Free Republic

ROME—Pope Francis softened the Vatican’s ban on blessing same-sex couples, saying that priests may use their discretion in giving such blessings, so long as they don’t imply a same-sex union is equivalent to a heterosexual marriage. The pope’s statement, in a letter released by the Vatican on Monday, marks a significant shift in the Catholic Church’s stance on blessing gay relationships. Its release comes on the eve of a major Vatican meeting that will consider possible changes to church teaching and practice on matters such as homosexuality and women’s ordination. Catholic priests in Germany and some other northern European countries...

Sen. Chuck Schumer warned that parts of Long Island’s prized beaches and nature reserves have been literally washing away and the Biden Administration has done nothing to replenish the beaches and stem the erosion. Schumer, the Senate Democratic majority leader from New York, blasted the Army Corps of Engineers for their inaction in failing to restore large chunks of Fire Island’s pristine beaches, which were decimated by a slew of winter storms. Fire Island helps shield Long Island from violent storms fueled by the Atlantic Ocean, while its status as a favorite summer getaway for city dwellers provides crucial jobs...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, elevating the head of a fundraising juggernaut that works to elect Democratic women who support abortion rights, according to a person familiar with the decision. Newsom is moving swiftly to name the next senator, two days after Feinstein’s death and just as a perilously split Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown. Senate Democrats are in need of every vote in the closely divided chamber. The announcement was expected to come Monday, and an adviser to the governor, Anthony York,...

Religious persecution is nothing new to Massachusetts. But the commonwealth’s recent denial of a Catholic couple’s application to become foster parents because of their faith is a notable variation on the mass hysteria that once sent “witches” to the executioner.... In this instance, Michael and Catherine “Kitty” Burke were told they weren’t qualified to be foster parents unless they vowed to support a child should he or she someday identify as “LGBTQIA.” Talk about a litmus test. In fact, during a rigorous interview process with a social worker to determine their fitness as foster parents, the Burkes said they would...

Ron DeSantis booster Dave Rubin has denounced Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake as an “election denier” in the latest example of the Florida Governor’s camp weaponizing leftist smears against America First conservatives.Lake, who shared Donald Trump’s concerns about the conduct of the 2020 election, became one of the election integrity movement’s leading lights after her own run for Governor of Arizona, successfully exposing major flaws in mail-in ballot signature verification in the Grand Canyon State.By dismissing her as an “election denier” Rubin chose to play into the leftist narrative that conservatives with concerns about mail-in ballots, voting machines, and other...

For more than two hours on a Sunday afternoon, the Rev. Gustavo Castillo led the Pentecostal congregation he’s been growing in this Minneapolis suburb through prayer, Scriptures, rousing music and sometimes tearful testimonials. But it all may end soon. A sudden procedural change in how the federal government processes green cards for foreign-born religious workers, together with historic highs in numbers of illegal border crossers, means that thousands of clergy like him are losing the ability to remain in this country. “We were right on the edge of becoming permanent residents, and boom, this changed,” Colombia-born Castillo said as his...

When I was in high school, my school district adopted regulations that prevented queer students from having their sexual or gender identities disclosed without their consent. The change was liberating. No longer fearful that a misplaced comment about my sexual identity would lead to parental rejection and housing insecurity, I expressed my queerness and authentically engaged with my education for the first time. I drew connections between course materials and queer history; I allowed my queerness to inform discussions with teachers; I explored intellectual passions that were related to my queer identity. But now, my home state is trying to...

A person who says they " queer, trans-nonbinary, autistic" is asking for $4,000 to flee Kentucky as Republican legislators across the US wage war against LGBT+ rights. Earlier this year lawmakers in the state pushed through a bill dubbed "most extreme anti-LGBTQ bill in America ". The bill, SB 150, which passed despite the Governor's attempt to veto it, bans transgender medical treatment for minors and restricts discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. The GoFundMe fundraiser is just one of the latest being highlighted by The Mirror that shows how restrictive laws against LGBT+ people are forcing...

A married pastor and father of three who was arrested and charged with producing child pornography after the FBI raided his Brentwood home has allegedly confessed to collecting videos from minors engaged in sex acts and told investigators, “I’m sorry that I cannot stop.” Authorities say they recovered 15 videos containing child porn from the cellphone of 28-year-old Pastor Jose Saez Jr. of Iglesia Cristiana Alumbrando El Camino (Lighting The Way Christian Church) after they raided his home. A release from the FBI’s New York Office said the raid on Saez’s home conducted by their Long Island Child Exploitation Task...

