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Senior members of the Church of Scotland voted Monday to let some congregations choose ministers who are in same-sex relationships — an important compromise that must still pass further hurdles before it can become church law. The church's General Assembly backed a motion affirming a traditional conservative view on homosexuality, but permitted liberal congregations to ordain openly gay men or women if they wish. The assembly's vote would require the approval of next year's General Assembly as well as votes by the church's regional presbyteries to become law. The process is complicated, and is expected to take at least two...

... A new, casually transmittable infection — a unique strain of bacterial meningitis — has cast a pall over the gay night life and dating scene, with men wondering whether this is AIDS, circa 1981, all over again. Seven men have died in New York City, about a third of diagnosed cases, since 2010. And in the last few months, the contagion seemed to be accelerating. It has targeted gay and bisexual men, and nobody knows exactly why. The city’s best hope to curb the outbreak is to vaccinate as many at-risk men as possible, focusing on those most in...

Former Baylor women’s basketball star Brittney Griner, who acknowledged she was gay in an interview with SI.com’s Maggie Gray last month, said Bears coach Kim Mulkey told her not to be open publicly about her sexuality because it would hurt recruiting, according to ESPN.com.

Under President Obama, “justice” is anything but blind. Neither is it deaf. In fact, based on recent revelations, it appears to be watching your every move and listening to your every word. Still, if you happen to be a federal employee, now it’s even listening for your silence. The only thing this Obama White House seems to generate is scandal. Well, here’s yet another to add to the growing list. In addition to the Benghazi cover-up, IRS targeting of political dissenters and the illegal seizure of media phone records, whistleblowers within DOJ have contacted Liberty Counsel to express grave concerns...

Parents of children attending a Red Hook, New York, middle school are outraged after a recent anti-bullying presentation at Linden Avenue Middle School. The workshop for 13 and 14-year-old girls focused on homosexuality and gender identity. They were also taught words such as "pansexual" and "genderqueer." Parents say their daughters were told to ask one another for a kiss and they say two girls were told to stand in front of the class and pretend they were lesbians on a date.

“Yeah, I don’t feel good about it,” said Dayton when asked about the Minnesota Vikings decision to release outspoken punter Chris Kluwe. “I’m not in a position to evaluate the relative punting abilities, but it seems to me the general manager said, right after the draft, they were going to have competition,” Dayton recalled. “Well, they bring the one guy in, he kicks for a weekend and that’s competition? “I just think sports officials ought to be honest about what the heck is going on, same way I think public officials should be honest about what’s going on, so that...

Let’s give David Stern the benefit of his clout. This week, when he and Commissioner-in-waiting Adam Silver, in a released statement, provided Jason Collins their support and approval as an “exemplary member of the NBA family,” they might have come at it through a different door. They might have instead released the following: “You’re kidding, right? How could we possibly have the audacity to pass judgment on Collins’ decision to reveal that he’s gay — to offer our official position and blessings on his lifestyle — when the league indulges, suffers and excuses just about every act in The Big...

Just as Jason Collins, a veteran NBA player, announced he is gay, a hall of fame for gay athletes and allies launched in Chicago. The nonprofit National Gay & Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame will accept nominees beginning this summer. Its goal is to honor people and organizations that have "stood up to stereotypes" and embraced gay and lesbian athletes, said Bill Gubrud, executive director and board chairman.

Thank goodness for new Dolphins receiver Mike Wallace's quick fingers. "All these beautiful women in the world and guys wanna mess with other guys SMH,'' Wallace tweeted Monday. Thank goodness he explained in 140 quickly-erased characters why it took until 2013 for the first active gay athlete to announce himself in a team sport.

The first openly gay man in a major American team sport may turn out to be former Middle Tennessee State kicker Alan Gendreau, who hopes to get a shot at the NFL this year. And, if he’s successful, that could translate into millions of dollars in endorsements and speaking engagements, experts say. Whether it’s the Sun Belt Conference’s leading scorer or someone else, the athlete who makes sports history by coming out will likely be sought after by companies that want to appeal to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population, whose annual buying power last year was estimated at...

