Free Republic

"I feel like everybody's treating me like a hero. Everybody thinks it takes enormous courage." ... Windsor maintained that the federal government's insistence in the Defense of Marriage Act that a marriage can be only defined as a relationship between a man and a woman meant she was not entitled to a marital deduction on Spyer's estate. That meant, she said, that she owed $363,053 in taxes that she would not have to pay if the law did not unconstitutionally discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

Scientists may have finally solved the puzzle of what makes a person gay, and how it is passed from parents to their children. A group of scientists suggested Tuesday that homosexuals get that trait from their opposite-sex parents: A lesbian will almost always get the trait from her father, while a gay man will get the trait from his mother.

Charlie Rogers maintained her innocence even as a Lancaster County judge found her guilty Monday of faking the anti-gay hate crime that shocked Lincoln and made headlines across the country. Rogers, 34, pleaded no contest in Lancaster County Court early Monday afternoon, a reversal of the not guilty plea she made in September. Judge Gale Pokorny found her guilty and set her sentencing for Feb. 14.

A teacher at Deerfield Beach High School is fighting the Broward school district over its handling of an accusation that she possibly contributed to a young girl's homosexuality. Juliet Hibbs, a straight woman currently on medical leave, was investigated last year for misconduct after the girl's parents made those allegations to the school's principal. However, the district cleared her and no action was taken.

Joseph E. Baldwin Jr., 23, of 26 Lathrop St., was sentenced to the Illinois State Penal Farm for 11 months and placed on three years probation Friday after he pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless homicide. Baldwin, a novelty salesman, pleaded guilty to the charge in July after the car he was driving crashed into a semi-trailer near Danville, Ill., killing his passenger, Robert M. Clark, 19, of Champaign, Ill. The court granted 60 days reduction in the jail sentence to compensate for time has has already spent in the Vermillion County Jail.

Anti-gay parenting activists in Marseille were left irked on Wednesday after two women trumped their protest against same-sex parenting with a lesbian kiss, which was captured by a photographer and promptly went viral. A demonstration against same-sex parenting was interrupted Wednesday by its very target, when two women interrupted the event by sharing a kiss. The “Un papa une maman" ("one dad one mum") demonstration featured a performer sporting a spandex suit and wings, fluttering between “mamas” and “papas” before gaining steam from the cheers of both. The performance was supposed to demonstrate that a child needs both a mother...

One of Hong Kong's wealthiest men has placed a "marriage bounty" on his lesbian daughter's head, offering nearly £40 million to the man who successfully woos her. Property magnate Cecil Chao Sze-tsung announced the HK$500 million reward this week after reports that his 33-year-old daughter Gigi Chao, a University of Manchester graduate, had married her long-term female partner in France. "I don't mind whether he is rich or poor. The important thing is that he is generous and kind-hearted," Mr Chao told the South China Morning Post, describing reports about his daughter's marriage as "false". The extravagant tycoon's offer blended...

A notary in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo has sparked controversy by accepting a civil union between three people. Public Notary Claudia do Nascimento Domingues has said the man and two women should be entitled to family rights. She says there is nothing in law to prevent such an arrangement. But the move has angered some religious groups, while one lawyer described it as "absurd and totally illegal". The three individuals, who have declined to speak to the press, have lived in Rio de Janeiro together for three years and share bills and other expenses. Ms Domingues says they...

Charlie Rogers, former basketball star, now accused of faking hate crimes. LINCOLN, NE, August 22, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Charlie Rogers’ story about crawling at 4 a.m. on a Monday morning – bound, bloodied, and baying – across the street to her neighbor’s house after being brutally attacked by three men seemed too horrific to be true. Yesterday, police in Lincoln, Nebraska, concluded it was just that. The 33-year-old lesbian, a former University of Nebraska women’s basketball star, arrived on the front door of her neighbor Linda Rappl’s house on July 22, with a story out of a horror movie. Three...

Lisa Miller and daughter Isabellea August 15, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Kenneth L. Miller, a Mennonite pastor who helped a little girl and her mother to flee the United States to escape the girl’s court-imposed lesbian “mother,” has been convicted on the charge of “aiding and abetting a parental kidnapping.” A Vermont jury returned the verdict yesterday after only four hours of deliberation. He is free while awaiting sentencing, which could bring a punishment of up to three years in prison.  Miller’s attorney, Joshua M. Autry, says he is considering an appeal. Following the verdict, lesbian Janet Jenkins filed a civil...

