Free Republic

Who's next in North Korea? By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2005 SEOUL Kim Jong Il, the "Dear Leader" of North Korea, is pushing an age - 63 - when he is widely expected to designate a successor who will carry the mantle of power he inherited from his own father in the Communist world's first and only dynasty. But he has problems. His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 34, has not been home for years, wandering in self-imposed exile overseas and reportedly on the run from hit men hired by supporters of his stepbrothers. His second...

Brazilian activists and celebrities have condemned a court ruling that approves a "cure" for gay people. Waldemar de Carvalho, a federal judge in the capital Brasilia, backed a psychologist who had her licence revoked for offering so-called "conversion therapy". Rozangela Justino is an evangelical Christian who has called homosexuality "a disease". Critics have called the ruling regressive and medically unsound. Brazil's Federal Council of Psychology banned psychologists from offering treatments that claim to change people's sexuality in 1999. It said in a statement that the decision "opens the dangerous possibility of the use of sexual reversion therapies" and promised to...

Police in the US state of Georgia have shot and killed an LGBT student activist, leading to an independent investigation. Police encountered Scout Schultz at a campus in Atlanta after a call about "a person with a knife and a gun" late on Saturday, officials say. Footage has emerged apparently showing Schultz, 21, refusing to obey multiple police commands to drop a knife. Schultz's mother said police should not have used lethal force. In a video filmed by fellow students at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Schultz is heard saying "Shoot me!" while continuing to advance on the officers. One...

Facing backlash from high-ranking current and former CIA officials, the Dean of the Kennedy School of Government withdrew an invitation for Chelsea Manning to serve as a visiting fellow at the Institute of Politics in late-night reversal Friday. “I now think that designating Chelsea Manning as a Visiting Fellow was a mistake, for which I accept responsibility,” Kennedy School Dean Douglas W. Elmendorf wrote in a statement posted to the school’s website shortly after midnight. The school withdrew the invitation to Manning—a transgender activist and former U.S. Army soldier who was imprisoned after disclosing over 700,000 classified government documents— after...

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish member of Israel's parliament has resigned after prominent rabbis criticised him for attending his gay nephew's wedding. Yigal Guetta revealed in a radio interview on Sunday that he had gone to the ceremony two years ago. He said that although same-sex marriage was against his religious beliefs he had wanted to make his nephew happy. But five rabbis accused Mr Guetta of desecrating God's name and demanded that the religious Shas party fire him. Same-sex weddings held in Israel are not sanctioned by the state. However, couples who wed abroad can register officially as married couples. In...

In an earlier article, I mentioned that lists ranking the "top" or "best" countries in the world are all over the web. Well, a friend sent me one today. It was produced by Condé Nast Traveler and is typical of the genre.This is their list:1. Norway 2. Australia/Switzerland (tie) (Due to the tie for number 2, there is no number 3) 4. Germany 5. Denmark/Singapore (tie) (No number 6) 7. The Netherlands 8. Ireland 9. Iceland 10. Canada/The United States (tie)Curious about how they arrived at this ranking, I decided to look more closely at their criteria. The list is based...

“The University cannot yet confirm exactly when or if they will be here, nor can it confirm a list of speakers," a UC Berkeley spokesperson said.Confusion is brewing at the University of California, Berkeley — once again about planned speeches by a number of controversial right-wing commentators. On Tuesday, a statement issued by MILO, Inc., a nonprofit headed by former Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos, began making the rounds on the Internet. It confirmed that former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon will attend Free Speech Week, organized by student group, Berkeley Patriot, between Sept. 24 and 27. Ann Coulter...

Gay rights activist Edith Windsor, whose same-sex marriage fight led to a landmark US ruling, has died aged 88. Her death was confirmed to the New York Times by her wife Judith Kasen-Windsor. Ms Windsor's Supreme Court case struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, granting same-sex married couples federal recognition for the first time. She had sued the US government after being ordered to pay $363,053 (£224,940) in federal estate tax after her previous wife died. The couple had been partners for 44 years and had married in Canada in 2007. Ms Windsor argued that the provision...

A facial recognition experiment that claims to be able to distinguish between gay and heterosexual people has sparked a row between its creators and two leading LGBT rights groups. The Stanford University study claims its software recognises facial features relating to sexual orientation that are not perceived by human observers. The work has been accused of being "dangerous" and "junk science". But the scientists involved say these are "knee-jerk" reactions. Details of the peer-reviewed project are due to be published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. For their study, the researchers trained an algorithm using the photos of...

Australian political leaders, including Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, have come out in support of a campaign for same-sex marriage. More than 20,000 people gathered in Sydney to campaign ahead of a non-binding postal vote on changing Australia's marriage act. Mr Turnbull made a surprise appearance and speech at the launch of the New South Wales Yes campaign. Opposition leader Bill Shorten then addressed the crowd at the main rally. The non-binding vote to gauge support for changing Australia's Marriage Act will be sent out from 12 September, with a result expected in November. The survey will not have the power...

