Free Republic

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has given the public some clarity on his veto last week of $32 million in arts and culture grants from next year’s state budget. According to a story published in the Tampa Bay Times, DeSantis said the cause was Orlando International Fringe Theater Festival, which he characterized as being overtly “sexual” and therefore an inappropriate recipient of state funds. While it’s unclear if the Orlando festival was slated to receive any money from the grants, the state of Florida awards money for cultural projects based on a ranked list. The Fringe Festival was ranked toward...

Watching movies from the 1940s is like being transported into a different world. Men wear suits, and women wear beautiful skirts or dresses. No obscenity or vulgarity corrupts the scene. Male characters are manly, while female characters are feminine — both for good and for ill. Few people of loose morals earn the glitzy lights. Traditional family life, with male providers and ladies minding the home, is normative. Think “It’s a Wonderful Life.”Then everything changed.Joy Pullmann, executive editor of these pages, meticulously catalogues episodes of this revolution in her new book, False Flag: Why Queer Politics Mean the End of...

In single-sex classes, which are common for sex education, students must be allowed to go to the class of the gender they consider themselves to be rather than their actual gender, the U.S. Department of Education directed schools that receive federal funds in a Dec. 1 memo. The memo, from the department's Office for Civil Rights, provides guidance for K-12 schools for when they are allowed to have same-sex classes or extracurricular activities and remain in compliance with Title IX, a 1972 law to protect against gender discrimination in education programs that get federal aid. Schools may divide students by...

When abortion activists came out shrieking with rage at Canadian Member of Parliament Stephen Woodworth’s suggestion that a committee examine human life in the womb in 2013, he was somewhat surprised. When the Canadian government kowtowed to feminist hysteria to shut down MP Mark Warawa’s motion to condemn gender-selection abortion, Woodworth noticed a trend—and coined a new term. What we’re seeing is “abortionism,” he told me in an interview some time ago. “Abortionism” is essentially a philosophy that raises abortion to a sacred status, above all other democratic principles.I agree with Mr. Woodworth, but I think the problem goes much...

Angry parents descended on a Clark County School District Board of Trustees meeting this week after discovering the content of a proposed new "comprehensive sex education" curriculum that includes teaching 5-year-olds about masturbation. The proposed curriculum would include education about homosexuality as early as ages 5 through 8, teaching children to give everyone “respect regardless of who they are attracted to.” School children in kindergarten through grade 3 would also be taught that “touching and rubbing one’s genitals to feel good is called masturbation.” “You want to teach my 5-year-old how to masturbate?” challenged parent Julie Butler. "We certainly should...

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP) -- There are atheists and liberals, some who are both, who believe there is no need for God in order for morality to be maintained in a society. They argue that people can act morally apart from a supreme authority. I agree that people can act morally apart from God's standard. However, the real question is why should they? If there is no supreme authority -- no God -- then why behave morally? If there is no God, there are no objective standards for moral behavior. The logical progression leads to anarchy. Everyone does what is right...

... A new, casually transmittable infection — a unique strain of bacterial meningitis — has cast a pall over the gay night life and dating scene, with men wondering whether this is AIDS, circa 1981, all over again. Seven men have died in New York City, about a third of diagnosed cases, since 2010. And in the last few months, the contagion seemed to be accelerating. It has targeted gay and bisexual men, and nobody knows exactly why. The city’s best hope to curb the outbreak is to vaccinate as many at-risk men as possible, focusing on those most in...

Australian activists for same-sex marriage have always insisted, that it will not lead to polygamy or polyamory. Never, ever, ever. Gay marriage is just like traditional marriage, except for the sex of the spouse. Activist Rodney Croome wrote last year that “studies show most LGBTI people want to be part of a two-person marriage, while partners in polyamorist relationships (most of which begin as heterosexual unions) say they don’t want their relationships recognised as marriages.” Former Greens leader Bob Brown described a push for polyamory as “nonsense”. This is a crucial point for supporters. If they were to concede that...

