Free Republic

A Washington florist who refused to participate in a same-sex wedding lost a unanimous decision yesterday at the state Supreme Court. The 9-0 ruling rejected her claim to a First Amendment right to exercise her right to religious liberty in favor of the state’s anti-discrimination law. The next step for Barronelle Stutzman will be the US Supreme Court, as KIRO reported lat night:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO The Associated Press has more details on the next steps. Stutzman’s legal counsel insists that the First Amendment allows for free exercise of religion, and that commerce does not limit it....

A Virginia school board filed an emergency appeal Wednesday to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a stay of a lower-court ruling forcing it to regulate school bathrooms on the basis of gender identity.

ChristianMingle.com, an online dating service for Christian singles, must start allowing people to seek out same-sex relationships under a judge-approved settlement. ChristianMingle only required new users to specify whether they’re a man seeking a woman or a woman seeking a man. Two gay men filed class-actions claims against the site’s owner, California-based Spark Networks Inc., claiming that the site’s limited options violated California’s anti-discrimination law, The Wall Street Journal reported. State law requires businesses to offer “full and equal” accommodations and services to people regardless of their sexual orientation.

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge Thursday overturned Mississippi's ban on allowing same-sex couples to adopt children. U.S. District Judge Daniel Jordan, in a preliminary injunction issued Thursday, ruled for the couples who had sued, saying the ban is unconstitutional after recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions legalizing gay marriage and benefits for gay couples. He ordered John Davis, executive director of the Department of Human Services to stop enforcing it.

About 13 Christian young people who had gone to 18th and Castro streets Friday night, November 14, soon had to be escorted out of the neighborhood by police after dozens of angry people confronted and surrounded them. The Castro has been a gathering spot over the past couple of weekends for people rallying against the passage of Proposition 8, but there apparently hadn’t been any large protests in the neighborhood that night. Missy Huff, a 21-year-old with Promised Land Fellowship, said she and about 13 other young people gathered at the intersection to play guitar, sing, and worship, something she...

Mass Equality, a militant gay organization pushing for national gay marriage, has announced that it plans to do a petition drive in South Boston during the St. Patrick's Day Parade. Petitioners will approach individuals and families watching the parade, urging people to sign their petition which demands national gay marriage rights. As you might expect, Catholics and parents who plan to be at the parade with their kids are angry at this latest assault and are calling-in to the show to protest. The Mass Equality rep is countering that her organization has the right to do this and that anyone...