Free Republic

Americans may not be able to agree on immigration reform, or education policy, or military spending — but on gays, they’re speaking loud and clear: More and more are approving of same-sex marriage than ever before, Pew Research found. Between 2003 and 2013, overall support for gay marriage has risen by 21 percentage points — from 32 percent in 2003 to 53 percent in 2013, Pew’s Public Religion Research Institute found, in a survey released on Wednesday.

Arizona has resisted national pressure before to its controversial laws. But this time leaders are urging Gov. Jan Brewer to veto a bill that would allow businesses to refuse service to gay patrons. TUCSON — When Arizona took controversial stands in the past — refusing to create a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and enacting a tough anti-illegal immigration law — state leaders shrugged off the criticism from out of state as the meddling of outsiders. But now, after the Legislature passed a measure to bolster the rights of business owners to refuse service to gays and others on the...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Mitt Romney on Tuesday joined a growing chorus of Republicans urging the Arizona governor to veto a bill that would allow business owners to cite their religious beliefs in refusing service to gay people. The former Massachusetts governor tweeted at Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R), saying it “is right” to veto the bill passed by the state legislature last week. Mitt Romney ✔ @MittRomney .@GovBrewer: veto of #SB1062 is right. 3:41 PM - 25 Feb 2014 1,578 Retweets 831 favorites Brewer has not said whether she will sign or veto the measure. However, a number of media outlets have reported...

For the first time, support for gay marriage in Ohio has reached the 50 percent threshold in the Quinnipiac Poll, a new survey released today shows. Led by support among young voters, exactly half of Ohioans back same-sex marriage, compared to 44 percent who oppose it. The new findings, which mirror public opinion shifts across the nation, represent a reversal since December of 2012, when 47 percent of Ohioans opposed gay marriage and 45 percent supported it. The change comes almost entirely from independent voters; Democrats support and Republicans oppose gay marriage by about the same percentages as before. …

In 2006, 57 percent of Virginia’s electorate voted to amend their state’s constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Last week, U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen ruled the amendment unconstitutional. In 2004, 76 percent of Oklahoma’s electorate voted to amend their state’s constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. On January 14, 2014, U.S. District Judge Terence Kern ruled the amendment unconstitutional. In 2004, 66 percent of Utah’s electorate voted to amend their state’s constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman....

A federal judge Thursday declared Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring tweeted the news.

Virginia’s chief lawyer said he won’t defend the state’s law. Eight of his peers in other states could soon join him. When Mark Herring, the attorney general of Virginia announced on Wednesday that the state’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional and that he will not defend the law in court, he was hailed by marriage equality activists as a hero. Herring put a handful of his fellow attorneys general in a tough spot though. There are currently eight states that have some kind of law against same-sex marriage on the books and have a Democrat as the chief lawyer...

PARK CITY -- The Sundance premiere for Ryan White and Ben Cotner's Proposition 8 documentary The Case Against 8 at Temple Theatre on Saturday afternoon drew one of the most enthusiastic audience responses of the festival to date. OUR EDITOR RECOMMENDS Sundance: Zach Braff Was Warned 'People Will Go Apes--t' Over Kickstarter Campaign Sundance: Kristen Stewart on 'Camp X-Ray's' Haunted Set, Meeting Robert Redford (Video) Daily Warm Up: Aaron Paul Talks Sundance Drama 'Hellion,' 'Breaking Bad' Spinoff Sundance at 30: Vintage Photos of Park City's Biggest Stars Lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies, who successfully fought to overturn California's Proposition...

Utah took its fight against gay marriage to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, asking the high court to suspend same-sex unions that became legal when a judge struck down the state’s voter-approved ban. The heavily Mormon state wants the marriages to stop while it appeals a judge’s decision, which said banning gay couples from marrying violates their right to equal treatment under the law. In papers filed Tuesday, the state asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor to overturn a decision that has led to more than 900 gay marriages in Utah. Sotomayor handles emergency requests from Utah and other Rocky Mountain...

Ohio officials must recognize the marriages of same-sex couples who married out of state for purposes of being considered married on death certificates, a federal judge ruled on Monday. Judge Timothy Black had granted a temporary injunction for James Obergefell and John Arthur in July, ordering that their marriage be recognized on his death certificate should Arthur — who was in hospice care — die. Since then, Arthur died, but the case was amended to included a funeral director who wanted to ensure that he would be protected should he list same-sex couples as married, as well as another individual...

