Free Republic

The House this afternoon passed an expanded hate crimes bill that would protect gay victims, and its chief sponsor in the Senate called for prompt final action. The measure passed 249-175 over the objections of conservatives, the Associated Press reports.

The Hate Crime law, HR-1913, will make 30 sexual orientations federally-protected. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has published 30 such sexual orientations that, because of Congress's refusal to define "sexual orientation," will be protected under this legislation. These 30 orientations are listed in the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), which is used by physicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and psychiatrists throughout the U.S. It is considered the dictionary of mental disorders. Those 30 sexual orientations include behaviors that are felonies or misdemeanors in most states. Among those sexual orientations being protected by HR-1913 are these: Apotemnophilia...

Two states have legalized same-sex marriage in the past two weeks, but when it comes to public opinion, supporters of gay marriage are still a minority. That minority is on an upward trajectory though and Scott Barclay, political scientist at the State University of New York at Albany, explains why: newspapers. In the last two weeks, two states have legalized same-sex marriage. First, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a law banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Then Vermont became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage through its legislature. When it comes to public opinion, supporters of gay marriage are...

Students and parents are demanding Metro Nashville's public schools stop blocking access to Web sites about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. Advertisement Quantcast They complained to the American Civil Liberties Union, which on Wednesday gave Metro and Knox County schools an April 29 deadline to announce plans to open access to the non-sexual sites. A letter to the districts threatened lawsuits if they don't comply. Metro parents previously complained to the school district about the lack of support for gay and lesbian students, the teasing and the fatal results. Clare Sullivan, a parent of a lesbian daughter who attended...

Gov. David Paterson introduced a bill Thursday to legalize same-sex marriage in New York, comparing the effort to the fight for the abolition of slavery. Paterson, whose job approval rating has plunged below 30 percent, is making a political gamble that he can ride the momentum of other states that have recently allowed the practice, and it's unclear how the legislation will play in New York. The proposal is the same bill the Democratic-controlled state Assembly passed in 2007 before it died in the Senate, where the Republican majority kept it from going to a vote. Democrats now control the...

By JOHN P. CONNOLLY, The Bulletin Monday, April 13, 2009 The University of Notre Dame, which has been criticized in recent weeks for inviting President Barack Obama to this year’s commencement, announced a series of events during Easter week to promote inclusivity of homosexuality. StaND Against Hate Week, announced on Holy Thursday, includes a showing of the film “Prayers for Bobby,” which reportedly blames a mother’s Christian beliefs for her gay son’s suicide. The event will take place from tomorrow through Friday, which is during the Christian celebration of Easter week. The week is co-sponsored by Notre Dame’s Gender Relations...

The head of a conservative activist group says President Obama's appointment of a leading homosexual activist to his faith-based council is an ominous sign that he may enforce a "pro-homosexuality orthodoxy" on religious groups receiving federal funds, which is itself a form of bigotry. Barack Obama has appointed outspoken homosexual activist Harry Knox to the White House Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Knox, who is the director of the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) Religion and Faith program, will serve a one-year term on the 25-member Council. Two years ago during an appearance on MSNBC, Knox argued that scientific...

Rated F for Failure By JEROME S. FONS and FRANK PARTNOY WHEN Standard & Poor’s, the bond-rating agency, lowered General Electric’s rating to AA+, from AAA, last week, many were shocked at the tarnishing of one of America’s most revered corporations. But the real scandal is how long it took S.&P. to make that minor change — and that the other major ratings firm, Moody’s, still hasn’t — even though G.E.’s dividend has been slashed by two-thirds and its stock price had fallen below $7, from nearly $40 a year ago. Why, more than a year into the crisis, do...

