Free Republic

UK Teacher Suspends Catholic Student for ‘Homophobia’ Child punished for claiming LGBT is against his religious beliefs A primary school headteacher in the United Kingdom, who forced children to participate in a gay pride parade last year, has been reported to the local authority for unlawfully suspending 10-year-olds based on alleged "homophobic" comments. Susan Papas, Headteacher at Heavers Farmer Primary School "This is why parents are beginning to see the dangers of the imposition of the new sexual and gender ideology that does not permit dissent even from innocent 10-year-old children," Andrea Minichiello Williams, executive director of the Christian Legal Centre, representing the parents...

Don’t say America wasn’t warned. During the oral arguments for same-sex marriage in 2015, a question came up about the fallout for Christian education. Asked if religious schools could be punished for holding a natural view of marriage, U.S. Solicitor Donald Verrilli was surprisingly honest. ” … [I]t’s certainly going to be an issue. I don’t deny that, Justice Alito. It is going to be an issue.” Four years later, that prophecy is coming to pass. Out in Maryland, a Christian charter school was told by state officials that it can’t participate in the voucher program anymore because of its...

So you can imagine how upsetting it was for me when Chick-fil-A’s president, Dan Cathy, proudly came out as a homophobe in 2012 by claiming, “We are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,’ and I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about.” Even worse, the company put its money where Cathy’s vile mouth was by donating millions of dollars each year...

Sweden has become the first country in the world to offer compensation to transgender people who were forced to undergo sterilization in order to be allowed to change their sex. While often hailed as a forward-thinking society promoting equality for all, up until 2013 Swedes had to accept sterilization before getting official recognition for sex changes. But hundreds of people who were sterilized between 1972 and 2013 will now be entitled to seek damages after the Swedish parliament approved the government’s proposal on Wednesday. Equality campaigners at RFSL, Sweden’s largest organization for gay and transgender rights, welcomed the “historic decision”...

May 1 - The US Supreme Court on Monday left intact California's ban on "gay conversion" therapy aimed at turning youths under age 18 away from homosexuality, rejecting a Christian minister's challenge to the law asserting it violates religious rights. The justices, turning away a challenge to the 2012 law for the second time in three years, let stand a lower court's ruling that it was constitutional and neither impinged upon free exercise of religion nor impacted the activities of clergy members.

You can have your opinion’ as long as it doesn’t ‘deny my existence’It’s uncommon at Jesuit universities these days for someone to openly share a traditional Catholic viewpoint. When it happened at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, the school was so spooked it called the Los Angeles Police Department. Both the police and the university’s Bias Incident Response Team are investigating the stated belief that only two genders exist, male and female, as a hate crime. A Loyola alumni office employee discussed her views on sexual orientation, which align with the Roman Catholic Church, with three students who were...

The State Department weighed in Tuesday on an escalating war of words between the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic and a cardinal who has leveled gay slurs against him -- telling FoxNews.com the fight "does underscore" the importance of pushing human rights causes. U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic James "Wally" Brewster, who is openly gay and married, has been mocked over his sexual orientation by Cardinal Archbishop Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez for more than two years. It got so heated that earlier this month, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., sent a letter to Pope Francis asking him to...

The Food and Drug Administration has lifted the ban on blood donations from men who have engaged in sexual relations with another man. Now, in order to donate blood, a man will have had to have been abstinent for the period of one year prior to donation. This new policy is similar to the deferral period for a woman who has engaged in sexual activity with a man who had previously sexual activity with another man, or for someone who has traveled to a country where malaria is prevalent. The Food and Drug Administration released final rules on Monday that...

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois has written to Pope Francis, criticizing "hateful" public remarks by Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez of Santo Domingo about the openly homosexual US ambassador to the Dominican Republic. The Illinois lawmaker said that the ambassador, James "Wally" Brewster, has shown "patience and professionalism" in the "mean-spirited attacks" by the Dominican cardinal. He appealed to the Pope to stop the cardinal's "intolerant public statements."

With last week's release of the Harvey Milk postage stamp by the United States Postal Service, AFA wants you to know the truth behind it. The Harvey Milk stamp was a result of seven years of lobbying by a self-described drag queen (a biologi cal man with implanted breasts) and former transsexual prostitute Nicole Murray Ramirez of San Diego.

