Free Republic

New Year’s resolutions: get outdoors more often, read more books, and stop hanging out with people who only bring up the Holocaust as a way to illustrate unrelated arguments and never to talk about the systematic murder of six million Jews. This week the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune published an editorial, “Wedding Cakes And Conscience,” contending that a baker in Colorado being forced to design a wedding cake for a gay couple would constitute a violation of his freedom of expression. To illustrate the point, the Tribune encouraged readers to understand Colorado baker Jack Phillips’ predicament, saying, “imagine...

Same-sex marriage is a step closer to being legal - after the Senate passed a bill without amendments. This afternoon, the upper house voted 43 to 12 in favour of the bill originally proposed by Liberal senator Dean Smith. But it's a move expected to cause some tension within the Coalition. Last night, six Coalition senators joined Labor and the Greens to scuttle changes to the bill - despite the majority of Coalition senators supporting the amendments to broaden religious protections. Cabinet ministers Simon Birmingham, Marise Payne and Nigel Scullion joined Senator Smith, Jane Hume and Linda Reynolds in voting...

Prosecutors say a woman shot and killed her wife Sunday in their New Jersey home. Laura Bluestein, 28, was charged Monday with first degree murder, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and tampering with evidence. Police were called Sunday by a relative of Bluestein, who reported a possible assault at her home in Mount Holly, New Jersey. When they arrived they found 29-year-old Felicia Dormans dead from a gunshot wound to the face. …

Pope Francis on Sunday stressed the importance of children having heterosexual parents, just a day after Rome’s gay pride march demonstrated the changing attitudes about same-sex couples outside the Vatican walls. Addressing around 25,000 followers from the Diocese of Rome, the pope said the differences between men and women are fundamental and “an integral part of being human.” The pontiff likened a long-lasting marriage to a good wine, in which a husband and wife make the most of their gender differences. “They’re not scared of the differences!” the pope said. “What great richness this diversity is, a diversity which becomes...

TAHLEQUAH, Okla., June 16 (UPI) -- The Cherokee Nation Tribal Council has voted in Oklahoma to ban same-sex marriages after a lesbian couple attempted to file a marriage certificate. Kathy Reynolds and partner Dawn McKinley said they would continue their fight through the courts after being rebuffed by the tribal court Tuesday, the Oklahoman reported. "I'm feeling frustrated, disappointed," said Reynolds. The tribal council voted 15-0 Monday night to enact a ban against same-sex marriages. The women were married May 18 in Tulsa and it was the second time they had been turned away when they tried to file the...

From LA Times of March 12: ... "Divided over gay marriage" by Roy Rivenburg Paula Ettelbrick, a law professor who runs the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, recommends legalizing a wide variety of marriage alternatives, including polyamory, or group wedlock. An example could include a lesbian couple living with a sperm-donor father, or a network of men and women who share sexual relations. One aim, she says, is to break the stranglehold that married heterosexual couples have on health benefits and legal rights. The other goal is to "push the parameters of sex, sexuality and family, and in...

They refused the Attorney General's request that they issue an injunction preventing further gay marriages to be conducted in San Francisco.

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. (AP) — Twenty-one gay couples exchanged wedding vows on the steps of village hall Friday in a spirited ceremony that opened another front on the growing national debate over gay marriage. As the ceremonies by 26-year-old Mayor Jason West were ending, the state Health Department asked the attorney general to seek an injunction "to prevent further illegal conduct by the mayor," a department spokesman said. A call to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office was not immediately returned. West, elected on the Green Party ticket last year in this village 75 miles north of New York City, joined...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- President George Bush urged Americans Friday to behave properly in the debate over gay marriage despite the sensitivity of the issue. "This is a sensitive debate and it is important people hold true to their beliefs without condemning anybody else, so therefore I call upon all sides in the debate to conduct themselves with dignity, and honor and respect," Bush said. "But this is a debate the nation must have and the people's voice must be heard." Tuesday, after weeks on the sidelines, Bush declared support for a constitutional amendment to enshrine heterosexual marriage and...

