Free Republic

A Kentucky clerk who spent five days in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples has filed for re-election. Kim Davis filed for re-election last week, according to documents on the Secretary of State’s website. She had announced in November she planned to seek a second term. Davis caused an international uproar when she stopped issuing marriage licenses in 2015 after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws banning same-sex unions. …

A man whose speech defending same-sex marriage went viral in 2011 has announced his bid for an Iowa State Senate seat. Zach Wahls, who was 19 when he made the viral video, gave a powerful speech to the Iowa House of Representatives’s Judiciary Committee about growing up with two moms. The video was YouTube’s most-watched political video that year. Wahls, now 26, is running as a Democrat to fill the Iowa State Senate seat for the 37th District, which will be vacated by Democrat Bob Dvorsky, who is not seeking reelection. Wahls announced his campaign on Twitter on Dec. 21,...

A flagship liberal Orthodox synagogue in New York will stop congratulating same-sex couples on their weddings following a complaint by the Orthodox Union. The Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in the Bronx will no longer announce the weddings of its LGBT members in its newsletters in accordance with a policy dictated by the OU, the largest association of Orthodox synagogues in the United States. The policy was set out this month in response to complaints from other member synagogues, which take a harder line on opposing same-sex marriage. Orthodox Jewish law, or halacha, prohibits same-sex marriage, and Orthodox rabbis are not...

Love Saxa stands it ground It is rare to find students at modern American colleges that are fiercely committed to the traditional view of marriage as a lifelong institution involving one man and one woman.One such group of students exists at Georgetown University–a Catholic institution. Yet it was recently subjected to a barrage of criticism and activist efforts that very nearly cost it its official status as a university organization, and it continues to be targeted by opponents.This fall, Love Saxa, a student group committed to the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage, was accused of being a “hate group” because it did...

The Mississippi Supreme Court heard arguments last week about whether a boy born to a lesbian couple should be legally considered the biological son of his mother's female partner. Because of the nature of the child’s conception and the relationship of the adults in his life, the story is complicated. The two women who were “married” chose to have a child that would be conceived in one of them via anonymous sperm donation. The boy is now six years old. His mother’s “ex-spouse,” who helped raise the child from birth, sought to be recognized as a biological parent when the...

New Year’s resolutions: get outdoors more often, read more books, and stop hanging out with people who only bring up the Holocaust as a way to illustrate unrelated arguments and never to talk about the systematic murder of six million Jews. This week the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune published an editorial, “Wedding Cakes And Conscience,” contending that a baker in Colorado being forced to design a wedding cake for a gay couple would constitute a violation of his freedom of expression. To illustrate the point, the Tribune encouraged readers to understand Colorado baker Jack Phillips’ predicament, saying, “imagine...

Australia's first legal same-sex marriages will go ahead in January after a marathon session of parliament passed laws. Same-sex couples will be able from this Saturday lodge a notice of intended marriage to start the minimum notice period required before their marriages can be solemnised from January 9. Only four MPs in the House of Representatives voted against a private bill on Thursday, just more than a week after it was agreed to by the Senate. It went through unchanged, after 56 hours of parliamentary debate despite a push from conservative politicians for additional exemptions, including for religious organisations, civil...

It’s astounding how many defenses of the state’s position in Masterpiece Cakeshop depend on misrepresentation and misconceptions. Last week I wrote about the most common misrepresentation — that Jack Phillips discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation when he refused to design a custom cake for a same-sex-wedding celebration. After all, he served all customers — regardless of race, sex, or sexual orientation. He just consistently refused to design cakes that advanced messages he disagreed with. No person of any identity has the legal authority to compel an artist to use his talents to advance a cause the artist...

Democratic Senate President Stan Rosenberg said Thursday he was taking seriously a report that his husband sexually assaulted and harassed several men, including some with business before the Legislature. The Boston Globe reported it spoke with four men who said Bryon Hefner sexually assaulted and harassed them over the past few years. Three of the men told the Globe that Hefner grabbed their genitals and one said Hefner kissed him against his will. The Globe said it found no evidence Rosenberg knew about the alleged assaults. Hefner said in a statement to the Globe through his lawyer that he was...

Same-sex marriage is a step closer to being legal - after the Senate passed a bill without amendments. This afternoon, the upper house voted 43 to 12 in favour of the bill originally proposed by Liberal senator Dean Smith. But it's a move expected to cause some tension within the Coalition. Last night, six Coalition senators joined Labor and the Greens to scuttle changes to the bill - despite the majority of Coalition senators supporting the amendments to broaden religious protections. Cabinet ministers Simon Birmingham, Marise Payne and Nigel Scullion joined Senator Smith, Jane Hume and Linda Reynolds in voting...

