Free Republic

The state would set up a "school climate center" and individual districts would face additional reporting, training and other requirements to reduce school bullying under a bill passed by the Minnesota House on Monday, May 6. The bill passed 72-57, with all the support from Democratic-Farmer-Laborers and all the opposition from Republicans. The companion bill is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate E-12 finance subcommittee Tuesday. Bill sponsor Jim Davnie, DFL-Minneapolis, said the measure would take Minnesota from having one of the weakest anti-bullying laws in the country to "instead being a leader in building safe and supportive school...

U.S. Congress Files DOMA Brief Senators Mark Warner & Tim Kaine Last Friday, 212 members of Congress signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act. The brief also includes 25 members who voted for DOMA back in 1996. “Some States still criminalized same-sex relationships, inviting further discrimination against gay men and lesbians in employment, family relations, and housing,” the brief says. “…As a result, when the question of same-sex marriage arose in 1996, reflexive beliefs and discomfort about same-sex relationships dominated congressional debate. From our perspective—including those of us who voted for...

Former President Bill Clinton, who in 1996 signed into law an act defining marriage as between a man and woman, said on Thursday the measure was unconstitutional and should be overturned by the Supreme Court. … Noting that the Supreme Court will hear arguments on March 27 challenging the constitutionality of DOMA, Clinton wrote the justices “must decide whether it is consistent with the principles of a nation that honors freedom, equality and justice above all, and is therefore constitutional. As the president who signed the act into law, I have come to believe that DOMA is contrary to those...

"Walesa said in a television interview on Friday that he believes gays have no right to sit on the front benches in Parliament and, if represented at all, should sit in the back, "and even behind a wall." "They have to know that they are a minority and must adjust to smaller things. And not rise to the greatest heights, the greatest hours, the greatest provocations, spoiling things for the others and taking (what they want) from the majority," he told the private broadcaster TVN during a discussion of gay rights. "I don't agree to this and I will never...

Alderman James Cappleman of Chicago has ordered the Salvation Army to stop feeding the poor in Uptown from outreach trucks, the agency said. … “He decided he felt the unit was pulling homeless into the area, and he does not want us to feed them,” Capt. Nancy Powers, who oversees the Salvation Army’s homeless program in Chicago, said. …

Who am I? I’m a husband and a father. More importantly, and by the grace of God, I’m a follower of Jesus Christ. This is what motivates me to write you. You don’t have to read on, but I pray you will. What I write I write with the purest of aims and with your well-being in mind – physical, emotional and spiritual well-being, both now and for eternity. You will read truth here, not because I say it’s true – I’m nobody – but, rather, because the Creator of the universe, the very God Who wove you together in...

Floyd Lee Corkins II, who planned an attack to kill as many people as possible at the Family Research Council in August last year, because of that group's opposition to gay marriage, has pleaded to guilty to "interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition, assault with intent to kill while armed and act of terrorism while armed, a charge based on the shooting being intended to intimidate anyone who is associated with or supports the Family Research Council and other organizations that oppose gay marriage," CBS News reports. In addition, he: acknowledged in a plea agreement that he intended to...

..The Ukraine is considering a move to censor several children's shows after a new study from a conservative commission labeled the shows "a real threat" to the country's youth. The Ukraine's National Expert Commission for Protecting Public Morality released the report, which attacks several U.S. and international programs as detrimental to the country. Psychologist Irina Medvédeva is quoted in the study, alleging that children aged 3 to 5 years old, "pull faces and make jokes in front of adults they don't know, laugh out loud and repeat nonsense phrases in a brazen manner," after viewing the shows. The Ukrainian paper...

I read his entire remarks and could not find any evidence that he is anti-anything. Cathy said: "We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that." I guess, if you find that disagreeable, don't spend your money at a Chick-fil-A.

Prominent sociologist Christian Smith is defending Dr. Mark Regnerus' controversial study questioning gay parenting against accusations of academic misconduct in a Monday editorial for The Chronicle of Higher Education. Regnerus' study, published in the July issue of Social Science Research, concludes that the children of parents who had same-sex relationships have more emotional and social problems than children of heterosexual parents with intact marriages "In today's political climate, and particularly in the discipline of sociology -- dominated as it is by a progressive orthodoxy -- what Regnerus did is unacceptable. It makes him a heretic, a traitor -- and so...

