Free Republic

Catholic schools in Britain must not be allowed to be “homophobic” and oppose gay marriage, the government’s top advisor on community integration has said. Speaking to MPs on Monday, Dame Louise Casey hit out at “religious conservativism”, which she called “anti-equalities”, likening conservative Christianity to extreme Islam. In a discussion on her recent report – in which she highlighted the great social divisions between different immigrant religious groups within British society – Dame Louise said that just it was not acceptable for Muslim schools to segregate boys and girls, it was also not acceptable for Catholic schools to be “homophobic”....

North Dakota’s Republican-led Senate rejected a measure Tuesday that would have changed state law to reflect the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that same-sex couples have the right to marry. The bill failed 15-31. It would have changed dozens of references, such as “husband and wife,” to gender-neutral terms. North Dakota law lists “one man, one woman” or “husband and wife” for everything from marriages and divorces to fishing licenses. The measure got a hearing last week in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which voted 4-2 to recommend against passage. …

It was a new look for the White House, bathed in rainbow colors to celebrate the Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage nationwide. President Barack Obama, who was inside, felt the glow on that June night in 2015. “To see people gathered in the evening outside on a beautiful summer night, and to feel whole and to feel accepted, and to feel that they had a right to love — that was pretty cool,” he said a few days later. “Pretty cool.” That might be a fair description of how Obama himself is viewed by legions of lesbian, gay, bisexual...

CONWAY, Ark. (KTHV) -- John Schenck, the co-founder of the Gay Pride Parade of Conway, has died. Schenck's husband and partner of nearly 41 years, Robert Loyd, died, from a heart attack last December. Schenck and Loyd moved to Arkansas in 1978 to care for Loyd's mother, who lived in Damascus. Loyd, who worked as a hairdresser in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Schneck eventually opened a salon on the outside of town. They named the gas station-turned-salon The Lion's Den. It proved so successful, they expanded to Greers Ferry and Heber Springs. In 1986, Schenck and Loyd moved to...

(CNSNews.com) - The White House has published a series of brief reports outlining what the administration considers President Barack Obama’s record of achievements in various areas of public policy. The report on Obama’s record on “Social Progress and Equality” begins by listing the Supreme Court’s declaration that same-sex marriage is a right and the administration’s swift enforcement of that decision as among Obama’s top achievements

Republican President-elect Donald Trump said he’s “fine” with same-sex marriage as the law of the land, calling the issue "settled" by the Supreme Court. The comments – in his first television interview since winning the presidency – sharply contrast with his party’s orthodoxy, his running mate’s longtime position and comments the New York Republican made during the primary. “It’s law,” he said in an interview with CBS’ ‘60 Minutes’ that aired Sunday. “It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean it’s done.” “These cases have gone to the Supreme Court. They’ve been settled. And I’m – I’m fine with...

“It’s law,” he said in an interview with CBS’ ‘60 Minutes’ that aired Sunday. “It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean it’s done.” “These cases have gone to the Supreme Court. They’ve been settled. And I’m – I’m fine with that,” he added.

Germany’s representative on the European Union’s executive is facing criticism for appearing to make a derogatory reference to Chinese people and mock gay marriage. Guenther Oettinger, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party, referred to “slanty eyes” in a speech that surfaced on YouTube over the weekend. He also said “the German agenda doesn’t in any way do justice to my expectations of German responsibility,” listing alongside actual initiatives “obligatory gay marriage.” …

A bakery in Northern Ireland owned by evangelical Christians has lost an appeal to overturn a conviction that found it guilty of discrimination for refusing to bake a pro-gay-marriage themed cake. The court of appeal in Belfast on Monday upheld a previous judgment last year that Ashers Bakery had discriminated against a customer on the grounds of sexual orientation. The family-owned firm in the original case was also ordered to pay £500 compensation to the local gay rights activist Gareth Lee, whose legal action was backed by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. Lee had tried to buy a cake...