While the equality treadmill under most of our feet is moving at a high rate of speed, I would imagine this journey is not traveling fast enough for many Americans whose lives are directly impacted by the possibility of change. Consider tennis hall of famer Billie Jean King, who was outed in 1981 when her relationship with another woman became public, and Greg Louganis, the four-time Olympic gold medal-winning American diver, who came out some seven years after King. With more than 55 years combined of public scrutiny of their sexuality, the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA),...

A florist in Washington is being sued for a second time after choosing not to provide flower arrangements for a gay customer's upcoming wedding. Barronelle Stutzman of Arlene's Flowers in Richland now faces two lawsuits, one from the Washington state Attorney General and another from the American Civil Liberties Union, for turning away business for a same-sex couple’s wedding. When frequent customer Curt Freed approached Barronelle Stutzman of Arlene's Flowers last month to provide arrangements for his September wedding ceremony to Rob Ingersoll, the florist said she could not provide services due to her religious beliefs. On the company's Facebook...

Dresses, pancake makeup and high platform heels aren’t the traditional attire for drag car racers. But that’s what competitors wore in Key West this weekend, when a group of big-haired female impersonators staged the Great Conch Republic Drag Race.

Another veteran Vatican figure has signaled openness to civil recognition of same-sex unions, in the wake of similar comments in early February from the Vatican’s top official on the family. It’s a position also once reportedly seen with favor by the future pope while he was still Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The latest expression of support for civil recognition as an alternative to gay marriage comes from Archbishop Piero Marini, who served for 18 years as Pope John Paul II’s liturgical Master of Ceremonies. “There are many couples that suffer because their civil rights aren’t recognized,”...

There is an increasing trend toward higher health insurance rates for those who are overweight and live “unhealthy” lifestyles as defined by insurance companies and employers. As the thinking goes, the obese and others (usually smokers) are automatically viewed as chronically unhealthy and above average consumers of healthcare services. Whether this is true for a particular person or not has become irrelevant. More premium money has to be collected from somewhere and neither the cowardly insurance companies nor our feckless politically correct corporate leaders will demand higher premiums from homosexuals whose risky lifestyle is well established as a cause of...

There are going to be some serious LGBT surprises in the season finale of Fox's hit series Glee. According to a Friday report at E!, Oscar winner Patty Duke and longtime television star Meredith Baxter will play a lesbian couple. Not only that, regular character Blaine played by Darren Criss will propose to original cast member Kurt played by Chris Colfer. …

Out, gay Boston police officer and LGBT Boston Police Department Liaison Javier Pagan is on the cover of the current issue of Sports Illustrated. The cover photograph captures Pagan and two fellow police officers racing into action to help a fallen marathon runner after the explosions at the Boston Marathon.

“Gay” sex is becoming even more dangerous. Health officials are warning sexually active “gay” men about an outbreak of potentially deadly bacterial meningitis in Los Angeles and New York. The disease has infected 22 people in New York and caused seven deaths since 2010. Health officials in Los Angeles are testing to see if the strain infecting “gay” men there is the same one hitting New York. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation began offering free meningitis vaccines today after a “gay” man from West Hollywood was declared brain dead on Friday. Thirty-three-year-old lawyer Brett Shaad died within a week of feeling...

Comedian Louis C.K.‘s new comedy special, Oh My God, premiered on HBO Saturday night. The one-hour special contained funny, often hilarious, material from the industry superstar. As a longtime fan of C.K.’s work, including his hit FX_sitcom, Louie, I eagerly tuned in, only to be profoundly disappointed by what appears to be a slur against gay men. Early in the segment, C.K.’s (admittedly_dark) humor took a turn towards the offensive. While describing his New York City apartment building, C.K. reflected on the fountain in the courtyard that features “marble boys pissing”: What is it with fountains? Like, all fountain-sculptors are...

Just weeks after going 2 for 22 on the basketball court, President Barack Obama went to shoot hoops again -- but this time there were no camers allowed. He was joined by his former aide Reggie Love,who played basketball for Duke. Here are today´s pool report: Sunday morning hoops -POTUS,wearing baseball cap and casual clothes,trotted down north steps of WH to waiting motorcade at 9:24 am. Arrived at FBI for basketball 9:30 am.… Potus sighted trotting up steps of North Portico, accompanied by another tall man, but WH not revealing identity of hoops companions. .. As he reentered WH after...

