Free Republic

The following comes from a July 28 posting by Randy Thomasson on Save California.com.This is not a family you see. These are two very confused men who were likely sexually abused as children. And now they have a boy that one or both have adopted. And this boy is now being indoctrinated with big lies about family and sex….When Associated Press was preparing a widely-published July 27 article saluting another homosexual-agenda bill redefining family, the reporter pitted three liberal voices against me. But despite misspelling my name, and putting a qualifier before me and a subtle put-down after me, I...

A Broward judge must decide whether to recognize — and then dissolve — a lesbian’s Vermont civil union.

Many of us know of couples that have divorced. Some may be Catholic couples that divorced, remarried, and are able to receive the Sacraments with no problems because they received an annulment. Other Catholic couples we may know divorced but were told they could not remarry as they were not given an annulment. This may seem confusing and harsh of the Church, especially if the reason for separation is the infidelity of only one spouse. One of my students put the situation this way: it is as if the Church condemns some people to a lifetime of loneliness because...

Do you all remember Cardinal Hummes? Yes, the Pope's greatest friend in the College of Cardinals, the Franciscan who inspired the papal name "Francis", the man who was right by the Pope's side in the loggia in the memorable evening of his election. As an emeritus, his influence is obviously a more understated one. Anyway, he granted an extensive interview days ago (July 27) to a paper in his native Brazil, and the answers are just remarkable, particularly this one, on same-sex "marriages": If Jesus were alive today, would he be in favor of gay marriage? I don't know, I...

A federal appeals court panel on Monday struck down Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage, and that decision could have major political and legal implications for North Carolina. The three-judge panel on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes North Carolina, declared that Virginia’s laws placed an unconstitutional limit on the right to marry. N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper thinks Monday’s decision will undo North Carolina’s ban on same-sex marriages, and he has no plans to intervene. Cooper said that it now would be “futile” to continue defending North Carolina’s ban against challenges from within the state. Four cases...

WASHINGTON — The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals held Monday that Virginia’s ban on same-sex couples’ marriages is unconstitutional. On a 2-1 vote, the appeals court joined the wave of court decisions declaring such bans unconstitutional. The decision, by Judge Henry Floyd acknowledged both the debate over such laws and, in the court’s view, the clear constitutional impediment to laws banning same-sex couples from marrying. “We recognize that same-sex marriage makes some people deeply uncomfortable,” he wrote. “However, inertia and apprehension are not legitimate bases for denying same-sex couples due process and equal protection of the laws.” The court’s opinion...

Earlier this month, TLC brought back "Sister Wives," a reality show featuring the Utah-based polygamist Brown family of four wives and 17 children, for another season. Since last season, the Browns struck down a major piece of state legislation that may pave the way for the legalization of polygamy under the guise of “religious freedom.” In a nod to anti-gay marriage advocates who warned the legalization of same-sex marriage would lead to other kinds of sexual freedoms, such as polygamy, the ruling is deemed a watershed moment for the rights of polygamist families— of which there is estimated to be...

Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a Christian-owned bakery, closed its doors earlier this year after its owners Aaron and Melissa Klein were found guilty of violating gay people's rights by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.The Kleins refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple in 2013, which resulted in the complaint against them.However, the bakery, now called "Sweet Cakes," continues to exist as an online business.According to The Advocate, the bakery recently posted a picture on its Facebook page of some goods that it recently made for the Restored Hope Network, an ex-gay organization, and added...

Georgina Bloomberg is the face of the millennials — a generation of young adults unfazed by the old rules of morality. At age 31, the elder of billionaire former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s two daughters is a professional equestrienne who, in December, gave birth to a son, Jasper Michael Brown Quintana, by her horseback- riding beau, the Argentine-born Ramiro Quintana, 37. And if you thought the arrival of a bouncing bundle of joy might propel the heiress to gallop to the nearest chuppah, you’d be mistaken. “I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever get married,’’ Georgina Bloomberg told Hamptons magazine. “It’s...

An April 2014 Urban Institute study predicts that if current marriage rates do not rebound, just 69 percent of Millennial women (and 65 percent of men) will marry by the age of 40. By contrast, in 1990, 91 percent of U.S.-born women had married by the age of 40. Almost none of this retreat from marriage will be felt among college-educated white Americans. The majority of college-educated Millennials will marry and have their children in marriages that last until the death of one partner. Meanwhile, the average American lives in a world where sex is plentiful but stable families are...

