Free Republic

New York City council speaker Christine Quinn has married her longtime partner Kim Catullo on Saturday in a private ceremony on a sunny, warm spring evening. The city council's first openly gay speaker and Catullo were walked down the aisle by their fathers. Quinn wore a gown made by designer Carolina Herrera. Catullo, a lawyer, wore a cream silk suit designed by Ralph Lauren. The theme of the wedding was 'Spring in New York,' and was inspired by the High Line city park, around the corner from the venue in Manhattan's Chelsea neighbourhood. [Snip] Among the guests in attendance...

If you were the guy at the Megadeth and Motorhead concert with a red mohwak and 'viper piercings' then one lady has something you left behind - your baby. At least that is one woman's claim on Craigslist's 'Missed Connections' for Chicago and posted anonymously. Obviously a man with a red mohawk at a Megadeth concert does not narrow things down, but the lady with blue hair and black biker boots does recall some intimate details. In the post, which has been removed from the website, the woman outlines their sexual encounter in the bathroom of the Aragon Ballroom...

A local Planned Parenthood abortion business in California is copycatting the 40 Days for Life campaign, which recently resulted in saving the lives of more than 700 unborn children from abortion. The abortion business has set up its own 40 Days of Prayer for the local abortion center. “We trust you to decide about your sexuality, having your children, and planning your family,” says a flier promoting the Humbolt County Clergy for Choice event. “We are religious leaders who value all human life. We accept that religions differ about when life begins. We are here to help.” “We believe...

When Mitt Romney first entered the political scene in 1994, running for the U.S. Senate against Teddy Kennedy, he told an LGBT-focused publication in Massachusetts that he would be a more effective advocate for the interests of the “gay community” than Kennedy had been and that gays should support him because “the gay community needs more support from the Republican Party.” “Why should the gay community support your campaign when Ted Kennedy has been a strong supporter of civil rights issues and the gay community?” asked a reporter from Bay Windows. “Well, I think you're partially right in characterizing Ted...

A part-time teacher's gay porn past isn't reason enough to keep him out of the classroom, according to Florida education officials. Shawn Loftis, who was booted from the Miami-Dade public school system last year, can go back to teaching, the Florida Education Practices Commission in Orlando ruled Friday. He could even turn it into a full-time job, the commission decided. Loftis — who starred in gay porn films under the name Collin O'Neil — was teaching at Nautilus Middle School when the principal learned of his past, according to WPLG 10 News. The district suspended the substitute in January...

Last Sunday, the Catholic Church declared war on President Obama. Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida quickly took up the cause, signaling the outlines of a serious religious rumble to come in 2012. The president should be ready for the fight, knowing that on this one he is right. At Sunday Mass, Catholic parishioners across the country were read letters denouncing the Obama administration’s recent decision to require religiously affiliated hospitals, colleges, and charities to offer health insurance coverage to employees for contraception and the "morning-after pill." On Monday, Rubio, a Republican star who is often mentioned as a VP...

A University of Wisconsin senior official resigned after making unwanted sexual advances to a male student employee of the school's athletic department, according to a report released this week. John Chadima resigned his post as senior associate athletic director at UW-Madison earlier in January after the allegations surfaced. The allegations were investigated by an independent panel and the report was released Tuesday night. The report alleges that Chadima made the advance in late December at a Rose Bowl party that he was throwing at a hotel in Los Angeles. There was beer and mixed drinks at that party and about...

Mitt Romney, who is considered by many Republican leaders as the conservative candidate strong enough to beat liberal Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential race, says he opposes “gay marriage” but supports same-sex “domestic partnerships,” adoption of children by gay couples, homosexuals serving openly in the military, and does not think states should prohibit sodomy. Romney also says he favors an amendment to the Constitution that would define marriage as being between one man and one woman but does not think there is enough support for it nationally.

