Free Republic

Ithaca, N.Y. — The Best Of Everything? By REBECCA JAMES   The Commons is a popular gathering place in downtown Ithaca, N.Y. (Photo by Gloria Wright)     ITHACA, N.Y. — When your town has made more than 25 lists that call it one of the best cities in America, you might be surprised that one magazine would call it one of the "Twelve Great Places You've Never Heard Of."But along with that 2006 designation from Mother Earth News, Ithaca seems to make the grade no matter what's being ranked. It's one of the "lesbian friendliest cities," has the "best...

Fifty-one percent of likely voters in the state oppose Proposition 8 on the November ballot, a constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage by defining marriage as only between a man and woman, according to a Field Poll released today. The poll shows voters are divided by where they live, their age, gender and political party. For Prop. 8: "I see nothing wrong with gay marriage. It's only controversial to narrow-minded people. ... I think the opposition (to same-sex marriage) has to do with being close-minded about homosexuality. Or maybe people are afraid of it."

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The flap over an ad promoting South Carolina as “So Gay� will cost the state tourism dollars, according to an industry expert. Gay and lesbian travelers will likely be turned off by the political posturing surrounding the ads, which were pulled by the state tourism agency and led one employee to resign. “We experience discrimination every day, so we certainly don't want to when we travel,� said Wesley Combs of the Washington-based communication firm Witeck-Combs, which specializes in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender travel. Combs noted that national media attention about the ad, including jokes on Conan...

Gay Activists Ascendant by: Audra Taylor, July 10, 2008 Anticipating unprecedented victories in the United States, gay rights groups in America are raising their profile at home and abroad. “It’s a really exciting time to be an LGBT American,” Rob Anderson, who edits the web site for Campus Progress, said at the group’s fourth annual national conference last week. The progressive student organization held its annual meeting at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. The panel was entitled, “Is LGBT Activism Obsolete?: Assessing the goals and methods of the LGBT movement,” and offered a particularly notable presentation. The panel of four LGBT...

The American Family Association, whose earlier boycott of Ford Motor Co. over its promotion of homosexuality was dropped after company sales fell 8 percent per month for two years, now is asking consumers to stop buying Big Macs and Happy Meals at McDonald's. In a brief announcement today, AFA, whose constituents number in the millions, said it is "asking its supporters to boycott the restaurant chain." "This boycott is not about hiring homosexuals, or homosexuals eating at McDonald's or how homosexual employees are treated. It is about McDonald's, as a corporation, choosing to put the full weight of their organization...

“While we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do. Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is exploited by those seeking to divide us. But at its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans. It’s about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect.” — Senator Barack Obama

Barack Obama may be talking up his Christian faith like he's doing today in Ohio and trying his best to appeal to Evangelicals with a “new kind of politics,” but he’s got a problem. Many of his positions are the same liberal positions that have turned off Evangelicals for years. Obama delivered another speech about faith Tuesday. He’s done a few of these concerning his faith and how it shapes his public policy. But Sunday his campaign and the Democratic Party were handing out pro-gay rights flyers at the Pride Festival in St. Louis. How is that going to play...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Gay-rights advocates asked the California Supreme Court on Friday to remove a proposed state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage from the November ballot, saying it would destroy fundamental rights that cannot be legally altered by a voter initiative. The suit was filed by organizations representing gay and lesbian couples in the case that led to the court's May 15 ruling striking down the state law that excluded them from marriage - a ruling that the Nov. 4 initiative would reverse. Like one of the laws that the court overturned, the initiative declares that "only a marriage between...

When you search Google for gay, you will see special rainbow colors next to the AdWords ads to the right side. Rainbow colors are a globally recognized gay symbol and there’s Pride Week coming up. On a related note, Google also sometimes dresses up AdWords for holidays, and they’ve also had their own wagons at gay parades before. Within Google, gay employees call themselves “gayglers.”

Conservative and pro-family groups spoke of an outrage Friday after a coalition of Republican and Democratic lawmakers joined to create the House’s first Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus. Democrats Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin – the only openly gay members of Congress – were key backers of the new caucus and were successful in gathering bipartisan support for the new initiative. Altogether, 52 House representatives signed on as members of the new caucus, including two Republicans. House members and supporters of the new measure were optimistic of their future plans and what they said was...

Controversial actor Rupert Everett has accused British soldiers risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan of being "whining wimps", it emerged today. --snip-- And comparing troops from now and then he said: “In Burton's day they were itching to get into the fray. “Now it is the opposite. They are always whining about the dangers of being killed. Oh my God, they are such wimps now! "The whole point of being in the Army is wanting to get killed, wanting to test yourself to the limits. Now you have to fly 15,000ft above the war zone to avoid getting hit....

