Free Republic

US AMBASSADOR to Australia John Berry has married his long-term partner of 17 years in a private same-sex ceremony in Washington D.C. The 54-year-old former head of the Office of Personnel Management - which oversees the US public service - is the first openly gay US ambassador to serve in a Group of 20 nation and the highest ranking openly gay man in United States history. In a short statement, Mr Berry confirmed the nuptials, telling news.com.au, "John Berry and Curtis Yee, partners of 17 years, were formally married on Saturday August 10, at St Margaret's Episcopal Church in Washington...

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who was part of the "Gang of Eight" that wrote the Senate's immigration bill, lamented that there were not more John McCains in the House of Representatives. Sen. McCain (R-AZ) has been lauded as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's "favorite Republican," and President Barack Obama, when asked by Jay Leno on Tuesday to speak about his "bromance" with McCain," described it as a "romantic comedy." But there are not as many Republicans who are so willing to compromise like McCain in the House, much to Schumer's chagrin. "Well, the problem is, why aren't there more John...

Ron McCoy and his partner Christopher Bowers boarded the shuttle bus from Albuquerque's Sunport Airport after flying in from their home in Portland, Oregon, the day before the Albuquerque Pride Festival began on June 28. The couple was in town for a long-awaited road-trip, but their elation soon turned to dismay when the driver of the bus noticed they were holding hands and told them to sit at the back... When they arrived at their destination, they had recovered enough to question the driver on his actions. .. A fellow passenger witnessed the incident and gave the driver a piece...

<p>The streets outside Minneapolis City Hall were filled with newly-wedded gay and lesbian couples reveling in their new marital status Thursday morning while inside dozens more waited their turn in lines that lasted until dawn.</p> <p>Down the street at the Hotel Minneapolis, Cathy ten Broeke and Margaret Miles, the first couple legally wed in Minnesota, partied into the night, wearing the same slinky dresses they wore 12 years earlier at their commitment ceremony.</p>

Even a man who repeatedly cheated on his wife with high-priced hookers thinks Anthony Weiner is a bad husband. As he campaigns for city controller, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been shaking hands at subway stops and visiting churches without his wife, Silda Wall, anywhere in sight. But Spitzer and his team claim her absence is only because the former Love Gov is interested in protecting her. “Regarding (Silda’s) appearances on the campaign trail, no husband would ask his wife and family to step into the media frenzy surrounding the campaign at this time,” Spitzer spokeswoman Lisa Linden said.

Spitzer: I Have Not Visited Prostitutes Since 2008 12:36 PM, Jul 24, 2013 • By MICHAEL WARREN Eliot Spitzer, the former New York governor and New York City comptroller candidate, says he has not visited a prostitute since 2008, when it was revealed the Democrat was a client for a high-price prostitution ring. The Wall Street Journal reports: A day after Anthony Weiner acknowledged that he continued sending lewd messages to women even after he resigned from Congress, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer said he hadn’t used prostitutes after his own downfall in 2008. “Absolutely not,” Mr. Spitzer said when asked...

Mayoral candidate and former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner responded apologetically Tuesday, following revelations of another alleged cybersex relationship. A woman claimed anonymously this week to the gossip site “The Dirty” that she exchanged lewd photos and had explicit phone conversations with Weiner after the scandal that led him to resign from Congress in 2011. The woman told the Web site she was 22 when Weiner began the online relationship. Site editor Nik Ritchie wrote that the woman claimed Weiner and the woman “had a relationship for six months, and she believed they were in love.” Weiner allegedly used the pseudonym...

Four men were arrested in less than three hours Friday in Clark State Forest and two men were arrested near Falls of the Ohio State Park a week ago. . . Soon after one of the undercover officers sat on a piece of driftwood on a trail about 1 p.m. July 9, he was approached by Samuel Elmore, 64, of Louisville. Spainhour said the men were initially engaged in a conversation about the weather and how secluded the area was. “After a very brief conversation, Mr. Elmore reached up the shorts of our officer and attempted to touch the genitalia...

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has become the latest disgraced politician looking to make a comeback in city politics. Spitzer is running for city controller, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told the Daily News. Spitzer now joins Anthony Weiner, the former congressman who tweeted away his career, as pols seeking redemption from the constituents they betrayed.

An American pedophile has been convicted to 40 years in prison for years of sexual abuse of adopted Russian boy. His boyfriend from New Zealand who assisted in meticulously recording acts of sexual offence is going on trial at home. Two members of the pedophile porn exchange ring Boy Lovers network, Mark J. Newton, 42 and his long-term partner Peter Truong, 36, were busted in 2011 on suspicion that they were sexually molesting their son, born to Russian mother in 2005. A US judge in Indianapolis has imposed maximum sentence on American-born Mark J. Newton, 42, for sexual exploit of...

