Free Republic

The course of history changes at special moments when courageous individuals step up to take a stand, often at personal risk, on issues burning in controversy. One of those moments was just celebrated with the commemoration of the historic civil rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in March 1965. Another such moment is unfolding before us today. A group of some 150 black pastors, the National Baptist Fellowship of Concerned Pastors, is standing in protest against an invitation from the American Baptist College, in Nashville, Tennessee, to Bishop Yvette Flunder to speak at the college’s annual...

Maybe it is her short, spiky hair, or the cigarettes, which she gives to the men repairing the wiring in her Brooklyn apartment. Maybe it is because she swears. For whatever reason, the Rev. Ann Kansfield does not fit the stereotype of a minister. Not that she is worried about meeting anyone’s expectations for what a clergywoman should say or do. “We shouldn’t have to hide ourselves or worry about being judged,” Ms. Kansfield, who ministers at the Greenpoint Reformed Church, said. In her newest ministry, that self-assuredness is likely to serve her well. Ms. Kansfield, 39, is to...

White House National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice has developed a reputation among those who work with her for harshly criticizing people by using the “F bomb,” according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with two exchanges. The first case involved a 2013 White House meeting between Ms. Rice and Gen.Keith Alexander, who was director of the National Security Agency, regarding NSA spying on foreign leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel. According to one senior U.S. official, Ms. Rice opened the conversation with the four-star general, now retired, with: “Why the [expletive] are you listening to Angela Merkel’s phone...

TACOMA, Wash. — A Tacoma woman said she fears for her life after a stranger attacked her in an alley, wrapping her dog’s leash around her neck, writing homophobic slurs on her body, and stabbing her. Tacoma police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.

Christian owners of a bakery in Gresham, Oregon, who were forced to close their business in 2013 due to backlash over their refusal to bake a cake for a lesbian wedding based on religious objections, were found guilty of discrimination Monday and now have to pay the couple up to $150,000 in fines. The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries announced that the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery, Aaron and Melissa Klein, will have to pay the sapphic couple. Whether or not they pay the maximum $150,000 fine will be determined at a hearing on March 10 BOLI...

Exciting news: Virginia-MassResistance has become the first MassResistance state chapter. It was formed this past year and is off and running! It has an incredible website (www.VirginiaMassResistance.org) and is fearlessly tackling the hard-hitting issues across the state of Virginia. It’s very exciting! They are doing first-rate work. Over the past few years people in several states – and a few foreign countries – have contacted us about forming chapters and taking on the MassResistance brand of activism in their areas. This is hopefully the first of many. Virginia MassResistance was founded and organized by Linda Wall. Linda is an ex-Lesbian...

Critics of Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s new protections for transgenders (allowing them to use whichever restroom they desire regardless of their anatomy) saw their petitions aimed at getting Mayor’s policy on the ballot arbitrarily declared invalid. The Mayor now wants these critics to be judged by a “Special Master” for “attempting to overturn simple justice through improper utilization of the petition process.” Those accused of this made-up crime have demanded a jury trial, a demand for something that Parker calls “ludicrous and unnecessary.” “The role of a jury is to determine the facts of a case,” Parker lectured. “In this...

Dozens gathered outside a Colorado church to protest Tuesday after a bereaved family said the pastor stopped a woman’s funeral when he found out she was a lesbian. According to KMGH, Denver’s New Hope Ministries ended Vanessa Collier’s funeral Saturday after the minister saw a video tribute that showed Collier kissing her significant other, which the family had refused to edit. […] The pastor who called off the funeral defended his actions to KCNC, saying he hadn’t been aware of the video until right before the service, and that he gave the family the chance to edit it. …

The popular CBS show "Person of Interest" starring Jim Caviezel included a lesbian kiss between the two female characters this week. Now, I have lost interest. Any program that insists on including overt homosexuality loses me as a viewer.

An openly lesbian federal judge whose appointment was opposed by dozens of U.S. senators has ruled against a Christian former Navy chaplain who alleged his superiors engineered his dismissal from the service because he was not “ecumenical.” The decision by Elaine Kaplan of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims rejected the allegations of former chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, who recently was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives. He had routinely prayed “in Jesus name” as part of his work as a chaplain. The judge, who formerly worked for the National Treasury Employees Union, was opposed by 35 GOP senators when...

Lauren Beth Czekala-Chatham A Mississippi woman wants the state Supreme Court to recognise gay marriage – so that she can divorce a partner she married in San Francisco. Lauren Beth Czekala-Chatham, a 52-year-old credit analyst, who already had two children from a failed heterosexual marriage, moved to California in 2008 so that she could marry Dana Ann Melancon. But the relationship soured and they separated in 2010. When Ms Czekala-Chatham, who now has a new girlfriend, applied for a divorce, citing adultery and habitual cruel and inhuman treatment, she failed. The state predictably argued that Mississippi could not grant...