Actor Rupert Everett has criticised Americans in an interview with a TV listings magazine. He has described them as "whiny victims" whose entire language is taken from US TV series Friends and Sex And The City. "I'm totally off the States now. The reaction to 9/11 and then George Bush - really, they've got very blobby as a nation" - Rupert Everett Everett told the magazine: "I'm totally off the States now. The reaction to 9/11 and then George Bush - really, they've got very blobby as a nation.

A state lawmaker from New Albany backed a bill this year that would give employment and housing protection to Ohio's gays and transsexuals. That took some courage because the Senate leaders of his party, the Republicans, have no patience for the legislation. And similar bills never have received much attention in Ohio, let alone on-the-record hearings. But Sen. David Goodman said his active endorsement of Senate Bill 305 was a no-brainer after a conversation in March with his father, a prominent Harvard-trained lawyer. That day, he reminded his son why Jewish law firms first opened in Columbus: No one else...

San Francisco (AP) -- California officials are telling county clerks that they can start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples on June 17. The state Office of Vital Records says it chose June 17 because the state Supreme Court has until the end of business on June 16 to decide whether to grant a stay of its ruling legalizing gay marriage.

A Home Depot store in Utah plans to celebrate Gay pride in the Store with decorations of Rainbows and employee Tee shirts announcing gay pride. Inside sources say that this is something that will be devastating to business as most of the customer base tends to be on the Right side of the issue as they are mostly religious people. I am actively involved in this business and i dont want to be a part of it bacuae this is contrary to my belief and would like advice from more experienced FReepers on how best to disrupt these outrageous plans...

You don't know where it will happen. You don't know when it will happen. You don't know who it will happen to. But if you own a business or believe in conservative societal norms, at some point you will feel the impact when the TRANSSEXUAL MAFIA STRIKES!!!!

Boy Scouts File Federal Lawsuit Over Dispute with City of Philadelphia by KYW's Mike Dunn The local Boy Scouts organization has filed a federal lawsuit against the Nutter administration over the mayor's ultimatum that the scouts renounce the group's national policy on gays or leave their city-owned headquarters. Mayor Nutter has told the "Cradle of Liberty" Boy Scout council to renounce the Scouts' national policy on gays, start paying fair-market-value rent, or vacate its city-owned headquarters -- on Winter Street near 22nd, just off the Benjamin Franklin Parkway -- by June 1st. Currently, the scouting group gets the office space...

With only six primaries left - and Barack Obama’s resounding lead over rival Hillary Clinton - many people have basically declared the delegate selection over. That, however, would be premature. While the majority of the states and overseas regions’ delegate numbers have been determined, most of them must still decide which individuals will head to Denver this August. have ruled which candidate gets how many delegates, most of them still must decide who will head to Denver this August. And, like so many things in this election, there’s loads of drama surrounding the process. Infighting, allegations, personal homophobia and potentially...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- Sacramento mayoral candidate Kevin Johnson upset local gay and lesbian leaders after saying he believes marriage is between a man and a woman. The former NBA star made the statement in response to a question during a candidate debate this week. Gretchen Bender, vice president of the Sacramento County Board of Education, says Johnson's statement shows that he is not ready to lead the city. Bender and a half-dozen other gay and lesbian leaders held a news conference to express their concern about the former Phoenix Suns star.

"We're here, we're queer, get used to it!" Dozens of lesbian activists at Smith College climbed in through windows and stormed the podium in a riot scene shortly after Ryan Sorba began a speech on his upcoming book, The Born Gay Hoax. The melee forced an end to the speech before a packed hall in the library on the Northhampton campus. Uniformed police officers and a plainclothes security guard were in the room but mostly just stood and watched. Rather than take action against the rioters, the officers and a university official walked to the podium and ordered Sorba to...

On April 25, adult homosexual activists with the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) held their annual “Day of Silence” (DOS) propaganda push. During DOS, teachers and students in roughly three thousand middle schools, high schools and colleges across the country are cynically used as culture war pawns in an effort to legitimize conventionally immoral, objectively deviant and demonstrably high-risk sexual behaviors. Kids and teachers are encouraged on DOS to disrupt the school day by refusing to speak in class as a show of support to students who self-identify as “GLBT” (No, GLBT has nothing to do with bacon,...

