Free Republic

The recent same-sex marriage ruling has cleared the way for many, including gay Muslims, to marry. But over the years, homosexuals who identify as Muslims found it difficult to have an Imam perform the ceremony. Now, they have a place to get married, complete with an Imam who will marry them. Imam Daayiee Abdullah of Washington, D.C., is available to perform gay Muslim marriages. Abdullah converted to Islam at the age of 29, while studying in China, reports the Religion News Service. He was born to a Baptist family with seven siblings, he told Metro Weekly in an in a...

“Born gay” is, in fact, a hoax of mammoth proportions that has been accepted by many institutions, organizations and individuals in our culture, even by those in the “Christian church” and even by many apparently “born-again Christians”

William Ackman has resigned from J.C. Penney Co.'s board as part of a deal to resolve an unusually public battle between the activist investor and the struggling department store operator. J.C. Penney's rose in premarket trading Tuesday. The announcement follows statements Ackman made last week saying he'd lost confidence in Penney's board and that its Chairman Thomas Engibous should be replaced. Ackman and the retailer's board also were bickering over how quickly the company should replace CEO Mike Ullman. Ackman's investment firm, Pershing Square Capital Management, has a nearly 18 percent stake in Penney. Penney's board also made it clear...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday said he opposed boycotting the Sochi Olympic Games despite new Russian anti-gay laws, instead urging nations to wave rainbow flags during the opening ceremonies to show support for gay rights. “That'd be pretty embarrassing for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Schumer said on MSNBC's “Morning Joe.” “Let our athletes participate but still make a stand.” In June, Putin signed a law banning gay “propaganda” and imposing fines on those holding gay pride rallies. The law has generated an international backlash ahead of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has called...

VANCOUVER, B.C., August 12, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – When homosexual news service Daily Xtra reported last week that both Vancouver police and city officials “confirmed they had no issues with public nudity” at the city’s annual gay Pride Parade, LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) deemed necessary a fact check with the guardians of law and order. Canada’s Criminal Code makes it illegal to be nude in a “public place.” Section 174 states that a person who is “so clad as to offend against public decency or order” is “guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.” While reports about this year’s August 4 gay...

GRIMES, IA, August 12, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Christian couple is facing a state complaint, business cancellations, and vulgar, harassing, and threatening e-mail messages after refusing to rent out a business facility for a gay “wedding.” Dick and Betty Odgaard said they could not in good conscience allow a homosexual couple to use their business, the Görtz Haus Gallery, to conduct the ceremony itself. Betty Odgaard Betty Odgaard “To us, [marriage] is a sacrament,” Betty Odgaard said, that exists only “between a man and woman.” She told Billy Hallowell of The Blaze their rejection was “totally a faith-based issue,” adding...

In Massachusetts, they have filed Bill H154, which is similar to the ones filed in other states. It was sponsored by "out homosexual" Rep. Carl Sciortino (D-Medford) and co-sponsored by over a dozen of the usual far-left State House crowd. The bill bans therapy by a licensed mental health professional for anyone under 18 which seeks "(A) to change behavioral expression of an individual's sexual orientation or gender identity, or (B) to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same sex." And the bill specifically allows therapy which "provides acceptance, support, or understanding" of...

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a controversial bill into law Monday afternoon allowing the state’s transgender public school students to choose which bathrooms they use and whether they participate in boy or girl sports. The law would cover the state’s 6.2 million elementary and high school kids in public schools. Supporters say the law will help cut down on bullying against transgender students, The families of transgender students have been waging local battles with school districts around the country over what restrooms and locker rooms their children can use

Sen. Charles Schumer suggested Monday that, instead of boycotting the 2014 Olympic Games in Russia altogether, countries should wave rainbow flags during the opening ceremonies to show support for gay rights, The Hill reported. “That’d be pretty embarrassing for Putin,” the New York Democrat said on MSNBC. “Let our athletes participate but still make a stand.”

Military personnel at the Los Angeles Air Force Base were treated to a Diversity Day musical performance featuring three individuals dressed in drag. … Photographs of the event show an individual wearing a giant wig performing to a sparse crowd underneath the American flag. It’s unclear whether the individuals in high heels and form-fitting dresses are members of the Air Force. Observes one airman: “We can’t even have Bibles on our desks. This base is not a platform for political agendas. It is a military installation. The display was totally inappropriate and offensive.” Good thing they kept his name out...