(AP)California Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a Democrat, will tomorrow introduce legislation in the House to repeal the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that bans gay soldiers from serving openly in the military. “This law has failed our country and our military for 15 years,” Tauscher said at a news conference. “It harms military readiness and discriminates against patriotic young men and women who want to serve their country. It’s time for Congress to right this wrong.” Tauscher planned to introduce the legislation today but did not because the weather kept the House out of session, according to communications director Jonathan...

So, we've heard that Barack Obama is going to repeal the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy that prohibits gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. As two queer teachers that have been working hard to arrest the militarism of education in Chicago—a public high school for every branch of the military, and two for the army ( and not one of these with a Gay Straight Alliance for students ) , and over 10,000 youth from 6th to 12th grade participating in some form of military program in their public schools—we are not leaping with joy at this...

If anyone else called him “little jerk,” Sen. Lindsey Graham might be offended. But the jab comes from Sen. John McCain, so he wears it like a badge of honor. “If John’s not belittling you, you’re in trouble,” Graham said. “He calls me lots of other names, too, but they’re not appropriate for the newspaper.” McCain and Graham aren’t just friends. They’re inseparable, so much so that colleagues, staffers and journalists have begun making cracks about the relationship between the freshman senator from South Carolina and the man who would be president. Some call Graham a lapdog. Others say he...

A Halifax man fears a judge will send his three teenage children back to live with their mother, a dominatrix who admits to dressing her teenage daughter in bondage gear and posing for photos with her in a sex dungeon. The daughter, then 15, posted the photos, which include a shot of her wearing a dog collar and leash held by her mom, on the Internet last June. When the father saw those, he called child protection workers, who alerted Halifax Regional Police. On the advice of a child welfare worker, all three teens moved out of the home. The...

A police station has come under fire after officers replaced its Union Jack with a gay rights flag. New Met police chief Sir Paul Stephenson was said to be outraged when he was told the gay emblem was raised outside Limehouse Station in east London. It replaced the Union Jack and was put up by officers in recognition of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Month celebrated in February. But Sir Paul ordered it be hauled down immediately after Met rules state only the Union Jack and the force's own flag can fly from police buildings. One officer said: 'I couldn't believe...

Tennessee -- Winchester authorities announced their success at shutting down a major international child porn operation in middle Tennessee this month that netted them one Gary Salles from Atlanta, Georgia. Salles is a long time gay activist and organizer of various charity operations for gays in Atlanta. He is also a self-professed pedophile. Salles claims he is a photographer from Atlanta and is well known as a dance club photographer in the Atlanta gay community. Instead of legitimate photos, though, what got Salles in trouble was child pornography. "To see the videos, firsthand, that he was sharing, that was exciting...

Irondequoit, N.Y. —Irondequoit police have charged an assistant Boy Scout leader of a troop in town with possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child, a felony. Robert Casanzio, 19, of Irondequoit, was taken into custody Jan. 15 and also charged with attempted endangering the welfare of a child. According to Sgt. Barry VanNostrand, supervisor of the IPD’s criminal investigations unit, Casanzio’s charges follow an approximately two-month long joint investigation by that unit and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department. Police allege that in October 2008, Casanzio placed a posting on Craig’s List Web site looking for “young teen naturists” and...

In the movies, he’s the nice guy. Which proves he’s a great actor. Because in real life, Tom Hanks isn’t such a nice guy. He’s actually kind of nasty. At least that’s the clear impression after some recent comments he made about the Mormon Church. Basically, he called Mormons “un-American,” a claim that is both innaccurate and – coming from Tom Hanks – hypocritical. More about that later. First, the history. Tom Hanks has been causing trouble for the Mormon Church in recent years through his HBO series “Big Love.” The series – which Tom Hanks makes – depicts a...

WAYNESBORO, Pa. — Seven people — including one clutching a Bible — passionately objected on Tuesday to a proposal that would form a Gay-Straight Alliance club at Waynesboro Area Senior High School. Just as many people were on the other side of the argument, with several of them highlighting strides in unity demonstrated just eight hours earlier on a national scale. “It just seems really important to acknowledge today of all days that we have our first African-American president and how much we’re growing as a country,” said Stephanie Kober, a resident of Clayton Avenue.