The group requires all employees to sign a contract agreeing to abstain from all sexual immorality, including homosexuality. When Christian Horizons fired a female employee who became involved with another woman, she complained to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, which fined the ministry $23,000 and two years back pay.

I was supposed to ask her questions like "where are you most likely to disagree with your mom or your dad?" or "did you ever call your mom at 3 am and how did she react?" But all I could think of was that: "I am...standing in front of Hill and Bill's kid...in a red Mary Kay Cosmetics Collection dress...I'd just bought that day at the Goodwill...how weird is that?" Yes, Chelsea Clinton made it to the infamous "Red Dress" Party. Not to be confused with that other annual "Red Dress" fundraiser, this is the "Red Dress Party," a mondo-alcohol-fueled...

Staff members for a prominent pro-family organization that has been key to the battle against California's mandated homosexual indoctrination programs for public schools are working off-site while an investigation is conducted into threats that someone would arrive at the office and "punish" them, officials confirmed today. The investigation into the threats follows several days of aggressive attacks on the website for Capitol Resource Family Impact, which has restored the site multiple times, only to see another hacker attack disable the location. Karen England, chief of the organization that has played a prominent role in a challenge to the implementation of...

ADF attorneys represent a Christian photographer being tried under state antidiscrimination laws for declining to photograph a same-sex “commitment ceremony.” “Christians shouldn’t be penalized for abiding by their beliefs. The state cannot force unwilling people to promote a message they disagree with and thereby violate their conscience,” said Lorence. “The state’s prosecution violates our client’s First Amendment rights. The government cannot make people choose between their faith and their job.” A same-sex couple asked Elaine Huguenin, co-owner with her husband of Elane Photography, to photograph a “commitment ceremony” that the two women wanted to hold. Huguenin declined because her Christian...

MTV offers lyrics to Devo songs on their web page. But they got frightened by the title of Devo's famous "Are we not men" song, and couldn't bring themselves to write "Jocko Homo" on their page. It's no accident. They have a page listing every track on all of Devo's albums — and each of the 11 times "Jocko Homo" was included in a new compilation, MTV changed its name to "Jocko H***". Ironically, I'd been there to research the way Devo's lyrics were being changed by Walt Disney Records...

<p>McDonald's has signed on to a nationwide effort to promote "gay" and "lesbian" business ventures.</p> <p>According to McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner, McDonald’s will aggressively promote the homosexual agenda. In remarks on McDonald's Web site concerning the company becoming a member of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), Skinner wrote: "Being a socially responsible organization is a fundamental part of who we are. We have an obligation to use our size and resources to make a difference in the world … and we do."</p>

WASHINGTON - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy is jumping into the middle of an uproar within the gay community whose causes he has long championed. The Massachusetts Democrat is leading a push in the Senate for a federal ban on job bias against gays, lesbians and bisexuals — but not transsexuals, cross-dressers and others whose outward appearance doesn't match their gender at birth. "We will strongly oppose it," said Roberta Sklar of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "Leaving transgender people out makes that a flawed movement." The House in November approved the bill, written by openly gay Rep. Barney...

"Boycott the April DAY of SILENCE! Below is the list of schools we believe will be participating in the April 2008 "Day of silence." This pro-homosexual day communicates clear (and false) messages to ALL students in the school that: homosexuality is a worthy lifestyle; that it has few or no risks; that some people are "born" homosexual, including students; and that those who oppose this behavior are hateful and uninformed. We do NOT agree. The Day of Silence is, sadly, a day of deception.The facts do not support the implications noted above. Responsible parents and communities will oppose this message...

Obama: Sermon on Mount Justifies Same-Sex Unions By Terence P. Jeffrey CNSNews.com Editor in Chief March 03, 2008 (CNSNews.com) - Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) told a crowd at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio, Sunday that he believes the Sermon on the Mount justifies his support for legal recognition of same-sex unions. He also told the crowd that his position in favor of legalized abortion does not make him "less Christian." "I don't think it [a same-sex union] should be called marriage, but I think that it is a legal right that they should have that is recognized by the state,"...

Behind the School Safety Movement by: Bethany Stotts, February 27, 2008 Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and queer (LGBTQ) organizations believe that promoting school safety is essential to their organization’s mission. Ally Action, the Anti-Defamation League, Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Out for Equity, Safe Schools Coalition, and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation all consider fostering safe gay-accepting schools a high priority.... The SSC’s “Guidelines on Bias” (pdf) eschews the term “minority” for “non-majority” and considers language labeling minorities as disadvantaged or needy “patronizing” and biased. In an ideal situation, “The right of non-majority people to decide what is...