Cynthia and Robert Gifford, the Christian couple who refused to hold a same-sex wedding on their property, have been ordered to pay a $13,000 fine – $10,000 to the state of New York and $1,500 to each member of the lesbian couple to compensate their “mental anguish.” The Giffords opened up their Liberty Ridge Farm in upstate New York to the public 15 years ago. They host weddings, receptions, parties, and corporate events, and put on an annual fall festival. In 2012, Cynthia received a call from a woman, Melisa Erwin, who was looking for a venue for her wedding...

The Department of Theatre and Media Arts is releasing the first public screening of the student film “Pride and Faith” on Oct. 24. The documentary, written and directed by BYU alumnus Scott Raia, explores the complex lives of two LGBT students as they reconcile their identity and faith. Raia filmed “Pride and Faith” during his senior year for his capstone project as a film student. He hoped to become an ally of the LGBT community after broadening his awareness on the subject. “As I prepared for graduation, I looked to my future and some of my friends and their futures,”...

Actress Marcia Strassman has died at the age of 66 after a long battle with breast cancer, according to online posts by two long-time friends, singer/actress Cher and director Bob Weide. Though she acted in a wide range of TV shows and feature films, she was best known for her roles in the TV show Welcome Back Kotter and the comedy feature Honey I Shrunk the Kids and its sequel, Honey I Blew Up the Kids. 

The daughter of Houston Mayor Annise Parker was briefly denied the chance to take a driving test this week because her birth certificate and other documentation indicated she has two mothers, the mayor said.. Parker, who married her longtime partner, Kathy Hubbard, in California this year and remains a rarity as an openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city, complained on her Twitter account on Friday.

Family Court Judge William Potter responded Thursday to an allegation that he discriminated against a lesbian mother being deployed to Cuba. “Obviously I don’t have a problem with her being gay because I gave her custody,” the judge said. Potter’s comments stemmed from a Las Vegas Review-Journal story about the divorce case of Michelle Bagalawis, who since has changed her last name to Angeles, and Johnny Cardona. Angeles and Cardona, who have a 7-year-old son, were divorced in January 2012. Angeles, a first lieutenant in the Air Force, married a woman in March 2012. After Angeles’ recent deployment to Cuba,...

Transcript of Joel Osteen's invocation prayer over Houston Mayor, Annise Parker, who was inaugurated as mayor of Houston. She is the first openly gay mayor of the city: FATHER, THANK YOU FOR THIS TIME TO COME TOGETHER WITH OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO CELEBRATE YOUR GOODNESS AND THE GREAT CITY WE LIVE IN, AND THE NEW LEADERSHIP WITHIN OUR CITY. LORD, WE ASK YOU FOR WISDOM FOR ALL OF OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS. LORD, WE PRAY THAT YOU WILL GUIDE THEM, DIRECT THEM, THAT YOU WILL HELP THEM MAKE THE BEST DECISIONS FOR OUR CITY. LORD WE JUST PRAY FOR YOUR STRENGTH...

The lesbian mother of a 7-year-old boy is appealing to the Nevada Supreme Court to keep her son in Las Vegas during her four-month deployment to Cuba. According to an emergency petition filed by Air Force 1st Lt. Michelle Angeles, Family Court Judge William Potter applied a double standard when he ruled the boy must live with his father in Texas until she returns. “Michelle could only infer the double standard stemmed from her being married to another woman,” according to the document. The child flew to Texas on Saturday when the high court declined to intervene on an emergency...

This latest story from our brave new world may blow your mind, so I’ll read straight from the Chicago Tribune: “A white Ohio woman is suing a Downers Grove-based sperm bank, alleging that the company mistakenly gave her vials from an African-American donor, a fact that she said has made it difficult for her and her same-sex partner to raise their now 2-year-old daughter in an all-white community.” Now, I don’t doubt the lesbian couple’s love for the child. But I find it troubling which challenges the couple was willing and isn’t willing to tolerate. They’re suing because of the...

I’m not gay. I get called gay all the time by Leftists who seek to disparage me when they’ve run out of their specious, illogical arguments and the full weight of common sense lands on their fetid heads and they have no other recourse but to go ad hominem on me and say, “he must be gay.” Which, like I said, I take they equate with a cut down; which is weird because, supposedly, they’re the homosexual’s champion. For what it’s worth, the only gay thing about me is, and I must confess, I did tear up a bit during...