Free Republic

GenCon, the world’s biggest convention for tabletop gaming and a massive moneymaking machine for the State of Indiana, has responded to a bill that legalizes discrimination against LGBT customers by threatening to leave the state—and take their $50 million-a-year convention elsewhere. This isn’t because GenCon is run by political progressives or “social justice warriors” trying to make a difference. It really, really isn’t. If GenCon leaves Indianapolis it’ll be for the same reason it came to Indianapolis and abandoned its original home of Wisconsin, the home state of founder of D&D Gary Gygax (peace be upon him). Because it makes...

Bob Jones III Apologizes For Saying Gays Should Be Stoned By Ed Payne, CNN March 23, 2015 (CNN)Three and a half decades after calling for homosexuals to be stoned, former Bob Jones University President Bob Jones III has apologized. "I take personal ownership of this inflammatory rhetoric," Jones said. "This reckless statement was made in the heat of a political controversy 35 years ago." The weekend apology came days after the conservative Christian school in South Carolina received a petition asking for an apology for a statement Jones made to the Associated Press in 1980 at the White House. "I'm...

The University of Minnesota Duluth will begin offering a minor in LGBTQ studies so that students can be better prepared for life in “an increasingly diverse society.” To complete the minor, students will have to take classes such as “An Introduction to LGBTQ” (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer), “Queer Theory,” “Queer Media,” “Queer Cinema in International Perspective” and “History of the Homosexual Rights,” Campus Reform reported. “This minor will prepare students for life,” Gesa Zinn, head of the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, told Campus Reform. ” ‘The job’ the LGBTQ minor prepares students for is to understand and...

Modern liberalism is fundamentally illiberal. The evidences for this can be clearly seen all around us. There are hardly any basic areas of the liberty of the individual which today's progressives – in both parties – haven't trampled in their on-going efforts to destroy America That Was and replace it with a progressive utopian version in which individual rights are completely submerged and washed away in a flood of "social justice." Free speech, to the Left, should only cover saying things they agree with. Nobody needs to be secure in the privacy of their own homes (and indeed, privacy is...

TLC is becoming the latest network to explore transgender life. The cable network has handed out a straight-to-series order for All That Jazz, a docuseries following 14-year-old transgender activist Jazz Jennings, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The 11-episode series will feature Jennings — dubbed "The New Face of Transgender Youth" — in her daily life, juggling her foray into high school while navigating how a transgender teen approaches dating and sleepovers all while avoiding male puberty. Jennings, who has been featured on 20/20, The Rosie Show and was named one of the 25 Most Influential Teens of 2014 by Time...

Last week, Dr. Ben Carson stepped onto a political mine -- really, jumped onto it with both feet -- when he answered a question from CNN's Chris Cuomo about the nature of homosexuality. "You think being gay is a choice?" Cuomo asked Carson, after Carson rightly stated that being black and being gay are two very different phenomena. "Absolutely," replied Carson. He then went on to explain, "A lot of people who go into prison straight go into prison straight -- and when they come out, they're gay." Carson's unstated line of reasoning is perfectly logical. When Cuomo asked Carson...

Almost six in ten Americans say they favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to enter into same-sex marriages, the highest level of support ever recorded in a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.In the new survey released Monday, 59 percent of Americans said that they favor same-sex marriages while just 33 percent said they oppose them.View the full poll results here.The numbers have shifted dramatically in the past decade. In 2004, only 30 percent of Americans said they supported same-sex marriage, while 62 percent disagreed. Half of those polled at the time said they strongly opposed allowing gays and lesbians...

For some men, love has long been a battle of inches. But a new report revealing the "definitive" length of typical manhood may let many guys breathe easier ...

Washington (CNN)Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson apologized for commenting Wednesday that prisoners' changes after they leave jail proves being gay is a choice, but said that the science is still murky on the issue. In a statement, Carson said he "realized that my choice of language does not reflect fully my heart on gay issues." "I do not pretend to know how every individual came to their sexual orientation. I regret that my words to express that concept were hurtful and divisive. For that I apologize unreservedly to all that were offended," he added. 

Dear Justice Kennedy, June is nigh, and with it will comes your ruling on the most contentious political issue of our time: marriage. I write because I am one of many children with gay parents who believe we should protect marriage. I believe you were right when, during the Proposition 8 deliberations, you said “the voice of those children [of same-sex parents] is important.” I’d like to explain why I think redefining marriage would actually serve to strip these children of their most fundamental rights. It’s very difficult to speak about this subject, because I love my mom. Most of...