SANTA CRUZ — When Doreen Boxer and Cynthia Zapata heard that "power of love" was the theme of this month’s services at the Santa Cruz Bible Church, the recently married gay couple thought their search for a new place of worship might have been guided by a divine hand. "What a coincidence — we were honoring our love at a time they were celebrating love’s power," said Boxer. "It seemed like God had sent us to this church." Little did Boxer and her partner of seven years know that their Feb. 15 attendance at the church on Frederick Street would...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Rosie O'Donnell married her longtime girlfriend Thursday, taking what she called a proud stand for gay civil rights in the city where more than 3,300 other same-sex couples have tied the knot since Feb. 12. "I want to thank the city of San Francisco for this amazing stance the mayor has taken for all the people here, not just us but all the thousands and thousands of loving, law-abiding couples," the former talk show host, holding a large bouquet of purple and yellow flowers, said after she and Kelli Carpenter emerged from their brief ceremony inside...

New Paltz Mayor Jason West is ready and willing to marry several gay couples who want him to officiate at their weddings. "It's more than OK," said West, who was elected as a Green Party candidate, of gay marriage. "It's necessary to provide equal protection under the law." But the big question: Under the law, is he allowed to marry same-sex couples? New Paltz Town Clerk Marian Cappillino says no. She declined to issue marriage licenses Monday to two gay couples who came to Town Hall. In doing so, Cappillino, like many other local officials in similar circumstances, cited state...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Former television talk show host Rosie O'Donnell said she planned to marry her longtime girlfriend Thursday in San Francisco, where more than 3,300 other same-sex couples have tied the knot since February 12.</p> <p>Appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America," O'Donnell announced she would wed Kelli Carpenter -- two days after President Bush called for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.</p>

Gay Rights Groups Quiet on Marriage Issue By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP)--Prominent gay rights groups are ready to issue an election-year pass to Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry even though he opposes same-sex marriage, settling for less than they want in hopes of avoiding a constitutional amendment they fear. ``It's always disappointing when we find elected officials or candidates who do not support us 100 percent,'' said Winnie Stachelberg, political director of the Human Rights Campaign.``But we understand that people are on a journey of becoming more understanding and more supportive of all that affects the gay...

The president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world we assume. We think. Do you know why we have to do this, according to the president? Do you know why we need a constitutional amendment to see to it that everybody understands and knows what marriage means? Do you know why? Why? It's not just that. It's not just some people breaking the law. It's that we're not enforcing the law! We've already got law. But since nobody's willing to enforce it, we've got to put another law on the books, this time in the Constitution....

© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com From his perch at the current ground zero in the battle over traditional marriage, San Francisco-based syndicated talk-show star Michael Savage warns one of America's "last institutions" is under attack from radical homosexuals with an agenda that mirror's revolutionary communists. "Gay marriage is an oxymoron," Savage said in comments e-mailed to WND. "It is a mockery of marriage by radical homosexuals who wish to destroy one of the last cornerstones of our culture. Those who have studied the communist agenda understand very well that Karl Marx himself derided marriage and family." He quoted from Marx's Communist Manifesto, which said,...

Ever since the Massachusetts State Supreme Court's Nov. 19 decision to legalize same-sex unions, the nightly news has been saturated with images of gay couples rushing to the altar. This sickens me. I am not alone. A recent Zogby poll indicated that 70 percent of Massachusetts's citizens do not favor the decision allowing homosexual couples to marry. And it's not just Massachusetts. Recent polls by "The New York Times" and CBS News and one by "USA Today" and CNN, all found that more than 60 percent of Americans oppose the legalization of homosexual unions. Not surprisingly, respondents were uncomfortable with...

<p>San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom came out roaring against what he terms President Bush's shameful call Tuesday for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and challenged fellow Democrats to stand firm against the proposal.</p> <p>The president has "tried to divide this country in order to advance his political career by messing with the Constitution,'' Newsom said at a City Hall press conference following Bush's comments from the White House.</p>

Lawsuit threatened after gay couple denied marriage license in Broward By Paula McMahon Staff Writer Posted February 24 2004 Gay activists and attorneys in Florida were quietly and carefully monitoring how the legal campaign for same-sex marriage was going in liberal states like Massachusetts and California. Some said they were waiting to see how the laws would be interpreted. Others said they wanted a legal dream team to find the most sympathetic examples of same-sex partners who wanted to marry and were willing to fight the battle.

California's attorney general announced Monday he would ask the state Supreme Court to decide if San Francisco's approval of same-sex marriage licenses is legal. Attorney General Bill Lockyer said he would file the action Friday, a statement from his office in Sacramento said. "The attorney general seeks the Supreme Court's intervention because he believes the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses violates California law," the statement said.