Prime Minister Theresa May has urged the Australian Government to introduce same-sex marriage “very soon”. Earlier this week the country voted to abandon the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman following a campaign of sustained abuse and threats of violence against ‘no’ voters. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he intends to make same-sex marriage “the law of the land by Christmas”. VoteA non-binding postal vote saw 61.6 per cent vote in favour of legalising same-sex marriage, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. More than 12.7 million people took part in answering the question:...

It took a couple of months and was filled with charges and countercharges of dirty tricks and the suppression of free speech, but the Australian plebiscite on gay marriage is finally finished. The people responded in large numbers and in the end, the tally ran fairly close to what the current polling had indicated. More than sixty percent of respondents voted in favor of legalizing gay marriage and now the Parliament is vowing to bring it to a vote before Christmas. (Associated Press) Australians supported gay marriage in a postal survey that ensures Parliament will consider legalizing same-sex weddings...

The AMA's endorsement of child-rearing in same-sex marriages has drawn protests from doctors and professors who accuse President Michael Gannon of ignoring adverse research in favour of dangerous, politically correct myths. An overwhelming body of research supports their case The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is calling on the federal parliament to legislate for same-sex marriage. In so doing, the AMA has released an official statement declaring that ‘it is the right of any adult and their consenting adult partner to have their relationship recognised under the Marriage Act 1961, regardless of gender.’[1] AMA President, Dr Michael Gannon, has even written...

An Australian children’s entertainment company fired a young woman for saying on social media “it’s OK to vote ‘no’” in the country’s current referendum on same-sex “marriage.” Capital Kids Parties owner Madlin Sims may have violated discrimination laws in firing an 18-year-old because Sims said her former employee’s view amounted to hate speech, The Guardian reported. The young woman known thus far as Madeline said in various media interviews that she was let go because her Christian view did not allow her to vote yes in Australia’s voluntary postal survey on gay “marriage.” The plebiscite runs from September 12 through...

One day in 2012, Charles Craig and David Mullins entered Jack Phillips’ Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, to order a wedding cake. Phillips, a Christian and self-described “cake artist” who custom-designs cakes for various occasions, politely declined, citing his religious beliefs.Having previously, in the words of his lawyer, refused to bake cakes for Halloween, or with anti-American, anti-family, or what he considered profane messages, Phillips also would not design a cake to celebrate an event in violation of his understanding of Leviticus XX, 13.Craig and Mullins promptly filed a complaint alleging discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation...

As Australia prepares for a contentious postal vote on legalising gay marriage, fierce divisions have emerged within the church, with many Christians disregarding traditional religious views as outdated. Although attitudes to same-sex marriage vary across denominations and congregations -- and even between the pulpit and the pews -- many Australians view the church as the greatest source of resistance to such unions. "I think it is really bad news for the church that it is seen as taking this exclusive, judgemental, unloving stance toward a significant part of the Australian community," Reverend Margaret Mayman, minister of the Pitt Street Uniting...

In a surprise move, the Trump administration on Thursday sided with a Colorado bakery whose owner is arguing to the Supreme Court that he should not need to bake a cake for a same-sex couple when their ceremony violates his religious beliefs. Colorado's public accommodation law bans discrimination based on sexual orientation, and its courts have ruled that means businesses catering to the public cannot discriminate against same-sex couples seeking services for weddings or other commitment ceremonies. Masterpiece Cakeshop, however, is run by Jack Phillips, a man who incorporates his Christian faith into the way he runs his business. Baking...

Germany’s bureaucratic computer systems will be unable to cope with the legalization of same-sex marriage in Germany, Berlin authorities announced on Monday. When the new same-sex marriage law takes effect on October 1, registry systems will not allow bureaucrats to enter two people of the same gender into one marriage, German news agency DPA and daily newspaper Berliner Morgenpost, reported. Same-sex marriage was spontaneously legalized in Germany in July, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed members of her ruling Christian Democratic party (CDU) to vote according to their conscience. The CDU had previoulsy opposed the granting of full marriage rights...

“Does a state violate the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause or Free Speech Clause when it punishes a judge who has discretionary authority to solemnize marriages because she states that her religious beliefs preclude her from performing a same-sex wedding?” That’s the question Judge Ruth Neely from Pinedale, Wyoming, wants the Supreme Court to answer. On August 4, she filed a petition with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), asking them to review a March 7, 2017 ruling from the Wyoming Supreme Court. That ruling handed down a public censure and effectively removed her from a circuit court...

Prosecutors say a woman shot and killed her wife Sunday in their New Jersey home. Laura Bluestein, 28, was charged Monday with first degree murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and tampering with evidence. Police were called Sunday by a relative of Bluestein, who reported a possible assault at her home in Mount Holly, New Jersey. When they arrived they found 29-year-old Felicia Dormans dead from a gunshot wound to the face. …