Free Republic

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said in an interview with CNN Wednesday that if the Supreme Court eventually rules that same-sex marriage is constitutional, Americans would have to abide by that ruling. "I wouldn't agree with their ruling, but that would be the law of the land that we would have to follow until it's somehow reversed — either by a future Supreme Court, or a U.S. constitutional amendment, which I don't think is realistic or foreseeable," he said. He said he expects the question "is ultimately going to find its way to the U.S. Supreme court," noting that many federal...

They poured into Room 140 of the Hillsborough County Courthouse on Tuesday morning two by two, some with friends and family in tow, exhilarated, bearing bouquets, holding hands, filling the place with their energy. This day was big and unstoppable and happening at last. In their midst stood Pat Frank, the petite 85-year-old clerk of the court, cheered by the crowd like a rock star. She wore the somber black robes of her late husband, Judge Richard Frank, and posed obligingly with her arms around couples for wedding photos. "This is a wonderful day for America," she told everyone, but...

The United Methodist church is settling a complaint against a retired bishop who performed a same-sex wedding in Alabama, and a church leader said the agreement showed the denomination doesn’t have to be divided by differences over gay marriage. Church statements issued Monday said the case against retired Bishop Melvin G. Talbert had ended with a settlement that the denomination calls a “just resolution.” Official Methodist teaching doesn’t allow same-sex marriages, and there’s been discussion of splitting the denomination over disagreements about whether the position should be amended as society changes. Talbert is retired, but he still holds the title...

Update on the Attack on Florida’s Marriage Laws Summary of News Events and Analysis There are several developments that have taken place just in the last several days before, during, and after the holidays regarding the attack on Florida’s marriage laws. I want to update you on this matter because there are almost daily developments that have occurred.Tuesday, December, 23, 2015 State Attorney Jeff Ashton announced he will not prosecute Clerks of Courts who violate the law and marry same-sex couples. As a result of that announcement, Osceola County Clerk of Court Armando Ramirez announced he would start issuing same-sex...

Details:Back in September, Alexandria Marie Shields and Taylor Butcher booked the Knights of Columbus hall in Madison, Indiana for the reception that will follow their upcoming wedding ceremony. On Monday, Knights of Columbus Council 934 called the couple to tell them it was refunding their deposit as they do not agree with same-sex unions. Wednesday evening, the council reversed course and has agreed to let them have the facility. …In a Facebook post Wednesday evening, the Knights of Columbus said it would allow the reception after all. It posted “Council 934 regrets that there was some confusion over the hall...

Even as same-sex marriage edges closer to becoming legal nationwide, gay rights advocates face other challenges in 2015 that may not bring quick victories. In Congress, for example, liberal Democrats plan to introduce civil rights bills in the House and Senate that would outlaw a broad range of discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. However, Republicans will control both chambers in the new Congress, and there is no sign that GOP leaders will help the bills advance. Absent such a federal law, activists will seek to pass more nondiscrimination laws at the state and local levels, but some...

A federal judge says that Florida’s county court clerks have a legal duty to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but he has stopped short of ordering them to do so. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a ruling Thursday in Tallahassee federal court responding to requests to clarify his previous order that Florida’s same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional. He stayed that order, but the stay is scheduled to expire at the end of the day Monday. The association representing county clerks said the ruling applies only to Washington County, where a lawsuit filed by two men became a key...

As noted here: "The Bishop of Antwerp, Johan Bonny advocates an ecclesiastical recognition of homosexual relationships. The dogma that the Catholic Church can only accept male-female relationships, he put in question in an interview with this newspaper. "There should be a diversity of recognition forms." With his plea Bonny, is one of the first church leaders who attacks the absolute monopoly of the male-female marriage. "We have to look inside the church for a formal recognition of the relationality which is also present in many gay couples. As a variety of legal frameworks in society exist for partners, he wants...

Catholic professors and other faculty members at a prominent Wisconsin Catholic university are now being trained to report any school employees who voice their opposition to same-sex marriage as a form of harassment to the university's human resources office. Marquette University has begun requiring its employees to attend workplace anti-harassment training, where they are taught that it is imperative for them to quickly report faculty members who discuss openly their opposing view of same-sex marriage. As the Catholic News Agency reports, Marquette's anti-harassment training includes a comic-style story presentation where a fictional character named "Harassed Hans," who overhears his co-workers,...