No Building Permits for Opponent of Same-Sex Marriage The Chicago Tribune reports: [Chicago Alderman] Proco “Joe” Moreno announced this week that he will block Chick-fil-A’s effort to build its second Chicago store … following company President Dan Cathy’s remarks last week that he was “guilty as charged” for supporting the biblical definition of marriage as between a man and woman…. The alderman has the ideological support of Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “Chick-fil-A values are not Chicago values,” the mayor said in a statement when asked about Moreno’s decision. “They disrespect our fellow neighbors and residents. This would be a bad investment,...

If a group of Ukrainian lawmakers succeeds in its mission, television shows and movies like “Brokeback Mountain” that sympathetically portray gay men and lesbians will be banned. So will gay pride parades.The recently introduced bill, supported by the president’s representative in Parliament, would impose prison terms of up to five years and unspecified fines for spreading the “propaganda of homosexuality,” which the measure defines as positive depictions of gays in public. ..Although homosexuality was decriminalized in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, and Russia after the fall of communism, animosity toward gay people remains high in both countries. St. Petersburg, which...

It won’t matter how hot it gets or how much she sweats or how many people around her are wearing T-shirts or less on Saturday during San Diego’s gay Pride Parade. Joanna Gasca won’t take off her jacket. It means too much to her. After nearly 29 years and countless uniform changes in the U.S. Air Force, Gasca [pictured below] will don her blue jacket to march with a uniformed, active-duty military contingent in her hometown’s Pride Parade for the first time. .. This year, organizers added another first: They urged service members to ask their commanding officers for...

Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist who functions as a Fox News expert on the channel’s “Medical A-Team” says that he hesitates to write anything that might be considered objectionable to homosexual activists, due to the threats of violence he is likely to receive as a result. In a recent Fox News interview with Ablow, the psychiatrist spoke about the recent New Family Structures Study (NFSS), which showed that children who were aware of same-sex sexual activity on the part of at least one of their parents were much more likely to have been sexually abused themselves and to suffer...

(On June 23) Cleveland celebrated Pride Weekend. This event is held each June in celebration of the Stonewall Riots of 1969 which is often revered as the beginning of the LGBTQ civil rights movement. Amongst the celebration and awareness-raising was an unfortunate event which speaks directly to why such events are still necessary and full equality has not yet arrived. The AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland was abandoned by their float driver the morning of the parade when he learned he was participating in the Cleveland Pride Parade, forcing the organization to scramble on the day of a large-scale public...

WARNING!: The link will take you a partial cashed version of the story. It is headlined on Drudge, but has apparently been pulled by Philly Mag. These are the sorts of individuals the dems praise and who donate generously to their plantation. I was able to save a more complete version of the cashed page to my archives before it was scrubbed completely. I have the offending as well, photo, however, it is a very small thumbnail. Homosexual activist giving the finger to a portrait of Reagan. Really a classy bunch, no?

MINNEAPOLIS (WTAQ) - A federal judge says a Wisconsin man cannot hand out Bibles inside a gay pride festival this month at a public park in Minneapolis. Brian Johnson of Hayward sought an injunction giving him unfettered access to the festival grounds.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Devout Latter-day Saints are dressing up in their Sunday best clothing to march in a gay pride parade this Sunday. The Latter-day Saints will carry their scriptures and hold up quotes from church leaders about messages of love and acceptance. . . She says gay pride festival organizers welcomed her with open arms when she request to march. She expects about 100 people to march in her group. "What we're trying to do is say we welcome you. We want you to be part of our congregation. We want you to feel safe...

I had been asked to walk in the Media Memorial Day Parade, due to knowing the veterans for many years and working with them at Veterans Nights at The Media Theatre. Ed Buffman had asked me to assist with carrying the PA Veterans Museum Banner, as has been done regularly several times before. I had with me a Gay Pride Flag, one that was to memorialize all of this country's gays and lesbians who had died in the line of duty. I wanted to drape it over my shoulders as a quiet remembrance. I was told point blank by Ed...

Churches and psychological professional associations are harming people suffering from unwanted same-sex attraction, both spiritually and medically, by their acceptance of the "gay-affirming" ideology pushed by the homosexualist lobby, a Christian psychotherapist told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview today.Lesley Pilkington, a psychotherapist in the UK who was famously the subject of an undercover" sting" by a homosexual activist and journalist, said that there is a "huge gap" in public perception of homosexuality that has been created by a lack of balance in media representation and by the failure of churches to clearly articulate their objections. Pilkington is currently facing professional discipline...

