Free Republic

NEW YORK (AP) — Larry Kramer, the playwright whose angry voice and pen raised theatergoers’ consciousness about AIDS and roused thousands to militant protests in the early years of the epidemic, has died at 84. Bill Goldstein, a writer who was working on a biography of Kramer, confirmed the news to The Associated Press. Kramer’s husband, David Webster, told The New York Times that Kramer died Wednesday of pneumonia. “We have lost a giant of a man who stood up for gay rights like a warrior. His anger was needed at a time when gay men’s deaths to AIDS were...

uzzFeed's Chris Geidner tweets this photo of a group of nude protesters who stormed into House Majority Leader Rep. John Boehner’s (R-OH) office on Capitol Hill Tuesday afternoon. Fox has learned that seven demonstrators from the group Act Up came into the personal office of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) in the Longworth House Office Building around 12:30 pm. This is not the Speaker's Office, but his "regular" office alongside other rank and file members.

A private boarding school connected with the Hershey chocolate company says it was trying to protect other students when it denied admission to a Philadelphia-area teenager because he is HIV-positive. The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit on behalf of the unidentified boy in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on Wednesday, claiming the Milton Hershey School for disadvantaged students violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. School officials acknowledged that the 13-year-old boy was denied admission because of his medical condition. They said they believed it was necessary to protect the health and safety of the 1,850 others enrolled...

Kevin Jennings was a member of Act Up, according to his long-time “partner” Jeff Davis. Davis could just not contain his enthusiasm as he introduced his squeeze at a recent GLSEN fundraiser. And he just had to drop the fact he and Jennings “hosted Barack Obama in our home.” That should answer any doubts over whether Obama “vetted” Jennings before his appointment as Safe Schools Czar in the Department of Education.

The man chosen by the Obama administration to head the Department of Education's Office of Safe Schools was an activist with the radical pro-homosexual organization Act Up, known for its aggressive badgering of those who don't support the homosexual lifestyle, according to a new report. Mass Resistance, a pro-family organization in Massachusetts that has battled over homosexual agenda points there, has posted online a report and video documenting Kevin Jennings' participation in the extremist organization. The video shows Jeff Davis, Jennings' "partner," addressing a banquet and saying of Jennings, "He was a member of Act Up. Act Up! So it's...

In early May, National Public Radio, a supposed bastion of liberal media bias, found itself in the cross hairs of the lesbian and gay community over an online review of "Outrage," a documentary chronicling the hypocrisy of prominent, purportedly closeted politicians with staunchly anti-gay voting records. What sparked the controversy was not the documentary itself, but the fact that NPR's review failed to name names. In fact, while Nathan Lee, the review's initial author, had included the identities of those fingered in the film, NPR editors took it upon themselves to censor the review prior to publication. Would a review...

On March 22, a number of the world’s media outlets reported something along the lines of “ Far-right youths carrying placards reading ‘leave my Pope alone’ clashed with left-wing activists outside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris after the latter had thrown condoms on the square as worshippers were leaving Sunday mass.” The Associated Press, AFP and Reuters were among the news-wires which used the term “far right” to describe the young people protesting in favour of the Pope. A group of about 30 demonstrators belonging to a group called Act Up had chosen a major Sunday Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral...

SAN FRANCISCO – Bernie Ward, the popular radio talk-show host disgraced by federal child-pornography charges, was sentenced Thursday to seven years and two months in prison. Ward, who is married and has four children, was fired in December 2007 from KGO-AM in San Francisco after a grand jury indictment accused him of actively uploading and sharing images of child pornography on the Internet. His KGO-AM shows included the Sunday morning “God Talk” program.“I feel very sorry for you and your family,” Judge Vaughn Walker told Ward. The judge said he was troubled by Ward’s hypocrisy — while the former priest...

The Alabama Department of Homeland Security has taken down a Web site it operated that included gay rights and anti-war organizations in a list of groups that could include terrorists. The Web site identified different types of terrorists, and included a list of groups it believed could spawn terrorists. The list also included environmentalists, animal rights advocates and abortion opponents. The director of the department, Jim Walker, said his agency received a number of calls and e-mails from people who said they felt the site unfairly targeted certain people just because of their beliefs. He said he plans to put...

MONTGOMERY, ALA. — The Alabama Department of Homeland Security has taken down a website it operated that included gay-rights and antiwar organizations in a list of groups that could include terrorists. The website identified different types of terrorists and included a list of groups it suggested could spawn terrorists. The list also included environmentalists, animal rights advocates and abortion opponents. Howard Bayliss, chairman of the gay-rights group Equality Alabama, said he didn't understand why gay-rights advocates would be on the list. "Our group has only had peaceful demonstrations. I'm deeply concerned we've been profiled in this discriminatory matter," Bayliss said....

