home video of her handiwork. The video the lawyer showed Carrie is extremely graphic and has never been released publicly. We know that, because TMZ obtained the video months ago but decided not to post it because it was so racy. Let's just say, Carrie has a promising solo career. We're told it took about 15 seconds for Carrie to jettison her demand and essentially walk away with nothing....

Andrew Sullivan: The truth about civil marriage - why it is the essential criterion for gay equality - is that it alone explodes this core marginalization and invisibility of gay people. It alone can reach those gay kids who need to know they have a future as a dignified human being with a family. It alone tells society that gay people are equal in their loves and in their hearts and in their families - not just useful in a society with a need for talented or able individuals whose private lives remain perforce sequestered from view. This is why...

PORTLAND, Maine — Voters on Tuesday repealed the state’s same sex marriage law after an emotionally charged campaign that drew large numbers to the polls and focused national attention on Maine. In a defiant speech to several hundred lingering supporters, No on 1 campaign manager Jesse Connolly pledged that his side “will not quit until we know where every single one of these votes lives.”

Over the last several months homosexual activist campaign workers from across the country have been traveling to Maine to campaign against the upcoming vote for traditional marriage. It's been largely paid for by national homosexual groups. But all along the Massachusetts homosexual lobby has been a major organizing and fundraising arm of the pro-gay marriage push in Maine.

President Obama’s highly controversial Safe Schools Czar, Kevin Jennings, is concerned about the heterosexual indoctrination of children in our public schools. In his bizarre view: “we all know what’s promoted in our schools: Heterosexuality is promoted in our schools. Every time kids read Romeo and Juliet or they’re encouraged to go to the prom or whatever it is, kids are aggressively recruited to be heterosexual in this country. And you know what, it doesn’t work. The reality is that if schools could affect your sexual orientation there would have been no gay people in the first place. But they’re still...

Obama’s “Safe Schools” czar, Kevin Jennings, founded and led GLSEN for 18 years. A current GLSEN lesson plan for “LGBT History” -- intended for schoolchildren – celebrates gay and lesbian activists from the 1950s and ’60s. It recommends the film “Gay Pioneers” which profiles several practitioners and promoters of pornography. GLSEN recommends “Gay Pioneers” for classroom use, for showing at a Gay-Straight Alliance club meeting (invite other clubs!), for a school assembly, or for donation to the school library. (In the past, GLSEN’s website has recommended readings for children describing -- and implicitly endorsing -- adult-child sex and sexual experimentation...

Determining whether or not to apply the ultimate slur of Internet derision to a site — whether it’s “gay” or not — might become a lot more subjective a process, if two competing for-profit groups have their way. Each wants to spearhead the development of a .gay suffix for use in internet domains. The two groups aren’t very different.. One is the Dot Gay Alliance at dotgay.org, headed up by Joe Dolce, a longtime gay activist who got the idea when helped creating the .eco domain. When Al Gore said he would support .eco if half the proceeds from the...

(Arlington, VA) Equality Virginia PAC announced at a press conference in Arlington today its endorsement of Jody Wagner for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. "In every respect, Jody Wagner has demonstrated that she will walk with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Virginians on the path to full equality," said Equality Virginia PAC CEO, Jon Blair, at a joint press conference with Wagner. Delegate Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria) said, "Jody Wagner has what it takes to make a great lieutenant governor. Not only does she know Virginia's finances, but she also knows what it takes to run a small business. Jody puts...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: OCTOBER 15, 2009 JON BLAIR, 804-643-4816 Equality Virginia PAC Endorses Deeds for Governor RICHMOND - Equality Virginia PAC announced today its support for Creigh Deeds for Governor. “There is no question that for the GLBT community and Virginians who believe in equality for all, there is only one sensible choice for Governor, and that choice is Creigh Deeds,” stated Jon Blair, Equality Virginia PAC’s CEO. “While no candidate is perfect, including Senator Deeds, Virginians must support the one candidate who truly understands that discrimination hurts our economy and our families.” Blair drew the following contrasts in...

A federal judge refused today to dismiss a lawsuit challenging California's ban on same-sex marriage, setting the stage for the nation's first trial on the constitutionality of a law allowing only opposite-sex couples to wed. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, in a ruling from the bench in San Francisco, said a trial was needed to resolve crucial issues, including whether gays and lesbians are persecuted minorities entitled to judicial protection from discriminatory laws. He has scheduled the trial for January. Sponsors of Proposition 8, approved by 52 percent of the voters in November, argued that the initiative was clearly...