The Maryland priest who denied communion to a lesbian at her mother’s funeral is being stripped of his priestly faculties and “placed on administrative leave,” according to a letter from the Archdiocese signed by auxiliary Bishop Barry Knestout... According to a source close to the incident who spoke with LifeSiteNews, Johnson’s lesbian lover physically blocked Fr. Guarnizo from speaking further with Johnson when she abruptly left the sacristy following this introduction. When Johnson presented herself for Communion, the priest refused to give it to her, although she ended up receiving from an extraordinary minister. It was later revealed that Johnson...

Mr Cameron, who has publicly pledged his support for gay marriage, is facing a growing backlash from within his own party over the proposal to redefine the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples He is now facing the prospect of an open breach with prominent religious figures – just a week after leading Conservatives voiced their support for Christianity following a series of court rulings which reinforced the secularisation of Britain. Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, yesterday joined Lord Brennan, the barrister and peer, to launch the “Coalition For Marriage”, a new cross-party campaign to designed...

NEW YORK (AP) — CNN suspended political analyst Roland Martin on Wednesday for "offensive" tweets during the Super Bowl that some critics said were anti-gay. Martin commented on Twitter about a commercial during the Super Bowl that showed soccer star David Beckham in underwear: "If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham's H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him." The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said the remark advocated violence against gays. Martin said that he was making a joke about soccer and that he doesn't support violence against anyone. Martin also...

Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire supports gay marriage as a state law. Your thoughts? I agree that same sex marriage should be a law. I disagree that same sex marriage should be a law. No opinion at this time

The College Convention 2012 at New England College in Concord, New Hampshire provided a true test of Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s religous views regarding gay marriage Thursday. The former Pennsylvania senator was one of four Republican candidates to attend the convention, as Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman and Buddy Roemer also attended the event. New England College has played host to the College Convention since the year 2000. Mr. Santorum countered questions about his views on gay marriage by comparing it to polygamy several times, while not actually defending his views regarding gay marriage. He became engaged in several back...

PETA knocks W.H. over bestiality By BYRON TAU | 12/06/11 5:04 PM The White House press corps may have giggled – but one animal rights group thinks bestiality is no laughing matter. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sent a letter objecting to the White House press secretary Jay Carney’s unserious treatment of a question about sex with animals in Monday’s briefing. “In watching last night's news briefing, we were upset to note that you flippantly addressed the recently approved repeal of the military ban on bestiality,” the group wrote in the letter to Carney. “With respect, this...

President Barack Obama is issuing a memo today that will make it official U.S. policy to consider a country’s treatment of gay, lesbian and transgender bias when doling out foreign aid while making it easier for those being persecuted for their sexual preference to be granted asylum. Obama’s memo, which will be followed by a speech in Geneva by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “will coordinate US government agencies with respect to LGBT Issues and make it a component of US foreign policy to decriminalize LGBT status, make it a consideration for foreign aid and coordinate the asylum process for...

If you thought the half-billion-dollar, stimulus-funded Solyndra bust was a taxpayer nightmare, just wait. If you thought the botched Fast and Furious gun-smuggling surveillance operation was a national-security nightmare, hold on. Right on the heels of those two blood-boilers comes yet another alleged pay-for-play racket from the most ethical administration ever. Welcome to LightSquared. It’s a toxic mix of venture socialism (to borrow GOP senator Jim DeMint’s apt phrase), campaign-finance influence-peddling, and perilous corner-cutting all rolled into one. The company is building “a state-of-the-art open wireless broadband network.” Competition in the industry is a good thing, of course. But military,...

THE Border’s homosexual community has hit back at organisers of a rally against same-sex marriage, saying the protest is futile. Albury members of the Wagga Catholic Diocese will hire buses to travel to Parliament House in Canberra next month to “stand up for traditional marriage”. But Hume Phoenix male convenor Steve Onley said members of his social support group were disappointed. “The anger stems from people again dictating to a minority group that we can’t do what we want to do,” he said.“The protest is futile because as far as I’m concerned the laws are going to pass, it’s only...

Rarely do we get a juxtaposition of stories like we see today about California’s political class. The legislature returned from the Independence Day holiday to address the pressing, acute issue that has the state in crisis mode — the lack of mention in schools of accomplishments by gays and lesbians: A bill to require California public schools to teach the historical accomplishments of gay men and lesbians passed the state Legislature on Tuesday in what supporters call a first for the nation.Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has not said publicly whether he supports the bill, which he has 12 days...