[ . . . ] . . . Christian authorities need to stop thinking and writing as though the categories of homosexual and Christian can be joined—as though the Church could tolerate or accommodate, or speak gently of, much less bless or sanctify, anything peculiar to the garment stained by the flesh that those who come to Christ throw off in their baptism. In that baptism we become penitents, and as such divided from our sins. St. Paul tells us here that no penitent is to be named by, identified by, what he has abjured. Those injured people who have...

US AMBASSADOR to Australia John Berry has married his long-term partner of 17 years in a private same-sex ceremony in Washington D.C. The 54-year-old former head of the Office of Personnel Management - which oversees the US public service - is the first openly gay US ambassador to serve in a Group of 20 nation and the highest ranking openly gay man in United States history. In a short statement, Mr Berry confirmed the nuptials, telling news.com.au, "John Berry and Curtis Yee, partners of 17 years, were formally married on Saturday August 10, at St Margaret's Episcopal Church in Washington...

Aside from the radical illegal immigrant activist movement appropriating the gay culture act of 'coming out' as a tactic, there are, of course, some people who are both illegal immigrants and gay. Identity politics being what they are on the left, it was perhaps inevitable that the two politically-charged movements would come together in the movement known as UndocuQueer. The UndocuQueer movement was deemed significant enough to warrant a full-blown panel discussion at this year's Netroots Nation, the progressive confab put on by DailyKos. As the panel description for UndocuQueer: The Intersectionality of the Undocumented and LGBTIQ Struggles says, organizers...

During his recent appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Barack Obama said that Russia and other countries like it are ‘violating basic morality’ by passing laws in opposition to the homosexual lifestyle. After Obama was asked about his reaction to Russia granting asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, Leno then delved into the issue of homosexuality and the 2014 Olympics. “Well, something that shocked me about Russia — and I’m surprised this is not a huge story — suddenly, homosexuality is against the law,” he said. “I mean, this seems like Germany: Let’s round up the Jews,...

To campaign against the bullying of LGBT people as if disagreement with the gay lifestyle were an evil is itself a form of bullying.On June 19, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled in favor of a high school student named Daniel Glowacki, who had charged that his high school teacher, Jay McDowell, had violated his constitutional right to freedom of speech. He was granted one dollar in compensation. The court’s verdict, in vulgar terms, was that the pig had the right to say what he said. The facts, according to the court’s judgment, are these....

Ex-gay gospel singer who says God delivered him from being gay was removed from a concert lineup at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial after a request from Washington's mayor. The Washington Post reports singer Donnie McClurkin was scheduled to perform at the concert Saturday evening to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Several gay rights activities objected to his participation ahead of the event. Doxie McCoy, a spokeswoman for Mayor Vincent Gray, says the Grammy-winning singer decided not perform because the purpose of the event was to bring people together.

It's like 1980 all over again. There's a war in Afghanistan, the economy is lousy, Paul McCartney has a new record coming out, and some people are calling for the United States to stay away from the upcoming Olympics in Russia. When the first talk of another Olympic boycott arose, no one took it very seriously. It came from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who enjoys far more face time on Sunday morning talk shows than influence over U.S. policy, and who is upset about Edward Snowden. But the idea could be gaining traction. Some gay rights advocates, from both the...

The entertainment industry is giving full voice to their criticism of the Russian anti-gay statute. They've singled out Russia because the 2014 Winter Olympics are going to be held in the city of Sochi and gay fans of the games don't want to be arrested simply for exhibiting what in Russia is politically incorrect behavior. The International Olympic Committee wants assurances from the Russian government but Moscow is standing firm, saying that the law must be respected. Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko insisted Thursday that Olympic athletes would have to respect the laws of the country during the Sochi Games....

A legal debate over whether one member of a same-sex couple has spousal privilege that would shield her from testifying against her partner is at the heart of a capital murder case in politically conservative Kentucky. Geneva Case, 49, does not want to testify in a Louisville court against her partner, Bobbie Jo Clary, 37, who is accused of beating George Murphy, 64, to death with a hammer in 2011 and then stealing his van. Prosecutors say Case must testify because of her value as a witness, since she heard Clary admit to the slaying and also saw blood on...

The former principal of a small Catholic school in northern Ontario has had his license revoked by the Ontario College of Teachers for ignoring the repeated sexual abuse of students by one of his homosexual partners. Jacques Perron was found guilty of “professional misconduct” earlier this year and was barred on Wednesday from reapplying for his teaching license for at least five years. The former principal of a French-language Catholic school had hired two men, Pierre Grondin and Jannick Gélinas — with whom he was sexually involved — to work at the school. Grondin was hired as part-time school custodian...