With growing expectations in recent weeks that a gay male athlete for a major professional sports team in the United States will soon come out publicly for the first time, the leagues have begun exploring ways to accommodate and respond to such a landmark announcement.

To: All Freepers who own shares of publicly-traded companies. Action: Vote your shares against the retention or re-election of Ernst & Young as auditors. This is easy and it takes very little time using proxyvote.com. Background: James Turley, the CEO of Ernst & Young, a London-based international accounting firm, is on the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America. In a statement issued by Ernst and Young, Turley said that he will work from within the Boy Scouts as a national board member to help change scouting policies so that they allow homosexuals to be scout leaders. After...

President Putin is against the adoption of Russian orphans by foreign same-sex couples, Russian media reveal. The government and the Supreme Court have reportedly been requested to come up with amendments to the law by July 1. Most likely the order will be fulfilled by the Ministry of Education and Science, which deals with issues concerning orphans and adoptions, according to Izvestia daily. But the ministry says it has not yet received instructions on the matter. Tensions over the issue arose in mid-February, after the French National Assembly approved a sweeping bill to legalize gay marriage and allow same-sex couples...

When former 49ers and Raiders offensive lineman Kwame Harris was alleged in January to have assaulted a former boyfriend, it was logical to conclude that Harris, though he had never publicly come out of the closet, is gay. In an interview with CNN on Friday, Harris admitted the obvious and said he wished he would have acknowledged it when he was still playing.

New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski said he would be accepting of a gay teammate. "I got this question before, about a year ago, and I basically will say the same answer that I did a year ago," he said Wednesday in an interview with Stephen A. Smith and Ryan Ruocco on ESPN Radio New York, when asked how the Patriots' locker room would receive an openly gay player. "You've got to accept the player. Everyone has their own ways to live their life and as long as he's respecting me, keeping distance, respecting myself, I'll respect him back....

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Organizers of Tuesday's "Celebration of Marriage" at Utah's Capitol Hill got a much larger crowd than they probably expected. The evening was intended to celebrate traditional family. While that did happen, people who attended were surrounded by hundreds gay rights activists. Tuesday's celebration of traditional family marriage had everything: the Osmonds, the Governor, and hundreds of gay rights party crashers. Needless to say it was not what traditional family supporters expected. "Do you think it makes this thing tense?" asked Reporter Brian Carlson. "In some ways yes, in some ways no," said Claus...

He had just flown across the country after an exhausting campaign day in Oregon and South Dakota, landing at the White House after dark. But President Bill Clinton still had more business before bed. He picked up a pen and scrawled out his name, turning a bill into law. It was 10 minutes before 1 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, 1996, and there were no cameras, no ceremony. The witching-hour timing bespoke both political calculation and personal angst. With his signature, federal law now defined marriage as the union of a man and woman. Mr. Clinton considered it a gay-baiting...

With employment prospects for college graduates as dismal as Barack Obama has made them, it’s hard to see how this makes sense. Brown University is planning to host a workshop called “Protect me from what I want” designed to help Black homosexuals overcome their “unapproved” attraction to Caucasian Gays. This is another example of the White liberal’s belief in their right of husbandry over all minorities especially Blacks. These people obviously see “managing” the lives of subgroups as their self-appointed job. While it’s plain that White liberals believe they should be able to tell anyone how to live their lives,...

4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Jesus’ words in Matthew 19 constitute the awkward rhetorical cornerstone of why gay marriage cannot be legal. A popular aphorism among anti-conservatives is: “What does Jesus say about homosexuality?” The unspoken argument warrant...

With that said and meant, this shift is altogether unsurprising. The new mark of being culturally acceptable is affirming homosexuality as virtuous (not merely okay, but virtuous, even exemplary). This is the litmus test. I don’t think many of us expected that it would so quickly fill this role, but it has. The mark of being a progressive, kind, socially courageous person today is simply this: affirming same-sex marriage. There are other cardinal virtues of a contemporary au courant identity, but this is the lodestar, the one that hangs one’s personal moon. This shows us that the cultural middle is...

Why would the Chicago Public School (CPS) system be so presumptuous as to start teaching Lesbian Gay Bi-sexual Transsexual Sex-Ed to all its students, even five year old kindergarteners? Aside from pure hubris, satisfying Gay political groups is a good guess, but the simple answer is because they can. The Chicago’s public schools are more than 85% Black or Latino and just 8.8% White. A combined 87% of Black and Hispanic Chicagoans live in poverty so they are as dependent upon White liberals as house pets are on their owners. If these numbers were reversed the White ruling class in...