WASHINGTON, D.C. December 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a speech designed to convince the world that “gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said religious objections to homosexuality should not stand in the way of vigorous United Nations action to promote the homosexual rights agenda. On Tuesday, Clinton said promoting the global acceptance of “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people” is “one of the remaining human rights challenges of our time,” likening the effort to ending racial, sexual, or religious discrimination. She noted that perhaps the “most challenging issue arises when...

The Atlantic's socially liberal Andrew Sullivan asked in March 2008 two very interesting questions: "1. Why is it illegal for me to pay a prostitute for sex, but it’s NOT illegal for a film director to pay two people to have sex in front of a camera and then make money for his product in the form of a DVD or an online download? 2. As a corollary: Why are a prostitute and her john held in such contempt by the media and the public, but Jenna Jameson and Ron Jeremy are treated as rock stars on both cable and...

BOSTON, November 17, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Massachusetts legislature has passed a bill that elevates cross-dressing or transgendered individuals to a protected class, and grants universal access to sex-segregated areas such as bathrooms based on personal “gender identity or expression.” The measure, known as the “Transgender Equal Rights Bill” (H. 502 in the House and S. 764 in the Senate) passed the upper chamber on Wednesday in a voice vote. It’s unclear when the bill will receive final approval votes and be signed into law by Democrat Gov. Deval Patrick, a strong gay rights supporter. The bill inserts “gender identity”...

It has been 47 years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and 46 years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act. And yet the political leaders of this nation of liberty cannot seem to muster the courage and principle to sweep away one remaining example of institutionalized, government-sanctioned discrimination: The 1996 law that denies the right of marriage to same-sex couples. The law, the Defense of Marriage Act, was passed in the heat of election-year fear and bigotry against men who want to marry other men, and women who want to marry other women. It was a...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado has announced the birth of a new son, making him the only openly gay member of Congress to be a parent. While few details of the birth were made available, the Democratic congressman's press office did release the announcement that Polis and his partner, Marlon Reis, sent to friends and family.

A national organization located in British Columbia is seeking to expose what they argue are the lies, seduction, and criminal activity at the heart of the homosexual agenda being pushed on students in Canadian schools. Out in Schools touts itself as an “outreach initiative” that “harnesses the powerful medium of film and video to engage to engage youth and educators on issues related to homophobia and violence.” The initiative works towards “the promotion of safer and more diverse communities, free from discrimination and bullying.” But the truth behind the OIS initiative, said (Kari) Simpson (President of Culture Guard, an organization...

A few days ago, I received an email from a friend entitled “Interesting Marriages,” containing four links. The first link told the 2007 story of a Sudanese man who was caught copulating with a goat. Since the Sudanese tribal custom requires that a man must marry a woman whom he sexually violated (in order to preserve her family’s honor), the village leaders decided to publicly embarrass the man who had violated the goat, forcing him to pay a dowry to the goat’s owner before “marrying” the goat. The story, which was first reported in a light-hearted way on the website...

In “Batman,” the Joker rhetorically asks a young Bruce Wayne: “Tell me, kid – you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight?” Well, I have. Not by the pale moonlight, but in a brightly lit Four Points Sheraton in Baltimore, Md. On Wednesday, Aug. 17, I – along with the venerable child advocate Dr. Judith Reisman – attended a conference hosted by the pedophile group B4U-ACT. Around 50 individuals were in attendance, including a number of admitted pedophiles (or “minor-attracted persons” [MAPs] as they euphemistically prefer), a few self-described “gay activists” and several supportive mental-health professionals. World renowned...

Tori Amos has blasted voters who pushed through a gay marriage ban in California - because it goes against the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. The hitmaker, whose father is a Methodist minister, insists outlawing same-sex unions is un-Christian and a breach of civil rights. And she is confused Californian voters passed the Proposition 8 bill - which reversed a previous ruling permitting gay marriage in the state - on the same day Barack Obama was elected U.S. President last year. She tells Attitude magazine, "(I was) extremely disappointed. Well, we go back to this concept of emancipation. The...