Free Republic

Bradley Manning, 22, had just gone through a breakup. He had been demoted a rank in the Army after striking a fellow soldier. He felt he had no future, and yet he thought that by sharing classified information about his government's foreign policy, he might "actually change something." A series of instant messages from Manning to a stranger open a window into the anguished state of the former Army intelligence analyst, who was detained late last month for allegedly leaking classified video and documents to Wikileaks.org. The military has not detailed the allegations against Manning, who is being held in...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is promising gay rights activists he'll keep pushing for action on their priorities including benefits for same-sex partners and repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military. At an event in the White House East Room in honor of gay pride month, Obama told activists Tuesday that he's delivered on promises including passage of anti-hate crimes legislation. But, the president said, "We've got a lot of hard work we've still got to do."

The principal and a teacher at Goleta Valley Junior High School in Santa Barbara County, California are apologizing to parents for not following school district policy relating to a pro-homosexual workshop given to 8th grade students in a leadership class at the school. The controversial workshop was presented by “Just Communities Central Coast” in three, 45-minute sessions over three days. It included handouts defining homosexual terminology, including queer and transgender, and listed “heterosexism” as “oppression that ‘pushes down’ people who are LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and questioning) and ‘pushes up’ people who are straight.” The handout defines sexual orientation...

Carrie Prejean confessed that she has a sex tape, but said she regrets it. The former Miss California, who caused controversy during the Miss USA pageant when she said she didn't support same-sex marriage, appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News Channel show Monday night to address the rumor. "It was the biggest mistake of my life," Prejean told Hannity. "I was all by myself. I was sending a boyfriend at the time, who I loved and cared about, a video of me. "I was a teenager at the time," she told Hannity. "Never did I think it would ever come...

Four billboards along Interstate 30 are sparking a debate over whether gays should be welcomed at local churches. A coalition of five churches that are part of a larger congregation of prodominatly gay Christians have put up four billboards on I-30 between Grand Prairie and Fort Worth with messages urging Christians to accept gays. One billboard reads "The early church welcomed a gay man" and another reads, "Would Jesus discriminate." Reverend Colleen Darraugh with the Metropolitan Community Church of Greater Dallas tells CBS-11 exclusively they've been the target of controversy since the billboards went up last week. "There are people...

After complaints from gay political groups, AAA of the South has announced it will treat married gay couples as families when determining rates for memberships in the auto club.

A U.S. Embassy in a Muslim country has sponsored an event to celebrate the homosexual lifestyle. Last night the U.S. Embassy in Iraq held a "Gay Pride Theme Party" at a pub called Baghdaddy's. Embassy employees were encouraged to attend the Baghdad event dressed in drag or as a homosexual icon. Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, says homosexual activism at U.S. embassies was prevalent during the Bush administration, but it has gone a step further under the Obama administration.

Link only - Lawmakers: Census Should Include Gay Couples

SAN FRANCISCO — Steve, a health care worker in his 30s, had been told more than once that he had been exposed to a sexually transmitted infection. So when it happened again, he was not upset — even though this time he learned about it through an anonymous online postcard, e-mailed by a man with whom he had had sex. “What was important was that I was being notified that there was a possibility that I may have been exposed to syphilis,” said Steve, who asked that his last name be withheld to protect his privacy. The Internet has made...

On Sunday, November 9, a band of about 30 gays stormed a church in Lansing, Michigan. Some were well dressed and were stationed inside Mount Hope Church; others were outside dressed in pink and black. The group of self-described homosexual anarchists, Bash Back!, claims the evangelical church is guilty of “transphobia and homophobia.” The protesters outside the church were beating on buckets, shouting “Jesus was a homo” on a megaphone and carrying an upside-down pink cross. Fire alarms went off inside the church, protesters stormed the pulpit and a huge rainbow-colored flag was unfurled with the inscription, “IT’S OKAY TO...

San Francisco (AP) -- The words "bride" and "groom" will reappear on all marriage license applications issued in California starting next month, state health officials said. In a notice posted on its Web site, the California Department of Public Health says it is making the change because many couples still wanted the option of identifying themselves in traditional terms. When same-sex marriage became legal in the state on June 16, the health department issued new gender-neutral marriage forms with the words "Party A" and "Party B" where "bride" and "groom" used to be.

