Free Republic

Manny Pacquiao is not backing down from his stance against homosexuality. Less than a day after the Filipino boxer and politician lost his sponsorship deal with Nike because he compared gay people to animals, Pacquiao took to Instagram early Thursday morning and posted some Bible verses that support his views. One of them, Leviticus 20:13, states in no uncertain terms that homosexuals should be killed: "If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on...

The news in this year's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on sexually transmitted diseases is not good. The number of cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea in the United States increased between 2013 and 2014, after being on the decline for several years. Cases of syphilis, which have been on the rise for the last decade, shot up in 2014. Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis are the three most common STDs in the United States that are also notifiable, meaning health departments are required to report new cases to the CDC. (HIV and shigella are also notifiable STDs.) Chlamydia is...

While the overall reaction to Caitlyn Jenner's introduction has been overwhelmingly positive, restoring our faith in the world and making Caitlyn herself feel 'humbled' and extremely happy, there are some who haven't reacted quite so well. In fact, a shocking petition has now been started urging the International Olympic Committee to actually REVOKE her incredible 1976 Olympic gold medal, as they claim she was "in violation of committee rules." Yes, really. The 65-year-old won the medal for the decathlon in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, but now some are suggesting that she should give back the medal. And by some, we...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said this week that he was prepared to sign a measure banning abortion at 20 weeks without an exception for rape or incest because it’s only “in the initial months” that victims are “most concerned” about access to care. Walker, who is expected to announce his run for president at the end of the month, said that such an exception didn’t matter and that he would sign the bill regardless. “I mean, I think for most people who are concerned about that, it’s in the initial months where they’re most concerned about it,” Walker said. “In...

In the Hobby Lobby decision handed down last month, the Supreme Court was asked to strike a balance between women’s rights and religious freedom. But the major conflict that has erupted in the wake of that decision has been between religious freedom and gay rights. The resulting controversy has split gay-rights and faith groups on the left, with wide-ranging political fallout that some now fear could hurt both causes. One chapter of the controversy is set to close on Monday, when President Obama plans to sign a long-awaited executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating against gays and lesbians, according...

Police say a transgender teen who said he was beaten and sexually assaulted in a California high school bathroom has recanted the story. Hercules police spokeswoman Detective Connie Van Putten says detectives interviewed the student Tuesday and determined nothing had happened to him. On Monday, the 15-year-old student reported he was attacked by three boys in a bathroom at a suburban San Francisco public school. The teen, who is biologically female but identifies as male, had told officers he was leaving a boy's bathroom late Monday morning at Hercules Middle/High School when the assailants...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The man charged with first-degree murder in the killing of a gay teenager in Puerto Rico will likely use "gay panic" as a defense, a police report said. Juan A. Martinez Matos, 26, a married father of four, confessed he was cruising the "red light" district of Caguas, a city south of San Juan, looking for women and picked up 19-year-old Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado thinking he was a woman, the report said. When the two went into a house "the suspect (allegedly) found out that Lopez was a man, after Lopez...

A gay Atlanta man was bludgeoned to death and his confessed killer walked free after claiming he was forced into a sexual act and responded in self-defense. The killer of a Kentucky man whose body was stuffed in a suitcase and dumped into a lake also claimed he acted to thwart a sexual advance and was convicted of manslaughter instead of murder.