At least three Assemblies of God pastors have called on denominational leaders to repent and, where appropriate, resign after organizers of the Chi Alpha Campus Ministries were accused of allowing Daniel Savala, a 67-year-old itinerant minister and convicted sex offender, to prey on scores of young males for more than two decades. The Assemblies of God claimed on Friday, however, that it had warned local Chi Alpha leaders about Savala and is already taking steps to dismiss leaders who failed to protect participants in the ministry as they continue to investigate the scandal. The latest call for accountability has come...

<p>Charlotte County Schools Superintendent Mark Vianello and the school board’s attorney, Michael McKinley, were responding to questions from the district’s librarians at a July meeting asking whether the bill, officially the “Florida Parental Rights in Education Act,” required the removal of any books that simply had a gay character but no explicit sex scenes.</p>

Unfortunately, under the Biden administration, instead of focusing on winning battles, the military has been preoccupied with pushing leftist talking points and agendas -- such as the LGBT ideology. So naturally, a rallying cry among conservatives in the past two years has been to get the military back on track and in shape to defend the nation against hostile forces. That's why Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas proposed an amendment to the House spending bill that would strip federal funding from drag shows and "pride" events at the Department of Defense.

(JTA) — An LGBTQ student group at Rice University has cut ties with the school’s Hillel, in the latest instance of backlash from a progressive group against the Jewish campus organization’s support for Israel. The LGBTQ group, Rice Pride, announced the split last week in a statement on Instagram that said Hillel’s international umbrella group was “not reflective of the values of inclusion upheld by Rice Pride.” “Rice Pride’s ultimate goal is to provide a safe space for queer students of all backgrounds, and to recognize the intersectionalities between queer identity and race, ethnicity, and religion,” the statement said. The...

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a proposed rule Wednesday that would require states to “transfer” foster children from families who do not support their “gender identity,” a copy of the rule showed. Under the proposed rule, children in the foster care system will only be placed with families who the HHS classifies as a “safe and appropriate placement,” meaning families must use a child’s “identified pronouns” and “chosen name,” the rule said. “Safe” families will undergo extensive training to “provide” for the child’s “needs,” and the state will transfer fostered children away from families who do...

Former President Trump pledged Wednesday to allow gasoline engines and ban children from getting sex changes in his future administration.He made his declaration when speaking at a Michigan auto parts supplier rally amid the United Autoworkers (UAW) strike.“Today’s radical Democratic Party wants to legalize, drugs, shoplifting, and sexual mutilation of your children, but they want to allow your gas-powered suburban Silverados, your Ford F1-50s to die,” he said. “Under the Trump administration, gasoline engines will be allowed and sex changes for children will be banned. Is that okay? If you said 10 years ago, 15 years ago, ‘we will stop...

DETROIT (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered all judges to address people in court by the pronouns they use or by “other respectful means.” “We serve the entire public and are required to treat those who come before us with civility and respect,” Justice Elizabeth Welch said. “The gender identity of a member of the public is a part of their individual identity, regardless of whether others agree or approve.” The statewide rule was approved, 5-2. ...

This spring, athlete and women's rights advocate Riley Gaines spoke at the University of Pittsburgh. When Gaines asked an anthropology professor, the “expert” in the room, if you could dig up a skeleton and tell if the person had been male or female from the bone structure, Professor Gabby Yearwood said no, of course not. Yearwood, whose research focuses on "the social constructions of race and racism, masculinity, gender, sex, Black Feminist and Black Queer theory, anthropology of sport and Black Diaspora," was laughed at by the rest of the audience. Colin Wright is now reporting that the American Anthropological...

I apologize for being gross, but it's necessary. You have to be shocked into recognizing the moral horror of what a part of the nation's largest teacher's union is doing. It is unspeakable, but we have to speak about it. The most effective work that the irreplaceable Christopher Rufo does is simply to get documents from institutions, and post them in full to the web, so ordinary people can see what kind of corrupt, racist or otherwise depraved people run these institutions. His latest is from the LGBTQ+ caucus of the National Education Association (NEA), the country's largest teachers union,...

The first trans person to be elected to office in Tennessee is being treated as a second-class citizen and may be forced to use the male bathroom at work despite identifying as female. Five women, including openly transgender member Olivia Hill, were handed a sweeping victory on Sept. 14 by winning all the seats at large during Nashville Metro Council’s election and making the body majority-female. However, the historic election victory is being overshadowed by an anti-LGBTQ law quietly passed in May that will make it harder for Hill to do her job and simply live her life in the...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed several bills Saturday aimed at bolstering the state’s protections for LGBTQ+ people, a day after issuing a controversial veto that was criticized by advocates. . . . . . A third requires families to show that they can and are willing to meet the needs of a child in foster care regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.