Free Republic

<p>The Boy Scouts of America is considering dropping a longtime ban on gay members, according to a spokesman.</p> <p>“The BSA is discussing potentially removing the national membership restriction regarding sexual orientation,'' spokesman Deron Smith said in a statement obtained by FoxNews.com. "This would mean there would no longer be any national policy regarding sexual orientation, but that the chartered organizations that oversee and deliver Scouting would accept membership and select leaders consistent with their organization’s mission, principles or religious beliefs."</p>

San Franciscans may be forced to wear clothes outside of their homes and some nude activists aren't pleased. City lawmakers are scheduled to vote Tuesday on an ordinance that, if passed, would make it illegal for anyone over the age of 5 to expose their genitals in public. Exemptions will be made for parades and festivals held under a city permit, according to the ordinance. A group of activists filed a federal lawsuit against the city on Wednesday, asking that a judge issue a temporary restraining order to stop the vote on Tuesday and provide the court enough time to...

Pop quiz, no cheating allowed: if you had to guess, would you say that HIV and AIDS rates among gay men in the United States are A) declining, B) remaining stable, or C) rising? The correct answer is C) rising, at an alarming 8% per year . HIV incidence -- that is, the proportion of a population infected -- among gay men in the United States rises by that amount every year since at least 2001. Overall, this incidence, at 15.4% cumulatively, is just slightly lower than the incidence among gay men in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The makers of a popular location-based cellphone app for flirting and dating have shut it down after reports that at least three child sexual assaults were set up through the service, including one in Milwaukee County. The crimes illustrate how sexual predators can quickly exploit advances in social media, prompting calls for ever greater caution among users, inventors and monitors. . . . In that case, a 21-year-old Waukesha man, Daniel R. Schmidt, was charged June 5 with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy he met via Skout.com. According to the criminal com plaint, Schmidt said he was 16 to gain...

A civil liberties group filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday challenging North Carolina's prohibition against same-sex couples adopting each other's children. The ban on so-called second parent adoptions violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian parents and their children, according to the complaint filed in Greensboro by the American Civil Liberties Union. North Carolina is one of eight U.S. states where same-sex couples are barred from adopting children together and/or are not allowed to have one partner adopt the other's biological or adoptive children, according to the ACLU. A December 2010 decision by the North Carolina Supreme Court held...

AN alarming number of under-age girls – some as young as nine – are being forced into marriage in Islington, according to a leading campaign group. The Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO) claim that at least 30 girls in the borough were forced into marriage in 2010. The practice was condemned by the Imam of Finsbury Park Mosque, who said such marriages were against Islam and “unacceptable”. He pledged to invalidate any marriage which he said were carried out by “back-street Imams”. IKWRO, which made headlines last month when they revealed there had been almost 3,000 “honour-based” violence...

With all due respect to Cardinal Francis George, I think his apology is misguided and his reasoning troubling: During a recent TV interview, speaking about this year's Gay Pride Parade, I used an analogy that is inflammatory.I am personally distressed that what I said has been taken to mean that I believe all gays and lesbians*are like members of the Klan. I do not believe that; it is obviously not true. Many people have friends and family members who are gay or lesbian, as have I. We love them; they are part of our lives, part of who we are....

December 6, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After a series of child sex abuse revelations hit Hollywood in the past month, both experts and previous child stars say the crackdown only scratches the surface of what has long been the entertainment industry’s darkest secret. Fox News reported Monday that former child stars of several eras - one even well into his 60s - reacted with grim sagacity as sex abuse charges were laid or discovered against three Hollywood employees: Martin Weiss, a 47-year-old Hollywood manager who represented child actors; Fernando Rivas, 59, an award-winning composer for “Sesame Street�; and registered sex offender...

More than 1,000 gays, lesbians and transgenders have marched in the Philippine capital to demand equal rights and an end to discrimination, and more support for an AIDS program. Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines spokesman Goya Candelario says they’re pushing Congress to pass a law against discrimination that they say denies them jobs and social services. Jessie Dimaisip of the Akbayan political party, which supports gay rights, says they’re also seeking more funds for HIV-AIDS testing and a support program. The Health Department says 7,884 people have been infected with HIV since 1984, including 937 AIDS cases.