SAN FRANCISCO — Steve, a health care worker in his 30s, had been told more than once that he had been exposed to a sexually transmitted infection. So when it happened again, he was not upset — even though this time he learned about it through an anonymous online postcard, e-mailed by a man with whom he had had sex. “What was important was that I was being notified that there was a possibility that I may have been exposed to syphilis,” said Steve, who asked that his last name be withheld to protect his privacy. The Internet has made...

Story Updated: Jan 19, 2009 at 5:25 PM PST By KATU.com Staff PORTLAND, Ore. - Newly sworn-in Mayor Sam Adams has admitted having a sexual relationship with a teenage intern he met in 2005, according to Willamette Week, a news partner of KATU. The paper said it spoke with Adams Monday afternoon while the mayor was in Washington D.C. In that interview, the paper reports, Adams said the relationship with Beau Breedlove lasted for a couple of months in 2005. Adams and Breedlove met in 2005 when Breedlove was 17 years old. Adams told Willamette Week the pair had a...

Here is video of the bizarre Episcopal Gay Bishop, Gene Robinson, praying at the inaugural concert held yesterday, January 18, 2009, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Robinson addressed his prayer to the "God of our many understandings." It is a model of politically correct gobbledy-gook. Perish the thought that an Episcopal Bishop would mention the name of Jesus in his prayer, even though Jesus happens to be the Savior of the World according to his own church's theology. . . . . . (watch video)

Mayor Sam Adams acknowledged today that he had a sexual relationship in 2005 with an 18-year-old man he had mentored. He said he lied when asked about it in 2007 and told the young man, Beau Breedlove, to lie about it, too. The revelations come nearly a year and a half after Adams and Breedlove insisted, in the weeks after rumors surfaced in summer 2007, that their relationship was strictly platonic. Adams, who is openly gay, said he had acted as a mentor to Breedlove, then 17, at a time when the legislative intern was struggling to come out of...

New York activist Al Sharpton is of course the latest to join the Proposition 8 parade. In a speech over the weekend, he questioned why churches that backed the ban on gay marriage aren't focusing on bigger issues such as violence and poverty. From the Southern Voice website: From the pulpit of Tabernacle Baptist Church on Sunday, Rev. Al Sharpton called out the Mormon Church and other conservative faiths for mobilizing to support Proposition 8 to ban gay marriage in California while refusing to be as involved in any other social concerns. “It amazes me when I looked at California...

Life TV’s Father Zakaria Botros recently ran a show dedicated to discussing the question of morality and how it is—or should be—one of the hallmarks of “prophethood.” At the start, he posed the focal question of the show: “Was Muhammad the prophet a moral man—the most upright man, worthy of being emulated by the world?” He opened the show by relying on an Ibn Taymiyya quote, which evaluated the signs of prophethood. Taymiyya asserted that there are many false-prophets, such as Musailima “the Liar,” a contemporary of Muhammad. Taymiyya concluded that many of these so-called prophets are, in fact, “possessed,”...

Bad news travels fast. Though tucked away at a clerical retreat in Nigeria, it took only a flash of electrons for Anglican Bishop Martyn Minns to receive news of the California Supreme Court’s property dispute ruling against St. James parish in the city of Newport Beach, Calif. The court on Monday ruled that the congregation, whose facility overlooks luxury yachts afloat on Lido Channel, must surrender that property to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. St. James is one of about 100 U.S. Episcopal congregations that in recent years have split with the national church hierarchy, first over the ordination...

Vandals spray-painted swastikas on a Catholic church in San Francisco's Castro District Saturday night. It appears the vandals are upset about the Catholic church's support of Proposition 8, which made same-sex marriage illegal in California. But, the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church on Diamond Street is gay-friendly. Many parishioners voted against Prop 8 and they are upset their church was targeted. "We're very disturbed by the hierarchy's support of the Yes on Eight Campaign. We've been in conversation with the bishop, which is the way I think we need to handle it. I think Catholic teaching shows us we're all...

