Free Republic

J.D. Hayworth: 'You could marry your horse' By ANDY BARR | 3/15/10 12:07 PM EDT Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that the expansion of state laws allowing gay marriage could lead to people marrying horses. Hayworth, during an interview with an Orlando, Fla., radio station explained: "You see, the Massachusetts Supreme Court, when it started this move toward same-sex marriage, actually defined marriage - now get this - it defined marriage as simply, 'the establishment of intimacy.'" "Now how dangerous is that?" asked Hayworth, who is challenging Sen. John McCain from the right in Arizona's GOP Senate primary....

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Obama administration refused Friday to follow a federal judge's order to provide insurance benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee in San Francisco and said its hands were tied by a discriminatory law. "This issue shows exactly why Congress needs to repeal" the law, which prohibits federal benefits to same-sex couples, government lawyer Elaine Kaplan said in a message to attorneys for court employee Karen Golinski. One of Golinski's lawyers, Jenny Pizer of the gay-rights group Lambda Legal, said Kaplan's response was "something we might have expected from the Bush or Reagan administration, and...

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty will sign legislation Friday to legalize same-sex marriage in the District at a bill-signing ceremony so historic that his staff scrambled to find the perfect location Thursday. Would it be All Souls Unitarian Church, a Northwest house of worship known for its diversity, liberalism and welcoming of same-sex couples? Would it be Covenant Baptist Church, a predominantly black church in Southwest where husband-and-wife team of Dennis and Christine Wiley serve as co-pastors and support gay marriage? Or would it be a secular site? Late in the day, Katie Loughary, executive director at All Souls, said it...

NEW BRUNSWICK -- Bruce Springsteen doesn't share Chris Christie's views on gay marriage and he won't play at the governor-elect's inauguration, but Christie says there's no hard feelings about the Boss' politics or his State Street freeze out.   "Obviously, two bad decisions on his part," Christie joked Monday after a meeting at Rutgers University with the leaders of several New Jersey colleges and universities. "Bruce and I don't agree on certain things politically -- big shock," the Republican added. "But it doesn't diminish at all my enjoyment of him as an artist and a performer."   For the record, Springsteen is...

A localized media frenzy has ensued after a Catholic reporter was let go from his 19-year position at a Maine newspaper for voicing his opinion against same-sex “marriage” and the campaign to legalize it in Maine. According to an article by the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Larry Grard, a former employee of the Morning Sentinel, was sent a mass email from the pro-gay rights organization, Human Rights Campaign (HRC), following the repeal of the same-sex “marriage” law in Maine during the mid-term elections on Nov. 4. In the email, Trevor Thomas, spokesman for the HRC, voiced his disappointment with the...

WASHINGTON — Washington D.C.'s City Council has voted to legalize gay marriage in the nation's capital. Mayor Adrian Fenty has promised to sign the bill, which was co-sponsored by 10 of the council's 13 members. The final vote Tuesday was 11-2. The bill now goes to Congress, which has final say over the district's laws. Opponents say they'll try to get Congress or voters to overturn it. Passage of the bill is a victory for gay marriage supporters, who have been dealt a recent string of defeats... Gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont. New Hampshire will...

The Washington City Council voted Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage in the nation's capital. The bill will be given to Mayor Adrian Fenty, who has expressed his support and vowed to sign the bill. If the mayor signs it, Congress will have 30 days to intervene before it would take effect. It is considered unlikely that the Democratic majority on Capitol Hill will block the bill Tuesday's second vote was needed to send the measure to Fenty. The council passed the bill in an 11-2 vote December 1. If the measure becomes law, Washington will join Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and...

Miss California USA Pageant Director Keith Lewis explained the decision to fire then-Miss California Carrie Prejean in the following statement: “This was a decision based solely on contract violations including Ms. Prejean’s unwillingness to make appearances on behalf of the Miss California USA organization.” But In an exclusive interview with Big Hollywood, Ms. Prejean’s attorney, Charles S. LiMandri, who says that he and his client learned of the firing during a phone call from gossip site TMZ, vehemently denies those allegations. “She greeted troops, ‘Fox and Friends,’ she was lined up for the Special Olympics this weekend. It is pure...

ALBANY, New York, June 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In a dramatic turn of events, key defections from the Democratic Party in New York have placed control of the state senate effectively back in Republican control, likely putting to an end the former Democratic leadership’s bid to legalize same-sex “marriage.”Two Democratic state senators, Hiram Monserrate of Queens and Pedro Espada of the Bronx, voted with Republicans Monday afternoon to strip control of the Senate away from Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens), who had been engaged in building a majority behind closed doors to legalize same-sex “marriage” before the end of the legislative...