Tens of thousands of people have marched in Paris to call for the repeal of a law allowing gay marriage, six months before France’s next presidential election. The protesters ended up at Trocadéro Plaza, near the Eiffel Tower. Police estimated the crowd at 24,000, while organizers gave a figure of 200,000. They were also protesting Sunday against the use of assisted reproduction techniques and surrogate mothers to help same-sex couples have babies. …

Australian opposition MPs have said they will block the prime minister's plan to hold a national vote on legalising same-sex marriage. Malcolm Turnbull has promised to put the issue to a non-binding ballot, or plebiscite, next year. But critics, including many supporters of same-sex marriage, say parliament should make the decision itself. They say the plebiscite will be expensive and runs the risk of unleashing homophobic rhetoric. Parliament will still vote on whether to hold the plebiscite, but without opposition and crossbench support it is unlikely to pass the senate.

Tens of thousands of people marched through Mexico City on Saturday in opposition to President Enrique Peña Nieto’s push to legalize same-sex marriage. Organizers of the National Front for the Family estimated at least 215,000 people participated, and while that number could not be immediately confirmed, it was clearly one of the largest protest marches in Mexico in recent years. Dressed mainly in white and carrying white balloons, the marchers held banners warning against same-sex marriage and demanding parents’ right to control sex education in schools. …

A same-sex couple has asked Romania’s Constitutional Court to legally recognize them as married, which would be a landmark and surprising ruling. Commentators predict the court will reject their case this week. […] U.S. graphic designer Claibourn Robert Hamilton and Romanian rights activist Adrian Coman are seeking to be recognized as married — a position opposed by the influential Romanian Orthodox Church and most of the public. …

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine, a practicing Catholic, on Saturday described his evolution on same-sex marriage and predicted that his church would change its views as well. “My full, complete, unconditional support for marriage equality is at odds with the current doctrine of the church that I still attend,” Kaine said at a dinner celebrating gay rights. “But I think that’s going to change, too.” Kaine, a senator from Virginia, spoke to a crowd of about 3,700 attending the 20th Annual Human Rights Campaign National Dinner in Washington, at which he also touted reasons why his running mate, presidential nominee...

A gay couple will make history as they become the first homosexual couple to be “married” in a Protestant church in Berlin on Friday, reports the Berliner Zeitung. Having been together for fourteen years, civil partners Sven Kretschmer and Tim Kretschmer-Schmidt are finally going to get “married”, at least in the eyes of the Protestant church. […] In 2002, the Protestant church made it possible for gay couples to receive a blessing. However, the “classical” church marriage service remained a privilege reserved for heterosexual couples only. Recently though, the Synods in the Rhineland, Hesse-Nassau, and Baden pioneered further change when...

The First Amendment Defense Act has been justly promoted as a means to protect religious people, as well as other conscientious objectors, against those who might wish to retaliate against proponents of male-female marriage through the federal bureaucracy (complaints, charges, lawsuits, claims of damages, etc.; see this article by Roger Severino). As a Southern Baptist and vocal opponent of same-sex couples attempting to marry, I wholeheartedly support this legislation. My own recent experience being driven out of a tenured university position forces me to see FADA in urgent terms. There is another angle, however, that I fear will get lost...

Barry Manilow and his longtime manager Garry Kief tied the knot last year in a private ceremony, multiple sources confirm to PEOPLE. "It was a surprise," a friend of the couple says of the wedding, which was held at Manilow's Palm Springs, California, home and attended by "20 to 30 guests" who had been told they were attending a "lunch."

A federal judge on Monday ruled that clerks in Mississippi may not recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples based on religious beliefs, despite a bill passed by the state legislature intended to carve out that exception for them.

Mitt Romney blasted the Republican Party on Saturday for not doing more to stop presumptive nominee Donald Trump, saying that the prospects for the party are bleak. During a discussion in Park City, Utah, where Romney is hosting his annual conservative summit, the 2012 presidential nominee singled out Trump’s former rivals Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio), the last two candidates to drop out of the race against Trump. "Ted Cruz was basically praising Donald Trump through the whole process," Romney told discussion host and CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. And Kasich “was in well after the time...

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant says the “secular, progressive world” vented at him for signing a bill that would let clerks cite religious beliefs to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. […] Two legal challenges seek to block the religious-objections measure, House Bill 1523, from becoming law July 1. The American Civil Liberties Union filed one of the lawsuits May 9 on behalf of a gay couple from Meridian. …