Finally, a prominent nation is taking on the homosexual agenda and rejecting it outright. A number of African nations have done the same, but third-world countries are not newsworthy to mainstream media. Although recently, the President of Senegal (West Africa), Mackey Sall, was reported as rebuffing Barack Obama's haughty insistence that Senegalese embrace homosexuality. The irony is stunning that a Communist nation would understand that preserving the value of men and women marrying and producing children makes for demographic survival, while many American Christian leaders cower in the shadows, in fear of activist homosexuals and their leftist supporters. For any...

The chill in relations between the US and Russia grew still frostier yesterday as President Vladimir Putin's foreign minister told the White House to start behaving like "grown-ups". Sergei Lavrov chided the US administration two days after President Barack Obama scrapped a summit with Mr Putin when Russia granted asylum to Edward Snowden, the fugitive US spy.

President Obama today made clear that he rejects growing calls for the U.S. to boycott the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi over Russia’s new anti-gay law. “I want to just make very clear right now: I do not think it’s appropriate to boycott the Olympics,”

I recently posted a comment left by a supposed self-proclaimed pedophile, in which he suggests my pedophile symbol collection is outdated by listing variants he and his ilk often use to fool the public. After posting the comment, I was asked for more information on the symbols. I have gone through all of the posts I’ve made previously to gather the symbols and online codes into this one post for easy reference. Please, feel free to copy and paste the following anywhere and everywhere you feel it will do some good. PEDOPHILE SYMBOLS WE ALL RECOGNIZE:

The Labor Department on Friday issued regulatory guidance to affirm that same-sex married couples can take a leave from their jobs to care for an ill spouse, the first of several moves the agency said it would make after the Supreme Court struck down a law denying federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples. At the same time, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management said it would extend benefits to federal employees in same-sex marriages. Labor Secretary Tom Perez announced the changes in a memo to the department's staff on Friday, calling the Supreme Court's June decision in United States...

A misdemeanor trespassing trial for a gay Baptist minister and his partner who refused to leave a city clerk’s office after being denied a marriage license was postponed Monday when attorneys were unable to come up with an impartial jury. Attorneys for Maurice “Bojangles” Blanchard and Dominique James and prosecutors questioned prospective jurors Aug. 6 in Jefferson County District Court in Louisville, Ky. After people were eliminated for various reasons, not enough remained in the jury pool for the trial to proceed. The trial was rescheduled for Nov. 25. Blanchard and James tried to apply for a marriage license in...

A Fine Gael minister has backed the idea of a referendum next year on extending marriage rights to same-sex couples. Brian Hayes, minister of state at the Department of Finance, says he has “no problem” with a poll on the constitutional change, despite some in the Fine Gael top brass being wary of the issue. Mr. Hayes is the most senior Fine Gael minister to come out, specifically, in support of a referendum in 2014. And he joins Justice Minister Alan Shatter and Transport Minister Leo Varadkar in saying he would vote yes in a gay marriage poll. …

The U.S. Air Force said that a well-known drag queen group was invited to perform on base during a “Diversity Day” celebration because drag is a “symbol of gay pride and unity. But the performance sparked outrage among some airmen who called the drag show “totally offensive and inappropriate.” Jewels and the Brunchettes performed to a small crowd at the Los Angeles Air Force Base on Aug. 8, the military confirmed. Photographs provided to Fox News show an individual wearing a giant wig and sporting form-fitting dresses performing to a sparse crowd underneath the American flag. “Drag acts to this...

President Barack Obama on Friday urged people not to boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics taking place in Sochi, Russia over the country’s new law against gay rights activism. “I want to just make very clear right now: I do not think it’s appropriate to boycott the Olympics,” Obama said. “We’ve got a bunch of Americans out there who are training hard, who are doing everything they can to succeed.” …

Another business is facing retribution for declining service to a same-sex couple. Betty and Dick Odgaard, owners of Görtz Haus Gallery in Grimes, Iowa, are catching the ire of gay rights advocates after they declined offering their venue to Lee Stafford and his fiance Jared. Now the owners, who are Christians, are receiving vicious and threatening emails and phone calls — and they fear that their business could shut down because of the fierce reaction. It was less than one week ago that the Lee and Jared entered Görtz Haus looking for additional information about holding their wedding there. After...

