Free Republic

A recent agreement between several national groups on how to handle "sexual orientation" in schools is unacceptable, misleading and may actually cause more problems than it purports to solve.The document, "Public Schools and Sexual Orientation" was released by the First Amendment Center in conjunction with the Christian Educators Association International and GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.  Since I have researched and reported on homosexuality in the schools for more than a decade through the organization I head, Mission America of Columbus, Ohio, I read this announcement with shock and dismay. My first reaction was, "GLSEN? How...

LIBERTY CITY -- Police in this Miami neighborhood are looking for the parents of a child who was abandoned Thursday night, news partner NBC 6. A witness told police that a car dropped the child off at about 11 p.m. in the area of Northwest 15th Avenue and 62nd Terrace. "I've heard of this happening with pets and that's bad, but for this to happen to a child, to be left in the middle of nowhere, that's unbelievable," police spokesman Lt. Bill Schwartz said. Police brought the child to the police department. She was wearing an oversized, multi-colored sweater and...

Dear Editor: As leaders of the Jewish community in Madison, including its three synagogues, the Madison Jewish Community Council, and Hillel Foundation at the University of Wisconsin, we express our outrage and deep disillusionment at the Wisconsin Legislature's passage of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships.Our Jewish values impel us to create a society that is democratic, pluralistic and just. This amendment, however, does just the opposite and promotes hatred. As religious people, we cannot be silent. The amendment denies equal rights to a historically persecuted group and relegates them to second-class status. Under...

In a closed-door meeting this week in an undisclosed site near Baltimore, a committee of Jewish legal experts who set policy for Conservative Judaism will consider whether to lift their movement's ban on gay rabbis and same-sex unions. In 1992, this same group, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, declared that Jewish law clearly prohibited commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples and the admission of openly gay people to rabbinical or cantorial schools. The vote was 19 to 3, with one abstention. Since then, Conservative Jewish leaders say, they have watched as relatives, congregation members and even fellow rabbis publicly...