Free Republic

It’s San Francisco. Rightly, when it comes to love, anything goes. But one wedding this month garnered attention for breaking one of the last barriers in this country’s long fight for marriage equality. Rick Welts, president of the Golden State Warriors, married Todd Gage, a Southwest flight attendant, in Room 200. It is believed to be the first time an executive for a professional men’s sports team married his same-sex partner. According to the Advocate, there are no out players in professional male sports and just a smattering of out executives and coaches. Same-sex weddings in the macho world of...

HIV that is being transmitted in large population clusters in the United States is more likely to cause high viral load in people who acquire it, leading US researchers to conclude that natural selection is causing HIV in the United States to become more infectious and virulent. The study by Dr Joel Wertheim of the University of California San Diego, Dr Walid Heneine of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and colleagues is published in Nature Communications. Scientists have previously theorised that rapid onward transmission of HIV after primary infection would tend to favour the selection of HIV variants...

Same-sex marriage is legally recognized in Northern Ireland from today. Following a legal change last autumn, same-sex couples can now register to marry and the first ceremonies will take place next month. Those who are already married will have their marriage legally recognized in Northern Ireland. Heterosexual couples will also be able to enter into civil partnerships from today. But same sex couples in a civil partnership will not yet be able to convert it to a marriage in the province — the Northern Ireland Office is set to begin a consultation on the matter later this year. The status...

NEW YORK, July 5 (C-Fam) Are divorce, cohabitation, same sex marriage, out of wedlock birth and adolescent sex good for women? The latest report from UN Women considers them “a positive reflection of women’s empowerment.” UN Women calls family life “an ambivalent space for women and girls.” “Families can have a darker side: they can be places of violence and discrimination, spaces where women and girls are often denied the resources they need, where they sometimes eat least and last and where their voices are stifled and their autonomy is denied,” the report says, concluding, “As such, the recognition of...

The best women's soccer players on the planet will lean on their loved ones for support as they vie for the trophy in the 2019 World Cup, which begins June 7.For two players on Team USA, their partner will be right next to them on the bench: Defender Ali Krieger and goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris are engaged to be married.The longtime couple went public with their relationship in March in People magazine. Together since 2010, the American soccer stars were engaged last September, and plan to marry in December.  Harris, 33, described to People how the relationship started: “We became really close...

Over 1,500 pro-marriage equality supporters gathered outside Taiwan’s legislature earlier this week as lawmakers tried to smooth out differences among three competing draft bills on same-sex marriage. Many of the protesters are hoping to be able to legally marry their same-sex partners on May 24, the deadline to legalize homosexual marriages mandated by Taiwan’s constitutional court in a landmark ruling in 2017. Gay rights organizations had hoped the government would legalize same-sex marriage by directly amending marriage clauses in the civil code, a step considered by many as the truest form of equality. However, the central government and Taiwan’s ruling...

There’s at least one area of agreement among conservative, centrist and liberal leaders in the United Methodist Church: America’s largest mainline Protestant denomination is on a path toward likely breakup over differences on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT pastors. The differences have simmered for years, and came to a head in February at a conference in St. Louis where delegates voted 438-384 for a proposal called the Traditional Plan, which strengthens bans on LGBT-inclusive practices. A majority of U.S.-based delegates opposed that plan and favored LGBT-friendly options, but they were outvoted by U.S. conservatives teamed with most of the...

When the Supreme Court destroyed the institution of marriage in one fell swoop with the Obergefell V. Hodges ruling, liberals, and LGBT advocates mocked us for predicting the slippery slope we now find ourselves on. Our children are growing up in a world where gender is supposedly fluid (unless we’re using it to get what we want) and love is whatever we want it to be. It was only a matter of time before the insanity of the culture would set the stage for pedophilia follow on the coattails of homosexuality and become a normalized sexual orientation. Under the so-called...

EL PASO, Texas, March 22, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A video of pro-abortion congressman Beto O’Rourke, who is running for president, has surfaced showing him berating a Catholic priest for defending male/female marriage at an El Paso City Council meeting in 2011. The incident took place in June 2011 when El Paso priest Fr. Michael Rodriguez spoke against extending marriage benefits to same-sex couples during the public comment part of the meeting. O’Rourke, who had been serving as city councilman since 2005, called Fr. Rodriguez back to the podium after his remarks, seemingly to do nothing more than lecture him so...

Azusa Pacific University, a major California-based Christian school, has once again opted to remove a ban on same-sex romantic relationships. The University changed their student guidelines on inappropriate sexual behavior last Thursday, removing the ban on homosexual relationships, according to a report by the San Gabriel Valley Tribune published Saturday. Azusa Pacific University spokesperson Rachel White explained in comments emailed to The Christian Post on Tuesday that the changes were part of an overall update of the undergraduate student handbook. “The old handbook, produced decades ago, underwent a significant revision and redesign after input from student leaders, board, administration, faculty,...