Ric Weiland, who helped his friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen launch Microsoft, was a quiet philanthropist. But his final gift has provided one of the most powerful financial boosts ever to the gay-rights movement. Weiland has left $65 million to the Pride Foundation in Seattle and 10 nonprofit organizations, believed to be the largest estate gift ever given to the gay and lesbian community in the U.S. His generosity didn't stop there. Weiland left $160 million, the majority of his estate, to charity. That includes a gift to Stanford University estimated to be worth $60 million, which the university...

Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic U.S. senators locked in a tight race for their party's presidential nomination, appear to have split support among gay and lesbian voters, with neither candidate yet to emerge as the clear frontrunner. Both campaigns have outreach efforts focused on the gay and lesbian community, which has proved potent when it comes to fundraising and get-out-the-vote efforts for Democratic candidates. During this primary season, same-sex marriage has not been elevated to a lightning-rod issue as it was in the 2004 general election when the victory for same-sex marriage proponents in Massachusetts was still...

Weekly Legislative Update As January came to a close, we are quickly nearing the halfway point, or "crossover", of the Virginia General Assembly. This next week will see action on all remaining legislation as each house works to clear their dockets by crossover, February 12. Read Friday's Washington Blade article "Pro-Gay Bills Advance in Virginia Legislature." Don't forget to make sure your voice is heard! Speak out and contact your Senator and Delegate about issues that are important to you! You can use the links below to send a free email if you have not already done so, or call...

Jeremy Bernard thinks he has been sucked into a time warp. Only five months ago, he was sitting shoulder to shoulder with U.S. Senator Barack Obama in the back of a black SUV, speeding through West Hollywood on Santa Monica Boulevard, talking about the fine points of gay and lesbian federal legislation. An hour later, the Democratic presidential candidate was hitting every detail they had discussed in the car, but this time on network television. For Bernard, it was mind-blowing. The key fund-raiser for the Obama campaign was seeing his issues dramatically migrate from a personal chat to the national...

Gore Expresses Support for Homosexual Marriage By Pete Winn CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer January 30, 2008 (CNSNews.com) - Al Gore, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and self-proclaimed "inventor of the Internet," has earned a new moniker: champion of homosexual marriage. And while some observers are excited about Gore's endorsement of same-sex marriage, the laws at the state level show overall that traditional marriage is supported by a vast majority of Americans and legislatures. "I think gay men and women ought to have the same rights as heterosexual men and women - to make contracts, to have hospital visiting rights,...

And, you might ask, who is next on Flynt's list to expose? He does name three to Handy, but not for publication. What we do know: * a Republican presidential candidate * a well-known Republican senator * another "prominent conservative official" (this is described in the article as involving "hooker parties and no-tell-motel liaisons"

13-year-old initiated sex, judge says Article from: Herald Sun December 17, 2007 01:51pm A JUDGE has labelled a man's rape of a 13-year-old boy "adolescent experimentation" and said the teen and the perpetrator were "both victims". Judge Michael Kelly's comments come a month after a prosecutor accused him of making inappropriate and disrespectful statements about the sexual assault victim during a plea hearing. The Melbourne County Court was told that in March 2001 a 24-year-old man began a relationship with a 13-year-old boy.

December 12, 2007 Jodie Foster comes out... finally The notoriously private Oscar-winning actress has acknowledged her lesbian partner in public for the first time Veronica Schmidt After guarding her private life fiercely for 15 years, Hollywood actress Jodie Foster has publicly acknowledged her lesbian partner. The Oscar-winning actress thanked "my beautiful Cydney" after winning an award at the Women in Entertainment Power 100 breakfast in Los Angeles. She went on to praise Cydney Bernard, saying the film producer "sticks with me through all the rotten and the bliss". Despite more than a decade of speculation, questions over the paternity of...

Need something a bit more, you know, sexy and subversive this holiday? Here you go - No fruit baskets. No swell digital cameras and no "Sopranos" DVD sets and no noxious copies of "High School Musical 2" and no "Eat, Pray, Love" and nothing at all approved or endorsed by Oprah. No golfing figurines. No sports paraphernalia. No candleholders. No pink fleece hoodies with little glittery skulls. Not on this, my annual list, anyway. Just random delicious deeply cool things I've come across that make a statement or warm your blood or taste unreal or that serve some sort of...

