Free Republic

SALT LAKE CITY – Brigham Young University remains one of the most hostile campuses in the country for gay and transgender students, according to an annual college ranking list. But the private university does not top the list of LGBT-unfriendly schools. In fact, it came in sixth in a list of 10, mostly religious, schools. Grove City College (Grove City, Pa.) a Christian liberal arts school of 2,500 students. and Hampden-Sydney College, an all-male liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in Hampden Sydney Va., came in first and second. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches...

An association of Southern Baptist churches in Alabama voted March 16 to dismiss a church over its pastor’s support of same-sex marriage. The executive board of Madison Baptist Association voted 74-5 to withdraw fellowship from Weatherly Heights Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., according to a statement to media.The voluntary association of 85 churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention investigated Weatherly Heights, which is primarily affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, after news reports that an unpaid staff member ordained by the church officiated at a same-sex wedding Feb. 9.Discussions revealed that the church’s pastor, David Freeman, also does not...

Shortly after the 2012 election ended, David Kochel, the top-flight Iowa Republican strategist who had run Mitt Romney’s campaign in the state, decided to stop keeping his opinion of marriage equality to himself. He had spent years helping presidential candidates court the conservative Christian voters who dominated Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, but he had grown increasingly convinced that his party was on the wrong side of the marriage debate, both morally and politically. With the campaign over, Kochel — who declined to comment for this story — began turning up at gatherings for pro-gay Republicans, calling on the GOP to modernize...

Minneapolis may have dropped a notch on the "Most Literate City" list this week, but the metropolis picked up a new title: Gayest City in America. That's according to the Advocate, the national gay news magazine based in Los Angeles. The city came from nowhere to snatch the tiara from last year's winner, Atlanta, which slid to No. 7. "This was Minneapolis' first appearance [on the second annual list], and it shot right to the top," said Matthew Breen, executive editor for the Advocate. What makes Minneapolis so gay, so suddenly? The Advocate changed its criteria for making the list,...

The winner of first prize for the gay-friendliest Wall Street firm might surprise you. Despite the recent sexual discrimination lawsuit launched against Goldman Sachs, the bank was named the best bank to work for if you're LGBT. According to Vault.com, these are the top ten banks for those who identify as Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered (LGBT): 1. Goldman Sachs "The firm maintains a strong commitment to diversity, and 
mandates that all employees participate in at least two hours of
 diversity-related training per year." 2. Centerview Partners "LGBT individuals have all and every opportunity to
 succeed." 3. Houlihan Lokey "We have...

LONDON (AFP) – Gay-rights campaigners and secularists called on Tuesday for protests during a visit to Britain by Pope Benedict XVI this year after he condemned equality legislation seen as friendly to gays. The 82-year-old pontiff made his comments on Monday, when he confirmed plans to visit Britain later this year in what would be the first such trip in 28 years. The papal trip is expected in September, one minister has said. Human rights campaigner and gay activist Peter Tatchell said he saw the pope's remarks as an attack on the legal rights granted to gay people and women....

The colorful brochure from Mitt Romney's presidential campaign looks like many of the political fliers flooding Iowa mail boxes this time of the year. But there is a difference. The piece is Romney's first to single out his rivals by name, a shift that shows him becoming more aggressive in the final weeks before the Jan. 3 caucuses. The mailing juxtaposes photos and quotes from Romney showing his support for a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman with photos and quotes showing Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Fred Thompson all oppose...

This is why a lot of people wanted Fred Thompson in the race. Who do you trust? Mitt today or Mitt from...whenever he changed his mind on abortion. What? Three years ago? That doesn't smack of a real change of heart more than a political calculation. If the abortion issue doesn't bother you then listen to Mitt run from the "Reagan-Bush" years.

In 1973, a 29-year-old federal prosecutor named Rudy Giuliani indicted a Brooklyn congressman, unknowingly creating a political opening for an ambitious 23-year-old named Chuck Schumer. It is the first and least known link between two powerful New York politicians whose paths have crossed and careers intersected in often surprising ways over the past four decades. But it certainly wasn't the last. Just two weeks ago, Sen. Schumer (D-N.Y.) found himself defying his own party to confirm U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, a retired Manhattan judge and close friend of the former mayor. Schumer and Giuliani may seem an odd pairing,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rudy Giuliani assured a conservative legal group Friday that if elected president he would appoint federal judges who adhere to their principles. He also praised a judge who declared the capital city's gun ban unconstitutional and ridiculed efforts to eliminate the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. In a speech marking the 25th anniversary of the Federalist Society, Giuliani spelled out a conservative legal agenda in which he cited Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts as models for the judges he would appoint to the federal...

