Free Republic

We reported last December on how a Utah federal judge strikes down key part of anti-polygamy law: "Yes, this all was predicted long ago, and led to charges of fear mongering and false slippery slopes. The legalization of polygamy followed logically from the legal arguments against one man-one woman, as was predicted not just by me, but also by Professor Martha Nussbaum, one of the leading legal advocates for gay marriage, “Polygamy would have to be permitted.” And it’s coming true in a small step, as a federal court in Utah, while not holding that polygamists were entitled to state-sanctioned...

Two New York farmers who hold weddings on their property have been fined after disinviting a gay couple who hoped to tie the knot there. Is this a win for gay rights, or an encroachment on religious liberty? As is only to be expected, a fresh wave of controversy is swirling around a court’s imposition of massive fines on two New York farmers who don’t want a gay couple to get married on their property. In today’s news cycle, where outrage is instinctively deployed as a weapon against our memory, the story of the Giffords (who owned the farm) versus...

How the same right allows for both same-sex marriage recognition and refusing to sell gay couples wedding cakes.How can a libertarian support gay marriage but also the right of businesses to decline to provide goods and services such as cakes, wedding dresses, and photographers for gay weddings? For many libertarians, it makes perfect logical, philosophical, and legal sense. But from the outside perspective, it often does not. As a result, critics looking for an opportunity to throw shade on the increased media and public interest in libertarian ideas can focus on just a piece of this mentality. We saw the...

When Niki Quasney felt a piercing pain in her ribcage in March, the oncologist treating her advanced ovarian cancer told her to get to an emergency room immediately. But instead of making the short drive to a hospital near her home in Munster, Indiana, she drove alone for more than 40 minutes to one in neighboring Illinois. Quasney said she was “terrified” her local hospital might not allow her and her partner of more than 13 years, whom she wed last year in another state, to be together if she suffered a health emergency. Quasney and her partner, Amy Sandler,...

Supreme Court Puts Hold on Same-Sex Marriages in Virginia WASHINGTON — Aug 20, 2014, 3:09 PM ET http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/ap-newsalert-25043930

Even though the citizens of Florida voted in a 2008 referendum to define marriage as between one man and one woman in their state's constitution, yet another federal district judge has ruled that amendment is unconstitutional because it does not let Floridians marry someone of their same gender. U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle came to the same conclusion Thursday as judges from four other districts in Florida previously found. Hinkle ruled that labeling marriage as only "between a man and a woman" was in violation of 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as it does not provide a guarantee...

A New York judge issued a Christian family a $13,000 fine after the family's refusal to allow a same-sex couple to use their family farm, which they live on and rent out for various events and ceremonies, as the venue for the couple's wedding ceremony. Cynthia and Robert Gifford's denial of the same-sex ceremony was ruled a violation of the state's Human Rights Law and deemed to have "unlawfully discriminated against complainants" by administrative judge Migdalia Peres in her ruling. Additionally, the family will have to post an anti-discrimination poster on their farm for everyone to see. The Giffords live...

By now, we’ve all heard the refrain that U.S. churches need liberalize their teachings on sexuality and homosexuality or rapidly decline. The logic behind the argument is simple: more and more Americans are embracing homosexuality and same-sex marriage, including growing numbers of religious Millennials. So long as churches remain the face of opposition to gay marriage, those churches will shrink into irrelevancy when gay marriage (inevitably, we are told) becomes a settled political issue. These arguments often see church acceptance of homosexuality as a carrot as well as a stick. It isn’t so much that denouncing homosexuality will drive people...

<p>According to USA Today, on Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court blocked gay marriages from happening in the commonwealth, putting on hold the recent decision by the federal appeal’s court last month. That ruling ruled that the state’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional.</p>

New York farmers who host birthday parties and other events must pay a $13,000 fine because they refused to host a gay wedding.The couple, Cynthia and Robert Gifford, have hosted gay wedding receptions in the past. But because weddings are conducted on the first floor of their house, Cynthia Gifford refused to host a gay wedding ceremony of two lesbians because of her Christian faith. A judge ruled that the GIfford private residence isn't so private after all. Washington Times: New York farm owners who rent their facilities for birthday parties and wedding ceremonies have been fined thousands of dollars...

