Free Republic

IT'S the most delicate subject on TV right now - is TV ready for a 14-year-old gay kid? In the first two seasons of "Ugly Betty," Justin Suarez - Betty's Broadway-loving, Martha Stewart-worshipping nephew - loses his father, gets into trouble, and struggles to fit in with kids his own age - when it is obvious that he is still trying to figure out his sexuality.

By Natalie O'Brien April 26, 2008 The Australian OUTSPOKEN Muslim cleric Taj al-Din al-Hilali says the Bible "mandates" the wearing of the veil by Christian women. Writing in a new book, Sheik Hilali, who lost his job as mufti of Australia after comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat, argues that the Bible and the Koran make similar demands of a woman's modesty. Sheik Hilali, who remains the head of Australia's largest mosque, in the southwestern Sydney suburb of Lakemba, says the purpose of the book is to show the commonalities of Islam with the Jewish and Christian faiths when...

Lindsay Lohan warned Ashley Olsen to "get away" from her "girlfriend" — celebrity DJ Samantha Ronson — on Friday night, the New York Post's Page Six gossip column reported. "Ashley Olsen said hello to Sam at [the Beatrice Inn in New York City], and Lindsay screamed at her, 'Get your 15-year-old 'Full House' a-- away from my girlfriend,'" said a Page Six spy. Lohan and Ronson have long been rumored to be more than pals. According to Page Six, Lohan has created a Facebook profile under the name "Lindsay Ronson." At New York's Hawaiian Tropic Zone on Saturday, where Ronson...

Deaf couples could be allowed to use embryo-screening technology and choose to have a deaf child, after a climb-down by the Government in the face of campaigning. Under the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, using embryo-screening deliberately to create a child with a serious medical condition - which officials had said includes being deaf - would be illegal. Now, however, the Department of Health has agreed to cut from the Bill any reference to deafness as a serious medical condition.

SCHENECTADY -- To commemorate Tuesday's 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that affirmed a woman's right to an abortion, clergy blessed this city's new Planned Parenthood clinic in a ceremony dubbed "On Sacred Ground.""Today is more than about the building and about bricks and mortar," Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Linda Scharf said. "It's a blessing to demonstrate the support of the clergy." Since Jan. 22, 1973, when the high court handed down the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, two sides of the issue have squared off. Opponents have campaigned to overturn unrestricted abortion laws, while proponents have stood firm for...

At the new mainstream voice of the Democratic Party, Jewish lesbian “sallykohn” explains: Daily Kos: Why I Have A Little Crush on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. No, it’s not a joke. And no, this is not an unusual sentiment at Daily Kos. I know I’m a Jewish lesbian and he’d probably have me killed. But still, the guy speaks some blunt truths about the Bush Administration that make me swoon... Okay, I admit it. Part of it is that he just looks cuddly. Possibly cuddly enough to turn me straight. I think he kind of looks like Kermit the Frog. Sort of....

Life partner of prime minister's lesbian daughter gives birth to a baby girl Itamar Eichner Published: 09.07.07, 10:19 / Israel News Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his wife Aliza welcomed their newest grandchild on Thursday, as their daughter's partner gave birth to a baby girl. The prime minister's 34-year-old daughter Dana is a self-identified lesbian who lives with her life partner Dafna Ben Zvi. Thursday night, Ben Zvi gave birth to a baby girl, which the couple decided to name Amalya. Amalya is the couple's first child, and the prime minister's eighth grandchild, with Olmert's oldest daughter Michal giving birth...

Citing concern over the "sinister uses" of guns, University of Toronto officials are closing down their 88-year-old shooting range. No word yet on the fate of the university's chemistry labs. More than just one more example of political correctness run amok (which of course it is), I take this gesture as academic ideologues' invitation to government to follow suit and ban gun sport and gun collecting nationally. Alas, I think the initiative might find broad public support. To many liberal Canadians nowadays, tolerating gun use in any capacity is akin to complicity in Bambi's mother's murder, fatalism regarding school massacres...

Two lesbians desperate for children. One flamboyant drag queen happy to help out. The result? Two proud mums who insist - believe it or not - their babies have had the best start in life When passers-by see Jo Bartle and Stephanie Burns pushing their two children in a double buggy, they would be forgiven for seeing nothing more than two proud mums out for a walk with their respective babies. But the truth is rather more remarkable than first meets the eye. Jo and Steph are a lesbian couple. Thirteen months ago, Steph gave birth to baby Elijah. Three...