Add Procter & Gamble to the ever-growing list of companies to openly support marriage equality. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that the Ohio-based consumer products giant has taken a public stand on same-sex marriage in what P&G's Chief Global Diversity Officer William Gipson describes as "statement of support for our employees." Added Chief Legal Officer Deborah P. Majoras: "We have always supported our employees and fostered a culture of inclusion and respect -- this includes the right to marry whomever they choose and to have that union legally recognized." This is the first time that P&G has gone on the record...

Update: On November 20, the Supreme Court refused to stay a decision that struck down South Carolina's same-sex marriage ban, allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry starting at noon. Since 2013, when the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on same-sex marriage, lower courts have followed with their own decisions effectively ending same-sex marriage bans in several states. As the decisions pile up, it can get a little difficult to track which same-sex marriage bans are legally valid and which have been overturned. This simple list tracks where each state stands.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Baptists on Tuesday chose to sever ties with a Louisville church that is open to performing same-sex marriages. Baptist leaders from around the state gathering in Bowling Green for the Kentucky Baptist Convention's annual meeting voted overwhelmingly to end their longstanding relationship with Crescent Hill Baptist Church. The church's pastor, the Rev. Jason Crosby, has said the church is open to performing same-sex marriages and ordaining gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual members.

This triangle of truisms, of father, mother and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it. – G.K. Chesterton Question to Canonist Ed Peters: If the Court presumes to equate our Matrimony, the Queen of Sacraments, with Sodomy; Can we not regard the action as having abrogated the terms of the civil rite, rendering what was formerly a mirror or echo of the essential Sacrament, now a ludicrous parody? Co-Author with Sherif Girgis and Robert P. George of “What Is Marriage“, Heritage Foundation speaker Ryan T Anderson, rather unilaterally “debated” some of this question with...

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday stunningly affirmed the rights of voters in four states – Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee – to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, throwing a boulder into the millpond of complacent assumptions by homosexual-rights advocates that same-sex marriage is a given across the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court recently has refused to take on any same-sex marriage cases, allowing the movement to expand into about 30 states. But Mat Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, which has fought on behalf of traditional...

By a two-to-one vote, a federal appeals court in Cincinnati upheld the right of states to ban same-sex marriage, overturning lower court decisions in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee that found such restrictions to be unconstitutional.

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld gay marriage bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, reversing a recent trend in the federal courts to strike down such bans.

More and more companies are going “gay” while at the same time denigrating anybody who has an issue with same-sex, alternate sex, slice and dice sex (transgenderism), and take-your-pick sex. When it was found out that Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich opposed same-sex marriage, so much pressure was put on him because of his anti-same sex marriage views (he donated to Proposition 8) that he believed that he couldn’t do anything but resign. The Gaystapo would have made it unbearable for him and the company for Eich if he had remain as CEO. There is a long trail of persecution from...

Evan Wolfson and Ted Olson aren't pleased with the Supreme Court's decision not to make marriage equality the law of the land, but they're ready to keep fighting. In the heat of the civil-rights fight, when told he shouldn't push too hard for racial equality because of political backlash, Lyndon Johnson famously shot back, "What the hell's the presidency for?" Ted Olson had a similar question for the Supreme Court Wednesday, pondering why the justices had opted not to take a single case on same-sex marriage this term. "I agonize over the court not making a decision," said Olson, an...

Same-sex couples will have to wait until Tuesday before they can get married in Wyoming. Wyoming Attorney General Peter Michael says the state will notify a federal court at 10 a.m. Tuesday that it won't appeal last Friday's ruling that struck down the state's ban on gay marriage. U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled last Friday that the state must permit same-sex marriage, but he issued a stay until this Thursday in order to allow time for the state to appeal. Skavdahl said his ruling will take effect immediately if the state files paperwork saying it will not appeal.

President Barack Obama says the Supreme Court’s recent gay marriage orders may have the biggest impact of any ruling of his presidency. Obama told The New Yorker that the court’s Oct. 6 rejection of appeals from states seeking to preserve gay marriage bans is the best of his tenure. …