Shares of embattled retailer J.C. Penney Co. fell another 2.5% in premarket trading on Friday amid an interal battle with shareholders. The board slammed Pershing Square Capital Management's Bill Ackman for a letter in which he criticized the board's failure to find a longer-term solution for the Chief Executive Officer Mike Ulman.

Why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? Was the most extensive judgment found anywhere in the Bible outside of the book of Revelation actually for the sin of inhospitality, not homosexuality?People find what they want in the Bible. If one looks hard enough, he can find "biblical" support for reincarnation, Eastern religions, Jesus as a guru, divorce for any reason, and flying saucers. Every cult of Christianity uses the Bible to validate its claims and so does some of the occult.It's not surprising, then, that a recent trend in biblical scholarship holds that a careful reading of Genesis in...

State Sen. Mark Leno, who represents San Francisco in the state Capitol, is wading into international politics with a resolution condemning the recent anti-gay laws passed in Russia and urging the state’s retirement systems to refrain from investing in the country moving forward. Russia recently passed a law banning “propaganda,” around “nontraditional sexual relations” — vague language that continues a pattern of rolling back LGBT rights there. President Obama recently condemned the law; others have called for the International Olympic Committee to pressure Russia to repeal the law ahead of next year’s winter Olympics in Sochi. The Senate resolution, which...

The patient, who is gay, doesn't have a problem with his sexual orientation listed on his medical chart, but does take issue with it being labeled a "chronic condition"A patient said a Southern California doctor diagnosed him with "Homosexual behavior" during his first visit to the office for a check-up. Earlier this year, Matthew Moore started seeing a new doctor who suggested he undergo a complete physical. The tests revealed he was B-12 deficient, and had high blood pressure and high cholesterol -- conditions that he called "normal for me." When Moore, who is openly gay, went back to the...

New Jersey counselors are about to find out whether they will lose the legal right to help minors address same-sex attraction. Earlier this summer, the New Jersey legislature passed a bill banning counselors from working with minors struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions. The bill now sits on Gov. Chris Christie’s desk. Christie has been tight-lipped on his stance, leaving parents and counselors wondering whether he will veto the bill, sign it, or ignore it until it automatically becomes law early next week. New Jersey is among only a few states to consider such a ban. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have similar...

ALTOONA, WI, August 8, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Catholic parish in Wisconsin has told the Boy Scout troop it has sponsored for the last 20 years that it will have to find a new home in response to the troop’s decision to allow practicing homosexuals to join. The Boy Scouts of America voted in May to overturn its longstanding policy barring openly gay scouts, and instead allowed troops to include gay scouts if they choose. Boy Scout Troop 90, which meets at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Altoona, revised its membership policy to state that no boy could be denied...

Will Salt Lake City host the 2014 Winter Games? Almost certainly not. But could the Utah capital, logistically, host the 2014 Games? The answers range from no doubt to no chance. A grass-roots movement is afoot to boycott the Sochi Winter Olympics or move them to another city after Russian President Vladimir Putin in June signed a law banning "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" and giving the government seemingly broad powers to discriminate against gays. Salt Lake City is on the short list of places that could conceivably host a modern-scale Winter Olympics on a moment's notice.....

David Cameron yesterday confessed he found it a “little difficult” to follow Christ’s example and give all his possessions to the poor. Questioned about his religious beliefs, however, the Prime Minister described biblical teachings as “not a bad handbook” for life. …

So what else could President Obama and Sec. of State Kerry do to convey their message of disapproval and lack of patience? And remember—the prestige of the United States is on the line here, too. Were those just pretty rhetorical words Sec. of State Hillary Clinton uttered in taking a stand for LGBT rights around the word, or will the State Department back them up with some action? And if so, what kind of action—given the delicate nature of diplomacy in this unstable world and the political partisan divide in Congress? The Russian-approved “gay propaganda” law started in St. Petersburg,...

LOS ANGELES, August 8, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cross-dressing internet gossip columnist and sometime-television personality Brandon Sessoms, who goes by the stage name B. Scott, has filed a $2.5 million gender discrimination lawsuit against Black Entertainment Television (BET) after the network demanded he wear “masculine” attire at a recent awards show. Sessoms, 32, is an openly homosexual man who calls himself “transgender,” because he believes that his “spirit” is neither male nor female. While he admits that “biologically, I am male — as my sex was determined at birth by my reproductive organs,” he says “my spirit truly lies somewhere in...