Hamas TV on Friday broadcast what it said was the last episode of a weekly children's show featuring "Farfour," a Mickey Mouse look-alike who had made worldwide headlines for preaching Islamic domination and armed struggle to youngsters. In the final skit, Farfour was beaten to death by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. At one point, Farfour called the Israeli a "terrorist." "Farfour was martyred while defending his land," said Sara, the teen presenter. He was killed "by the killers of children," she added. The weekly show, featuring a giant black-and-white rodent with a...

German politicians have slammed role playing games being taught to school children on how to pick up a gay partner. The Regional Institute for School and Media LISUM in Berlin has introduced the controversial exercises for school kids from 14 upwards as part of a way of reducing prejudice against homosexuals. But the role-playing has outraged politicians. Education spokesman for the liberal FDP party Mieke Senftleben has demanded the teaching materials be replaced and said: "Education about homosexuality, discrimination and intolerance is necessary. "But I think having such topics on how to pick up gay men in role playing games...

SAN FRANCISCO: Gay and lesbian prisoners in California will be allowed overnight visits with their partners under a new prison policy, believed to be the first time a U.S. state has allowed same-sex conjugal stays. The policy comes more than two years after a 2003 California law provided equal rights for registered domestic partners in the state, including those of the same sex and nonmarried heterosexuals. Gay and civil rights groups had threatened to sue to permit the conjugal visits in prisons. "It's a little troubling that a state agency had to be threatened with legal action to obey state...

SAN FRANCISCO, June 1 — Gay and lesbian prisoners in California will be allowed overnight visits with their partners under a new prison policy, believed to be the first time a state has allowed same-sex conjugal stays.

PENSACOLA BEACH -- Souvenir shops that line this sugary white Panhandle beach display Confederate flag beach towels, window decals and T-shirts. Hooters and other bars fly POW-MIA, Marine and Navy flags and cater to the sailors and Marines from the nearby base. Vacationing Southern families usually fill the hotels and condominiums in this slice of paradise long nicknamed "The Redneck Riviera." But every Memorial Day they mostly stay away as this Florida Panhandle town becomes more like trendy Miami Beach -- 700 miles and a world away. Starting in the mid-1980s, gay men from New Orleans and other nearby cities...

A sperm donor who helped a lesbian couple conceive two children is liable for child support under a state appeals-court ruling that a legal expert believes might be the first of its kind. A Superior Court panel last week ordered a Dauphin County judge to establish how much Carl L. Frampton Jr. would have to pay to the birth mother of an 8-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl. "I'm unaware of any other state appellate court that has found that a child has, simultaneously, three adults who are financially obligated to the child's support and are also entitled to visitation," said...

Parents gave local educators an earful after fifth-grade students at Derby Ridge Elementary School were asked to read a newspaper column supporting same-sex marriage. Columbia Public Schools administrators say the assignment wasn’t appropriate for 10- and 11-year-olds. "The purpose was to become familiar with editorial writing and respond in an editorial back," said Jack Jensen, assistant superintendent of elementary education. "But it was not an appropriate topic to use at this age level." The students had brought up the topic of gay marriage before the assignment during a classroom discussion on current events, Jensen said. The newspaper article used in...

NEW YORK: For years, few advertisers in the United States have dared to reach out to Muslims. Either they did not see much potential for sales or they feared a political backlash. And there were practical reasons: Muslim-Americans come from so many ethnic backgrounds that their only common ground is their religion, a subject most marketers avoid. Now, though, that is beginning to change.

The Kansas City International Airport has added several foot-washing basins in restrooms to accommodate a growing number of Muslim taxicab drivers who requested the facilities to prepare for daily Islamic prayer, WND has learned. The move concerns airport police who worry about Middle Eastern men loitering inside the building. After 9/11, the airport beefed up its police force to help prevent terrorist attacks.

A veteran sports writer for the Los Angeles Times said in his column Thursday that he is a transsexual. Mike Penner told readers of his struggle to embrace his gender, and said when he returns from vacation in a few weeks he will be known as Christine Daniels. He did not say whether he was having surgery or why he's changing his last name. "I am a transsexual sports writer," Penner wrote. "It has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words."...

UNION, N.J. -- Former Gov. James E. McGreevey is teaching ethics, law and leadership at Kean University. The Star-Ledger of Newark reported the nation's first openly gay governor earns $17,500 and has been an executive in residence since Nov. 1. When he was in office, McGreevey was often criticized for the appearance of ethical lapses. "It seems to me, Jim McGreevey teaching law and ethics is a little bit like Doctor Kevorkian teaching health maintenance," state Republican chairman Tom Wilson told the newspaper. The job requires McGreevey to work up to 15 hours a week and helps the 49-year-old accrue...