Free Republic

The federal government is spending over $33,000 to figure out whether same-sex couples live closer to tobacco retailers, theoretically making them more likely to smoke.A National Institutes of Health (NIH) project, entitled, “Relationship Between Tobacco Retailer Density and Sexual Minority Couples,” reasons that since many gay and lesbian couples live in cities, they may be close to stores that sell cigarettes, such as 7 Elevens.“Tobacco use is substantially higher among sexual minorities than among heterosexuals,” the grant states. “The reasons for this persistent disparity remain unclear, but the high toll of death and disability from tobacco use creates substantial health...

Milwaukee, Wis., Dec 9, 2014 / 04:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- An anti-harassment training presentation at a Catholic college encourages employees to report critics of “gay marriage” – and could reflect recent federal decisions that the belief in marriage as a union of a man and a woman is discriminatory. Part of the employee anti-harassment training at the Wisconsin-based Marquette University includes a presentation with a comic strip-style story about a fictional employee named “Harassed Hans,” a man in a wheelchair. The training encourages Hans to report to the university human resources his co-workers Becky and Maria who “have been talking...

The Catholic Church must help parents stand by their gay children, Pope Francis said in a new interview about his papal ministry. The pontiff’s comments come a day after Francis urged top church officials to pay attention to the “signs of the times” and listen to ordinary Catholics, according to The Independent. “We come across this reality all the time in the confessional: a father and a mother whose son or daughter is in that situation. This happened to me several times in Buenos Aires.... We have to find a way to help that father or that mother to stand...

Matt Barber vs. Louis Parker The inmates are running the asylum in Indy.Until recently I had not heard of the National Federation of State High School Associations, or NFHS. This Indianapolis-based organization has, since 1920, developed and published playing rules for high-school sports in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.Like so many other national organizations charged with establishing curricula, policies and practices for primary and secondary education (consider the NEA), the NFHS has become completely overrun by radical leftists and sexual extremists. It has placed political correctness and the adult “LGBT” political agenda above the welfare and safety...

Advisers for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will meet next week to decide whether gay men should be allowed to donate blood, the agency’s biggest step yet toward changing the 30-year-old prohibition. If the FDA accepts the recommendation from its advisory board, it would roll back a policy that has faced mounting criticism from LGBT advocates and some members of Congress for more than four years. “We’ve got the ball rolling. I feel like this is a tide-turning vote,” said Ryan James Yezak, an LGBT activist who founded the National Gay Blood Drive and will speak at next week’s...

Retired military personnel are calling on the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines to change their lists of disqualifying conditions to allow transgender people to serve openly. Though the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was repealed, allowing openly gay people to serve in the military, there is still a ban on transgender service members. In May, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said that the ban should be “continually reviewed.” A report released by the Palm Center on Tuesday, however, said the Department of Defense deleted its list of medically disqualifying and administratively disqualifying conditions in August. Now only conditions that...

Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is one of the preeminent Christian leaders of our day. He is as clear-headed as he is courageous, always a source of truth and sanity in the midst of a deeply confused culture. Dr. Mohler has also played a significant role in addressing the issue of homosexuality and the church, demonstrating both humility and conviction, thereby helping to set an example for pastors and leaders trying to navigate their way through an emotional and spiritual minefield. How do we stand against gay activism in our society while at the same...

Not long ago, pasta-maker Barilla was just one more major company that had run afoul of the gay rights movement... But in a sign of how toxic it has become for a company to be viewed as unfriendly toward gays, Barilla has made a dramatic turnaround in the space of one year, expanding health benefits for transgender workers and their families, contributing money to gay rights causes, and featuring a lesbian couple on a promotional Web site. ...companies, which typically shy away from controversy, are increasingly being forced to take sides in the cultural battle over gay rights and...

The LGBT community has a major issue with Texas Sen. Donna Campbell's proposed bill to add a religious liberties amendment to the state constitution, which critics say would essentially give business owners a license to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people. <---snip--- "The 2013 measure was supported by the anti-LGBT group Texas Values and opposed by Equality Texas," Lone Star Q stated. "Texas already has a statute, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, that provides strong protections for religious freedom. However, critics say Campbell's proposal would go much further than the Texas RFRA." "For example, while the RFRA says government...