(3 Feb 2019) Greetings in the name of God the Father and Jesus Christ. At the start of this year may I wish you joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. In September 2018 members of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales were asked to agree or not with the following statement written by the bishops of the Church in Wales: It is pastorally unsustainable for the Church to make no formal provision for those in same-gender relationships.The results of the ballot were 76 members agreed, 21 members disagreed and 1 ballot was spoilt. The Bench of Bishops...

The former top commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, retired four-star Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, criticized President Donald Trump's behavior and handling of the presidency, saying the commander-in-chief is dishonest and immoral. “I don’t think he tells the truth,” McChrystal said in an exclusive interview on “This Week” when asked by Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz if he believes the president is a liar. “Is Trump immoral, in your view?” Raddatz asked. “I think he is,” he said.

This week on The David Rubenstein Show, retired Justice Kennedy finally admitted the real reason behind his Obergefell ruling, the 2015 Supreme Court decision that created a novel definition of marriage to give legal status to same-sex couples. Kennedy said, “It seemed to me just wrong that under the Constitution, over 100,000 adopted children of gay parents could not have their parents married. I just thought this was wrong.” Well, now we know. The justice’s reasoning had nothing to do with Constitutional principles. He had an emotional reaction and in his hubris he imposed his private feelings on the nation....

Voters in Taiwan passed a referendum asking that marriage be restricted to one man and one woman, a setback to LGBT couples hoping their island will be the first place in Asia to let same-sex couples share child custody and insurance benefits. The vote on Saturday, organized by Christian groups that make up about 5 percent of Taiwan’s population and advocates of the traditional Chinese family structure, goes against a May 2017 Constitutional Court ruling. Justices told legislators then to make same-sex marriage legal within two years, a first for Asia where religion and conservative governments normally keep the bans...

Roughly 80 LGBT caravan riders traveling from Central America to the United States broke away from the main group and headed towards Tijuana separately. When they got to Tijuana, officiants from the Unitarian Universalist delegation on Saturday threw a mass wedding where at least seven LGBT couples wed, The Hill reported. Baja California, where Tijuana is located, is one of a handful of states that recognizes same-sex marriages in Mexico. “This is really a dream come true, because you don’t see this in our home countries and this is something that we’ve always wanted to do, and today we had the opportunity...

The Christian publishers of an Australian bridal magazine are closing the publication after they were targeted over their choice not to feature same-sex weddings. White Magazine was started twelve years ago by Luke and Carla Burrell to celebrate love and commitment in marriage, rather than as a marketplace to sell products. The magazine was targeted by LGBTQ activists after it did not feature any same sex couples following the change in the law last year.

An Episcopal bishop in Albany, New York, has issued a directive banning same-sex marriages in his diocese, saying the church has been “hijacked by the ‘Gay Rights Agenda.’” The Rev. William Love says in a pastoral letter that Scripture describes same-sex relationships as “sinful.” He also says that “Satan is having a heyday bringing division into the church.” His directive Saturday comes three weeks before a resolution allowing same-sex marriages in Episcopal churches nationwide goes into effect. …

Four years ago, Tim Cook became the first CEO of a major company to come out as gay. He says he's happy about that distinction — and his decision. "I'm very proud of it," the Apple (AAPL) CEO told Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday in an exclusive interview for her program on CNN International and PBS. Being gay is "God's greatest gift to me," he said. Cook came out on October 30, 2014. His sexual orientation had been widely rumored beforehand though he had not confirmed it publicly. "I was public because I started to receive stories from kids who read...

Sen. Chuck Schumer used the occasion of Sunday’s NYC Pride March to announce that his daughter, Alison, will be marrying her fiancée, Elizabeth Weiland. The women plan to walk down the aisle on Nov. 18. “Marching in the #NYCPride Parade has special meaning this year as I am marching with my daughter Alison and her wonderful fiancée Biz! #HappyPride,” tweeted the politician, who wore a lavender shirt to the pride parade.[SNIP]

June 18, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Jim Obergefell, the man whose name will be forever associated with the institution of genderless marriage in the United States, said he “was heartbroken and devastated,” by the Supreme Court’s Masterpiece Cakeshop decision.   But more than that, Obergefell is frightened.  Very frightened. It’s not the actuality of the ruling that scares him; it’s the boogeymen he has concocted in order to shoo away any second guessing about the high court’s judgement in his favor three years ago.   “After deciding in favor of marriage equality in Obergefell v. Hodges,” asked Obergefell in a commentary...