President Obama delivered an unprecedented message to the Human Rights Campaign Saturday night. Sounding more like a homosexual activist than a sitting president, Obama went well beyond his expected message of “I’m here with you” on the homosexual agenda. “My expectation is that when you look back on these years, you will see a time in which we put a stop to discrimination against gays and lesbians -- whether in the office or on the battlefield,” Obama told an estimated audience of 3,000. “You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognize relationships between two men...

Old show, new era: the first gay couple will compete on "The Newlywed Game" today on the Game Show Network. Actor George Takei and his partner Brad Altman talk about the landmark episode.George Takei -- who played Mr. Sulu on "Star Trek" -- and his partner, Brad Altman, will be the first gay contestants on the show that has been on and off TV since its primetime premiere on ABC in 1967. The game show, currently hosted by singer Carnie Wilson, has newly married couples compete against each other in a series of question rounds to determine how well the...

W.H. aide blasts bloggers: 'Take off their pajamas' By Eric Zimmermann - 10/12/09 10:50 AM ET Liberal bloggers are up in arms over a reported jab from a White House adviser. The uproar began this weekend when NBC's John Harwood, after reporting on a gay rights march in Washington, relayed a dismissive quote from an anonymous administration official. "And for a sign of how seriously the White House does or doesn't take this opposition one adviser told me today those bloggers need to take off their pajamas, get dressed and realize that governing a closely divided country is complicated and...

Frédéric Mitterrand, France’s culture minister, was under pressure to resign after it emerged that he had admitted to paying “young boys” for sexual acts while on holiday in Thailand. The revelations in his 2005 autobiography “The Bad Life” have come back to haunt Mr Mitterrand after he emerged as one of the most vociferous defenders of Roman Polanski, the film director currently detained in Switzerland in connection with an outstanding conviction for unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl in the US in 1977. In his book, Mr Mitterrand, the nephew of the late Socialist president François Mitterrand, wrote: “I...

Disney has long been the most gay friendly studio in Hollywood, having had a couple of gay production chiefs over the years, most recently Nina Jacobson, now an independent producer after being forced out in a studio purge several years ago. The studio's theme parks have allowed unofficial Gay Day celebrations for years, prompting a host of venemous attacks from various Christian right anti-gay zealots. But Disney now has a really big first -- Rich Ross, Hollywood's first openly gay studio chief.

"Gay" sex is morally good and is as "wonderful" as heterosexual relations, according to Chai Feldblum, President Obama's nominee to become commissioner for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. "Gay sex is morally good," she said. "Now you may think that might be a little crazy to go out there and say gay sex is good. But think a second. Society definitely believes that heterosexual sex is good. Right. Heterosexual sex within a certain framework – marriage – I mean, you can't get more dewy-eyed and romantic in this society about how wonderful that is."

"I looked at Brewster and said, 'You know, I hope you knew to use a condom.'" Washington Times: In this one case in which Mr. (Kevin) Jennings had a real chance to protect a young boy from a sexual predator, he not only failed to do what the law required but actually encouraged the relationship.

The 40-year-old "comedian" Jack Black went on the "dark side" during the MTV Awards praying to the devil. Black, who was promoting a heavy metal video game called Brütal Legend, asked the "Dear Dark Lord Satan" to bless the rock star nominees with "continued success in the music industry." "I was mortified when Jack Black lead everyone in a prayer to satan. It was no joke," said Samantha Taylor of California. "The audience held hands and did it. I was a fan, but not anymore." Black made his grand entrace wearing extra muscles and a battle axe. "During the Awards,...

If you tuned in to the soap "One Life to Live" this week, you may have noticed there's been a change of character. One character in particular. Actress Patricia Mauceri says she was fired and abruptly replaced for objecting to a gay storyline because of her religious beliefs. Mauceri played the recurring role of Carlotta Vega on "OLTL" for the last 14 years. But when she objected to how the writers wanted her deeply religious character, a Latina mother, to handle a storyline involving homosexuality, she objected. And for that she claims she was fired. Mauceri, 59, a devout Christian,...

DAYTONA BEACH -- The men's restroom on the second floor of the Volusia Mall Sears is no place for children, police said Wednesday with the release of surveillance photos of a man believed to have made sexual advances toward a 13-year-old boy. "Our biggest fear is children going into these bathrooms, especially with these predators circling around," Police Chief Mike Chitwood said. "It was just a matter of time before something like this was going to happen." The boy, visiting from Illinois with his godparents, was propositioned two weeks ago in the restroom, Chitwood said. The man was in a...