Complete Headline: HHS Plans ‘Cultural Competency’ Training for Health Professionals Dealing with Homosexuals, Transgenders Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says her agency's plans for the coming year include improving the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities; training health professionals in "cultural competency"; and developing definitions of sexual orientation and gender identity. On the HHS Web site, Sebelius also summarized actions taken thus far on behalf of the LGBT community, such as forming an internal LGBT Coordinating Committee, the inclusion of LGBT people in implementing the Affordable Care Act and ongoing anti-bullying efforts. The Web...

A House-Senate conference committee has put the military prohibition on sodomy and bestiality back into the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act. A spokesman for the House Armed Services Committee told CNSNews.com Wednesday that the Obama administration had “made its pitch” on repealing Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice related to sodomy -- but the members of the conference committee “were not persuaded” that the change was needed.

Penn State is toxic. Those aren't my words, but someone involved in the college bowl selection process. And that's how he described how attractive -- or, in this case, unattractive -- the Nittany Lions are as a bowl team. The Big Ten has eight bowl bids and could end up with 10 bowl-eligible teams. If the Nittany Lions (8-2) don't reach the Big Ten title game, it's a very real possibility they could get bypassed by all of the Big Ten bowls and be shipped to a non-Big Ten bowl that doesn't have enough teams to fill its conference obligation....

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named Ellen DeGeneres a “special envoy” for global AIDS awareness during a speech on Tuesday at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. DeGeneres, a lesbian comedian who hosts NBC’s Ellen DeGeneres Show, is in a same-sex marriage with actress Portia de Rossi. DeGeneres will “use her celebrity platform to raise awareness about the global fight against AIDS,” according to a State Department press release. The release also quoted from a letter Clinton sent to DeGeneres and from Degeneres's response. “By lending us your energy, compassion, and star power to serve as our Special...

UPDATE - Nov. 9: The Associated Press is reporting that Joe Paterno has decided to retire at the end of the season. As the amount of alleged victims in the Jerry Sandusky case climbs rapidly, reports are emerging that Penn State head coach Joe Paterno's coaching career will soon come to an end. Official support for Paterno is reportedly "eroding," even as Nittany Lion fans rally in support of the longtime coach. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Paterno's 46 years as Nittany Lion head coach "will soon be over, perhaps within days or weeks." According to two sources...

Complete headline: Bizarre courtroom scene as lesbian lovers collapse and wail after hearing they will serve life for murdering three-year-old girl A Charleston courtroom was the setting for a bizarre scene when two lesbian lovers collapsed, wailed uncontrollably and hyper-ventilated after hearing they would serve life for killing a three-year-old girl. Erica Mae Butts and Shanita Latrice Cunningham had to be picked off the floor by court officials and held in chairs as they were wheeled out of the room. The mother of Butts was physically thrown out by three staff members after shouting loudly at her daughter to, 'Get...

A former Penn State defensive coordinator was accused Saturday of sexually abusing eight boys in a case that has rocked the Big Ten university. Jerry Sandusky, 67 years old, was arrested Saturday and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on 40 criminal counts, the state attorney general's office said. In addition, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, 57, and Gary Schultz, 62, the school's vice president for finance and business, have been charged with perjury and failing to report what they knew about the allegations. Mr. Schultz's position includes oversight of the university's police department. They were expected...

<p>When Navy Lt. Gary Ross and his partner were searching for a place to get married, they settled on a site in Vermont, in part because the state is in the Eastern time zone.</p> <p>That way, the two men were able to recite their vows before family and friends at the first possible moment after the formal repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Just after midnight Tuesday, the partners of 11 years were married.</p>

Crouched in her cell, Ophelia De'lonta hoped three green disposable razors from the prison commissary would give her what the Virginia Department of Corrections will not — a sex change. It had been several years since she had felt the urges, but she had been fighting them for weeks. But like numerous other times, she failed to get rid of what she calls "that thing" between her legs, the last evidence she was born a male. Months after the October castration attempt, De'lonta filed a federal lawsuit Friday claiming the state has failed its duty to provide adequate medical...