Perhaps the most important argument against same-sex marriage is that once society honors same-sex sex as it does man-woman sex, there will inevitably be a major increase in same-sex sex. People do sexually (as in other areas) what society allows and especially what it honors. One excellent example illustrating this is an article recently written in the McGill University newspaper by McGill student Anna Montrose. In it, she wrote: "It's hard to go through four years of a Humanities B.A. reading Foucault and Butler and watching 'The L Word' and keep your rigid heterosexuality intact. I don't know when it...

Benoit Denizet-Lewis is trying to start a conversation in a place where no one seems to want to have it. Denizet-Lewis, a 33-year-old Jamaica Plain resident, is addicted to sex, and he wants to talk about it. But addicts usually only discuss their addictions in 12-step programs in anonymous church basements. In America Anonymous, his new book about the struggles of recovering addicts from all over America, Denizet-Lewis delves into the lives of eight addicts, and looks at as his own recovery in an attempt to spark a real conversation about addiction out in the light of day. The subjects...

It's one of those things that sneaks up on you in politics, a sense of things happening not quite as you expected. It started in April when our Times colleague Louise Roug called with a quote from Sen. Hillary Clinton.

President-Elect Barack Obama denied that he discussed who would replace him in the US Senate with Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.). Though FBI wire taps indicate that the topic of “filling Obama’s seat” was heard on the tapes, Obama insisted that he took it to mean something completely different from what’s currently assumed by investigators. “Look, a guy who says his name is ‘Rod’ comes on the phone and wants to know what I’ll give him to ‘fill my seat,’” Obama said. “Do I have to draw you a diagram?” In related news, Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick began serving his...

SHE is the perfect wife, with the body of a Page 3 pin-up and housekeeping skills that put TV’s Kim and Aggie to shame. Her name is Aiko, she can even read a map, and will never, ever, nag. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t she fellas? And she is. Aiko is actually a robot, a fantasy brought to life by inventor Le Trung.

Teacher forces teens to question being 'straight' 'Is it possible your heterosexuality is just a phase you may grow out of?' December 02, 2008 By Drew Zahn © 2008 WorldNetDaily Pecatonica Middle/High School, Blanchardville, Wis. The mother of a Wisconsin teenager was stunned when her high school senior brought home a questionnaire assigned by his English teacher that asked, among several provocative questions, "Is it possible that your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?" The mother, Marilyn Hanson, reviewed the questionnaire and thought it completely inappropriate for any class, but especially for a required...

The writer Andrew Sullivan sits across the table from you on Chris Matthews' Hardball praising gay-marriage as a symbol of the homosexual community's desire to join the mainstream. He is a Catholic, conservative in many things, and a highly articulate spokesman for his point-of-view. What do you say? The requisite conservative on pundit panels usually falls back on citing heterosexual marriage's 5,000 year history as society's basic building block. Marriage has always been between a man and a woman. 65% of the American people are against homosexual unions. Etc. That's not going to get it. It's a way of brushing...

Social services 'set up CCTV camera in couple's bedroom' Social workers set up a CCTV camera in the bedroom of a couple with learning difficulties in order to monitor their behaviour, a new report claims. By Martin Beckford, Social Affairs CorrespondentCouncil staff are said to have spied on the young parents at night as part of a plan to see if they were fit to look after their baby, who was sleeping in another room. The mother and father were forced to cite the (Human Rights Act), which protects the right to a private life, before the social services team...