WND Exclusive Report: Pedophilia more common among 'gays' Research purports to reveal 'dark side' of homosexual culture Posted: April 29, 2002 1:00 am Eastern By Jon Dougherty © 2011 WND Child molestation and pedophilia occur far more commonly among homosexuals than among heterosexuals on a per capita basis, according to a new study. "Overwhelming evidence supports the belief that homosexuality is a sexual deviancy often accompanied by disorders that have dire consequences for our culture," wrote Steve Baldwin.... ..... "It is difficult to convey the dark side of the homosexual culture without appearing harsh," wrote Baldwin. "However, it is time...

A gay couple who adopted nine boys have been accused of sexually assaulting two of the children.But another adopted son of George Harasz and Doug Wirth insists his two fathers are innocent, and says his siblings have a disorder in which troubled foster children lash out at adults who try to connect with them.  Married 'fathers' Harasz and Wirth, who say they consider caring for hard-to-place children a personal challenge, adopted three sets of siblings, all boys, since 2000. George's two biological children and their mother also live at the large Victorian home in Glastonbury, Connecticut.       Accused: George Harasz,...

<p>George Harasz and Doug Wirth were taken into custody Wednesday afternoon by Glastonbury police. Harasz was charged with assaulting two children and Wirth with assaulting one, police said.</p> <p>But one of the couple's children said Wednesday night that the charges were baseless and that Harasz and Wirth were innocent.</p>

With all due respect, Pope Benedict XVI either lives in an alternate reality or needs better PR handlers. His comments over the weekend to U.S. bishops about the sex abuse of children showed a continued disconnect with the church’s mishandling of this ongoing scandal. The pope referenced the church’s “conscientious effort” to confront sex abuse by priests. Uh? Perhaps the pope meant to say conscientious cover-up. No institution has done more to deny and downplay the sexual abuse of young boys than the Catholic Church. No institution has done more to discredit victims and protect pedophile priests than the Catholic...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The New Mexico Attorney General's Office cautioned parents against an Internet image they said is really a sexual menace called the "pedobear." It started out as a joke, but authorities said the bear has spiraled into something much darker and more evil than they could've imagined. Some images depict the pedobear snatching a little girl, dangling a carrot over two children and joking about not using condoms. "This is the most disturbing one of all, it has the bear and it says, 'Too young to talk, too young to testify,'" said Lynn Southard with the AGO. Authorities...

A somewhat bitter U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said today he will not seek re-election in 2012 in a move he said was triggered by redistricting that left him with too many new constituents to serve as a “lame-duck” legislator. “There are too many constraints,” Frank said about his life as a politician and the energy it would take to meet new voters so late in his tenure. “People are skeptical about incumbents,” he added. “There was also this — I don’t like raising money.”

The Mafia is a degenerate organization which exploits human misery for criminal profit, and even children are not beyond the reach of its dirty hands. For decades the Mafia has been the principal producer and distributor of kiddie porn, and among the key figures in this racket was Gambino capo Robert DiBernardo who was a top lieutenant to family boss Paul Castellano. The pair would meet each Friday at Castellano's Staten Island mansion to gloat how filthy rich they were getting from their ungodly crimes. In 1986 federal postal inspectors discovered cartons of magazines seemingly depicting underage boys "engaged in...

Running toward a dream of a lifetimeWhen I tested positive for HIV in 1994, I never would have imagined an AIDS-free generation to be possible in my lifetime. I also didn't think I would live past 35.And yet, I am 42 years old today and we have arrived at the precipice of that dream. With recent medical advances, and the promise of more soon to come, an AIDS-free generation is possible. Achieving this goal, as eloquently outlined by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier this month, would save millions of American dollars and countless lives around the world. The question...

... The new CBA, released Tuesday, added the words “sexual orientation” to its section on discrimination. This development was first reported by the Daily News, and later confirmed by a news release, issued jointly by MLB and the Players’ Association, that read, “Non-discrimination based on sexual orientation were added to Article XV.” Article XV, Section A of MLB’s expiring Basic Agreement, in effect from 2006-2011, states: “The provisions of this Agreement shall be applied to all Players covered by this Agreement without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.” In the new agreement, the words “sexual orientation” were added...

I have posted several articles on the very fast moving agenda in our schools that will cause terrible harm to our children. The homosexual agenda could destroy the moral fabric of our country as they target children, since that is where our future lies. Have you checked your local school's curriculum and textbooks? California's news law and our own government's initiative is on the move to indoctrinate our children into the homosexual agenda. Recent ad concerning the Canadian mandate which promotes the homosexual agenda in the Canadian school system, which the US is headed towards. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blkFl0-ZJdY Related: Rescue Your Child...

