Free Republic

federal judge struck down Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage Wednesday in a ruling that immediately allows gay couples to wed. U.S. District Judge Richard Young ruled that the state's ban violates the U.S. Constitution's equal-protection clause because it treats couples differently based on their sexual orientation. "Same-sex couples, who would otherwise qualify to marry in Indiana, have the right to marry in Indiana," he wrote. "These couples, when gender and sexual orientation are taken away, are in all respects like the family down the street. The Constitution demands that we treat them as such."

In a decision coming from Utah, a federal appeals court on Wednesday for the first time backed gay marriage. The Denver-based U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court decision that struck down the state's bans on same-sex marriage. The ruling, which was stayed, sets the stage for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which touched off the current round of legal fighting on the issue when it struck down parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act last year.

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that states outlawing same-sex marriage are in violation of the U.S. Constitution. By upholding a Utah judge’s decision, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals became the first appeals court to rule on the issue, setting a historic precedent that voter-approved bans on same-sex marriage violate the Fourteenth Amendment rights of same-sex couples to equal protection and due process. But the court stayed the implementation of their decision, pending a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court. The appeals court upheld U.S. Judge Robert Shelby’s December decision, which struck down Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage. The...

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), one of the United States’ leading Protestant denominations, has voted to allow its pastors to perform “any such marriage they believe the Holy Spirit calls then to perform, where legal by state law.” The motion, which passed by a 61%-39% margin, takes effect immediately. By a 71%-29% margin, the assembly also recommended that the church’s Book of Order be amended to describe marriage as a “unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman.” This change will go into effect when it approved by the majority of the church’s presbyteries....

Federal judge: Most traditional marriage has been polygamy. Records: Swallow aide tried to cover up deals with Johnson. Huntsman Sr. interested in buying The Tribune. Happy Monday. A federal judge struck down Wisconsin's gay marriage ban, saying that state officials need to learn a few things about the history of marriage, i.e. that plural marriage is actually more traditional over time. "As an initial matter, defendants and amici have overstated their argument," wrote Judge Barbara Crabb. "Throughout history, the most 'traditional' form of marriage has not been between one man and one woman, but between one man and multiple women,...

“We are loving, committed and faithful couples just like anyone else.” If you’ve paid the slightest bit of attention to the same-sex marriage debate, you’ve heard this very statement in some iteration. It’s not true by some important measures though. 1. Same-sex male couples are dramatically more likely to be unfaithful than heterosexual couples. 2. Committed lesbian relationships are more likely to break up than both male-male and opposite-sex couples, by dramatic margins. Those are two very important differences, unarguably judging the “we’re no different” dogma incorrect. What support is there for these stark differences? First, it should be noted...

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania's governor says he won't appeal a court decision that struck down the state's gay marriage ban. Gov. Tom Corbett's decision Wednesday means that same-sex marriage will remain legal in Pennsylvania, without the threat that a higher court will reinstate the ban. "I have thoroughly reviewed Judge Jones' opinion in the Whitewood case. Given the high legal threshold set forth by Judge Jones in this case, the case is extremely unlikely to succeed on appeal. Therefore, after review of the opinion and on the advice of my Commonwealth legal team, I have decided not to appeal Judge...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A federal magistrate judge has ruled that Idaho's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. U.S. District Magistrate Judge Candy Dale wrote in the ruling Tuesday evening that Idaho's laws banning same-sex marriage unconstitutionally deny gay and lesbian citizens of their fundamental right to marry.

In California, it may soon be legal for gay men to list themselves as “mother” on birth certificates, and similarly, for lesbians to cite themselves as “father.” Or, the gay parent could simply opt for the more generic label of “parent,” The Associated Press reported. That’s because lawmakers on Thursday passed through the state Assembly with a 51-13 vote a measure to “modernize” the definition of the family to reflect same-sex unions.

More than a dozen same-sex marriage licenses were issued for the first time in a Bible Belt state Saturday after a state judge declared Arkansas' voter-approved ban on gay wedding to be unconstitutional. About 50 couples had lined up at the courthouse in Eureka Springs in Carroll County, Arkansas, Saturday morning seeking licenses, according to Reuters. But Carroll County Deputy Clerk Jane Osborn told The Associated Press that 15 licenses were issued Saturday. On Friday, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, saying it violated equal protection provisions of the U.S. Constitution. "This...

