Free Republic

January 28, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Two years ago, I was asked to speak at our state capitol on behalf of the Marriage Amendment. The hearing was in a center room surrounded by a hallway. Those preparing to speak were kept in the hall until their time to address the amendment.  As I waited in the hallway, I was approached by a man who supported redefining marriage to include unions between members of the same sex. He was quite nice and reasonable in the beginning. "I imagine you're going to be speaking for the amendment on marriage?" he began. "Yes," I...

TAMPA, Florida, January 21, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Is the procreative impossibility of homosexual activity the same as heterosexuals being biologically infertile? Stetson University law professor Joseph Morrissey is suing for a tax deduction of $36,538 for in vitro fertilization treatments and the cost of a surrogate to carry twin boys for himself and his male partner. In denying Morrissey's claim, the IRS explained that for tax deductions, the medical services must be provided to the taxpayer, his spouse, or his dependent. Therefore, a surrogate does not qualify, and neither does IVF for someone other than the filer, his spouse, or...

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 18, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) -- President Obama says that marriage's redefinition "is here to stay." Obama's comments, which he directed in part at Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, came in response to a question from YouTube creator and open lesbian Ingrid Nilsen, who asked "if progress in the LGBT community is not here to stay in certain states?" "Oh, no, it's here to stay," said the president. “Understand that the Supreme Court has ruled that under the Constitution everybody in all 50 states has the right to marry the person they love. That's now the law of the...

ALBANY, New York, January 18, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Farmers who host weddings in their backyard cannot refuse ceremonies where two people of the same sex are trying to get married, a New York court has ruled. The court's decision affirmed the state's Division of Human Rights (DHR) ruling against Robert and Cynthia Gifford, owners of Liberty Ridge Farms, after they declined to host a "wedding" for a same-sex couple. The Giffords said they would host the reception for a lesbian couple, but the ceremony itself would have to be hosted elsewhere because of their religious beliefs about marriage. DHR found...

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 13, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) - The next Republican president will "respect" different forms of marriages, including same-sex "marriages," South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said in last night's Republican response to the State of the Union address. "If we [Republicans] held the White House," she said, "we would respect differences in modern families, but we would also insist on respect for religious liberty as a cornerstone of our democracy." Even the terminology "modern families" evokes the ABC sitcom featuring a homosexual couple raising a child. The GOP has been uncertain how to respond to the Supreme Court's Obergefell v....

MONTGOMERY, Alabama, January 8, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Alabama's top justice has ordered the state's judges to uphold the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment, despite the U.S. Supreme Court Obergefell v. Hodges decision last June redefining marriage. Chief Justice Roy Moore said probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue marriage licenses in conflict with the state marriage amendment pending a decision from the Alabama Supreme Court. "Confusion and uncertainty exist among the probate judges of this State as to the effect of Obergefell on the 'existing orders' in API," Moore said in a January 6 administrative order. "Many probate judges...

Mat Staver, the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin gave Kim Davis and all the other county clerks in the state a "wonderful Christmas gift" by protecting their religious rights and freedom. Bevin issued an executive order two weeks after taking office that removes the names of all county clerks from marriage licenses issued in Kentucky. Staver said that will enable Davis and all other county clerks to do their jobs — issue marriage licenses to everyone, including same-sex couples — without compromising their religious principles. Davis vaulted from her little county clerk's office in...

Oh, I could hear the balloon deflating all the way from the Politico headquarters.Phllloooooooopppphhtt.Last week, on the day of the highly-watched GOP presidential debate, someone gave Politico’s Mike Allen an enticing piece of catnip to put in his insidery morning email. Secret audio tape would soon be published on a conservative news site supposedly showing that Ted Cruz talks much differently to NYC moderates than Iowa evangelicals. “These leaks are designed to undermine Cruz’s authenticity,” Allen wrote.The prospect of a juicy secret recording flew around the Internet. People reported on the prospect of the audio tape, before ever hearing a...

During the question period, one of the donors told Cruz that gay marriage was one of the few issues on which the two disagreed. Then the donor asked: "So would you say it's like a top-three priority for you - fighting gay marriage?" "No," Cruz replied. "I would say defending the Constitution is a top priority. And that cuts across the whole spectrum - whether it's defending [the] First Amendment, defending religious liberty." Soothing the attendee without contradicting what he has said elsewhere, Cruz added: "People of New York may well resolve the marriage question differently than the people of...

RALEIGH, North Carolina, December 11, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Three couples are challenging the constitutionality of North Carolina's law allowing magistrates to bow out of performing same-sex "marriages." According to court documents, the plaintiffs – two lesbian couples and an opposite-sex interracial couple – argue that the state's new law is discriminatory and thus unconstitutional. They and LGBT rights activists, as well as the state's GOP governor, all argue that the intention of the law is to illegally discriminate against same-sex couples. However, ABC 11 noted that a state statute does not require couples to perform marriages, a position argued by...