Ben & Jerry’s is temporarily renaming popular “Chubby Hubby” ice cream “Hubby Hubby” beginning today to celebrate the start of legalized gay marriage in its home state of Vermont. “The legalization of marriage for gay and lesbian couples in Vermont is certainly a step in the right direction, and something worth celebrating with peace, love - and plenty of ice cream,” Ben & Jerry’s CEO Walt Freese said in announcing the sugary switch.

Former Miss USA runnerup Carrie Prejean is firing back at California pageant officials with a lawsuit that claims the state organization discriminated against her religious beliefs, caused her emotional distress and engaged in slander, her lawyer confirmed to FOXNews.com Monday. The 22-year-old beauty queen filed a complaint Monday morning in Los Angeles Superior Court against K2 Productions (the franchise that operates the Miss California Organization) as well as co-executive directors Keith Lewis and Shanna Moakler and publicist Roger Neal. Prejean lost her crown three months ago for what state pageant officials claimed was a “breach of contract” and failure to...

BURBANK, Calif. - Spider-Man and Iron Man have a new boss: The Walt Disney Co. Disney announced this morning that it is buying Marvel Entertainment -- and the more than 5,000 Marvel characters. They include X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor. "This is a great fit for us," Disney boss Bob Iger told CNBC this morning. He said the acquisition was a way to attract more boys. Disney said the transaction value is $50 per Marvel share -- or about $4 billion. Iger said the acquisition will grow both Disney and Marvel.

The Nebraska Supreme Court says someone who commits sexual harassment shouldn't be able to later sue the victim when the original harassment complaint was true. So the high court declined Friday to intervene in a dispute between two Creighton University Spanish professors. Creighton officials sanctioned Roxana Recio in 2004 for harassing Michelle Evers. Recio later sued Evers in 2006, saying the harassment complaint improperly interfered with Recio's job at Creighton.

Live Nation has canceled the concerts of a controversial reggae artist who was scheduled to perform at the House of Blues. Buju Banton, known for singing violent anti-gay lyrics, was booked to perform at the House of Blues in Chicago Oct. 1. Live Nation announced late Thursday night that all scheduled concerts by Banton have been canceled, including in Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas and Houston. Live Nation did not state a reason for the cancellation. Anyone who bought tickets can get refunds. Gay rights groups had been pressuring Live Nation to cancel Banton's concerts, calling his music "murder music." In...

On his show today, Rush Limbaugh cheered on the woman who showed up at Rep. Barney Frank's (D-MA) town hall with a sign depicting President Obama as Hitler: "I think it's fabulous and fantastic, and hilarious," said Limbaugh, "that a woman shows up at a Barney Frank town hall meeting with an Obama-as-Hitler poster and this Nazi stuff, in his district. I mean, this is unreal." "But the killer for me was, here's Barney Frank saying, 'What planet do you live on?' to this woman. Isn't it an established fact that Barney Frank himself spends of his time living around...

If you’ve been waiting since the ‘80’s to see an overstuffed talking chair catapult a suit clad man-child into a fantastic like sketch, you’re day has finally come. The Pee-wee Herman Show  is back and this time, Paul Reubens promises to keep it in his gray polyesters. Reubens said, “It’s time…. I've put part of him away for a long time, but part of him has always been here with me. I think it will be like riding a bike - which is not a bad analogy for Pee-wee, by the way." That’s right; the long-awaited return of Pee-wee Herman...

This is one reason why conservatives and libertarians did not join Barney Frank and the left in promoting politically correct hate-crime legislation that would create a few more specially protected categories among us, as a kind of human “endangered species” act. Sorting Americans into distinctive racial, ethnic and gender groups, while designating whites and heterosexuals to be their “oppressors” makes the latter into legitimate targets of hate themselves. It thus becomes a way of exacerbating, rather than correcting, the social disorder.

Add former Sen. Rick Santorum to the list of potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates. POLITICO has learned Santorum will visit first-in-the-nation Iowa this fall for a series of appearances before the sort of conservative activists who dominate the state GOP’s key presidential caucuses. The Pennsylvanian, who lost his 2006 re-election bid, will visit Iowa on October 1st, appearing on a Des Moines radio talk show and speaking to a luncheon and workshop of Iowa’s Right to Life group before heading east to Dubuque, where he’ll headline a fundraiser for the conservative America’s Future Fund PAC and then speak about the...