August 10, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) - Federal prosecutors are presenting their case in a trial against a Mennonite pastor who is accused of helping a single motherescape from the United States with her daughter to evade court-ordered visits with a lesbian whom the court declared to be the girl’s second “mother.” Ex-lesbian Lisa Miller fled the country after her efforts failed to keep former “civil union” partner Janet Jenkins from having access to her child, Isabella. Jenkins never adopted Isabella and has no biological relationship with the girl, who exhibited signs of emotional trauma following forced visits with Jenkins, according to...

A veteran US law-enforcement official has filed a blockbuster discrimination lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, charging she pushed him aside to make way for a less-qualified woman who’s “enjoyed a long-standing relationship” with the anti-terror chief. The lawsuit, which was first reported yesterday by blogger Debbie Schlussel, identifies the woman as Dora Schriro, who was later appointed by Mayor Bloomberg as commissioner of the city Department of Correction, a post she still holds. The court papers also allege that Suzanne Barr, Napolitano’s chief of staff at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has engaged in “numerous” acts of “sexually offensive...

Looks like the Department of Homeland Security could be renamed the Department of Hyper Sexuality. A blistering federal discrimination suit accuses agency honcho Janet Napolitano of turning the department into a female-run “frat house” where male staffers were banished to the bathrooms and routinely humiliated. James Hayes Jr., who now is New York’s top Homeland Security cop, claims Napolitano filled top spots in Washington, D.C., with two of her gal pals who were bent on tormenting male employees.

A powerful New York politician claims she was just speaking as a private citizen when she tried to run Chick-fil-A out of town, but she used her official letterhead and even invoked her position as City Council speaker to apply pressure on the embattled chicken chain. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has mayoral aspirations, sent a letter to New York University president John Sexton on Saturday asking the school to immediately end their contract with the fast food restaurant. The Atlanta-based company's sole New York City outlet is in the school's food court. "I write as the...

The above picture is what some gays/lesbians are calling on for dress on Fridays when going to Chick Fil-A My question is whether businesses have the right to require a dress code, and also be allowed to expel patrons for lewd behavior. There are Gay/Lesbian groups calling for boycotting/protests at Chick-Fil-A restaurants every Friday. What rights do businesses have today? Does this vary depending on the state? Can very skimpy dress (bikinis, etc) be grounds for expelling people from the business? What about behavior by adults that would be bad examples and considered lewd behavior in front of children....

Police investigators in Lincoln, Neb., have not ruled out the possibility that a 33-year-old lesbian allegedly attacked last weekend because of her sexual orientation might have staged the hate crime. But they’re also not ready to call her story, which has ignited interest across the country, a complete fabrication. Chief Jim Peschong told the Lincoln Journal Star that investigators, aided by the FBI, continue to search for suspects in the case but remain uncertain whether the attack even took place. The woman, whom Nebraska gay advocates have dubbed “Rainbow Jane,” told police that three men wearing masks stormed into her...

For the first time, military recruiters made an appearance Thursday at a gay community center on Long Island -- and even though the turnout was sparse, organizers hailed the significance of the event.

COUNTRY music sweetheart Beccy Cole has decided to reveal her sexuality to set an example to her son "that to be yourself is the most important thing in the world". Cole said she was inspired to use the opportunity to come out as a lesbian on Australian Story tonight by her 13-year-old son Rikki. "While you can have your privacy and all that, there are certain times and certain issues where I want to set an example to him," she said. "I have never hidden who I am from him. "What started me thinking about revealing this more publicly was...

A priest who denied communion to a lesbian at her mother's funeral is no longer in ministry with the Archdiocese of Washington, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese said Monday. Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, who served at St. John Neumann parish in Gaithersburg, Md., was placed on leave in mid-March for engaging in intimidating behavior, NBC Washington.com reported at the time, and now he is leaving for good. “Fr. Marcel Guarnizo is a priest of the Archdiocese of Moscow, Russia, who was given a temporary assignment at St. John Neumann parish,” Chieko Noguchi Scheve, director of media and public relations at the...

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York hospital worker and her spouse have filed a lawsuit saying spousal health benefits were denied to the same-sex couple.The lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan sought past and future health care benefits and a declaration that the Westchester County couple is entitled to the benefits.The lawsuit's plaintiffs remained anonymous. Defendants included Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield and St. Joseph's Medical Center. Neither immediately responded to messages for comment. The lawsuit says one of the women works at St. Vincent's Westchester, a division of St. Joseph's. The women's attorney, Randolph McLaughlin, said...