Bundick says the rainbow is what the area’s all about. “It’s the most recognizable way that people can identify and say, ‘This is a safe community. This is an accepting community,'” he said. The Austin City Council gave the project initial approval. Now the details are getting worked out with the city’s Art Commission. Funding for the project will come partially from city money for public artwork. The Austin PRIDE Foundation is also donating money.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Super Bowl 50 is coming to Levi's Stadium in 2016. On Monday, the NFL and the Super Bowl Committee made a historic announcement about who will be eligible to bid on contracts. "I think it's about time. I'm so excited," said Audry deLucia, who with her wife Fran, owns Ellaprint, a company that offers a wide range of marketing and promotional materials. They're hoping to make history as part of Super Bowl 50. "It's something that's a no brainer for San Francisco and the entire Bay Area to include the LGBT when it comes to opportunities...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Baptists on Tuesday chose to sever ties with a Louisville church that is open to performing same-sex marriages. Baptist leaders from around the state gathering in Bowling Green for the Kentucky Baptist Convention's annual meeting voted overwhelmingly to end their longstanding relationship with Crescent Hill Baptist Church. The church's pastor, the Rev. Jason Crosby, has said the church is open to performing same-sex marriages and ordaining gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual members.

You won't see the news in the mainstream media. After all, this is not a priest. 44-year-old Stefan Johansson, former President of the RFSL (Riksförbundet för homosexuellas, bisexuellas och transpersoners rättigheter), or the National Association for the Rights of Homosexuals, Bisexuals and Transsexuals, was sentenced on 24 October to five years in prison and ordered to pay 60,000 euros for pain and suffering caused by rape, pimping and paedophilia. Founded in 1950, the the National Association for the Rights of Homosexuals, Bisexuals and Transsexuals is Sweden's largest organization of its kind, with more than 6,000 members. The RFSL was...

Democrats love to dog-whistle how the Republicans are the party of the one-percenters.  Projection of your own agenda onto others is the hallmark of an insecure soul; the false bravado, nervous laughter and deflecting conversation—“this is just a normal midterm swing”—marks the Democrats stunned awakening to truth.  Yeah, a midterm swing.  Democrats, just keep on saying that, and maybe even you’ll believe it. The one-percenter accusation applies all right, but not to the Republicans.  It’s the Democrats who have been co-opted by the far-Left fringe promoting the one-percent.  Look at all the battles we conservatives have been fighting for years: ...

Lieutenant Governor-elect Karyn Polito’s history of opposition to same-sex marriage and transgender rights as a state representative has members of the LGBT community warily eyeing the Republican political leader. Just a day after the Republican gubernatorial ticket of Charlie Baker and Polito was elected into office, Sue O’Connell, co-publisher of LGBT-focused publication Bay Windows, said she has “serious concerns” about Polito on WGBH’s Boston Public Radio.

Burnside Watstein LGBT Awards celebrate historic year in Virginia [Virginia Commonwealth University VCU] By Megan Schmidt University Public Affairs (804) 827-0218 schmidtmr@vcu.edu Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014 “Oct. 6, 2014, marked the day that love won in Virginia.” Leticia Flores, former director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Center for Psychological Services and Development, choked up as she delivered her acceptance speech at the 2014 Burnside Watstein Award ceremony. She was referencing the Supreme Court’s decision to let stand the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling allowing same-sex marriage in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Wisconsin and Virginia. “I’m sorry. I get emotional....

The lawlessness of UNC administrators continues to make headlines across the nation. Most of this lawlessness comes from administrative offices dedicated to promoting “diversity.” It is no wonder that most of the fake classes taken by student athletes at UNC were listed under African American Studies. Where we find multiculturalism, we find the denial of objective truth. Where we find the denial of objective truth, we find people who lie and deny it. Of course we find plenty of lies and deception associated with virtually every activity initiated by the LGBTQIA Office and Women's Resource Center (WRC) at UNCW. The...

More and more companies are going “gay” while at the same time denigrating anybody who has an issue with same-sex, alternate sex, slice and dice sex (transgenderism), and take-your-pick sex. When it was found out that Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich opposed same-sex marriage, so much pressure was put on him because of his anti-same sex marriage views (he donated to Proposition 8) that he believed that he couldn’t do anything but resign. The Gaystapo would have made it unbearable for him and the company for Eich if he had remain as CEO. There is a long trail of persecution from...

Since the story broke about the Human Rights Campaign's slanderous persecution of the very people their group was designed to protect – bisexuals and children of same-sex couples – I have received a great deal of support from people.  While it was nerve-wracking to have the truth about the 26 months of harassment by GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, Scott Rosenzweig, Jeremy Hooper, and a host of other totalitarians circulate at my job, it has been healthy.  My colleagues and students had no idea about the extent of this campaign of suppression, censorship, and harassment.  Now they know the...

Lopez, openly bisexual but married, works as an English professor at California State University-Northridge. He incurred HRC’s wrath because of his outspoken view that children do better when raised by a mother and father than they do when raised by parents of the same sex. Lopez, 43, was raised in a household by two mothers. He drew public attention in 2012 after penning an account of that experience in an article for Public Discourse titled “Growing Up With Two Moms: The Untold Children’s View.” ...Ever since Lopez went public with his story, left-leaning gay rights groups such as HRC and...