Free Republic

Is government discriminating against homosexual couples when it denies them marriage, just as it discriminated against African Americans with segregation? The arguments assume that government creates and defines marriage. That assumption is reinforced with every public referendum, legislative act or court order concerning it, but for thousands of years, no one defined marriage, yet everyone knew what it was. Did society define marriage, perhaps based on the writings of bigoted men, to erroneously excluded homosexual couples? Does marriage exist absent society, with the concept of homosexual marriage being a collective delusion? Who or what defines marriage, and does that definition...

Yes, Ireland has entered a new era of equality – but not the positive kind.The most striking thing following the Irish referendum on gay marriage is how few people are talking about gay marriage. Amid the near-global cheering that greeted the vote in favour of instituting gay marriage, there was barely any commentary on the institution of gay marriage. Sure, there was a handful of on-air marriage proposals in Dublin as the news cameras rolled, and the tailend of a BBC TV report informed us when the first gay marriages in Ireland would take place (Autumn). But given that this...

May 28, 2015 (BreakPoint.org) -- For five years, Dr. Abigail Rine has been teaching a course on gender theory at George Fox University, an evangelical school in the Quaker tradition.At the beginning of the semester, she tells her students that “they are guaranteed to read something they will find disagreeable, probably even offensive.”Writing at FirstThings.com recently, she related how five years ago it was easy to find readings that challenged and even offended the evangelical college students “considering the secular bent of contemporary gender studies.”But today, things are different. “Students now,” she says, “arrive in my class thoroughly versed in the...

The N.C. House passes a bill allowing magistrates to recuse themselves from performing same-sex marriages if they have a religious objection. Despite accusations of hostility toward homosexuals and discrimination on the level of Jim Crow, the North Carolina House of Representatives approved a bill that allows magistrates to recuse themselves from performing marriages due to sincerely held religious objections to same-sex marriage. After more than two hours of passionate debate, the House passed Senate Bill 2 in a 65 to 45 vote Wednesday. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) after the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts...

Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage through a popular vote last week, prompting emotional celebrations, outpourings of support and, yes, a little bit of hate. The Westboro Baptist Church already stumbled over an attempted diss of the Irish referendum, mistakenly chastising the Ivory Coast instead. But when they tried to take on J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter author had nothing but ire for the hate-mongers ..."I don't care about WBC. I think it's important that scared gay kids who aren't out yet see hate speech challenged."...

Take a look at this list of countries: Belgium, Canada, Spain, Argentina, Portugal, Brazil, France, Uruguay, Luxembourg and Ireland. Name two things that they have in common. They don’t share a continent, obviously. Or a language. But in all of them, the Roman Catholic Church has more adherents, at least nominally, than any other religious denomination does. And all of them belong to the vanguard of 20 nations that have decided to make same-sex marriage legal. In fact, countries with a Catholic majority or plurality make up half of those where two men or two women can now wed or...

There is much more at stake in the debate over same-sex marriage than wedding cakes. Namely, the tax-exempt status of universities is now at risk. “The most notable exchange during the argument last month in the same-sex marriage case before the Supreme Court, Obergefell v. Hodges, likely occurred between Justice Samuel Alito and Solicitor General Donald Verrilli,” Terry Eastland writes in The Weekly Standard. “Well, in the Bob Jones case,” Alito pointed out, “the Court held that a college was not entitled to tax-exempt status if it opposed interracial marriage or interracial dating.” “In fact, as Alito and Verrilli of...

It appears that Sauron is living in Toronto, where he eeks out a meager living as a jeweler.  Making rings of power has always been his speciality, and imbuing them with subtle yet powerful evil is his passion. So when a lesbian couple entered his store and ordered custom wedding rings, they had no idea they were dealing with the Lord of Darkness. Nicole White and Pam Renouf liked dealing with Today’s Jewelers because the store custom-makes rings, CBC reported. "They were great to work with. They seemed to have no issues. They knew the two of us were a...

May 21, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- A December 2014 study alleged that homosexual activists, in a twenty-minute conversation, can change the minds of those who oppose redefining marriage.  Six months later, the data to support the study has been revealed as fraudulent, and the study itself has been retracted.Titled "When contact changes minds: An experiment on transmission of support for gay equality," the study claimed that homosexual activists canvassing door-to-door in favor of redefining marriage could convert the people they spoke with – and that the interlocutors' epiphanies would not only last for a year, but also inspire members of their...

The groom and groom strolled down the aisle to the mellow strains of “Mr. Sandman.” Wearing her black robe with her signature white lace collar, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg presided over the marriage on Sunday afternoon of Michael Kahn, the longtime artistic director of the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, and Charles Mitchem, who works at an architecture firm in New York. The gilded setting was elegant: Anderson House in the Embassy Row neighborhood, the headquarters in Washington of the Society of the Cincinnati, a club for the descendants of the French and American soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary...