A Tea Party lawmaker erred last week when he filed a handwritten complaint against the judge who permitted Texas' first same-sex marriage. State Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, a veteran groom with five marriages under his belt, called out the wrong judge and made a flawed assertion of Texas law

Openly gay political commentator Sally Kohn says, in a new essay for The Washington Post, that she hopes her daughter is gay too, despite already being attracted to boys. Kohn, a well-known political commentator on networks like CNN and Fox News, says that like all parents who want their children to follow in their footsteps, she also has hoped that her daughter would turn out to be gay. Despite those wishes, however, Kohn says she’s already starting to notice that her six-year-old daughter is most likely straight and that leaves her a bit disappointed. “I live in the liberal bubble...

Rudy Giuliani entered McCarthyist territory with his grotesque personal attack on President Barack Obama’s patriotism. Speaking to a hardcore Republican crowd, New York City’s former mayor said: “I know this is a horrible thing to say. But I do not believe that the president loves America.” Giuliani is 100% right, what he said was horrible, yet he said it anyway, which makes Giuliani a horrible human being. By uttering such defamatory words he instantly went from America’s Mayor to America’s Mooncalf. While Giuliani’s insults may have thrilled the Republican base, they turned out to be baseless. The New York Times...

Michael Sam gained overnight fame by becoming the first openly gay football player to be drafted into the NFL. Now the 25-year-old Texan will show off his soft shoe by joining the celebrity contenders on season 20 of Dancing With The Stars, according to TMZ.

Fellow Republicans, you are sadly mistaken if you believe that the results of the November 2014 elections are a sign from the American people that the coast is clear to continue operating as you have in the past. You should not read into the results as predictive of the 2016 presidential elections. If you want to avoid a very short-lived honeymoon at the top you will have to govern in accordance with the realities that exist in America today. One of those realities is that the prohibition of gay marriage is a form of discrimination that our court system is...

A 37-year-old gay mom is set to spark controversy after she said she'd be disappointed if her daughter grew up straight. Sally Kohn a political commentator who has appeared on CNN and MSNBC, describes herself as living in the 'liberal bubble of Park Slope, Brooklyn, where 'yuppies' want their kids to be happy. She said: 'I'm gay. And I want my kid to be gay, too.'

After Robert Kirkman dropped hints on The Talking Dead that the show would be introducing its first gay male character, fans have been waiting for it to happen and it looks like it finally has. More: The Walking Dead — Tyreese plays protector and 13 other perfect moments In the most recent episode, Sasha and Maggie were sharing a special moment together, commiserating over the recent losses they suffered, when a strange man came out of the woods. His name is Aaron and, if the comic books are anything to go by, he is that gay character fans have been...

Zaneta Rago, the Director of Rutgers’ Social Justice Center, said that she was surprised there were not more millennials who believed that gender exists on a spectrum. “It's wonderful that approximately half of the respondents understood gender as a spectrum, but that means we're only half way there," she said. Daniella Anconetami, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student, said that she believes in the gender spectrum. She said that she discovered that gender “wasn’t black and white” in high school, and said that her opinions about gender identity changed after meeting someone who was transgender in high school....

Alabama's Stand Against Gay Marriage Crumbles MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Feb 13, 2015 By KIM CHANDLER Alabama's stand against gay marriage crumbled Friday as judges in most counties sided with federal courts rather than their own chief justice, a Republican who once called homosexuality an inherent evil. Many counties in the Bible Belt state began issuing the licenses to same-sex couples after the latest strongly worded order from U.S. District Judge Callie Granade. She said Thursday that a judge could no longer deny marriage licenses to gays and lesbians, reiterating her ruling striking down the state's ban on same-sex marriage.

During a heated discussion over gay marriage, CNN morning Anchor Chris Cuomo opined that the unalienable rights endowed to all Americans do not come from God. Cuomo was debating Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage. Near the end of the back-and-forth and after Moore argued that rights cannot be handed down by men, Cuomo blurted out:“Our rights do not come from God, your honor, and you know that. They come from man... That’s your faith, that’s my faith, but that’s not our country. Our laws come from collective agreement and compromise.”