Remember kids: Be good, say your prayers and, uh, never be alone with a priest. Praise! This is how you know. This is one more of the beautiful bizarre myriad ways the Great Shift signals its imminent arrival, in fits and spurts and wayward sidelong slaps, weird cultural burps and from unexpected places that make you go, wow. Take the Archdiocese of New York. It has apparently just released new coloring book for kids, all about how to be safe in an age of fear and predation. It is full of nice pictures of kids being sweet and virginal and...

With his buddy Ralph Tyler firmly planted as the Maryland Insurance Commissioner, Martin O’Malley is using the office to put in definitions of domestic partners through regulations rather than legislation. So, two people that share an apartment only have to get a joint bank account and insurance companies are required to recognize them as domestic partners. A public hearing is scheduled for next week, Thursday, December 13th.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has learned that Makvan Mouloodzadeh, a 21-year old Iranian citizen of Kurdish origin from the city of Paveh, in the Western province of Kermanshah, has been sentenced by the government to execution. Makvan has been convicted of multiple counts of anal rape and sentenced to execution for crimes allegedly committed when he was 13 years old. IGLHRC calls for an international response to stop this scheduled execution. Imposing the death penalty for crimes committed by juveniles is prohibited under international law as well as by the Iranian legal system. In addition,...

For three years the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America held its ground. It resisted the city’s request to change its discriminatory policy toward gay people despite threats that if it did not do so, the city would evict the group from a municipal building where the Scouts have resided practically rent free since 1928. Hailed as the birthplace of the Boy Scouts, the Beaux Arts building is the seat of the seventh-largest chapter of the organization and the first of the more than 300 council service centers built by the Scouts around the country over the past...

Current California law makes it illegal for schools to offer instruction or an activity that "reflects adversely upon persons" because of their race, sex, color, creed, handicap, national origin or ancestry. A new law scheduled to take effect in January would revise the protected list to disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation. It would also change the words "reflects adversely" to "promotes a discriminatory bias." (snip) A fundamental philosophical, or even moral, conflict lies at the heart of the political clash – the same conflict that fuels the perennial battle over same-sex marriage. One side believes that...

David Phillips. Mike Jones. Greg Ruth. Tom Russell. Four gay men, willing to put their names in print and whose allegations can't be disproved, have come forward since news of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's guilty plea. They say they had sex with Craig or that he made a sexual advance or that he paid them unusual attention. They are telling their stories now because they are offended by Craig's denials, including his famous statement, "I am not gay, I never have been gay." Those words, spoken on live national TV on Aug. 28, are now memorialized on a just-released-for-Christmas Talking...

Marking the 14th anniversary of legislation that allowed gay men and lesbians to serve in the military but only if they kept their orientation secret, 28 retired generals and admirals plan to release a letter on Friday urging Congress to repeal the law. We respectfully urge Congress to repeal the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy,” the letter says. “Those of us signing this letter have dedicated our lives to defending the rights of our citizens to believe whatever they wish.” The retired officers offer data showing that 65,000 gay men and lesbians now serve in the American armed forces and...

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air have announced a new program that will charge heterosexuals 10 percent extra for their air travel to specific locations during the Christmas season. The company actually offers the 10 percent as a discount but only if the purchaser obtains the ticket through a "gay" page of the company's website, a location not typically patronized by families seeking travel arrangements, according to an Idaho activist who was distressed by the offering. Bryan Fischer, of the Idaho Values Alliance, told WND the company boasts of its "nondiscrimination" policies, but, "here they are blatantly discriminating against heterosexuals...

IGNORE the fuss over the news last week — the United Nations’ AIDS-fighting agency admits to overestimating the global epidemic by six million people. That was a sampling error, an epidemiologist’s Dewey Defeats Truman. Look instead at the fact that glares out from the Orwellian but necessary revision of the figures for earlier years. There it is, starkly: AIDS has peaked. New infections reached a high point in the late 1990’s — by the best estimate, in 1998. There must have been such moments in the past — perhaps A.D. 543, when Constantinople realized it would survive the Plague of...

Vallejo -- Openly gay Vallejo City Councilman Gary Cloutier won the mayor's race by four votes, elections officials said this afternoon, just hours after the councilman apologized for his weekend arrest for public intoxication after drinking too much at a bar in Palm Springs. Cloutier beat former Solano County supervisor Osby Davis by a hair-thin margin of 5,722 to 5,718 votes, according to final results from the Nov. 6 election. Assistant registrar of voters Lindsay McWilliams said he expects to certify the results as final on Monday. The mayor's race has been in a virtual dead heat since Nov. 6,...