Kris Alingod - AHN News Writer Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Speaking during his weekly radio address on Saturday, President George W. Bush thanked lawmakers for passing a landmark AIDs bill and reiterated his administration's broader goal of fighting extremism around the world by combating hunger and disease. The Senate passed by a vote of 80-16 a $48 billion measure called President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) last week to fight AIDS worldwide. The House passed its version of the bill in April. Bush said the legislation is "the largest international health initiative dedicated to fighting a single disease in...

tripling funds for fighting AIDS around the world The Associated Press July 24, 2008 WASHINGTON: The House of Representatives voted Thursday to triple money to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world, giving new life and new punch to a program credited with saving or prolonging millions of lives in Africa alone. The 303-115 vote sends the global AIDS bill to President George W. Bush for his signature. Bush, who floated the idea of a campaign against AIDS in his 2003 State of the Union speech, supports the five-year, $48 billion plan. Passage of the bill culminated a rare...

PENSACOLA BEACH -- Souvenir shops that line this sugary white Panhandle beach display Confederate flag beach towels, window decals and T-shirts. Hooters and other bars fly POW-MIA, Marine and Navy flags and cater to the sailors and Marines from the nearby base. Vacationing Southern families usually fill the hotels and condominiums in this slice of paradise long nicknamed "The Redneck Riviera." But every Memorial Day they mostly stay away as this Florida Panhandle town becomes more like trendy Miami Beach -- 700 miles and a world away. Starting in the mid-1980s, gay men from New Orleans and other nearby cities...

ATLANTA - At the world's busiest airport, plainclothes officers patrolling public restrooms in search of luggage thieves have instead uncovered a rash of other, more sordid crimes. The new restroom dragnet has led to the arrests of more than 30 people in three months for indecent exposure and public sex acts at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Airport restrooms apparently have become such popular meeting places for men looking for sexual trysts with other men that they have been suggested several times as meeting places in personal ads on the Web site Craigslist. "Hey ... I'm stuck at the airport from...

Report: Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox Will Kiss on FX's 'Dirt' Tuesday, January 23, 2007 Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox have played "Friends," but now their on-screen relationship is reportedly going to get a little "Dirt"-y. The two will share an on-screen kiss when Aniston appears on Cox's new FX Networks show "Dirt," TVGuide.com is reporting. Cox plays Lucy Spiller, a tabloid queen. Aniston will appear in the season finale as Tina Harrod, a rival magazine editor and a lesbian, according to the report. [SNIP] The episode will air March 27. [SNIP] FX Networks is owned by News Corp., the parent...

The always pertinent and to-the-point Sweetness & Light, has brought to our attention the case of David Scondras, an ex-City Councilor from Boston, who was arrested in an Internet sex sting early yesterday morning, when he went to meet a "15-year-old boy" with whom he had spoken "online." Scondras' first problem (well, second. . .eh, third. . .or. . .) - his most immediate problem was that the boy was actually a Lawrence, Massachusetts police officer:According to CBS-4 in Boston, this is what happened: Fmr. Boston Councilor Busted In Internet Sex StingOct 10, 2006 12:13 pm US/Eastern(CBS4) BOSTON Former Boston...

Karr was eyeing sex change * * Email * Print * Normal font * Large font August 20, 2006 - 2:30PM Karr (left) and JonBenet Ramsey Karr (left) and JonBenet Ramsey AdvertisementAdvertisement The man who confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey had another bizarre secret up his sleeve in the months before his arrest - he was visiting a surgical centre that specialises in sex-change operations. Staff at the Pratunam Clinic, Thailand's top transgender centre, told the New York Daily News yesterday that 41-year-old John Mark Karr was a patient of theirs - but wouldn't say how close he was to...

PANORAMA CITY, Calif. -- A man who barricaded himself with two hostages in a Panorama City condominium for about three hours surrendered to police early Friday.

What's up, Chuck? Charlie Brown provides inspiration for SF Gay Men's Chorus By JOHN BECK THE PRESS DEMOCRAT From Liberace to Liza Minnelli, the love of gay icons never dies. Cher, Bette Midler and Babs can't tour enough. Even Olivia Newton-John attracts hordes of adoring gay men who follow her around the country. But Charlie Brown? This year's Christmas miracle is a coming out, of sorts, as the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus roasts and toasts everyone's favorite blockhead in their annual Home for the Holidays concert. And it's not the only show you can go to this season that...