Hollywood stars invariably get involved in the political debate from the left side of the spectrum. What better way to draw attention to themselves than to testify before Congress about the latest threat to humanity, even if their cause is laughable. It was hard to narrow it down to only 10, but here are the Top 10 Most Obnoxious Hollywood Liberals. 1. Sean Penn: The two-time Academy Award winner has traveled the world to denounce the country that made him rich and famous. He has been used as a propaganda tool by the Iranian regime, met with Cuban President...

South African Muhsin Hendricks is an Islamic cleric and a gay man.He runs a foundation called The Inner Circle, which helps Muslims, who are struggling to accept their sexuality. He has come to the Netherlands to spread a simple message: “It’s okay to be Muslim and gay!”It’s a message not everyone agrees with and the reason why Mr Hendricks is no longer officially a cleric.Muhsin Hendricks looks a little tired. He is in the Netherlands at the invitation of the Amsterdam branch of gay rights organisation COC and he’s on a punishing schedule. There is enormous public interest in...

Portia de Rossi wants to become a DeGeneres. The actress filed papers to change her surname to match that of her wife, Ellen DeGeneres, at Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday — a day after a California federal judge overturned Proposition 8, according to E! Online. [Snip] A hearing for the name change has been set for Sept. 23, E! Online reports. [Snip] What do you think of the name change?

The federal judge who overturned California's same-sex marriage ban this week is a Republican who once came under fire for his membership to a powerful all-male club that had only recently allowed blacks to join. But after Chief U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker struck down the voter-approved ban known as Proposition 8, he became something else in the minds of some: a gay activist. Rumors have circulated for months that Walker is gay, fueled by the blogosphere and a San Francisco Chronicle column that stated his sexual orientation was an "open secret" in legal and gay activism circles. Walker himself hasn't...

American singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge has separated from her partner of ten years, actress Tammy Lynn Michaels. The 49-year old rock musician filed a document called a Petition for Dissolution of Domestic Partnership with the Los Angeles County Superior Court which will officially end the partnership. Etheridge and Michaels, 35, both iconic gay rights activists in the US, had a commitment ceremony back in 2003 and registered as legal domestic partners in the state of California. [Snip] Etheridge is asking for joint custody of the couple's twins who were born in 2006, after Tammy was artificially inseminated by an anonymous...

San Francisco's 40th annual gay pride weekend drew thousands to Civic Center Plaza, with even more expected Sunday for a parade, a Backstreet Boys concert and comments from U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Organizers kicked off the event Saturday in front of City Hall where thousands converged as vendors sold barbecue and burritos and DJs spun tunes on a large stage. Advocates for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community shared booths alongside corporate sponsors. "It's part political, it's part a party," said Darryl Groom, 55, explaining the elements that brought him and his partner, Tobey Tam, 41, to San...

The Texas Republican Party gives a whole new meaning to the word conservative. The GOP there has voted on a platform that would ban oral and anal sex. It also would give jail sentences to anyone who issues a marriage license to a same-sex couple (even though such licenses are already invalid in the state). “We oppose the legalization of sodomy,” the platform says. “We demand that Congress exercise its authority granted by the U.S. Constitution to withhold jurisdiction from the federal courts from cases involving sodomy.” [Snip] In addition, the platform says that homosexuality “tears at the fabric...

As he did last year, Obama today declared June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month." But this year the announcement comes as Congress began moving to repeal the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy used by the US military when dealing LGBT service members. President Obama hailed the Congressional moves, writing in a statement: “Our military is made up of the best and bravest men and women in our nation, and my greatest honor is leading them as Commander-in-Chief. This legislation will help make our Armed Forces even stronger and more inclusive by allowing gay and lesbian soldiers to...