The Alameda, Calif., public schools are adopting a curriculum that will require first graders to read literature that equates same-sex unions with a family made up of a mother, father and child. Parents will not be allowed to opt their first graders out of the curriculum. Members of the Alameda United School District (AUSD) school board voted 3 to 2 last week to implement the “Safe Schools” curriculum, which supporters say is aimed at stopping anti-homosexual bullying in schools. The program includes a between one and four lessons each year between grades 1 and 5 to introduce students to “LGBT”...

... The next belief that is thrown at those who disagree with homosexuality is that people are born gay—they can’t help who they are. The only conclusion I can come to is that this silly way of thinking was thought up in an effort to make people feel sorry for gays, thus changing their opinion on the whole concept of homosexuality. I come to this conclusion because the idea that homosexuals are born gay is both factually and medically incorrect. No one is born gay, it is a lifestyle choice. There are many documented cases of homosexuals changing their sexuality...

Why not legalize same-sex marriage? Who could it possibly hurt? Children and the rest of society. That’s the conclusion of David Blankenhorn, who is anything but an anti-gay “bigot.” He is a life-long, pro-gay, liberal democrat who disagrees with the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexual behavior. Despite this, Blankenhorn makes a powerful case against Same-Sex marriage in his book, The Future of Marriage. He writes, “Across history and cultures . . . marriage’s single most fundamental idea is that every child needs a mother and a father. Changing marriage to accommodate same-sex couples would nullify this principle in culture and in...

Breaking news 4:24 PM N.H. legislators OK gay marriage The governor is expected to sign the bill, which would make New Hampshire the sixth state to legalize gay marriage.

The issue of legalizing same-sex marriages continues to be at the forefront of debate. On Tuesday the Californian Supreme Court upheld a referendum, Proposition 8, which modified the state constitution to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples. The referendum invalidated a previous decision by the state's Supreme Court that resulted in the legalization of same-sex marriage. In the weeks preceding the latest decision same-sex marriage was legalized in three states. As a result, five states now allow such marriages -- Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont and Iowa. As a May 27 article in the Washington Post pointed out, four of these states...

Thousands of supporters of California's ban on same-sex marriage rallied in Fresno and San Diego on Sunday in what organizers described as a celebration of traditional wedlock and a thank-you to the California Supreme Court for upholding their voter-approved measure. The demonstrations followed Saturday's gathering of gay rights supporters in Fresno to renew efforts to reverse Proposition 8, which the high court let stand early last week. The dueling weekend rallies underscored the fact that, despite an election and a Supreme Court decision, the issue of same-sex marriage remains divisive in California. In San Diego, about 200 Proposition 8 supporters...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Gay marriage supporters are holding a prayer service on the eve of the California Supreme Court's expected ruling on the legality of a voter-approved ban on same-sex nuptials. The group Marriage Equality USA plans to hold the interfaith event Monday night at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. On Tuesday morning, the state's high court plans to rule on a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn Proposition 8. Opponents of the gay marriage ban argue that the issue was improperly put before voters; they say it revised the state constitution's equal protection clause to such a dramatic...

The Equality Bill currently going through Parliament is the latest and potentially most oppressive attempt to impose politically acceptable attitudes and drive out any that fall foul of these criteria. Since the attitudes being imposed constitute an ideological agenda to destroy Britain’s foundational ethical principles and replace them by a nihilistic values and lifestyle free-for-all, they represent a direct onslaught on the Judeo-Christian morality underpinning British society. The most neuralgic of these issues is gay rights. This is because the tolerance of homosexuality that a liberal society should properly show has long been hijacked by an agenda which aims at...

New Hampshire lawmakers unexpectedly rejected a bill on Wednesday that would have made the state the sixth in the United States to authorize gay marriage. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted down the bill in a 188-186 vote, hours after its Senate approved the legislation 14-10 along party lines. An earlier version of the bill passed the state's House of Representatives on March 26. Both chambers had been asked to approve language that would give religious institutions opposed to gay marriage legal protections, including the right to decline to marry same-sex couples. That wording was added by Governor John Lynch,...

Black clergy have long opposed the march toward legal same-sex marriages. Now, they’re also challenging the growing efforts of gay-marriage supporters to frame the issue as a civil rights cause. The Rev. William Gillison, pastor of Mount Olive Baptist Church, a large African-American congregation on East Delevan Avenue, said he is insulted by the comparison. “We know what we have gone through as an ethnic group. We feel the terminology, the definition itself, has really been hijacked,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s just another ploy to garner more support from people who may not understand what the civil rights struggle was...

An Open Letter to New York Republicans: As I read the news about the recent advances of marriage equality across our country, I think it is easy for many to get distracted by the politics and rhetoric on this issue and lose sight of what is really at its heart: the equality of freedom. No matter how politically charged the discussions about marriage equality may get, the question is really a simple one: Do the rights and privileges we offer citizens include everyone in our country, or only some of us? I believe that allowing gays and lesbians the freedom...