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) recently appeared before the Human Rights Campaign to present a keynote speech on her support of the homosexual/bisexual/transgender agenda and her efforts to defeat any attempts by Congress to pass a constitutional amendment that will ban same-sex marriage. HRC President Joe Solomese introduced Clinton and revealed their long-term relationship in fighting against the pro-family movement. Solomese describes numerous meetings with Clinton as they strategized togethor about how to defeat any constitutional amendment on marriage... ... Clinton told her homosexual activist audience that they will have a close "partnership ... when I am President." Watch her comments...

It's a tough call which accidental placement of Mitt Romney's online campaign ads, as reported by the New York Times, is funnier: The irony of the same-sex marriage-opposing former governor unintentionally urging readers of Gay.com to "Join Team Mitt!" is pretty strong. But in the end we're going to have to go with the Mormon family man, desperate for Americans not to perceive his religion as some kind of weird cult, advertising on FanFiction.net. In case you're not familiar, that's where users can write their own plots about their favorite fictional characters or read the work of others "including pornographic...

The Republican party’s having a gay identity crisis as of late - and the ideological winner could change the party’s political fate, not to mention the election. As Kerry Eleveld eloquently explains in the Advocate, three of the presidential contenders oppose a federal amendment against gay marriage: John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson, although the latter wants to make sure no one state has to endorse another’s married gays. Regardless of Thompson’s middle ground, his and his peers’ moderate stances show that the Republican party’s facing an important decision. Will they stick to their guns and give the once...

Most Republican presidential candidates can brag about attracting followers with their valiant stances on important issues. Rudy Giuliani's followers support him because they think he can beat Hillary Clinton. In and by itself, the reasoning of Giuliani's supporters is not illogical. Many people do take into account electability when voting for a primary candidate (although most will not sacrifice their basic principles in the name of an election victory). The problem is, this perceived electability is the only thing going for Giuliani. But here is the real kicker: Giuliani is not electable. In fact, he is far less electable than...

NEW YORK – Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani says God is a very important part of his life. "I believe in God. I pray to God, and I pray to Jesus for guidance, help,” Giuliani said in an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network. “I have very, very strong views on religion that come about from having wanted to be a priest when I was younger, having studied theology for four years in college.” The former New York mayor said he feels God’s help when “in crisis and under pressure like Sept. 11, when I was dealing with prostate cancer, or...

As Rudolph W. Giuliani campaigns for president, he rarely misses a chance to warn about the threat from terrorists. "They hate you," he told a woman at an Atlanta college. They "want to kill us," he told guests at a Virginia luncheon. The former New York City mayor exhorts America to fight back in what he calls the "terrorists' war on us" and accuses Democrats of reverting to their "denial" in the 1990s, when, he said, President Bill Clinton erred by treating terrorism as a law enforcement matter, not a war. Democrats, he said in July, have "the same bad...

Gay Friendly Colleges Ranked - Reed towards top Top of the list is New College of Florida, which provides a campus community most accepting of gay students. It also ranks number one for the most politically active tertiary institution, but ranks worst for a near absence of intercollegiate sports. The top five gay-friendly Colleges are in order: New College of Florida; Macalester College of St. Paul, Minnesota; Wellesley College in Massachusetts; Eugene Lang College/New School University in New York City; and Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. The top College ranked by Princeton Review for academic experience is Reed College in...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--After nearly a decade of lying low, Starbucks has reentered the homosexual rights movement in a few ways that have put at least one conservative watchdog group on alert. The world’s most famous coffee shop chain has begun a program called “The Way I See It,” which is a collection of thoughts, opinions and expressions provided by notable figures that now appear on Starbucks coffee cups, according to the chain’s website. But one particular quote -- #43 -- blatantly pushes the homosexual agenda. It’s by Armistead Maupin, who wrote “Tales of the City,” a bestseller-turned-PBS drama advocating the...

Orlando -- Internet child porn photos showing a girl being victimized were taken at a Walt Disney World hotel, authorities said after making a public appeal for tips to figure out the location. Canadian investigators took the unusual step of publicly releasing six photos last week, removing the girl's image, with hopes of identifying what they thought was a warm-climate hotel setting. Tips came suggesting the room was a Disney World property, and that was ultimately confirmed. "Disney has been very cooperative," said Jamie Zuieback, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. "Now we're trying to narrow...