Free Republic

Some snapshots of Americans reacting to the Supreme Court ruling declaring that same-sex couples have a right to marry in all 50 states.

Gotnews.com has independently identified the engineer at the center of the Amtrak crash that has killed at least seven. Brandon Bostian is the 32-year-old gay man who lawyered up after a deadly derailment in Philadelphia. The train was reportedly going twice the speed limit. ABC 6 previously reported that “Brandon Boshan,” not Brandon Bostian, was to blame for the deadly crash. (They have since taken down the link.) Bostian is a gay activist who previously worked at Target as a cashier before joining Amtrak, according to his LinkedIn.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Racing both a U.S. Supreme Court decision on gay marriage and legislative deadlines, Texas Republicans pushed ahead Tuesday toward putting the state at the forefront of resistance if same-sex weddings are ruled constitutional. Nearly every Republican in the Texas House is backing a measure that would prohibit state and local officials from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Less than three weeks remain in Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's first session, and the bill must clear the House by midnight Thursday to advance. If signed by Abbott, the bill would aim to defy the Supreme Court if...

The admission was made by Barack Hussein Obama's lawyer, the sitting Solicitor General of the United States, Donald Verrilli, Jr., on Tuesday, April 28, 2015, during questioning by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Samuel Alito, Jr. Solicitor General Verrilli, using a public office to defend same-sex marriage on behalf of the United States, was asked by Justice Alito if religious institutions could be at risk of losing their tax-exempt status due to their beliefs about Biblical marriage. Verrilli's reply was, "It's certainly going to be an issue."

Last month, Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican, became one of the first major candidates in the marathon slog that is our modern presidential election cycle. Usually, when I want to see people get hit while running an obstacle course, I binge-watch Wipeout, the popular ABC show. But as anyone on social media is certainly well aware, there is no escaping our country’s least-enjoyable reality show: America’s Next Top Presidential Candidate (until the Next One, and the Next One, and the One After That). This year, my election fatigue is already so bad, I won’t even watch political gaffes on...

DENVER — The Colorado Republican Party has invited a gay GOP group that was barred from setting up a table at the Western Conservative Summit to share its booth. The Denver Post reports (http://goo.gl/06887P ) party Chairman Steve House announced the decision Thursday, the day after the Log Cabin Republicans were snubbed by summit organizers.

The Indiana Youth Group had a campaign established to raise funds that is in direct response to the Memories Pizza campaign. As of Friday morning, they had raised $2,700. (Photo courtesy of http://www.gofundme.com/qpkabg) INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The state of Indiana is watching dueling GoFundMe campaigns after the firestorm of RFRA.One was established for Memories Pizza and the other for LGBT youth in Indiana.Memories Pizza is the Indiana pizza shop whose owners said their religious beliefs wouldn’t allow them to cater a gay wedding.Their GoFundMe site, benefiting the restaurant had raised more than $550,000 as of Friday morning.The Indiana Youth Group had a campaign established to raise...

Daniel Rosen, 44, was charged with one count of 'use of a communications device to solicit a juvenile' 'He will be put on administrative leave while this proceeds to its end through any judicial process,' spokeswoman Jen Psaki said I'ts unclear whether Rosen is alleged to have used personal or State Department-issued devices A U.S. State Department official was jailed Tuesday on a charge of soliciting a minor. Daniel Rosen was arrested at his home in Washington, D.C., about noon on Tuesday and was in custody at the D.C. jail Tuesday night, said Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Department spokeswoman Lucy...

They’re here, some say, “at last”: Emojis, those universally coded images that punctuate your text messages and social media comments or serve as symbolic stand-ins for feelings best expressed, say, by Ghost With Tongue Sticking Out or Women With Bunny Ears, will finally reflect racial realities. According to many reports, Apple has rolled out five new shades of old emoji for the developers testing its upcoming version of iOS and OS X; while there’s no announcement yet of plans for Android devices, one expects that will come with time. It’s a big deal if only for the massively widening scope...

The Salinas mothers accused of chaining their 8-year-old adopted daughter to a wall to keep her from getting food will be held for trial on more than a dozen child abuse-related charges.

