Free Republic

Elton John and partner David Furnish have blasted Pope Benedict XVI for his stance on homosexuality - ahead of their gay marriage next month. The pair are bracing themselves for a Catholic backlash when they exchange vows in England next month, but also criticise the pontiff for his controversial views on contraception.

UAE mulls punishment against dozens arrested at mass gay wedding ___ DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - More than two dozen gay Arab men ¡ª arrested at what police called a mass homosexual wedding ¡ª could face government-ordered hormone treatments, five years in jail and a lashing, authorities said Saturday. The Interior Ministry said police raided a hotel chalet earlier this month and arrested 22 men from the Emirates as they celebrated the wedding ceremony, one of a string of recent group arrests of homosexuals here. The men are likely to be tried under Muslim law on charges related to adultery...

Mr. Finley, left, and Mr. McGee. WHEN informed of their son's decision to take up with Carl Stanley McGee, a lawyer from Alabama, the family of John Huston Finley IV, a Bostonian, was dismayed, but not about the fact he was in a serious relationship with another man. "My parents were far more upset that Stan was a Hilary Clinton-supporting Democrat than they were about us," Mr. Finley said. "I remember them asking Stan a lot of 'coming out' type questions: 'Maybe you didn't have a good Republican experience? Have you told your parents how you feel?' "They were...

By 1 hour, 10 minutes ago OAKLAND, California (Reuters) - As U.S. gays and lesbians prepare to battle a raft of state constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage that will likely be on the ballot next fall, activists are recasting the issue as one that needs to be fought on moral rather than political grounds. That is the message Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the oldest and leading U.S. grass-roots gay and lesbian coalition, has taken to more than 2,500 gay rights organizers at its annual conference held in Oakland this week. "What I...

Texas voters Tuesday overwhelming approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, making their state the 19th to take that step. In Maine, however, a proposal to repeal a new gay-rights law was trailing in early returns. The contest in Texas was decided quickly _ the ban was receiving more than 74 percent of the votes in early returns. Like every other state except Massachusetts, Texas didn't permit same-sex marriages previously, but the constitutional amendment was touted as an extra guard against future court rulings. The campaign had been enlivened over the past week because of a controversial tactic by the...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 06, 2005 19:28:02 ET XXXXX HOLLYWOOD ROCKED: 'GAY COWBOY' MOVIE BECOMES AN OSCAR FRONTRUNNER Arriving with nudity and explicit gay sex scenes between two cowboys, UNIVERSAL/FOCUS FILMS's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN has quietly become an award season frontrunner, interviews with Academy members reveal. "It could very well be the last film standing at this year's Oscars," a top Hollywood producer not associated with the film explained from Hollywood. "There was not a dry eye in the house at the screening at Telluride [Film Festival in Colorado]," says the producer, who asked not to be named...

Society Becomes Stranger and Stranger Tragically, many psychologists and sociologists have noted that even in same-sex “marriages,” both partners take on heterosexual gender roles. That is, one person will play a female role and the other will play a male role. Some members of the gay community have denounced this imitation of heterosexual marriage by inventing a new term. The new term for the phenomenon to be avoided is called “couple-ism.” Since marriage is thought to be an outmoded “patriarchal” institution, taking on gender roles within a same-sex marriage is to be avoided. In other words, same-sex marriage is good...

WASHINGTON – Was the U.S. Supreme Court fooled by a make-believe sodomy case in Lawrence v. Texas – one manufactured by homosexual activists to entrap police and ensnare the judicial system in a conspiracy to change the law of the land? That is the compelling verdict of a new book, "Sex Appealed: Was the U.S. Supreme Court Fooled?" by Judge Janice Law. It was in the Houston courthouse where Law presided as judge that she first heard rumors that the key figures in what became the landmark Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court case actually invited arrest in a pre-arranged setup...

Lexington, Mass. — David and Tonia Parker are asking their neighbors in this liberal town for one consideration: Tolerance. The Parkers believe homosexuality is immoral. So they were appalled when their son brought a picture book home from kindergarten that showed families with same-sex parents. To ensure his "spiritual safety," they demanded the right to pull him out of class whenever homosexuality was discussed. To deny them that right, they say, would be intolerant of their faith. School administrators offer a different take on tolerance. They say it's their job to expose children to the world's diversity. Supt. Paul B....

Group Sees Hypocrisy in Schools' Embracing 'Gay Pride,' Rejecting 'In God We Trust'The same school board that ignored parents' objections and allowed what many regard as a "gay pride" flag to be placed in a Livingston County, Michigan, high school has repeatedly rejected the idea of displaying posters featuring the U.S. national motto "In God We Trust."Despite outrage from pro-family community members, Howell (Michigan) High School has refused to take down the rainbow-colored "diversity flag" that some students and parents who associate the emblem with homosexual pride find offensive. However, when the group called the Livingston Organization for Values in...