After introducing its first openly gay character in September 2010, Archie Comics continues to lead the pack with the mainstream comic book world’s first same-sex marriage. Kevin Keller will marry his military sweetheart, Clay, in an upcoming issue of Life with Archie. The character is also set to star in a pioneering solo title starting this February. An interracial same-sex marriage between two soldiers in an Archie comic? The times are no longer a-changin’, they are a-changed.

Rush Limbaugh has now confirmed what I wrote last week, explaining to a caller on Friday, November 18th that the elephant in the room in the Penn State scandal was that the alleged pedophile acts committed by Jerry Sandusky were homosexual in nature. So much for those who scorned the suggestion, and kudos to Rush for speaking his mind. Here’s the relevant background. On November 15th, two of my articles were posted online, “The Pedophile Elephant in the Gay Activist Closet� and “What Could End Rush Limbaugh’s Career?� In the first article I stated that, “I personally believe that the...

“First base, second base, third base, home run,” Al Vernacchio ticked off the classic baseball terms for sex acts. His goal was to prompt the students in Sexuality and Society — an elective for seniors at the private Friends’ Central School on Philadelphia’s affluent Main Line — to examine the assumptions buried in the venerable metaphor. “Give me some more,” urged the fast-talking 47-year-old, who teaches 9th- and 12th-grade English as well as human sexuality. Arrayed before Vernacchio was a circle of small desks occupied by 22 teenagers, six male and the rest female — a blur of sweatshirts and...

The College is considering adding language to its application for admission that would allow prospective students to self-identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 told The Crimson. “We want to send a positive signal to students who are grappling with the issue of [sexual orientation] or gender identity,” Fitzsimmons said. “I think this campus is really welcoming to all students and that’s the signal we want to send.” Fitzsimmons said identification as LGBT would not act as a positive “tip” in the application process, unlike other factors like place of...

Mike McQueary never once went to the Penn State campus police OR the State College PD after witnessing Jerry Sandusky allegedly rape a 10-year-old boy in 2002 -- this according to reps for both departments. According to CBS, neither police bureau has any record of being contacted by Mike McQueary -- despite recent claims McQueary made in an email ... "I did have discussions with police and with the official at the university in charge of police."

A new victim is claiming another member of the Penn State faculty sexually abused him years ago, and he said when he brought his abuse complaints to university officials, he was turned away. --snip-- Neisworth was later charged with multiple counts of child sexual abuse in Cecil County, Md., in 2005. However, McLaughlin claimed that at the time, Penn State officials said an indictment wasn't enough to investigate one of their faculty members.

Penn State is toxic. Those aren't my words, but someone involved in the college bowl selection process. And that's how he described how attractive -- or, in this case, unattractive -- the Nittany Lions are as a bowl team. The Big Ten has eight bowl bids and could end up with 10 bowl-eligible teams. If the Nittany Lions (8-2) don't reach the Big Ten title game, it's a very real possibility they could get bypassed by all of the Big Ten bowls and be shipped to a non-Big Ten bowl that doesn't have enough teams to fill its conference obligation....

BOSTON (BP) -- Some of the nation's top companies such as Google, CBS, Starbucks and Nike have joined forces in a legal brief asking a federal court to force the federal government to recognize gay "marriage." The friend-of-the-court brief asks the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a 2010 lower court ruling that struck down part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. In that ruling, Judge Joseph L. Tauro said the federal government must recognize gay "marriages" from such states as Massachusetts, Vermont and the other four states where it's legal. In essence, the brief argues, the...

(CNN) -- With many focused on the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, a South Carolina military college said Saturday it regrets not pursuing an allegation against a camp counselor further than it did. The Citadel released details on one of its alumni, Louis Neal "Skip" ReVille, who faces charges including criminal sexual conduct with a child. In 2007, the college received an allegation that five years earlier, ReVille invited two campers at The Citadel Summer Camp into his room to watch pornography. They did not touch each other, but engaged in sexual activity, the college said. "Though the general...

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Serial child sex abuse; what could Sandusky's wife have known?Updated: Nov 11, 2011 7:02 PM EST By Gordon Boyd CHATTANOOGA (WRCB)-- Chattanooga native Dorothy 'Dottie' Gross Sandusky not only has been her husband Jerry's partner in life, and in the raising of six adopted children; but also in his 'Second Mile' charity. Pennsylvania prosecutors allege the former Penn State defensive coordinator used Second Mile to find, groom and rape at least six young boys between 1994 and 2009. Some of the alleged attacks are believed to have occurred in the couple's home. So how, many ask, could Dottie Sandusky not...