So much of what is taught on today’s college campuses is useless “feel good” drivel. It is very often nothing more than pap designed to “build self-esteem.” Nevertheless, occasionally a genuine lesson will bubble up through the worthless sludge. This is what happened recently at the University of New Mexico (UNM). While the lesson was unintended, it was clear and for a change valuable. Students learned that they do not have to automatically yield to minority opinion and if they tell demanding Gay activists to get lost the world will not come to an end. Here’s how it unfolded. A...

Chipotle Mexican Grill has pulled its sponsorship of Utah's "Scout-O-Rama" because of the Boy Scouts of America's long-standing ban on gays. The popular Colorado-based restaurant chain initially signed on to provide about $4,200 worth of coupons to the Utah Boy Scouts' annual event, scheduled for May 4 in a Salt Lake City suburb. The Boy Scouts' Great Salt Lake Council is one of the largest in the country, with the majority of troops sponsored by Mormon churches.

On Gay Unions, a Pragmatist Before He Was a Pope By SIMON ROMERO and EMILY SCHMALL Published: March 19, 2013 BUENOS AIRES — The very idea was anathema to many of the bishops in the room. Argentina was on the verge of approving gay marriage, and the Roman Catholic Church was desperate to stop that from happening. It would lead tens of thousands of its followers in protest on the streets of Buenos Aires and publicly condemn the proposed law, a direct threat to church teaching, as the work of the devil. But behind the scenes, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio,...

<p>Madonna has never been a stranger to controversy, and she once again dipped her toe into those waters at last night’s GLAAD Awards, where she was presenting an award to Anderson Cooper.</p> <p>Dressed in an oversized Boy Scout uniform, Madonna took the organization to task for its policy that bans gay people from joining. “I wanted to be a Boy Scout, but they wouldn’t let me join,” she said during a 10-minute speech. “I think that’s (messed) up. I know how to build a fire. I can pitch a tent … most importantly, I know how to scout for boys.”</p>

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $1.5 million to study biological and social factors for why “three-quarters” of lesbians are obese and why gay males are not, calling it an issue of “high public-health significance." Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., has received two grants administered by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to study the relationship between sexual orientation and obesity. “Obesity is one of the most critical public health issues affecting the U.S. today,” the description of the grant reads. “Racial and socioeconomic disparities in the determinants, distribution,...

<p>SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. (AP) — The head of a western Massachusetts charter school says a student production of a play that retells the biblical story of Genesis with gay characters will go on as planned despite objections from some who say it's offensive to Christians.</p>

He's one of the few big-time celebrities who is also a big-time Republican. But Clint Eastwood has veered from the viewpoint of many Conservatives in one regard: the actor signed the American Foundation for Equal Rights’s “Friend of the Court” brief this week. In doing so, the actor became one of over 100 prominent Republicans to support this gay rights organization's document, which it has filed with the Supreme Court. n April, the highest court in the land will listen to arguments about the legality of California’s Proposition 8, an amendment that passed in 2008 and which declares “only marriage...

.... Fourth-quarter earnings results came out on Wednesday and they were terrible. The bad news starts with a quarterly loss of $427 million, but it doesn’t end there. Comparable store sales—meaning stores that were open this past quarter and also open in the same quarter of the previous year—fell by a mind-boggling 32 percent. Henry Blodget says it may have been the worst quarter posted by any retailer ever. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. JCPenney made a big splash in the retail world by hiring Ron Johnson, mastermind of Apple’s retail operations, as CEO. He immediately set about...

Supporters of same-sex marriage hope for a boost this week when dozens of high-profile Republicans, many no longer in office, submit their legal argument to the Supreme Court on why gays and lesbians should be allowed to wed, bucking their party's platform in a move that one who had a change of heart on the issue said would “strengthen our nation as a whole.” More than 80 Republicans have signed the brief to be filed in the case of Proposition 8, a California law banning same-sex marriage, according to the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which is waging the legal...