President Obama told attendees at an LGBT Pride Month celebration that the U.S. needs to get marriage equality "done now," but that he believed the nation had reached a "turning point" on gay rights. "We´re not going to have to wait that long," Obama said. "From Minnesota to Maryland, from the U.S. Senate to the NBA, it´s clear we´ve reached a turning point." The president said that progress could be traced "from the courage of those who stood up." "Eventually America gets it right. That doesn´t mean we can be patient," Obama said.

The U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, is suspected of soliciting prostitutes and possibly minors, according to a State Department memo. The details are published in today's New York Post. "A [Diplomatic Security] agent was called off a case against US Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman over claims that he solicited prostitutes, including minors," reports the Post.

As Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. was struggling with how to cast the decisive vote in a 1986 Supreme Court case that would end up devastating the gay rights movement, he told his fellow justices that he had never met a homosexual. In truth, one of his four law clerks that term was gay. The atmosphere at the court today is far different from 1986, with a pace of change that may have surpassed that in the rest of society. Openly gay law clerks are now common in the chambers of both liberal and conservative justices. In January, Chief Justice...

Years ago, Gay Pride Week -- as weird as it was -- was largely only about adults who might dress and act like children. But a disturbing trend in recent years has been to include activities to attract teenagers as young as middle school age. There seems to be a very strong interest by adult activists to get kids involved with the "gay" festivities. For example, last year for the first time, the Boston Pride Committee took over the "Youth Pride" event which was held this year in Boston on May 18 for middle school and high school kids. (We...

Tel Aviv hosted its 15th annual Gay Pride Festival on Friday, with a record-breaking 100,000 spectators and participants attending the celebrations, including droves of tourists from all over the world. The Festival began at 10 a.m. at Gan Meir park, home to the city’s gay community center, and featured performances, speeches and music. A massive parade of tens of thousands of participants started at 1 p.m., making its way from the park through central Tel Aviv and culminating at the iconic Gordon Beach. Attendees at the event included Finance Minister Yair Lapid, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Minister of Culture and...

(CNN) – For Southern Baptist pastor Tim Reed, it was Scripture versus the Scouts. “God’s word explicitly says homosexuality is a choice, a sin,” said Reed, pastor of First Baptist Church of Gravel Ridge in Jacksonville, Arkansas. So when the Boy Scouts of America voted to lift its ban on openly gay youths on May 24, Reed said the church had no choice but to cut its charter with Troop 542. “It’s not a hate thing here,” Reed told CNN affiliate Fox 16. “It’s a moral stance we must take as a Southern Baptist church.” Southern Baptist leaders say Reed...

Just when you thought you'd seen it all, along comes an announcement from The Hub, a low-rated cable TV channel that is attempting to increase its audience of children between 2 years old and age 11 by airing a cartoon featuring a boy who gains super powers by wearing a special ring -- and dressing as a girl. Set to debut on Saturday at 12:30 p.m., the gender-bending program stars twelve-year-old Guy Hamdon, “an extreme dude who inherits the power ring of his deceased aunt -- the amazing FEMALE superhero SheZow! The ring gives him villain-battling super powers, but was...

Berlusconi's Bunga-Bunga Strippers Dressed Up as Barack Obama, Says Bellydancer Ruby Silvio Berlusconi's infamous "bunga-bunga" parties featured strippers dressed as US President Obama as well as the more conventional fare of nuns and nurses, according to court testimony by the Moroccan woman at the centre of the scandal. Karima el-Mahroug, 20, was giving evidence at the trial of three former aides to Berlusconi who are accused of procuring her and other women for prostitution. El-Mahroug, a former bellydancer, said she attended about half a dozen parties, using her nickname Ruby. One each occasion, Berlusconi had handed her an envelope containing...

The boys at a Washington state high school have turned the pressures of being a teen girl up to "10." For five years running, boys at Issaquah High School have pitted their female classmates against one another in an online "May Madness" tournament, voting on the sexiness of the girls and encouraging them to "look their finest" at school. Officials in Issaquah, about 15 miles east of Seattle, say they have tried to stop the site, modeled after one focusing on celebrities run by a local sports radio station, without success.

Gay activists show up with dirty hands to protest Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, are denied entry NEW YORK CITY, May 7, 2013 (LifeSiteNews) – After Timothy Cardinal Dolan wrote a column comparing practicing homosexuals and others who approach Holy Communion in a state of serious sin to children who fail to wash their hands before supper, homosexual Catholics and their supporters showed up for Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral with filthy hands as a form of protest, and were denied entry. Joseph Amodeo, the organizer of the protest, said that the act of dirtying their hands was an attempt...