Why do people in the United States (and probably other Western countries, as well) over-estimate the proportion of gays and lesbians in the population? Ever since 1948, when the Kinsey Report suggested 1-in-10, Americans have accepted wildly exaggerated figures. Last year, The Smithsonian, the official web magazine of the famous museum in Washington DC, even suggested that it was 1-in-5!However, a recent government survey in the United Kingdom found that in 2013, 1.6% of UK adults identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual. This is a very small proportion of the population, but it becomes even smaller when the figures are broken up. Only 1.6% of men...

The Supreme Court’s recent decision not to take up challenges to state amendments banning same-sex marriage has had two significant effects – it has expanded marriage to 30 states and reignited the political conversation around marriage equality in the 2014 midterms. Since 2011, I have worked with Project Right Side to help Republican leaders navigate a radically changing electorate on the freedom to marry. While public acceptance of marriage equality has steadily increased, this moment may ultimately be looked upon as the point where Republican opposition to marriage equality began to fall in earnest. According to a recent poll of...

Cardinal George: US is adopting ‘official religion’ on homosexuality that is reminiscent of sharia Catholic World News - September 10, 2014 In an archdiocesan newspaper column, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said that American law has “taken upon itself the mantle of a religion and officially told its citizens what they must personally think or what ‘values’ they must personalize in order to deserve to be part of the country.” He writes: Since the biblical vision of what it means to be human tells us that not every friendship or love can be expressed in sexual relations, the Church’s teaching...

Regardless of your views on gay marriage, gay adoption and so on, I think we can all agree that Israel’s tolerant, liberal society is a much nicer place to live than the barbaric, oppressive, misogynistic and homophobic cultures that seem to spring up wherever radical Islam takes root, and particularly under Hamas in Gaza. After all, for over ten years, gay Palestinians have been fleeing their own country and settling in Tel Aviv, one of the most gay-friendly cities on the planet. In fact, friendly is an understatement. Israel is positively enthusiastic, as the only liberal democracy in the region,...

BOISE — Same-sex couples could flood county courthouses Friday morning, seeking to exercise a newly declared right to marry in Idaho. A Tuesday evening ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale striking down Idaho’s 2006 constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage takes effect at 9 a.m. Friday. Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/05/13/3183291/judge-rules-idaho-gay-marriage.html?sp=/99/1687/&ihp=1#storylink=cpy

A man found dead inside a freezer at an abandoned auto body shop in Ceres last week was married to the man accused of killing him. Ceres police identified the victim Friday as Thomas Kroger, who changed his last name to Cervantes when he married the suspect Jacob Cervantes on Aug. 13.

If you’ve never been to the annual New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade, better put it on your calendar for next year. That is, if there is a next year. Time could be running out on the world’s biggest celebration of all things Irish. Why? Because the parade’s organizers have for two decades steadfastly refused to allow gay and lesbian organizations to march under banners trumpeting their sexual orientation. The city’s self-appointed guardians of human rights long ago declared this policy exclusionary and intolerant. But, unlike in previous decades, the effort to paint the parade and its organizers...

Tim Cook To Conservative Think Tank: 'You Should Get Out Of This Stock' Kyle RussellFeb. 28, 2014, 8:29 PM Tim Cook, Apple's famously calm and collected CEO, had a rare outburst toward a representative of a conservative think tank at its annual shareholder meeting. The National Center for Public Policy Research put forth a proposal to Apple shareholders that would force the company to disclose information about its programs to act more sustainably by using green energy and materials with smaller environmental impacts. The proposal was rejected by the vast majority of Apple shareholders, receiving approval from only 2.95% of...

Ex-Olympic skater and current NBC commentator for the Sochi games Johnny Weir is not shy about protesting Russia's homosexual laws live on air, if his wardrobe has anything to say about it. Weir has appeared with full makeup -- blush, lipstick, etc. -- as well as silk blouses and gaudy jewelry. Hairstyles have ranged from piled on top to a braided tiara (seen below). This was his plan from the beginning...

Smoking while pregnant has been shown to cause delayed growth, low birth weight, and premature delivery, but now an Amsterdam University professor is claiming that smoking and undergoing stress during pregnancy for a developing fetus can in fact impact the child’s sexual orientation, reports The Sunday Times. According to neuroscientist Dr. Dick Swaab, pre-birth exposure to nicotine can increase the chances of girls becoming lesbian or bisexual and drinking or drug taking can lower a child’s IQ. The researcher also surmised that a boy with several older brothers has a higher chance of being gay possibly because the development of...