A potentially explosive report has linked the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI to the discovery of a network of gay prelates in the Vatican, some of whom – the report said – were being blackmailed by outsiders. The pope's spokesman declined to confirm or deny the report, which was carried by the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica. The paper said the pope had taken the decision on 17 December that he was going to resign – the day he received a dossier compiled by three cardinals delegated to look into the so-called "Vatileaks" affair....

So last week, I was surprised and oddly delighted by something that my friend Rachel Maddow also picked up on: “They have invited Chris Hayes to CPAC this year, Chris Hayes host of Up w/ Chris Hayes here on MSNBC invited to speak on a panel with Ralph Reed…I don’t know if he’s going to go, but it’s cool that they asked him.” Yes, the legendary Conservative Political Action Conference had invited yours truly to participate at its 40th annual conference this March. I was specifically invited to be part of a panel called: “CSI Washington, D.C.: November 2012 Autopsy”...

<p>A writer for DC Comics‘ Superman series has come under attack by homosexual rights activists, who view his work as anti-gay and want him fired.</p> <p>Orson Scott Card is one of a team of writers and artists to create the new digital DC Comics product, “Adventures of Superman,” according to a report from Fox News. Mr. Card is a Mormon and vocal opponent of gay marriage. Fox News reported he once referred to same-sex marriage as the end of democracy in American and suggested “the left is at war with the family.”</p>

A leak from inside the Boy Scouts of America last month about discussions on possibly ending the group’s national ban on gay members changed the debate itself by creating an impression that change was imminent, according to scouting officials and taped comments from a meeting of scouting’s executive board obtained by The New York Times. Those apparently false expectations were dashed days later when the board, under intense scrutiny it had never intended, deferred action. The proposed shift in policy has been portrayed in news accounts mostly as a kind of trial balloon, floated to gauge sentiment about where scouting...

It looks like the gays may have the best seat in the house at President Obama's State Of The Union address. Tracey Hepner, co-founder of the Military Partners and Families Coalition, which works as a support group for LGBT military famlies has scored a plum seat with First Lady Michelle Obama! More after the jump. The Washington Post reports: "Tracey Hepner of Arlington, who co-founded the Military Partners and Families Coalition, a support group for LGBT military partners and their families, has been chosen to sit with first lady Michelle Obama during the State of the Union address Tuesday night,...

There’s an astonishing piece in Thursday’s Salt Lake Tribune, and if you haven’t been paying attention to the sudden “evolution” of the Mormon church’s leadership on homosexuality, it will make your jaw drop. Most people associate The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with overwhelming animous towards the LGBT community, heaping on the church total responsibility for 2008′s devastating Prop 8 victory. But, wait, times are a-changing, and the Mormons are now working with Utah’s LGBT leaders to help craft a statewide anti-discrimination law: Attorneys for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are in quiet discussions with...

The Family Research Council shooter, who pleaded guilty today to a terrorism charge, picked his target off a "hate map" on the website of the ultra-liberal Southern Poverty Law Center which is upset with the conservative group's opposition to gay rights. Floyd Lee Corkins II pleaded guilty to three charges including a charge of committing an act of terrorism related to the August 15, 2012 injuring of FRC's guard. He told the FBI that he wanted to kill anti-gay targets and went to the law center's website for ideas. At a court hearing where his comments to the FBI were...

(AP) WASHINGTON - A man suspected of shooting and wounding a security guard in the lobby of a Christian lobbying group had been volunteering at a community center for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. A law enforcement official has identified the suspect arrested in Wednesday's shooting as Floyd Corkins II of Herndon, Va. Investigators were interviewing his neighbors.

...To that end, the National Executive Board directed its committees to further engage representatives of Scouting’s membership and listen to their perspectives and concerns. This will assist the officers’ work on a resolution on membership standards....

One of the more memorable sketches to air on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” featured actor Alec Baldwin and comedian Adam Sandler as members of a Boy Scout troop. Baldwin played a gay scoutmaster, “Mr. Armstrong.” Sandler reprised his role as “Canteen Boy,” a scout clearly suffering arrested development. In the sketch, Mr. Armstrong makes a sexual advance on Canteen Boy, brushing his unshaven face against the lad. So uncomfortable is Sandler’s character, who is not so dimwitted that he doesn’t know a pedophile when he sees one, that he flees into the woods. The sketch was uproariously funny. But what...