December 10, 2015 (ThePublicDiscourse) -- Obergefell v. Hodges was decided by five robed justices, but only one man both wrote and signed his name to the majority opinion. The four concurring justices chose to concur silently, adding nothing more than their signatures. This case is the brainchild of one man. That man and his state of mind—indeed, his character—matter. Recently, Justice Anthony Kennedy dismissed conscientious objectors to Obergefell, such as Kim Davis, by pointing out that very few Christian judges resigned when the Nazis imposed the Nuremberg Laws on Germany. Leaving aside how offensive it is to compare gay marriage supporters to Nazis, Justice Kennedy’s...

Editor's note: Below is an excerpt from an interview with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) conducted by Professor Robert P. George of Princeton University that aired November 25 on EWTN. The interview series, titled "Candidate Conversations 2016," will pose a number of questions to presidential candidates on topics of particular concern to Catholic voters. The passage below addresses the question of how public officials should best respond to the Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court ruling on so-called same-sex "marriage" decided last summer. Here, Senator Cruz publicly endorses a position advanced by Prof. George and others who argue that unconstitutional decisions of...

Albany, N.Y. - The owners of an upstate New York wedding venue who were fined $13,000 after refusing to host a lesbian wedding are appealing the ruling. The owners of Liberty Ridge Farm north of Albany refused to host the 2013 wedding of Melisa and Jennie McCarthy, citing their Christian beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman. The state's Division of Human Rights ruled that business owned by Robert and Cynthia Gifford violated New York's anti-discrimination law. "The policy to not allow same-sex marriage ceremonies on Liberty Ridge Farm is a denial of access to a place...

MONTGOMERY, Alabama, November 19, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Pockets of resistance to the Supreme Court's judicial activism in constitutionalizing homosexual "marriage" are cropping up across the United States. Not isolated pockets, either. Large, organized pockets. The latest groups to officially resist Obergefell v Hodges include Alabama pediatricians and an entire church denomination, petitioning the state Supreme Court to disobey federal law in order to "protect" churches, families, and children. The American College of Pediatricians (ACP) submitted a "Friend of the Court" brief November 6. "It is in the best interest of children and this State to preserve the fundamental and immutable...

Not all American states have placidly accepted the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v Hodges to declare same-sex marriage constitutional. Some are listening to advice from legal scholars that “state officeholders” should “refuse to accept Obergefell as binding precedent”.If this gathers momentum, there could eventually be some scope for state governors to ignore Obergefell as a precedent. Instead, they could argue that the Court had spoken authoritatively only for the parties involved in that case alone. It’s not likely, but a crack may be opening.Here is what happened in Mississippi.Lauren Beth Czekala-Chatham, a 52-year-old credit analyst, who already had two...

It did not take long for marriage revisionism to show its hostility to the relationship among children, mothers, and fathers. Just a few months after the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that all states must eliminate from their legal definition of marriage the essential involvement of man and woman, conflicts between this redefinition and the fundamental rights of children to be connected to both father and mother are already making their way through the courts.In these conflicts, children’s rights might seem to enjoy an advantage of priority. Even states that redefined marriage several years ago have left in...

FRANKFORT, KY, November 9, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) - On December 8, Kentucky will have a new governor, and Kim Davis will have a chance to do her job without denying her faith. Governor-elect Matt Bevin has promised that he will change the state's marriage forms, removing the name of the county clerk entirely - the reform Davis had pleaded with state lawmakers to enact before spending five days in jail. Davis, the clerk of Rowan County in eastern Kentucky, is a born again Christian who believes participating in a same-sex "marriage" would make her guilty of a major sin. Before the...

Two daycare workers have been fired for refusing to go along with the center’s transgender agenda. Madeline Kirksey, one of the workers who is an author of a Christian book, says her religious liberty rights have been violated. The two were fired after refusing to call a little girl a boy. The two male parents of a six-year-old little girl told employees at the school to refer to their daughter as a boy, and to call her by a new masculine name. The little girl’s hair had also been cut like a boy’s. Kirksey told Breitbart Texas in an interview,...

FOX CHAPEL, Pennsylvania, November 5, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Three years ago, Nino Esposito adopted his adult gay lover, Roland Bosee, Jr., as his legal son in order to save money on future inheritance taxes. Now that homosexual "marriage" is legal in Pennsylvania, they went to court to dissolve that legal adoption so as to "wed." Judge Lawrence J. O'Toole, of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, told the men that state law didn't give him the power to dissolve a legal adoption, unless there was fraud involved.  Now Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) is asking the Obama administration to...

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, October 29, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy told a Harvard Law School audience that government employees with religious convictions about marriage should resign. The Ronald Reagan appointee said on Wednesday that if a public official has a moral objection to homosexuality, he must either follow the law or quit public service. The judge's comment came in answer to a question a student asked about government officials who disagree with the Supreme Court's decisions on gay marriage, or abortion, and if those citizens have the constitutional right to act according to their sincerely held moral...