Let’s assume, as I do, that the Supreme Court finds a constitutional right to same-sex marriage when it decides Obergefell v. Hodges sometime next month. What happens next? It may be a morning-after landscape of more confusion than clarity, with some rain falling on the victory parades. Conservative Christians, claiming victimization by the onrushing tide of marriage equality, aren’t like to be deterred in their quest for the right to withhold goods and services from same-sex couples. Indiana’s retreat last month, under pressure from some leading corporations, from a law that would have given businesses a religious excuse for discriminating...

With oral arguments at the Supreme Court concluded in Obergefell v. Hodges, 2016 candidates are starting to weigh in on how they would handle a potential Supreme Court ruling that leads to nationwide marriage equality. This week, Republican Carly Fiorina said that she would not fight a ruling in favor of marriage equality. Fiorina joins Lindsey Graham, another potential 2016 candidate, who issued a similar statement. On the other side, Ted Cruz, who has been a consistent opponent of LGBT equality, has said he will introduce a constitutional amendment to fight marriage if the Supreme Court rules in favor of...

If we let gays get married, is polygamy next? Well, no, obviously, but this is an argument that comes up over and over; and it just happened again. This time, it was from Ben Carson, who's running for (and has no chance of becoming) President. He hinted to CNBC that "other groups" would deserve marriage if gay couples gained the freedom to marry. When pressed on what those other groups were, he eventually admitted that they might include bigamists. This is a suggestion that comes up a lot, even from the Supreme Court. Last mont, Justice Alito observed, "a group...

May 14, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) - The nation’s largest association for internal medicine doctors this week officially endorsed homosexual “marriage” and blamed marriage protection laws for damaging the physical and mental health of people who identify as LGBT.The American College of Physicians (ACP) also officially opposed reparative therapy for individuals suffering from unwanted same-sex tendencies, and called for all-inclusive “transgender healthcare services” in its policy paper published May 12 in the Annals of Internal Medicine."It’s based upon our longstanding policy in regard to eliminating healthcare disparities," said Dr. Wayne Riley, president of the ACP and a clinical professor of medicine at...

Trevor Burrus is a research fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies. ... Marriage is a constantly changing social institution that adapts to social and economic conditions. And when those conditions change, marriage changes. Our modern view of marriage — one that has generally predominated in Western societies over the past 200 years — is the outlier. Historically, marriage has been about finding good in-laws and securing economic advantage. And marrying for love is a thoroughly modern invention ...

May 11, 2015 (BreakPoint.org) -- In the first century, Jesus was asked whether the Jewish people, who were under pagan, Roman occupation, should pay taxes to Caesar. The Lord, of course, said we are to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s. But in 21st century America, Caesar is angling for a better deal—and he’s getting it.Our old friend Chuck Colson sounded the alarm several years ago when certain political figures on the Left—including former secretary of state Hillary Clinton—began downsizing the First Amendment’s guarantee of our God-given right to freedom of religion into a more...

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 11, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- The GOP's only female presidential candidate says that she supports gay civil unions and religious liberty -- and that "government shouldn't discriminate" when it comes to benefits.Speaking to the blog Caffeinated Thoughts, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina also said she would not support an amendment to overturn whatever decision the Supreme Court makes this summer. "I think the Supreme Court ruling will become the law of the land, and however much I may agree or disagree with it, I wouldn’t support an amendment to reverse it," explained Fiorina. "I very much hope that we...

May 7, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) -- US natural marriage supporters are not only facing the possibility of attacks on their freedom of conscience and religion as marriage redefinition is forced on states across the country. They’re being compelled to foot the legal bill for homosexual activists as well.A federal judge in Oklahoma awarded almost $300,000 last Friday to attorneys who brought the state’s constitutional marriage amendment down in court.The decision brings the total taxpayer tab nationwide to more than $5 million for legal fees federal courts have ordered states to pay after having their marriage protection laws overturned.The matter of attorney fees remains...

One of the newly announced South Carolina co-chairs for Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) presidential campaign previously argued that the Utah judge who overturned the state's gay marriage ban should be impeached. That co-chair is state Sen. Lee Bright (R), who challenged Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in the 2014 Republican primary. Bright, in 2014, griped about federal judges being "absolutely out of control on so many different fronts" and went on to suggest that U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby, the judge who struck down Utah's ban on same-sex marriage, should be impeached. In April, Cruz was hosted by a pair of...

May 1, 2015 (ThePublicDiscourse.com) -- I am one of six adult children of gay parents who recently filed amicus briefs with the US Supreme Court, asking the Court to respect the authority of citizens to keep the original definition of marriage: a union between one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others, so that children may know and may be raised by their biological parents. I also live in Canada, where same-sex marriage was federally mandated in 2005.I am the daughter of a gay father who died of AIDS. I described my experiences in my book: Out From...