New York approved a gay marriage bill Friday, making it the sixth state in the country to legalize homosexual unions. We are pleased to see this measure taken in such an influential political state...While many of us may not exactly condone that lifestyle, to deny a same-sex couple the same rights as a heterosexual couple is wrong...The only factor that should make a difference in deciding to spend your life with another person is love and faithfulnessMany argue homosexual unions go against the sanctity of marriage according to their religious beliefs. We believe the divorce rate in this country goes...

For a nation that takes pride in keeping church and state apart the record is dismal to say the least. Religion, especially Christianity, plays a very significant role in all aspects of politics and human life. So, it is not surprising that the Catholic bishop of Brooklyn has called upon all Catholics to boycott elected representatives in New York. I suppose one must feel relieved that he did not call upon the Catholics to boycott the entire state government. ..The problem is that the church has helped twist the issue of same sex unions until the issue has been distorted...

New York’s state’s Catholic bishops continue to blast the state’s passage of homosexual marriage this week, with one bishop calling on Catholic schools and other institutions to shun lawmakers in protest of the vote. In an op-ed Sunday in the New York Daily News, Nicholas DiMarzio, bishop of Brooklyn, called on members of his diocese to “not to bestow or accept honors, nor to extend a platform of any kind to any state elected official, in all our parishes and churches for the foreseeable future,” a statement that may signal a new era in church-state relations in the Empire State....

Thank you, Bishop DiMarzio, for inadvertently reminding the apathetic public why separating religion from government is so critically important. In trying to become more politically relevant, I hope the latest pronouncement of the Catholic Church will make that church even less relevant. As far as I can tell, the Catholic Church is on the wrong side of all issues pertaining to sex.Let’s see if I have this right. The Church wants heterosexual couples to remain celibate until marriage and then to have as many children as nature (excuse me, “God”) provides, whether they want or can afford them. .. It’s...

>The San Diego-based religious website California Catholic Daily posted a report on Wednesday quoting a parishioner who attended the mass at the church, Our Lady of the Rosary. That person said Father Louis Solcia told the congregation that he believes the controversy was a "setup" by gay activists. This was said on the same day the Diocese of San Diego told the media the initial funeral arrangements were canceled by "a visiting priest, substituting during the pastor's vacation, and was not familiar with local practice."Local gay activists said that local practice is unclear. They said it was never clarified even...

The latest chapter in the California Proposition 8 marriage saga involved a Motion to Vacate by marriage supporters on the grounds that Chief District Judge Vaughn Walker should have recused himself from the case.  Though Judge Walker's biased approach to the case has been well-documented (see The Prop. 8 Case Charade and Biased Judge on California's Proposition 8 Marriage Case), the motion was finally brought after Walker revealed upon his retirement that he was indeed a homosexual and that he had been in a 10-year homosexual relationship with another man.Most people can quickly see the conflict of interest in...

Gay marriage supporters will announce a lawsuit seeking to legalize it in New Jersey on Wednesday, just days after New York signed gay marriage into law....The case for gay marriage in New Jersey was dealt two setbacks last year. In January, 2010, the Democrat-controlled state Senate rejected a bill that would have given same-sex couples the right to marry. Six months later, the state Supreme Court declined to hear a case for gay marriage, saying it needs to wind its way through the lower courts first.Supporters of gay marriage say they now have the votes to pass it in the...

The Catholic Church leads opposition to New York's new law legalizing same sex marriage. In a statement over the weekend, Bishop Terry LaValley of the Diocese of Ogdensburg called the law "deeply disappointing and troubling." The statement calls marriage between a man and a woman the only "authentic" marriage. David Sommerstein spoke yesterday with Bishop LaValley about the new law and about his parishioners reaction to his statement. "The statement was not issued in any way to hurt, to alienate or in any way anger any of our sisters and brothers," LaValley said. "It was merely a reaffirmation of the...

Some may have seen Mr. Díaz, a Democrat and a Pentecostal minister, as the Latino representative on the issue, but several same-sex couples in Queens — from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico — would debate that, if they were not so busy planning their weddings. “He pretends to speak for all of us, for Latinos, and I really do not think he does,” said Ana Maria Archila, a Colombian who decided on Friday night to marry her longtime partner after the State Senate voted to make same-sex unions legal.....Advocates for the two groups say that immigrants and gay...

More than 200 United Methodist clergy in Illinois have pledged to flout church policy and bless unions for same-sex couples, putting their jobs, homes and callings in jeopardy if couples take advantage of their offer.Methodists in the Northern Illinois Conference also called on the global church to impose no more than a 24-hour suspension for clergy who defy the policy.Elders, deacons and pastors took their stand after civil unions in Illinois became legal this month. But they said their determination to support same-sex unions has been fueled further by a church trial last week in which a jury found a...