Westboro Baptist Church, best-known for picketing funerals of dead soldiers, is now taking its show of hate to Penn State - to protest the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal that has rocked the country and shocked the university. However, the divisive group's actions have united a divided campus, by inspiring a counter-protest by the atheist and LGBT student groups. On Saturday, Nov. 11, the WBC will be holding up its famously abrasive signs at Beaver Stadium in University Park, PA where the Penn State football team will take on Nebraska. According to the WBC website, "Penn State has the...

Having forcibly – and understandably – rectified the Versailles-type injustices and humiliations foisted on the homosexual community, the UK’s victorious Gaystapo are now on a roll. Their gay-rights storm troopers take no prisoners as they annex our wider culture, and hotel owners (here) and (here), registrars (here), magistrates (here), doctors (here), counsellors (here) and (here), foster parents (here), grandparents (here), adoption agencies (here) and traditional street preachers (here) and (here) find themselves crushed under the pink jack-boot. Thanks especially to the green light from a permissive New Labour government, the gay Wehrmacht is on its long march through the institutions...

The Bexar County District Attorney's Office and SAPD are looking into an alleged incident back in 1999 that reportedly happened in San Antonio. The San Antonio connection involves the 1999 Alamo Bowl when Penn State went up against Texas A&M. The grand jury indictment, alleges Sandusky brought a young boy to San Antonio to attend the Alamo Bowl. He is identified as "Victim 4." Sandusky reportedly threatened to send the victim home if he didn't cooperate with the illegal activity. Sandusky is also accused of giving Victim 4 gifts, clothing, and passes to various sporting events. Sandusky allegedly guaranteed Victim...

In addition to severe reputational damage, Pennsylvania State University faces the prospect of huge financial exposure from lawsuits by sexual-abuse victims who can credibly charge the university had ample warning that its former assistant football coach preyed on children but did little or nothing to stop it, say trial lawyers who have been following the case. Particularly troubling for the university, at least from a legal liability standpoint, is that the broad parameters of a civil case already are being vividly laid out by state Attorney General Linda Kelly. Casey says the legal issues are relatively simple. The university had...

Penn State University President Graham Spanier will either resign or be voted out by the end of today, a source close to the board of trustees told The Express-Times. An interim president, most likely Executive Vice President and Provost Rodney A. Erickson, will be appointed and a nationwide search for a permanent replacement will begin, according to the source who requested anonymity. Spanier was made aware in 2002 that a graduate assistant coach had seen former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky allegedly sexually assault a young boy in a shower in the Penn State locker room, according to grand jury testimony....

UPDATE - Nov. 9: The Associated Press is reporting that Joe Paterno has decided to retire at the end of the season. As the amount of alleged victims in the Jerry Sandusky case climbs rapidly, reports are emerging that Penn State head coach Joe Paterno's coaching career will soon come to an end. Official support for Paterno is reportedly "eroding," even as Nittany Lion fans rally in support of the longtime coach. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Paterno's 46 years as Nittany Lion head coach "will soon be over, perhaps within days or weeks." According to two sources...

Brian Streeter's stomach is churning over this. Having had Jerry Sandusky conduct three-day youth football camps at Penn State Behrend in July for eight years, Streeter can only hope no child camper dealt with what Sandusky was arrested for Saturday. "You have a sick feeling because you hope that none of the individuals that participated in the program here were harmed," the Behrend athletic director said. "That's not why we run our programs." A former Penn State assistant, Sandusky was charged with 40 criminal counts of child sex abuse. SNIP If something did happen with Sandusky during his time at...

One of the questions surrounding the sex-abuse case against Jerry Sandusky is why a former district attorney chose not to prosecute the then-Penn State assistant coach in 1998 after reports surfaced that he had inappropriate interactions with a boy. The answer is unknowable because of an unsolved mystery: What happened to Ray Gricar, the Centre County, Pa., district attorney? Gricar went missing in April 2005. The murky circumstances surrounding his disappearance — an abandoned car, a laptop recovered months later in a river without a hard drive, his body was never found — have spawned Web sites, television programs and...