Last night, New York Times reporter Josh Barro tweeted out a disturbing message: “Anti-LGBT attitudes are terrible for people in all sorts of communities. They linger and oppress, and we need to stamp them out, ruthlessly.” This is rather shocking. Barro is no angry blogger writing manifestos in his basement. He is a respected reporter from a prestigious newspaper that prides itself on equanimity in the face of heated debate. Yet he seems, by any reasonable measure, to be fomenting a campaign to rout all dissenters from the sexual revolution. Erick Erickson wrote a brief response to Barro’s tweet, to...

California is going beyond being one of the 19 states currently allowing same-sex "marriage" by revolutionizing the sacred institution even further with Gov. Jerry Brown's (D) signing of Senate Bill 1306, which eradicates from state laws references to "husband and wife." Progressive media outlets are heralding this change as necessary and overdo. "California's same-sex couples may now be pronounced spouse and spouse after Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill [last] Monday eliminating outdated 'husband and wife' references from state laws," Huffington Post reported. "Senate Bill 1306 was introduced by state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) to eliminate confusion and...

The existence of gay Republicans is hardly a new phenomenon. The Log Cabin Republicans, an organization for gay men and women within the party, was founded back in 1977 in California. But every so often, the existence of gay conservatives gets media attention, particularly during election cycles. In more recent years, gay conservatives have been getting more attention as the Republican Party struggles with its identity. American opinion has shifted significantly to support top issues among gays and lesbians, particularly in support of marriage recognition. Support for gay marriage among evangelical Christians has doubled over the past decade, according to...

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New Zealand’s first same-sex “marriage” is shaping up to become the country’s first same-sex divorce. Less than a year since they became the poster girls for the country’s new legal definition of marriage (last August) the NZ Herald reports that Melissa Ray, a former Ferns football player, and Natasha Vitali, a sales rep, are “believed to have split”. The main source of the story appears to be Ms Vitali’s Facebook page on which the following poem appeared yesterday: Drink it down, laugh it off, Avoid the drama, take chances, And never have regrets Because at one point everything you did...

Joel Vasquez Rojas, the mayor of San Pedro Huamelula, married the reptile – dressed in a white gown – at the city hall and then shared a dance in front of packed party of local residents. According to local tradition, the crocodile is a princess whose marriage to the town mayor will bring in an abundance of seafood for fisherman on the Pacific coast. ‘As young people, this means a lot,’ said local resident Eduardo Zarate 'It’s the greatest treasure our ancestors have left us.’ For safety, the crocodile’s jaw was wired shut for the day. ‘It is my wish...

Pakistan’s ongoing military operation may be making headway in clearing militant hideouts, but it has shattered the dream of one father of 36 children — to take a fourth wife. Gulzar Khan is one of hundreds of thousands of people who have fled the North Waziristan tribal area since the army moved in to clear longstanding bases of Taliban and other militants. Escaping the military advance meant leaving the 35-room house he shares in the North Waziristan village of Shawa with around 100 family members, including wives, children and grandchildren. The 54-year-old grumbled that paying to transport his brood used...

Nine-year-old Saneie Masilela has become the world's youngest groom for the second time after remarrying the 62-year-old woman he tied the knot with last year. Dressed in a silvery tuxedo, baby-faced Saneie clutched the hand of mother-of-five Helen Shabangu - her children are aged between 28- and 38-years-old - as they repeated their vows a year on in front of 100 guests.

We think Cheryl Cole’s missed a trick with her quickie wedding on Macaroni Beach in Mustique. Just look at what she could have had – her very own McWedding (Drive Thru or marry in). Yes, McDonald’s has the answer for all those normcore brides out there. Well, at least the ones willing to travel to Hong Kong. The fast food chain has been slowly expanding its wedding party program since 2011 and now boasts 11 restaurants that double up as budget wedding venues, all in Hong Kong. And not only can you have the wedding ceremony there, they’ll also host...

Strasbourg, France, Jul 18, 2014 / 02:56 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the refusal to recognize same-sex “marriages” does not violate the European Convention on Human Rights. In a July 16 ruling, the human rights court explained that while “some Contracting States have extended marriage to same-sex partners,” European laws establishing the right of men and women to freely marry “cannot be construed as imposing an obligation on the Contracting States to grant access to marriage to same-sex couples.” The applicant to the high European human rights court brought his petition after Finland refused...