ITV show Good Morning Britain has faced an angry backlash for giving a platform to an advocate of "gay cure" therapy. Dr Mike Davidson, who claims he was “cured” of homosexuality through prayer, took part in a heated argument with presenter Piers Morgan on the programme on Tuesday morning. While Morgan openly challenged Dr Davidson on the programme, many viewers vented their anger that the controversial doctor was even featured. Viewers on social media slammed his outing as “irresponsible”, while LGBT rights charity Stonewall said his appearance was "dangerous” as it gives "validity to the debate". Labour MP Wes Streeting...

Is it bad timing or a politically incorrect viewpoint? A Father’s Day ad in Australia featuring a traditional family structure was not aired because it was seen as political intervention in the same-sex marriage debate. The ad, titled “Our Children Our Future,” begins with a father singing a lullaby to his newborn child, which included egregious lyrics like “your mommy and daddy are a perfect team.” The ad, set to run in the lead-up to a nationwide postal vote on same-sex marriage, is sponsored by Dads4Kids, a Christian organization that has run such ads for 15 years — Father’s Days...

Dear Hollywood leftists trying to make everyone think that all lesbians are beautiful, Stop lying. Most lesbians are not what you make them out to be. Beautiful, well-adjusted models in relationships with other beautiful well-adjusted models happens only on screen. Why dance around the topic with big fancy words or a long disclaimer lead in when I can come right out of my not gay closet and say the obvious? Bluntness: for more than just the lesbian hairdo. As mentioned in my earlier column, there’s a move in Hollywood to gay all the things. Hashtag campaigns have erected all over...

Just over one in five schools in Northern Ireland have said they cover lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) issues with pupils. That is one of the findings of a Department of Education (DE) survey of more than 420 schools. Schools were asked whether they covered LGB issues in relationship and sex education (RSE) or other parts of the curriculum. More than half - 59% - said they did not. Just over 21% said they did cover LGB issues with pupils and 19.4% preferred not to answer the question. Additionally, almost seven out of ten respondent schools said they were not...

Pop star Meghan Trainor has said it is "so wrong" that her face has been used in an anti-gay marriage campaign in Australia without her consent. Australia is set to hold a non-binding postal vote on whether same-sex marriage should be made legal. The ad, on a Facebook page, featured her image and lyrics from her 2016 song No, urging people to vote against it. Trainor, a vocal supporter of gay marriage, was alerted to the poster by a fan. The American singer condemned the ad's message and stressed her support for marriage equality. The administrators of a Facebook page...

I’m a white man, so you should listen to absolutely nothing I say, at least on matters of social justice. I have no standing. No way to relate. My color and gender nullify me, and it gets worse: I grew up in the suburbs. Dad made six figures. We had a backyard pool. From the 10th through 12th grades, I attended private school. So the only proper way for me to check my privilege is to realize that it blinds me to others’ struggles and should gag me during discussions about the right responses to them. But wait. I’m gay....

<p>A former New Jersey Boy Scout came forward to accuse his scoutmaster of abusing him “hundreds of times,” in the 1990s, NJ.com reported.</p> <p>“Every interaction he had with me and my family was for his ultimate goal of molesting me,” Christopher Malcolm, now in his 30s, said outside his attorney’s office in Roseland on Wednesday.</p>

The L.A. County Coroner has reported the death of Gemmel Moore, 26, of an accidental meth overdose at 7:22 p.m. on July 27 at the West Hollywood home of top Democrat donor and political activist, Ed Buck.

A US clothing company has come under fire after T-shirts appeared online featuring swastikas in a move aimed at reclaiming the symbol as one of "love". The attempt to rebrand the Nazi emblem as a symbol of "peace" was criticised on social media as the public refused to support the campaign. Days after the design appeared, it was replaced with an "anti-swastika" print. The swastika is an ancient symbol said to have represented good fortune in almost every culture in the world. It was adopted by Adolf Hitler, thousands of years after it was first used, transforming it into a...

Bishop Antônio Carlos Cruz Santos, “Homosexuality, if it is not a choice and not a disease, it is a gift given by God.” “Our prejudices can not perceive the gift of God, just as it happened to the blacks, who were not seen as people because of prejudice.” — Bishop Antônio Carlos Cruz Santos on homosexuality — Antônio Carlos Cruz Santos, the Bishop of Caicó, Brazil. Bishop Antônio Carlos Cruz Santos, just the other day gave a homily about homosexuality.  He begins it by lamenting the “high suicide rate among homosexuals” and proceeds to tell the sad story of a...