Politico treated it the way we treat news stories nowadays, in our celebrity-driven culture in which a beloved actor’s suicide can drive front-page news for a whole week: “Media Matters’ David Brock expands empire,” it reported.David Brock may not be exactly an A-lister, but he is one of a contemporary cluster of insiders who have changed the way the “mainstream media” game is played. Bias, once the offshoot of genteel groupthink, has become progressively, aggressively organized. Advertisement Under the old model, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which played a key role in bringing down Jack Abramoff and...

An ever-increasing number of states adopting some form of legalized homosexual marriage is the contemporary revival of the age-old question, “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” The modern version of this question is, “are states legalizing gay marriage because more Americans are in favor of it, or, are more Americans in favor of it because states are legalizing it?” With state after state in the USA adopting some form of legalized homosexual marriage it would be easy to reach the conclusion that times are changing and American values are shifting in the direction of acceptance of homosexual union....

GAY MARRIAGE MATH in graphics and limerick

A transgender man in Arizona who gave birth to three children after beginning to change from female to male can continue to pursue a divorce, a state appeals court said Wednesday in reversing a judge who refused to end the marriage. A three-judge panel of the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that Thomas Beatie's marriage to Nancy Beatie in Hawaii in 2003 is considered valid in Arizona and concluded it wasn't a same-sex union. Last year, a lower court judge denied the divorce request and ruled that Arizona's ban on same-sex marriages prevented the marriage from being recognized as valid.

MINNEAPOLIS — Target Corp. is adding its name to a legal defense of gay marriage, joining other large companies that are taking a stand, just four years after the retailer came under criticism for supporting a strident opponent of same-sex unions. Target said it has signed a court brief backing marriage equality in a pending court case and publicly declared its support of gay marriage, a move similar to those taken by Starbucks, Intel and Apple.

Anytime I hear negative comments on the decision of Nigeria to ban homosexuality and gay marriage, my body develops goose pimples. I have made efforts at trying to rationalize why a man with his six senses, working at optimal level, will engage in animalistic actions and still make efforts at justifying such, hiding under the fallacious canopy of human right. Procreation, as designed by the creator, is meant to be carried out between a male and a female, and this had been the norm for generations. However, with some persons deciding to behave like animals; in fact, going below the...

A judge has ruled that Tennessee's constitutional amendment banning legal recognition of same-sex marriage is legal, breaking a streak of judicial losses for the traditional marriage side. Circuit Court Judge Russell E. Simmons Jr. ruled last week against the claim that the state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In his decision, Simmons cited the 1972 case Baker v. Nelson, a lesser known decision by the Minnesota Supreme Court, arguing that gay marriage is not a fundamental right. "Baker holds that a state's law on same-sex marriage does not violate the equal...

Israel’s Right of Return also gives citizenship to spouses of the same sex when Jews choose to immigrate to Israel together, Interior Minister Gidon Sa’ar (Likud) decided Tuesday. According to Sa’ar’s decision, gay and lesbian Jews married abroad wishing to immigrate to Israel could do so—even if one of the partners is not Jewish—and both would receive Israeli citizenship. “The gates of Israel will be open to every Jew and his family without any discrimination against his lifestyle,” Sa’ar stated, in the precedent-setting decision. […] The landmark decision surfaces amid ongoing tension over what defines a “family” in Israel, and...

Incumbent Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie was soundly defeated in the state's Democratic primary, results showed on Sunday. The loss by Abercrombie, who had been endorsed by Hawaii-born President Barack Obama, marked the first defeat for an incumbent Democratic governor in Hawaii since it was granted statehood in 1959, potentially re-arranging the political landscape before the U.S. general election in November. Final results showed Abercrombie with 30.8 percent of the votes and the winner, state Senator David Ige, with 66.1 percent.

The Target Corporation has traditional marriage and family in the crosshairs of its bulls-eye. Target has now declared its support for homosexual “marriage.” However, the Minnesota-based retailer has gone past the point of articulating support for gay “marriage” and has jumped into the fray to wield its influence with the courts on this issue. Working to overturn the vote of the people regarding the true definition of marriage, Target has filed an amicus brief with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals pushing for so-called marriage “equality” regarding the ban on same-sex marriage in Wisconsin and Indiana. (The case is before...