The prohibition on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military "continually should be reviewed," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Sunday. Hagel did not indicate whether he believes the policy should be overturned. However, he said "every qualified American who wants to serve our country should have an opportunity if they fit the qualifications and can do it." A transgender individual is someone who has acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or presents themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.

(Reuters) - A suburban Seattle Catholic school vice principal who was fired in December for violating religious doctrine by marrying his same-sex partner, on Friday sued the school and the Archdiocese of Seattle for wrongful dismissal. Mark Zmuda, who was also a swim coach at Eastside Catholic School, said he took the job after reading a school policy, since removed from its website, that it does not discriminate on the basis of an employee's sexual orientation or marital status. His ouster, which led to student protests followed by the school president's resignation, is an example of tension between the increasing...

February 07, 2014, 10:11 am Pelosi: Russian anti-gay law like stepping into 'ancient history' By Mario Trujillo House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Russia's anti-gay laws are like stepping into “ancient history” and expressed disappointment that the Winter Olympics are being held in Sochi. Russia’s anti-gay laws make it inappropriate to hold the games there, Pelosi said, adding the Olympics Committee has “never been concerned about human rights.” “In light of the LGBT issues, it is like going into ancient history,” she said on NowThis News. “The whole world is moved to a different place, and that there should...

London — Bishops in the Church of England issued new guidance on Saturday warning clergy they should not bless couples in same-sex marriages, after the idea was recommended in an internal report last year. The House of Bishops was clarifying the Church's response to new legislation allowing gay marriage in England and Wales, which will see the first ceremonies take place in March. "Services of blessing should not be provided. Clergy should respond pastorally and sensitively in other ways," said the guidance, drawn up at a meeting on Thursday. The same-sex marriage law bans the established Churches of England and...

Peter Tatchell, the gay activist, has given an interview about the history of gay rights in the UK in which he expresses the hope that the results of mandatory exams on gay ideology recorded on school children’s permanent records: Mancunian Matters reports: ‘Looking forward, past the past annals of progress he will discuss in Salford, Peter says the key to further progress is education. He said: “No child is born bigoted. Some become bigoted because of the bad influence of adults and peers. “To combat intolerance and bullying, education against all prejudice – including racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia –...

Dear gays: This is why people don’t like you. You’re welcome. As I’ve been saying… As Gay Pride revs up yet again, thoughtful people are asked to swallow, as it were, the same tiresome and illogical worldview held by so many professional homosexuals. Somehow, they manage to believe and promote the following contradictory “facts” at the same time: * Gays are marginalized victims who live in the shadows — with their very own corporately sponsored parades and festivals that shut down major cities once a year. * These pride parades have been going on for twenty years — BUT gays...

Throughout its protracted ratings nosedive, cable news network MSNBC has increasingly pandered to the tiny audience of far-left radicals it has retained. Whether by mocking Christianity, labeling all whites as inherent racists, or championing the homosexual lobby’s cause, this sham of a news organization has a limited bag of ideological tricks. In a desperate ploy to keep the “Duck Dynasty” controversy alive, political analyst Michael Eric Dyson was able to combine each of these disingenuous tactics to skewer the right. Appearing with host Joy Reid, the fringe pundit expressed some outrageous views of Christian faith that only prove he has...

Determined to reinstate its anti-gay marriage law, Utah officials said Tuesday they would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court "as soon as possible" after an appellate court refused to grant an emergency stay of a lower court ruling. U.S. District Judge Richard Shelby invalidated Utah's law last week and refused to suspend his decision. On Tuesday, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the state's plea for an emergency stay.

A United Methodist pastor from central Pennsylvania who was defrocked after officiating his son’s gay wedding was invited by a California Methodist bishop to serve in her region in yet another sign of a split in the nation’s largest mainline Protestant denomination. Frank Schaefer said he is deciding whether to accept the offer from Bishop Minerva G. Carcano to join the California-Pacific Annual Conference. The region includes California, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands. “I’m actually leaning toward it right now, but I can’t make that decision myself because it involves my entire family,” Schaefer said. “We are considering it very,...

The White House has named two prominent gay athletes — skater Brian Boitano and tennis great Billie Jean King — to represent the country at the opening of the Sochi Winter Olympics in February, a move that could spotlight growing protests over LGBT rights in Russia. The choice has raised hope that the sports icons will showcase concerns about new so-called “anti-propaganda” laws which have been criticized as an attack on gay rights in Russia.