Free Republic

CALGARY -- Darren Lund was shocked when he first read a letter five years ago in an Alberta newspaper written by a local pastor who urged people to "take whatever steps are necessary to reverse the wickedness" of the "homosexual machine." Two weeks later, the former Red Deer high-school teacher and now university professor was devastated to hear the news: A 17-year-old local gay youth was followed home and asked, "You're a faggot, right?" before allegedly being beaten by another young man. Nobody was ever charged in the case, but Prof. Lund, who teaches education at the University of Calgary,...

I used to be gay, or so I thought. When I was about 13, I decided I must be gay because I was unable to handle my own masculinity. It scared me too much. My father had already given me a lot to be afraid of: He'd cheated on my mother and left her crying, alone and selflessly attempting to salvage a dead relationship. When I was faced with the prospect of either being a "man" or being "me" – who I saw as "better than that" and "not someone who would do such awful things as men do" –...

The Washington Post published a pro-gay editorial today about marriage. And that's great. But they called us "homosexuals" throughout the piece, and that's not great. It's degrading and offensive and archaic. I've written about this before, and some have disagreed. But I'd argue that those who disagree don't understand the nuance of language or of this particular phrase. Ask any gay person, regardless of whether they agree or disagree that the word "homosexual" is archaic and offensive, whether they use the term "gay" or "homosexual" to described themselves. I.e., "I'm gay" or "I'm a homosexual." Just ask them. Unless they're...

New government guidelines will "compel" faith schools to comply with gay agenda normalization of homosexuality LONDON, July 5, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Britain's minister for Children, Schools and Families told gay activists yesterday that the Labour government is committed to working closely with the homosexual activist organization Stonewall in eradicating "homophobic bullying" in schools. He told activists that new government guidelines are planned that will "compel" faith schools to comply with the homosexual movement's agenda to normalize homosexuality and outlaw opposition. At the same time, Stonewall has produced a survey claiming that religious schools are responsible for 65 per cent of...

With the pendulum swinging back and forth between nature and nurture as explanations for sexual preference, critics argue that science is asking a simplistic – and dangerous – question Gay men believe their sexual orientation is inextricably bound up with their very being. It is not a choice – let alone the "wrong choice," as religious and political critics have counter-claimed for years. Many believe they simply were "born that way," and long for proof that their sexual proclivity is biological or genetic, a variation, not a deviation, of human nature. And how can an innate instinct be the subject...

MASS. | Repeal of 1913 law would let out-of-state couples wed, too BOSTON -- Fresh off the success of defending gay marriage from its latest attack, advocates say they have one more fight in Massachusetts: repealing a 1913 law that bars same-sex couples in most other states from coming here to get married. Some say the law -- which says couples cannot be married here unless their unions would be legal in their home states -- has its roots in the effort to block interracial marriage, and plan to try to get it repealed. » Click to enlarge image Supporters...

WASHINGTON — A California Democrat is pushing for Congressional hearings on the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for the first time since it was put in place 14 years ago. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., one of the leading opponents of the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military, said Wednesday that she has begun planning with other members of the House Armed Services Committee on holding public hearings in coming months. “I think the country and the rank-and-file military are way ahead of Congress on this issue,” Tauscher said. “I think not only are the American people ready,...

WASHINGTON — President Bush's nominee for surgeon general ran into intensified opposition Friday, as two leading Democratic presidential candidates joined major gay and lesbian groups in urging his rejection by the Senate. Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., 68, a prominent cardiologist and former state health director in Kentucky, was nominated by Bush last month with a mandate to fight childhood obesity. But controversy has erupted over a paper Holsinger wrote 16 years ago on human anatomy and homosexuality, as well as his role in church battles over policies toward gays. The furor may pose an insurmountable obstacle to his confirmation....

PRINCETON, NJ - May 30, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – American Gallup Poll results, released this morning, indicate that tolerance of homosexuality within the United States has reached a record high. According to the Poll, since 1977 public support of legalization of “homosexual relations between consenting adults” has risen from 43% to a record-breaking 59%. According to Gallup, the general trend is an increased support for homosexuality. Notably, the observed increase in acceptance of homosexuality has occurred concurrent with a nationwide promotion of homosexuality in the American public elementary school system. LifeSiteNews.com covered a video-clip entitled “It’s Elementary” that shows a Gay...

Ruling had granted recognition to five homosexual couples married in Toronto, Canada JERUSALEM, Israel, December 7, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A measure that would prevent a High Court decision to recognize foreign homosexual “marriages” from taking effect passed first reading in the Knesset Wednesday, Haaretz.com reported yesterday. Members of the Knesset passed the measure in a 33-31 vote during accelerated proceedings. The bill would prevent homosexual couples married outside the country from receiving recognition in Israel unless legislation permitting homosexual unions was first in place. A six to one ruling by the High Court of Justice two weeks ago granted official...