Judge Robert J. Shelby, whom President Barack Obama appointed to the U.S. District Court in Utah last year, issued an opinion on Friday declaring that a right to same-sex marriage is "deeply rooted in the nation’s history and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty."

With the ruling of a federal judge last week that declared part of Utah's anti-polygamy law unconstitutional, the left finds itself torn. Of course, with their ever-wavering consciences that are willing to go along with whatever seems the latest fad that tests our moral boundaries (especially in the sexual realm), some liberals say that it is time that we take a closer look at plural marriage. After all, if consenting adults want to enter into such relationships, what is the problem? In other words, as I asked over five years ago, what's wrong with polygamy? However, some liberals took comfort...

A county clerk's office in Utah is issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, just hours after a federal judge struck down Utah's ban on gay marriages. Salt Lake County Deputy Clerk Dahnelle Burton-Lee says the district attorney authorized her office to begin issuing the marriage licenses Friday. She couldn't immediately say how many licenses have been issued so far. U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby ruled that a law passed by voters in 2004 violates gay and lesbian couples' rights to due process and equal protection under the 14th Amendment. Shelby said the state failed to show that allowing same-sex...

Just happened, goes to rubber stamping in Senate where it was already passed and on to supportive governor. Hawaii is 16th state +DC to legalize this sin(also Oregon and New Mexico have functional same sex marriage because they recognize out of state marriages).

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who lost the 2012 election to President Barack Obama, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he believed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie could “easily” become the GOP presidential nominee in 2016 and “save our party.” Christie most recently made national news when he decided to drop a legal challenge to rulings in New Jersey state courts that declared same-sex marriage legal there. And not long before that, he changed his position on the question of whether illegal aliens should get in-state tuition rates at New Jersey state colleges. Now he backs legislation...

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney returned to the Sunday shows almost exactly one year since he lost the election to Barack Obama, only to attack the President and call his second term into question. The former Republican politician wasted no time attacking the President over his rocky Obamacare roll out during his appearance on NBC's Meet the Press. "The president failed to learn the lessons that came from the experience in Massachusetts," Romney said, repeating that he thinks a state-by-state healthcare plan would work better. Romney then launched into a greater attack on the President's "you can keep your...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney passed on Chris Christie (R) as his vice presidential running mate in 2012 partly because the New Jersey governor failed to provide all background information requested by his vetters, according to a new book. According to "Double Down," which was obtained by The New York Times on Thursday, Christie’s dossier was “littered with potential land mines.” The fundraising limitations imposed on Christie as governor of New Jersey also played a part. But Christie left a number of questions asked of him blank, more than other potential candidates, according to the book, written by Mark Halperin...

In an appearance on MCNBC’s Morning Joe, Nicole Wallace (former George W. Bush adviser and McCain/Palin campaign adviser) ruined all of the gang’s orgasmic revelry of false equivalency over Obama’s bad numbers in the latest NBC/WSJ poll by pointing out that Republicans have even worse numbers, and there seems to be no bottom for the party. Wallace then warned Republicans to stop being about nothing but criticism, “So I think the peril in looking at these numbers for President Obama is to continue down the path of railing against his administration’s policies.” (VIDEO-AT-LINK)The Republican Party’s approval ratings are at an...

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 31, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – This week saw two same-sex “weddings” performed within the walls of the United States Supreme Court, presided over by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, respectively. While same-sex “marriage” has been legal in Washington, D.C., since 2009, the federal DOMA law defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman prohibited such ceremonies from being performed on federal property. Ginsburg voted to strike down a provision of DOMA in June. Justice Ginsburg, 80, officiated the first of the two ceremonies last weekend, presiding over the “marriage” of one...

Though he disagrees with the ruling, a spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) said Friday afternoon that he will cooperate with a New Jersey state Supreme Court ruling that makes gay marriage legal in the state beginning on Monday. "The Supreme Court has made its determination," Christie's press secretary, Michael Drewniak, said in a statement. "While the Governor firmly believes that this determination should be made by all the people of the State of New Jersey, he has instructed the Department of Health to cooperate with all municipalities in effectuating the order of the Superior Court under the applicable law."