Bishop Gene Robinson, whose 2003 election as the first openly gay Episcopal bishop rocked Anglican Communion, has announced his divorce from his longtime partner and husband. Robinson, who retired in 2013 as the Bishop of New Hampshire, and his partner of 25 years, Mark Andrew, were married in a private civil union in 2008. The announcement was made public Saturday (May 3) in a statement to the Diocese of New Hampshire. “As you can imagine, this is a difficult time for us — not a decision entered into lightly or without much counseling,” Robinson wrote in a letter. “We ask...

An Italian court on Wednesday recognized a gay couple as married for the first time in Italy, which does not have any form of official acknowledgement of same-sex unions. The court in Grosseto in Tuscany ordered the city council to list the couple, who had their wedding in New York in 2012, as married in a ruling that was immediately hailed by gay rights campaigners as historic. “This is an unprecedented case in our country,” Sergio Lo Giudice, a senator for the Democratic Party and a former head of the watchdog Arcigay, told reporters. …

Under the heading “Brendan Eich steps down as CEO,” Mozilla has posted the following statement in the name of executive chairwoman Mitchell Baker. Eich has “stepped down” from his position at Mozilla days after his appointment, following the revelation that he contributed $1,000 to the campaign supporting the passage of Prop 8 in California six years ago. The Wall Street Journal covers the story here. Baker’s statement is must reading, though it requires some translation. It is not exactly straightforward. Using the mandatory shibboleths, the statement refers to a corporate culture of “diversity and inclusiveness.” If you’ve read 1984, you...

The newly elected CEO and co-founder of Mozilla - the maker of the Firefox web browser - was forced into resignation today after activists pressured the company over his donation to a political campaign that opposed same-sex marriage. Brendan Eich was forced into resigning from the company he co-founded just one month into his new role as CEO. In 2008 Eich donated $1000 to the campaign for California Proposition 8 and was widely chastised by the left press and social media. After his recent appointment as CEO his vilification was reawakened and he came under pressure from employees, press, social...

Imagine going to work one day only to be, in effect, fired -- not because of anything you did or didn’t do at your job, but because of something you did in your personal life. Something religious. Or maybe, something political. Imagine if you were denied a promotion at work because a co-worker found out you had made a personal donation to a conservative candidate. Imagine if your environmentally-correct boss discovered that, in your free time at home, you supported an organization that exposed the fallacies of man-made global warming and asked you for your resignation. Imagine if you were...

Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich was pressured to step down after it was revealed that he donated $1,000 to California’s Proposition 8 ballot measure against gay marriage. In a story twist, it was revealed that the Internal Revenue Service was responsible for a leak in which they turned over the donor records of the campaign to a gay rights group. Follow TLR on Google+ The controversy heated up when dating website OKCupid asked users not to access their site using the browser as an act of protest, which initiated a firestorm that resulted in Eich’s resignation. Curiously enough, Eich presided over...

Listening to Limbaugh at the moment, and I have got to hand it to Rush. He is going off on the left, for what happened to the former Mozille chief. Way to go Rush. Well said.

Just a couple of weeks into his tenure as CEO of Mozilla, Brendan Eich has been ousted by a mob of jackbooted same-sex marriage supporters, for the unforgivable crime of donating $1000 in 2008 to the Proposition 8 gay-marriage ban in California.  Eich co-founded Mozilla and created the indispensable Javascript programming language, but none of that counted for much against his long-ago financial support of traditional marriage.We've had a few nasty culture clashes of late, but this one takes the cake.  Eich was quite literally persecuted for a thoughtcrime.  He didn't say something that the gay marriage crowd found offensive,...

Mozilla's CEO Brendan Eich is out. Eich is resigning as CEO and leaving the board of Mozilla, the open-source computing company that makes the Firefox browser. He had been under fire for supporting anti-gay marriage legislation in California in 2008. Some Mozilla employees had been calling for his resignation on Twitter for the past week. Dating site OkCupid changed its home page so that if someone using Firefox came to it, it would tell them about Eich and suggest they switch browsers.

In 2008, Barack Obama and Brendan Eich both were against gay marriage. Senator Obama averred his support for the one-man/one-woman view of marriage, while Mr. Eich, a cofounder of the Mozilla web-browser company, donated $1,000 to support Proposition 8 — a California ballot initiative that had the effect of making Senator Obama’s avowed marriage policy the law in California, at least until a federal court overturned it on the theory that California’s constitution is unconstitutional. Barack Obama inexplicably remains, as of this writing, president of the United States of America, but Mr. Eich has just been forced out as CEO...