John Cloud, a gay man who wrote the cover story for Time magazine (Oct. 10) on the rise of gay teen advocacy groups on high school campuses, has a long history of promoting the gay political agenda while disguised as a mainstream reporter. Cloud's sexual orientation was not mentioned in the Time article. In past Time articles, Cloud has promoted gay attacks against the Boy Scouts, portrayed transgender activists as a new opprosed minority group; wrote approvingly of anonymous gay sex orgies for an alternative newspaper in Washington, DC; and earlier had penned a guide to gay bathhouses in Washington,...

If the Catholic Church wants to prevent sexual abuse by priests, several abuse experts said, there are better ways to do it than by trying to bar gay men from the clergy. The church recently began checking American seminaries for ''evidence of homosexuality," and the pope is widely expected to ban actively gay men from taking holy orders. But it will be tricky to cull gays from the priesthood, the abuse experts said this month. And it would be more effective -- and more humane -- to target likely abusers rather than all gays. ''There's no adequate way to screen...

Oct.12, 2005 (Washington) -- Children growing up in same-sex parental households do not necessarily have differences in self-esteem, gender identity, or emotional problems from children growing up in heterosexual parent homes."There are a lot of children with at least one gay or lesbian parent," says Ellen C. Perrin, MD, professor of pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. She revealed the findings at the American Academy of Pediatrics Conference and Exhibition.Between 1 million and 6 million children in the U.S. are being reared by committed lesbian or gay couples, she says. Children being raised by same-sex parents were...

Neighbors say the victim has a roommate; police have no motive in fatal shooting The body of a fatally shot Hurricane Katrina evacuee was found slumped in a front patio of a southwest Houston apartment early Wednesday morning, authorities said. Residents of the St. Charles Place Apartments in the 9000 block of Fondren found the 20-year-old man, who had moved into the complex about a month earlier, at about 6 a.m., police said. He had been shot in the head. Neighbors found the body leaning against the gate of the front patio of a first-floor apartment that residents said the...

Sperm donor to pay child supportFrom correspondents in Stockholm, Sweden 13-10-2005 From: Agence France-Presse A SWEDISH man who donated his sperm to a lesbian couple must pay child support for the three children he fathered, Sweden's Supreme Court ruled today. The man, now 39, donated his sperm to the couple in the early 1990s. Three sons were born during the years 1992-1996, according to Swedish news agency TT which reported the ruling. The man told the court that he and the women had agreed that he would play no role in the boys' child rearing and that the two women...

Well, yesterday (October 11, 2005) was "Gay and Lesbian Coming Out Day" in Massachusetts public schools. According to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, "“Talk About It” will be the theme of this year’s National Coming Out Day, to be celebrated on Oct. 11, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation announced today. HRCF’s Coming Out Project is an ongoing campaign to empower gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and allied Americans to live openly and honestly about their lives. Every single time we talk about our lives as GLBT Americans, we are another step closer to equality,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “Each...

NEW YORK - Though decried by many gay-rights leaders, “outing” — the practice of exposing secretly gay public figures — is expanding into new terrain as Internet bloggers target congressional staffers, political strategists, even black clergy whose sermons and speeches contain anti-gay rhetoric. Few issues are as divisive within the gay community. Numerous gay organizations, such as the Human Rights Campaign and the Log Cabin Republicans, staunchly oppose outing, yet many other activists support it when the targets are public figures — or their aides — who work against gay rights or condemn homosexuality. “It’s not the gay thing that’s...

NEW YORK -- New research suggests teens are revealing their homosexuality at younger ages than ever before. An upcoming article in Time magazine takes a look at what has become a growing issue among America's youth. The age move has some conservative groups worried while surprising gay activists. Time staff writer John Cloud says the conservatives are targeting the youth "to combat this" phenomenon. Gay activists, meanwhile, are scrambling to reach these teens. Publications targeting gay kids are cropping up on the Internet and are available by subscription. Cloud also reports gay-straight alliance groups are forming rapidly on school campuses....

HOBART, - According to an apparently unembarrassed official of the Department of Health and Human Services in the Australian state of Tasmania, guidelines have been established that allow care givers to organise visits for disabled clients to Hobart’s local brothels. The terms “hooker or “street walker” have long been taboo as being insensitive. Now “prostitute,” is no longer acceptable either and the properly affirming phrase “sex trade worker,” is used to describe the world’s oldest profession. This new nomenclature is especially important now that publicly funded social workers can – and do – arrange for their intellectually disabled charges to...

The Netherlands and Belgium were the first countries to give full marriage rights to homosexuals. In the United States some politicians propose “civil unions” that give homosexual couples the full benefits and responsibilities of marriage. These civil unions differ from marriage only in name. Meanwhile in the Netherlands polygamy has been legalised in all but name. Last Friday the first civil union of three partners was registered. Victor de Bruijn (46) from Roosendaal “married” both Bianca (31) and Mirjam (35) in a ceremony before a notary who duly registered their civil union. “I love both Bianca and Mirjam, so I...