CNN likes to paint itself as the "objective" middle ground in cable news between Fox News and MSNBC. But you don't find the middle with a one-hour June special titled "Gary and Tony Have a Baby." A duo of "gay marriage" activists are the stars "on their quest to have a biological child of their own" -- using an egg donor and a surrogate mother. The trailer is here, championing "the support, the drama" behind "the new American family." The pro-gay blog AfterElton.com noted CNN's own explanation of the Soledad O'Brien documentary: Unable to legally marry in the U.S.,...

Mithly means "the same as me" in Arabic; it is also a respectful way to refer to homosexuals. It is a word that the people behind Mithly magazine would like to see replace the more common "shazz," meaning pervert or deviant in Arabic, or "zemel," an expletive to describe gays in the Moroccan Berber dialect. Mithly was launched in the Moroccan capital Rabat earlier this month. Even though the magazine has received partial funding from the European Union, it was printed clandestinely and its first 200 issues were distributed under the counter. In Morocco, as in the rest of...

About two dozen women took a walk down Congress Street topless Saturday, attracting a large crowd as they tried to preach that partial female nudity is not worthy of attracting a crowd. The point of the march was that a topless woman out in public should attract no more attention than a man walking around without a shirt on, said Ty MacDowell, 20, of Westbrook, who organized Saturday's event and promoted it on Facebook. But as the event got under way in Longfellow Square, the marchers were soon outnumbered by scores of onlookers -- mostly young men eagerly snapping...

Angie Jackson has taken micro-blogging to a whole new level. In an attempt to “demystify” abortion, the 27-year-old shared her experience on Twitter, YouTube and her personal blog. “I’m doing this so other women know, ‘Hey, it’s not nearly as terrifying as I had myself worked up thinking it was.’ It’s just not that bad,” Jackson said on her YouTube video. Her ordeal began on February 13, when she discovered that her IUD, a contraceptive device placed in the uterus, failed. Jackson, a mother of a four-year-old son with special needs, decided to terminate the pregnancy. "I had made...

He won a multimillion-dollar settlement in 1991 from the actor's estate after convincing a jury that Hudson had knowingly exposed him to AIDS. Marc Christian MacGinnis, who won a multimillion-dollar settlement in 1991 from the estate of his ex-lover, actor Rock Hudson, after convincing a jury Hudson had knowingly exposed him to AIDS, has died. He was 56. Known as Marc Christian, he died of pulmonary problems June 2 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. The details were confirmed Friday by his sister, Susan Dahl, who said she did not publicly announce his death earlier because of...

Stunned and angry, national gay rights leaders Wednesday blamed scare-mongering ads — and President Barack Obama's lack of engagement — for a bitter election setback in Maine that could alter the dynamics for both sides in the gay-marriage debate. Conservatives, in contrast, celebrated Maine voters' rejection of a law that would have allowed gay couples to wed, depicting it as a warning shot that should deter politicians in other states from pushing for same-sex marriage. "Every time the citizens have voted on marriage, they have always sided with natural marriage," said Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, a Florida-based Christian...

An Army recruiter used a gay slur and an expletive during military-supervised testing at Durango High School last week, an incident that has raised parents' ire. DHS students who overheard the comment confronted the man, whose identity was not released, and notified school personnel. Juniors and seniors were required to attend a testing session Thursday that was overseen by recruiters from the U.S. Army Denver Recruiting Battalion, or to do an alternative project as part of a career day. More than 500 students took the test. During the military aptitude test, several students overheard the soldier use the expletive and...

Athletes have heard the ugly words on practice fields for most of their lives. They hear them in the streets and at neighborhood hangouts. But when Chiefs running back Larry Johnson used an antigay slur on his Twitter account and in the locker room this week, he struck a nerve that makes professional sports leagues wince. The NFL, like other pro sports leagues, is perceived as homophobic. Of the more than 20,000 athletes who have played in the NFL, less than a handful have identified themselves as gay — David Kopay was the first in 1975, followed by Roy...