On Dec. 13, 2002, some three years ago, I offered an update in "The Word from Rome" about a Vatican document then in preparation on the ordination of homosexuals. Here's what I wrote: "Bishops with a blanket policy against the ordination of gays will be confirmed by the new document, but others favoring a case-by-case approach may be able to read it in a way that permits that stance … In that sense, the new document will certainly cause an explosion in the press, but it may not change a great deal in terms of existing practice." My gift for...

U.S. Catholics at Odds Over Interpretation of Vatican's New Directive The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said yesterday that under a new Vatican directive on homosexuality, men with a lasting attraction to members of the same sex can still be ordained as priests, as long as they are not "consumed by" their sexual orientation. Bishop William S. Skylstad's flexible interpretation of the document, which was officially issued in Rome yesterday, was sharply at odds with the position of some other U.S. bishops. They said the Vatican intended to bar all men who have had more than a...

Leaves final decision to bishops, superiors Candidates for the priesthood who are "actively homosexual, have deep-seated homosexual tendencies, or support the so-called gay culture" cannot be ordained, according to a leaked version of a long-awaited Vatican document on gays in the priesthood. "Such people, in fact, find themselves in a situation that seriously obstructs them from properly relating to men and women. The negative consequences that can result from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies should not be obscured," the document states. "When dealing, instead, with homosexual tendencies that might only be a manifestation of a transitory problem,...

HOUSTON, November 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the ultra-liberal Union for Reform Judaism, has lashed out at conservatives on the "religious right" who defend traditional morality and the family. He made his remarks in a speech Saturday, to about 5,000 during the movement's national assembly in Houston. With unconscious irony, Yoffie attacked those who hold to traditional religious moral values about marriage and sexuality equating them with the murderous Nazi regime. He said, "We cannot forget that when Hitler came to power in 1933 one of the first things that he did was ban gay...

The long-awaited Vatican document on gay men in the priesthood greatly limits, but does not totally exclude, the possibility of homosexuals becoming priests, it was widely claimed this week. The text, which was approved by Pope Benedict XVI, will be released by the Vatican on November 29, but a highly respected Italian publication has revealed what it claims to be an advance copy. According to this document, a gay man will not be excluded from entering the priesthood, but the Church will require that he has not been sexually active for at least three years before presenting himself for the...

“It’s not about you. It’s about the Church and the good of the Church” The Rev. Gerald Chojnacki, SJ, head of the New York Province of the Society of Jesus, is unhappy. According to a recent Associated Press report on a forthcoming Vatican document (expected in November) which will reiterate the Church’s teaching that “gay” seminarians should not be ordained priests, Chojnacki, in a September 26 letter to the Jesuits of his province, said he is asking bishops to tell Vatican officials who are drafting the policy “of the great harm this will cause many good priests and the Catholic...

Well folks, we lose. Reuters correspondent Phil Pullella points us to an article in today's edition of the Milanese paper Il Giornale, whose author claims to have seen the final version of the seminary instruction -- dated November 4th and signed by Cardinal Grocholewski, he says -- and giving several direct quotes. Titled, "Instruction on the Criteria of Vocation Discernment concerning Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of their Admission to Priesthood and Holy Orders," the eight-page document is divided into three sections, "Affective Maturity and Spiritual Paternity," "Homosexuality and Ordained Ministry," and "Discernment of the Fitness of Candidates on...

A meeting of pastors today in Eden Prairie kicks off a renewed drive for a state constitutional ban on gay marriage. Hundreds of Minnesota pastors -- and as many protesters -- are expected to gather today at an Eden Prairie megachurch for the first skirmish in what promises to be a pivotal political and cultural controversy next year, a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage. The Minnesota Pastors' Summit at Grace Church marks a new tactic in the struggle to put such an amendment on the ballot here, but one that has had stunning effects elsewhere. Organizers of today's...

New York cleric, now out, is still in UTICA, N.Y. -- The folks on Hospitality Row do not mind talking about the fact that the Rev. Fred Daley of St. Francis de Sales Church is openly gay. They know that is why Daley is in the spotlight at a time when some leaders of the Roman Catholic Church are blaming homosexuals for its sexual abuse scandals, and possibly preparing to bar gays from the priesthood. But they would prefer to talk about Daley's 13 years of service to their impoverished Corn Hill neighborhood, and how he established one sorely needed...

When The Church and Homosexuality was published in November 1976, its author, Jesuit Fr. John J. McNeill, became an instant celebrity. A front-page story in The New York Times told about the Jesuit theologian who had openly challenged the Catholic church on one of its most closely held doctrines. A few days later McNeill was on NBC’s “Today Show,” where he was interviewed by a nervous and uncomfortable Tom Brokaw (his first day as host). Stories quickly followed in Newsweek, TIME and newspapers around the country, and McNeill was a guest on “The Phil Donahue Show.” During the next year...