What’s most remarkable is that support is not just coming from the usual people and places. It’s coming from people like Rev. Arlo Duba, a self-described “life-long conservative Presbyterian.” Despite knowing gay people, including gay Christians, he had always voted to uphold the ban against openly gay clergy. Then, he began a study of early baptismal practices – curious to learn whether anything could prevent someone from being baptized. Paging through his worn Bible, he became aware of countless examples of people formerly excluded from religious participation now being invited into the church – like Levi the tax collector and...

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution in March 2006 that attacked the Catholic Church’s opposition to the adoption of children by homosexuals. It reacted to Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith head Cardinal William Levada’s instruction that Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco stop placing children with same-sex couples. It deemed the Church’s teaching on homosexuality to be “insulting to all San Franciscans,” “hateful,” “insulting and callous,” “defamatory” and “insensitive and ignorant.”

Nicknamed “Jesus chicken” by jaded secular fans and embraced by Evangelical Christians, Chick-fil-A is among only a handful of large American companies with conservative religion built into its corporate ethos. But recently its ethos has run smack into the gay rights movement. A Pennsylvania outlet’s sponsorship of a February marriage seminar by one of that state’s most outspoken groups against homosexuality lit up gay blogs around the country. Students at some universities have also begun trying to get the chain removed from campuses. “If you’re eating Chick-fil-A, you’re eating anti-gay,” one headline read.

The Iowa SentinelDec. 16, 2010Al Bregar A little more than one month ago, on November 2nd, the voters of Iowa sent a very clear message that they will no longer tolerate the judicial activism that has come to characterize the Supreme Court of Iowa. For all intents and purposes that message was a loud and very clear order to Iowa’s highest court to cease and desist the unconstitutional behavior that has been so prevalent in the rulings of that court as of late. However, as Nathan Tucker at The Iowa Republican has so painstakingly pointed out; this is not the...

Former Republican National Committee chairman and Bush-Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman has announced publicly that he is gay, CBS News chief political consultant and politics editor for The Atlantic Marc Ambinder reports. "It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life," Mehlman said. "Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I've told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they've been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that's made me a happier and better person. It's something I wish I...

Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has told family and associates that he is gay. Mehlman arrived at this conclusion about his identity fairly recently, he said in an interview. He agreed to answer a reporter's questions, he said, because, now in private life, he wants to become an advocate for gay marriage and anticipated that questions would arise about his participation in a late-September fundraiser for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), the group that supported the legal challenge to California's ballot initiative against gay marriage, Proposition...

Ken Mehlman, who was President George W. Bush's campaign manager in 2004, has come out as gay - and wants to be an advocate for gay marriage. Mehlman, also a former Republican National Committee chairman, told the Atlantic magazine "It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life." He said friends, family and colleagues "have been wonderfully supportive." When rumors of Mehlman's sexual orientation circulated years ago, he told several reporters that they were false. Mehlman and his aides went to considerable lengths to conceal his sexual identity, arranging "dates" with women and photos of...

A dozen Minnesota companies have sent corporate money into this year's political campaign, from Securian Financial to Polaris Industries to Davisco Foods. So why is everyone focusing on Target Corp.? The question arises because Target finds itself alone in the center of the storm. To its critics, there are both logical and emotional reasons why Target has become the poster child in a nationwide controversy after it gave corporate cash to a group backing Tom Emmer, the Republican candidate for governor with a record of opposing gay rights. The logical reasons, they say, include Target being Minnesota's first corporate donor,...

Still angry with Target Corp., the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org delivered a three-foot-high stack of petitions to Target's Minneapolis headquarters today. "I am boycotting Target and I have with me signatures of over 240,000 people gathered by MoveOn.org who are joining me in that boycott," said Randi Reitan, an Eden Prairie mother who has become the public face of the anti-Target protests. Target recently gave $150,000 to help conservative Republican Tom Emmer in the Minnesota governor's race. That has fueled a controversy about whether Emmer's anti-gay-rights record fit with Target's inclusive image, and whether corporations should donate to partisan political...

Target has now apologized for contributing to a pro-business, pro-Tom Emmer for Governor in Minnesota group, which gives me a second reason not to shop in the store that banned the Salvation Army at Christmas a few years back. Would it have been that hard for the CEO to say that the company believes in free enterprise and especially in these times the home to its headquarters needs a competent governor committed to economic growth? Emmer deserves all the support that timid business execs won't give him, so please stop by his website and contribute. I will try and get...