Students at the College of William and Mary have elected a transgender homecoming queen. Jessee Vasold took the field Saturday at halftime of the Williamsburg school's football game against James Madison. The junior and other members of the homecoming court were introduced to the crowd and posed for pictures. Vasold identifies as "genderqueer," a term for those who don't adhere to either strictly male or strictly female gender roles.

Look out, Madonna and Angelina Jolie — pop star Elton John may be joining the ranks of A-list celebrities with adopted children. John and longtime partner David Furnish are interested in trying to adopt a Ukrainian toddler named Lev they met during an orphanage tour there. The singer told reporters in Ukraine on Saturday that Furnish has long wanted to adopt a child but that he was reluctant until he met Lev at an orphanage where many of the children's parents have died from AIDS. "David always wanted to adopt a child and I always said 'no' because I...

For decades, Edward Kennedy was considered the most powerful voice in the Senate for gay rights as a strong supporter of HIV/AIDS funding, hate crimes legislation and same-sex marriage. His death struck a blow to gay rights advocates, who say they've lost a key ally. "Having somebody in the Senate who was never afraid to stand up and say, 'This is the right thing to do' lifted all of our spirits and made all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people know that there was hope," said Chuck Wolfe, president of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, a political action committee.

An Oklahoma judge on Tuesday overturned a state law that required women seeking an abortion to receive an ultrasound and a doctor's description of the fetus. Oklahoma County District Judge Vicki Robertson said the law violated constitutional requirements that a legislative measure deal only with one subject. She did not rule on the validity of the ultrasound provisions. Her ruling also overturned provisions in the law that allowed doctors and other healthcare providers to refuse to take part in an abortion for moral or religious reasons, required certain signs to be placed in clinics where abortions are performed, and prohibited...

Episcopal Church leaders in Los Angeles today nominated an openly gay priest and an openly lesbian priest as bishops, becoming one of the first dioceses in the national church to test a controversial new policy that lifted a de facto ban on gays and lesbians in the ordained hierarchy. The nominations of the Rev. John L. Kirkley of San Francisco and the Rev. Canon Mary Douglas Glasspool of a Baltimore-based diocese are likely to further inflame theological conservatives in the U.S. church and their global partners in the Anglican Communion, who have repeatedly warned about the repercussions of such action....

San Francisco celebrates diversity with the 39th annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade & Festival this weekend. Dozens of pride-related events take place throughout the Bay Area during the week to entertain the thousands of celebrants making the pilgrimage to San Francisco, but the big weekend party at Civic Center Plaza has been known to draw vast crowds in the hundreds of thousands. This year's event theme keeps the recent struggle for the legalization of same-sex marriage at the forefront of the celebration, drawing the theme concept “In Order to Form a More Perfect Union” from the Preamble to...

Yale may have turned a similar departmental chair down, but longtime football rival Harvard University is set to proceed with the establishment of a chair for visiting scholars of GLBT studies. [Snip] Other critics had little use for either history or theory. At conservative chat site Free Republic.com, the academic issues took a back seat to but the sexual stereotypes that flew thick and fast. The site’s enlightened discourse followed a parenthetical exclamation of, "Ha!" after the NY Times headline, which read, "Harvard to Endow Chair in Gay Studies," as well as a photo of an upside-down stool accompanied...

This week Kris Allen, who during the American Idol season prompted unabashed praise from Simon Cowell and the rest of the judges, was voted America’s favorite over Adam Lambert, his theatrical and inconsistent competitor. Because Adam Lambert is, according to many, gay, the liberal media is blaming Christians for the tough loss. There are even rumblings that this “election” was rigged. Reminiscent of Bush/Gore 2000, anyone? Liberals are once again falling back on the only explanation they can ever muster when an anointed protégé or pet cause du jour loses: blame the backwards, hickish, intolerant Christian masses. Yes, the...