MSNBC's Chris Matthews made a bold prediction on Wednesday's Hardball. "The hard-right is going to take over the Republican Party in 2016 and the nomination is going to Rand Paul" (video follows with transcript and commentary):CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with this. I’ve been offering a prediction of late. Let me nail it down now. I believe the Republican Party is going to go hard-right in 2016. It’s going to run someone from the growing hard-right wing of the Party, something it hasn't done since 1980. And here's the thinking which works equally...

Sean Sasser, whose relationship with the late Pedro Zamora on MTV's "The Real World: San Francisco" broke cultural barriers on U.S. television, has died, his longtime partner told CNN on Thursday. Sasser was 44. Sasser, who had been HIV positive for 25 years, died Wednesday from mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer that was diagnosed just last month, Michael Kaplan said. He died in the Washington home he shared with Kaplan. Sasser was not one of the original cast members but became a household name as his relationship with Zamora was explored during the show's third season in 1994....

Money line: “This is what I do for a living.” Didn’t he predict a Bush/Clinton race in 2016 just nine months ago? If he believes what he says here about the parties swinging like “pendulums” from moderate nominees to ideologues and then back again, why would he have named Jeb as a strong contender last November? In fact, the roots of the counterargument are in Matthews’s own shpiel here: Most of the time, they head to the center. This is what Republicans did most successfully in 1952 – when, after twenty years of Roosevelt and Harry Truman – they wanted...

Actor and LGBT activist George Takei weighed in on Russia's harsh new anti-gay policies–and the news that those policies would be enforced on athletes and spectators at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. "Given this position, the IOC must do the right thing, protect its athletes and the fans, and move the 2014 Winter Olympics out of Russia," wrote Takei on his blog.

So how much more willing suspension of disbelief are folks expected to continue maintaining to go on believing the crap we’re subjected to in this cheap poorly lit theater of the profoundly corrupt & absurd?! Where we have a President who gives nationally televised Press conferences on late night TV talk shows & where former Secretary of State Hillary “I’m ready for my close up Mr. DeMille” Clinton is the proposed subject of both a CNN documentary as well as an NBC miniseries plainly titled, “Hillary”. Each is tentatively slated for a 2014 premiere. It’s grotesque. The surrealism of 2...

(Newser) – Now that the Supreme Court has overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, the Pentagon is reviewing a plan that would extend full marriage benefits to same-sex couples by the end of this month, according to a draft memo from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel outlining the proposal obtained yesterday by the AP. In the process, the Defense Department would ditch a previous plan that would have allowed unmarried same-sex couples access to some limited benefits after signing a declaration form. Now, troops will actually need to be legally married to get the benefits, but the military will give...

Gender bender JW Anderson's backless, semi-sheer halter tops for men raised eyebrows at London Men's Fashion Week. Dry run Another London up-and-comer, Shaun Sampson, showed pale pink organza board shorts and 'skirts' made to look like beach towels. Frill seekers Martine Rose’s collection combines feminine elements with inspiration drawn from sports and athletic kits. Curtain raiser At Alexander McQueen, creative director Sarah Burton opened the show with a fitted suit of white lace. Skull disclosure The trademark Alexander McQueen skull was woven into the lace designs. Herd instinct The Topman show featured fanciful cowboys in embroidered florals. Some fashion...

Merriam-Webster is going to have to update the next edition of its dictionary, at least if marriage redefiners have their way. Do you know what the words “monogamish,” “throuple,” and “wedlease” mean? If not, you soon will. After all, the power to redefine words is the power to redefine reality. Let’s start with “monogamish,” a play on “monogamous.” A 2011 New York Times profile of gay activist Dan Savage, headlined “Married, with Infidelities,” introduced Americans to “monogamish” relationships — in which partners would allow sexual infidelity provided there were honest admissions of it. The “monogamish” perspective is one of the...

The Pentagon is poised to extend health care, housing and other benefits to the same-sex spouses of military members by the end of August, but may reverse earlier plans to provide benefits to gay partners who are not married. According to a draft Defense Department memo obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, the department instead may provide up to 10 days of leave to military personnel in same-sex relationships so they can travel to states where they can marry legally. While no final decisions have been made, the memo from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to top defense leaders would reverse...

Last month, I wrote about Russia’s harsh backlash against gay-rights activism (“Russia Says ‘Nyet’ to Gay Adoptions“), and it turns out that this explains the cancellation of a scheduled summit: The Wall Street Journal, among others, reports that President Barack Obama has decided to cancel a summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s grant of temporary asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Yet that cannot possibly be the case. A few weeks ago, when Snowden arrived in Russia, Obama brushed the issue aside: he was not “scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker,” he said. Obama also downplayed...