President-elect Barack Obama Washington DC, Nov 23, 2008 / 07:48 pm (CNA).- Citing what they call America’s “promise of equality,” the Obama administration plans to push for homosexual rights by including protections of sexual orientation, “gender identity” and “gender expression” as civil rights. His office proposes expanding hate crimes statues and the adoption rights of homosexuals while supporting full civil unions for “LGBT couples” to give them “legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples.”The proposals are announced under the Civil Rights section of their agenda presented at Change.gov, the web site of the Obama campaign’s self-described...

Forty-three California legislators filed a brief urging that the California Supreme Court void the voters’ approval of Proposition 8. “Some rights are so fundamental that they cannot be subject to vote or criticism,” the brief stated. “Proposition 8 only passed because people were freely permitted to criticize the lifestyle choices of others. This abuses freedom of speech. For this reason, the election outcome must be voided.”

Further video and description of homosexual attack on Christian group in San Francisco

Judge Clears Way For Same-Sex Marriages BY DANIELA ALTIMARI | The Hartford Courant 9:54 AM EST, November 12, 2008 NEW HAVEN - A 4-year legal battle for same-sex marriage came to an end this morning in a New Haven courtroom when Superior Copurt Judge Jonathan E. Silbert signed an order. The state Supreme Court last month, in a 4-3 decision, ruled that preventing gay and lesbian couples from marrying violates the state constitution. Today's brief hearing was a formality that was needed before gay couples could start receiving marriage licenses. Immediately after the court proceeding, one of the plaintiff couples,...

Barney Frank explains government’s role in bailoutBy Julie Onufrak/GateHouse News Service Tue Nov 11, 2008, 02:54 PM EST Randolph - U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said on Monday that he believes sensible regulations and another economic stimulus package will play key roles in solving the nation’s economic crisis. Speaking at a South Shore Chamber of Commerce breakfast at Lombardo’s in Randolph, Frank said he believed that the root of the current crisis was a trend of pushing people toward home ownership who couldn’t afford it. He lamented what he called excessively negative reactions to the construction of affordable rental housing. Frank...

Video footage from KPSP CBS 2 Palm Spring News shows Proposition 8 protesters surrounding an elderly woman and the reporter trying to interview her, shouting and blocking the camera's view of the woman, ultimately forcing the two to flee from the encircling crowd. Phyllis Burgess, a supporter of true marriage, had been assaulted earlier as she displayed a large cross in front of the protesters. Video footage shows the anti-marriage crowd pushing Burgess, slapping the cross out of her hand and stomping on it as they surround her. When reporter Kimberly Chang attempted to interview Burgess shortly thereafter, she grew...

If you’re noticing your TV screen turning pink, it’s not just your imagination. The new broadcast TV season includes 22 series featuring a total of 35 openly gay characters, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). GLAAD, which rides herd over all Hollywood scripts dealing with homosexuality, says the number of series with homosexual characters is a record. These series are on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and the CW networks. The total figure does not include shows on cable, like The L Word on Showtime, or MTV’s all-gay LOGO network. A new Eye on Culture report from...

ONE of the "bundlers" who has raised $50,000 to $100,000 for the Barack Obama presidential campaign is Terrence Bean, who once controlled the biggest producer of gay porn in America. Bean, the first gay on Sen. Obama's National Finance Committee, is the sole trustee of the Charles M. Holmes Foundation, which owned Falcon Studios, Jock Studios and Mustang Studios, the producers of about $10 million worth of all-male pornography a year. Chuck Holmes, who founded Falcon in 1972, died of AIDS in 2000. San Francisco's new gay and lesbian community center was named after Holmes two years later, thanks to...

A federal court decision approving mandatory public school instruction for children as young as kindergarten in how to be homosexual is being allowed to stand, drawing a description of "despicable" from the parent who unsuccessfully challenged his school district's "gay" advocacy agenda. The U.S. Supreme Court without comment has refused to intervene in a case prompted by the actions of officials at Estabrook Elementary school in Lexington, Mass., who not only were teaching homosexuality to young children, but specifically refused to allow Christian parents to opt their children out of the indoctrination. The case on which WND has reported previously...