California's supreme court announced on Friday that it will rule next week on whether to uphold a ban on same-sex marriages that critics say violates civil rights in the most populous U.S. state. The ruling will also decide the fate of about 18,000 same-sex couples who were married last summer before California voters outlawed the practice through passage of the Proposition 8 constitutional amendment in the November, 2008 election. The ruling in the so-called Prop 8 case will be issued on Tuesday, the court said on its website. [Snip] The supreme court justices in a ruling last spring declared same-sex...

A senior teacher has been suspended from his £50,000-a-year job after he complained that a training day for staff was used to promote gay rights. Kwabena Peat, 54, was one of several Christian staff who walked out of the compulsory session at a North London school after an invited speaker questioned why people thought heterosexuality was natural. The presentation was given by Sue Sanders, a co-founder of the Schools Out organisation which campaigns for gay equality in education. According to Mr Peat, Ms Sanders, herself a lesbian, said that staff who did not accept that being gay was normal had...

Warning: This article contains graphic but accurate material that may be offensive to some readers.You may have heard. During Sunday’s Miss USA pageant openly “gay” activist and pageant judge Perez Hilton – the self-styled “Queen of Media” – ambushed Carrie Prejean – the openly Christian Miss California – with a politically loaded question on so-called “same-sex marriage.” Prejean’s candid answer – as both Hilton and Miss USA organizer Donald Trump later admitted – likely cost her the crown. From the moment she opened her mouth, Prejean has given liberals a clinic in class. Hilton, on the other hand (a.k.a. Mario...

Meowww. The claws are coming out. The Miss USA contestants from the four states that allow same-sex marriage say Miss California should have been more politically correct and socially aware when she was asked for her thoughts on the issue during the nationally televised pageant on Sunday. Miss Massachusetts Alison Cronin told FOXNews.com she was "shocked" when Carrie Prejean, 21, told Miss USA judge and celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton that she believes marriage should be "between a man and a woman." Hilton's question — “Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every...

When a Jewish boy turns 13, he heads to a temple for a deeply meaningful rite of passage, his bar mitzvah. When a Catholic girl reaches about the same age, she stands in front of the local bishop, who touches her forehead with holy oil as she is confirmed into a 2,000-year-old faith tradition. But missing altogether in each of those cases - and in countless others of equal religious importance - is any role at all for government. There is no baptism certificate issued by the local courthouse, and no federal tax benefits attached to the confessional booth,...

President Obama says he wants to reverse "Don't Ask Don't Tell," the Clinton-era policy that prevents openly gay men and women from serving in the military. But so far the White House has been noncommittal about how and when he will try to make that happen. In an effort to prod the president and Congress to act, activists -- gay, straight, military and civilian -- will converge on Capitol Hill Friday to rally behind an effort in the House to overturn the policy, which has been a continuing source of controversy since it became law 15 years ago. "The repeal,...

Want a baby with blonde hair and green eyes? Get your wallet out. A Los Angeles fertility clinic is offering a new service that would allow couples to choose their baby's physical traits, including eye and hair color. The LA Fertility Institutes said it has already received half a dozen requests for the service and expects the first designer baby to be born next year. "I would not say this is a dangerous road," Dr. Jeff Steinberg, the director of the clinic said. "It's an uncharted road." [Snip] In a recent U.S. survey of 999 people who sought genetic counseling,...

Portland Mayor Sam Adams remained out of the public eye as City Hall work went on without him Thursday, but he said Portlanders should expect a decision "within days" about whether he'll resign or fight for his job. He spent the day on "discussions of a personal nature" with people such as his pastor and his mentor, former Mayor Vera Katz. "It's important I learn the lessons that need to be learned, regardless of what I decide," Adams said. "That's what I'm talking to folks about right now. Clearly, tell the truth no matter what is one of those. These...

"You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you," said Leon Trotsky. And that is surely true of the culture war. Before an editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, not only endorsed presidential policy by which active homosexuals are discharged from the service, he declared that policy to be right morally.