Free Republic

The National Park Service announced Friday that it will launch a study to identify places of historical significance to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. Secretary Sally Jewell made the announcement at The Stonewall Inn, which was the site of the 1969 riots that helped launch the modern gay rights movement. It is currently the only site in the country designated a national landmark.

Washington -- - U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin looked out at the crowd of politicians, federal officials and gay activists who had been invited to the White House on what would have been Harvey Milk's 84th birthday.

It finally sank in for Suzanne Rotondo when Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett announced Wednesday he wouldn't contest a federal judge's ruling striking down the state's ban on gay marriage: She could finally get a divorce. The Keystone State was the last holdout in the Northeast to recognize gay marriage. "It feels like my birthday," said Rotondo, 45, who lives in Philadelphia. "I just feel this excitement. Of course there's no 'Yay, divorce,' but it's a victory for being able to have agency, have a say in your own destiny." Rotondo married her partner a decade ago in Massachusetts on their...

The cascade of same-sex marriage rulings is now a torrent, each more quotable and image-ready than the last. “Let us look less to the sky to see what might fall; rather, let us look to each other…and rise,” district Judge Michael McShane wrote Monday in Oregon. Not to be outdone, district Judge John E. Jones III—a George W. Bush appointee, personally recommended by Rick Santorum—wrote Tuesday in Pennsylvania: “We are a better people than what these [marriage] laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history." Indeed, after Judge Jones threw out his state’s...

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania's governor says he won't appeal a court decision that struck down the state's gay marriage ban. Gov. Tom Corbett's decision Wednesday means that same-sex marriage will remain legal in Pennsylvania, without the threat that a higher court will reinstate the ban. "I have thoroughly reviewed Judge Jones' opinion in the Whitewood case. Given the high legal threshold set forth by Judge Jones in this case, the case is extremely unlikely to succeed on appeal. Therefore, after review of the opinion and on the advice of my Commonwealth legal team, I have decided not to appeal Judge...

A federal judge Tuesday declared Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, the fourth such ruling on a state ban in the past three weeks. Judge John Jones III ruled in favor of 23 Pennsylvania residents who challenged the law.\ "The issue we resolve today is a divisive one. Some of our citizens are made deeply uncomfortable by the notion of same-sex marriage. However, that same sex marriage causes discomfort in some does not make its prohibition constitutional," he said. The state's Democratic attorney general, Kathleen Kane, announced last July that she would not defend it, saying she could not ethically...

A federal judge Tuesday struck down Pennsylvania's law prohibiting same-sex marriage, saying it violates the U.S. Constitution. With the ruling, the Keystone State joins a host of others in which judges have struck down existing laws restricting marriage to between one man and one woman. All such decisions have been stayed, pending appeals. "Because these laws are unconstitutional, we shall enter an order permanently enjoining their enforcement," U.S. District Judge John E. Jones wrote of Pennsylvania's same-sex marriage restrictions. "By virtue of this ruling, same-sex couples who seek to marry in Pennsylvania may do so, and already married same-sex couples...

HARRISBURG - A federal judge on Tuesday struck down Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriages, a landmark ruling that could clear the way for the Commonwealth to become the 17th state to legalize gay marriage. The decision by U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III marked the first and most significant to date in a series of court challenges to the state's 1996 ban. It was not immediately clear if Gov. Corbett, whose administration had defended the law, would appeal the decision. The lawsuit, Whitewood v. Wolf, was brought by 23 plaintiffs who said Pennsylvania's law violates the state constitution by...