When? When should Joe Paterno have gone above his athletic director? That's the question the legal community and college football fans and media try to wrap their heads around in assessing the despicable allegations coming out of Happy Valley. But for eight young adults, their question would have been far more urgent and desperate as Jerry Sandusky allegedly robbed them of their innocence, one by one: When is somebody going to put an end to this? On Sunday, Paterno issued a 265-word statement that attempted to offer perspective in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal that is gutting Penn...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Fox 29 has learned the number of child-abuse in the Penn State sex-abuse scandal involving ex-coach Jerry Sandusky has more than doubled in the past day, and is closer to 20 victims. There were eight victims named in the grand jury presentment and 40 charges leveled against Sandusky, a long-time assistant to Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno. Paterno was not named in the grand jury finding as violating any laws. Sources tell Fox 29 since a press conference on Monday, the number of potential victims has more than doubled in the case.

November 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com)  - This week’s episode of Fox Television’s prime-time musical comedy show “Glee� featured two teenage couples, one heterosexual and one homosexual, engaging in sex for the first time. Titled “The First Time,� the episode depicted two couples - a young man and woman, Finn and Rachel, and two young men, Kurt and Blaine - each losing their virginity. The development occurs after a fellow student and school play director tells Blaine and Rachel, who are practicing their roles as Tony and Maria for a production of West Side Story, that they won’t be believable as...

For every moment Joe Paterno keeps his job as Penn State's head coach, the institution as a whole and the athletic department in particular loses a significant amount of credibility. Paterno must be fired immediately for not appropriately reporting his knowledge of the despicable, horrific, mortifying, inhumane sexual crimes Jerry Sandusky is accused of committing against young boys -- some of which happened at Penn State's athletic facilities, according to a Pennsylvania attorney general report. The problem, though, is some of the people in charge of making such a decision to fire Paterno have been equally culpable of failing to...

An explosive sex abuse scandal and possible cover-up rocked Happy Valley after former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, once considered Joe Paterno's heir apparent, was charged with sexually assaulting eight boys over a 15-year period. Among the allegations was that a graduate assistant saw Sandusky assault a boy in the shower at the Nittany Lions' practice center in 2002. Sandusky retired in 1999 but continued to use the school's facilities for his work with The Second Mile, a foundation he established to help at-risk kids. The state grand jury investigation also resulted in perjury charges against Tim Curley, Penn...

It has been 47 years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and 46 years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act. And yet the political leaders of this nation of liberty cannot seem to muster the courage and principle to sweep away one remaining example of institutionalized, government-sanctioned discrimination: The 1996 law that denies the right of marriage to same-sex couples. The law, the Defense of Marriage Act, was passed in the heat of election-year fear and bigotry against men who want to marry other men, and women who want to marry other women. It was a...

Former Penn State football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abused eight young men, state prosecutors said.

HARTFORD, October 18, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.coom) - Several students at a Hartford high school expressed horror and left the auditorium when two male members of a city-funded school play shared a passionate kiss onstage on Friday. School officials said they opted against informing parents about the event ahead of time, saying that the students needed exposure to homosexuality, and hailed the “chaotic” reaction as a victory for raising the gay issue. The kiss occurred during Hartford Public High School’s production of “Zanna, Don’t!,” a play depicting a world in which homosexuality is normative and heterosexuals take up the role of “outcasts.”...

Like so many parents, Jessie and Cooper Odell spend their days helping their 8-year-old with homework, taking him to the park, playing football or attending church on Sundays. But their journey to becoming a typical family was anything but routine. Lake Worth "Until recently I always felt like I had to look over my back,'' said Jessie Odell, 39, a Palm Beach event planner who has cared for the boy since July and is finally able to adopt him. "God has finally given us what we've been fighting for.'' For 33 years, Florida barred gays and lesbians from adopting. That...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Toby Keith says gay marriage doesn't bother him and trying to stop it wastes time and money. The country superstar tells "CMT Insider" airing Saturday on CMT that he doesn't see the reason behind getting into people's personal lives. He says refusing a marriage license to people because they are gay won't stop them from living together, so it accomplishes nothing. Keith also weighed in on the military's now-repealed "don't ask, don't tell" policy that banned gays serving openly in uniform. He says that anyone with the training and passion should have the right to defend...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado has announced the birth of a new son, making him the only openly gay member of Congress to be a parent. While few details of the birth were made available, the Democratic congressman's press office did release the announcement that Polis and his partner, Marlon Reis, sent to friends and family.