A Michigan pro-family group has joined a nationwide boycott of a major greeting card company as a result of its promotion of the homosexual lifestyle. The American Family Association of Michigan has joined forces with several other pro-family groups around the country to boycott Hallmark over the company's new line of "same-sex couple" cards. AFA-Michigan's President Gay Glenn said, “Hallmark’s corporate position helps culturally legitimize and promote so-called homosexual ‘marriage,’ using its customers’ money to do so.” He added, “Each of us should ensure as a matter of conscience that Hallmark isn’t able to use any of our families’ money.”...

Supporters of Proposition 8, which would ban same-sex marriage in California, are running their first television ad.The commercial features San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom making a celebratory speech. The state Supreme Court had just invalidated a law overwhelmingly passed by voters in 2000 that declared "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Following is a text of the ad and an analysis by Aurelio Rojas of The Bee's Capitol Bureau: The ad Newsom: This door's wide open now. It's going to happen whether you like it or not.Narrator: Four judges ignored 4 million...

Lunch hour on Figueroa Street, downtown Los Angeles: Stepping onto the sidewalk, he said: "Let me see that sign." The sign held by TFP volunteer Mr. Thomas Schneider read "God's marriage = 1 man, 1 woman = children." ...Just then another businessman turned to Mr. Schneider and chimed in: "You're 120% percent correct!.." ...[A] pro-homosexual woman attempted to stop our campaign. "You should really stop what you're doing and leave. If violence breaks out," she told me, "you will be responsible for it. You are inciting people to acts of hate and violence." Her face muscles and hands quivered and...

TOKYO (AFP) - Tokyo police said Tuesday they had arrested a man with a passion for women's underwear who used a fishing rod to reel them in. Akira Hino, 51, was arrested last week for stealing a pair of knickers from a laundry pole on a second-floor balcony, a police spokesman said. He stretched out a three-metre (10-foot) rod and caught the underwear on a hook, the Mainichi Shimbun reported...

If Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss tasted success in the Supreme Court that upheld his decision to impose a ban on smoking in public places, his own government snubbed him in the Delhi High Court for supporting legalisation of homosexuality. “Ignore what the minister says. It is also not important what the affidavits say. It is for the court to decide the issue,” Additional Solicitor General P.P. Malhotra said before a bench of Chief Justice A.P. Shah and Justice S Muralidhar. The court is hearing a petition filed by NGO Naz Foundation seeking decriminalisation of homosexuality. The Bench said: “We will...

Google, the Internet search behemoth, is urging Californians to trash traditional marriage with a new website statement that campaigns against a constitutional amendment proposal that would define – again – marriage in California as being between one man and one woman. Voters in 2000 approved, with support from 61.4 percent of the people, that definition. But it was summarily thrown out in May by the state Supreme Court in an opinion written by Judge Ron George who said, "an individual's sexual orientation … like a person's race or gender … does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny...

'THE PRIVATE SECTOR got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it." That's Barney Frank's story, and he's sticking to it. As the Massachusetts Democrat has explained it in recent days, the current financial crisis is the spawn of the free market run amok, with the political class guilty only of failing to rein the capitalists in. The Wall Street meltdown was caused by "bad decisions that were made by people in the private sector," Frank said; the country is in dire straits today "thanks to a conservative philosophy that says the market knows best."...

A gay immigrant argues compellingly before a federal appeals court about the anti-gay persecution in his home country. Nearly four years into his detention, Damion Bromfield has finally won legal sympathy for himself and other gay immigrants who fear persecution if returned to countries hostile to gays. The ruling from the federal appeals court granting Bromfield another chance to argue for political asylum sets a strong and supportive precedent for other gay immigrants arguing for asylum or to not be removed from the U.S. based on fear of persecution. Bromfield is a Jamaican being held at the Northwest Detention Center....