There’s been much talk about reforming the Catholic Church by members of Dignity USA, but unfortunately, reform can never happen as long as a former Nazi, Pope Benedict XVI, heads the same fallible institution. Instead of praying for change and hoping for a dialogue with a tyrant, queers would be better served by resorting to the “in your face” antics of ACT UP. After all, it was under Pope Benedict’s leadership as a bishop that the church’s doctrine which states that homosexuals are either “intrinsically” or “organically disordered” was formulated and put into place. A distinction was made between those...

A PRIEST was slightly hurt at Paris's famed Notre-Dame Cathedral when clashes broke out between church security personnel and gay rights activists who performed a mock marriage of two lesbians. About 20 members of the group Act Up entered the cathedral and proceeded to perform the mock marriage in front of baffled tourists and worshippers, according to an AFP correspondent at the scene. One activist - dressed as a priest - pronounded the two women married, while other Act Up members chanted: "Pope Benedict XVI, homophobe, AIDS accomplice." With security officials in pursit, they then fled the cathedral, but clashes...

The Medical CIA Part I (Published in drastically rewritten, condensed form as “AIDS: Words from the Front,” Spin Magazine, Dec. 1993) “This is the epidemic of the century, and every qualified person should want to have a piece of the action.” Donald Francis was not known for his subtlety. When he wanted something, he would make demands while pounding the table with his fist. This time he was giving a speech to his fellow officers of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Federal agency charged with handling public health issues. Speaking at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, he was...

A Long Island honor student filed a federal lawsuit yesterday, claiming an NYPD detective falsely arrested him during last summer's Republican National Convention........ Benjamin Traslavina, 17, a senior at Malverne HS, where he is the school's newspaper editor, claims.......he was falsely arrested by Detective Joseph Sikorski on Sept. 1, 2004, while attending the convention at Madison Square Garden. A participant in the RNC's "youth day" activities as a member of the Junior Statesman Foundation Symposium, Traslavina was arrested when he started taking photos of a skirmish between convention security personnel and the AIDS activist group ACT-UP, said his lawyer, Daniel...

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign has hired a new director of religion outreach, who is being described by a Catholic group as "a curious choice." Mara Vanderslice, who formerly worked as religion outreach director for Democrat Howard Dean, was raised without any faith and didn't become an evangelical Christian until she attended Earlham College, a Quaker school known for its adherence to pacifism, the Catholic League said on Monday. According to Catholic League President William Donohue, when Vanderslice was in college she was active in the Earlham Socialist Alliance, a group that supports convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and...

Arlington police arrested 21 protesters yesterday after they chained themselves to the front door and one another at Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters during a demonstration against administration policies. About 120 protesters took part in the demonstration outside the building on Wilson Boulevard that houses the campaign headquarters, police said. The protest began about 2 p.m. and lasted 90 minutes, they said. The protest was organized by ACT UP and Housing Works, a nonprofit agency that provides social services, housing and health care to people with AIDS in New York, said Robert Cordero, director of federal advocacy for Housing Works. "We...

All the Nudes That's Fit to Print Radicals planning to cause mayhem at the GOP convention should accept this sad fact: Murdoch’s minions are waiting.The last time a major party held its nominating convention in New York City, I was among the tribe of protesters clamoring outside. I had hitchhiked from Oakland to Manhattan and, after adventures with a guy in Barstow who claimed he was jumping parole and barked, "I swear by my white skin!" after each beer, or the gentleman in southern Missouri who loaded the shotgun in his rifle rack and declared his intention to shoot the...

  IT’S OUTING SEASON!  (Has Sen. Barbara Mikulski, just been outed?)Ready for the federal marriage amendment?By Michelangelo SignorileAs the July 12 date nears for a vote on the federal marriage amendment, an outing panic has gripped Washington's political and media circles. Some gay activists have vowed to expose those closeted members of Congress who are supporting the amendment, as well as the closeted gay staffers of any member backing it. And it's not only right-wing Republicans who should be on notice. After initially indicating that she would vote against the constitutional amendment that would make gays and lesbians into second-class...

NewsMax.com's Fr. Michael Reilly says there's something rotten about Sen. John Kerry's strategy to win the religious vote. What was John Kerry thinking when he appointed Mara Vanderslice as his Director of Religious Outreach? Catholic League president William Donohue finds her a curious choice: "Here’s what we know about John Kerry’s religious outreach person. Mara Vanderslice was raised without any faith and didn’t become an evangelical Christian until she attended Earlham College, a Quaker school known for its adherence to pacifism. "When in college, Mara was active in the Earlham Socialist Alliance, a group that supports the convicted cop killer...

Perhaps you've heard that the New York Times fired a stringer named Jay Blotcher because he'd been a member of the anti-AIDS advocacy group ACT UP nearly fourteen years ago. Perhaps you've heard that ACT UP founder and fiery gay playwright Larry Kramer complained to publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. of "McCarthy-type blacklisting." Perhaps you're aware that although ACT UP did, way back when, single out the Times for what Kramer termed its "unconscionable refusal to write about us in any but the most hateful of ways, and for so long, and for your wretched, shameful early lack of coverage of...