Free Republic

The battle over gay rights will move to New Jersey and the federal government, advocates said, after Tuesday's narrow rejection of same-sex marriage by Maine voters in a hard-fought contest. The Democrat-controlled legislature in New Jersey, which currently recognizes same-sex couples in civil unions, is under pressure to pass a bill authorizing gay marriage before Gov. Jon Corzine ends his term in mid-January.

ALBANY, New York, November 6, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Gov. David Paterson has convoked an extraordinary session of the New York State Legislature to address the state's soaring budget deficit, as well as to pass legislation that would legalize same-sex "marriage."Paterson issued a special proclamation Thursday announcing the special session would convene on November 10 at noon. He said the legislature would take up consideration of the Governor's $5.2 billion "Deficit Reduction Plan" - a proposal which promises steep cuts in government spending - along with several other items including the same-sex "marriage" bill already passed by the Assembly.The fate of...

CNA STAFF, Nov 6, 2009 / 11:58 am (CNA).- Maggie Gallagher, president of the National Organization for Marriage, spoke to CNA about the victory of Question 1 in Maine, which repeals previous legislation legalizing gay ‘marriage.’ Gallagher said that the victory, which defies statistics and expectations, “is very heartening to marriage supporters and disappointing to gay ‘marriage’ advocates.” Noting that the supporters of same-sex marriage were surprised and upset by this victory, Gallagher analyzed the circumstances leading up to the election. “The gay marriage advocates,” she told CNA on Thursday, “had a three-year head start. They put millions into building...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Maine voters upheld ‘the truth of marriage’ in Question 1 vote, archbishop says/div> Archbishop Joseph Kurtz Washington D.C., Nov 6, 2009 / 03:29 am (CNA).-  Responding to the successful passage of Maine’s Question 1, Archbishop of Louisville Joseph E. Kurtz has said that the people of Maine voted to “uphold the true nature of marriage as a union of one man and one woman.” Truth is inseparable from justice, he added, saying that society should strengthen marriage, not redefine and confuse it.Question 1, an initiative which overturned the Maine legislature’s decision to recognize homosexual couples as married, passed...

A SOMALI man who claims to be 112 years old has married a 17-year old girl. "Today God helped me realise my dream," Ahmed Mohamed Dhore said, after the wedding in the region of Galguduud. Bride Safiya Abdulle's family said she was "happy with her new husband". Mr Dhore says he wanted to marry Safiya for a long time but waited for her to grow up. "I didn't force her, but used my experience to convince her of my love; and then we agreed to marry," he was quoted by the BBC as saying. He said his children and two...

The Record The Christian Civic League of Maine has issued the following press release  on the success of the People's Veto of the same sex marriage law. The League thanks its faithful friends and supporters for all they have done to protect marriage  and the families of Maine.    The Christian Civic League of Maine welcomes the news of the win on Question 1. Shortly before the election, the League predicted that homosexual marriage would eventually be decisively and finally defeated. The League saw that the common sense of the people, combined with the Biblical truth about homosexuality would win out over any...

The weekend of October 24 was busy for TFP Student Action volunteers. Their first stop was Scranton, Penn., for a pro-life conference. Lighting the Way for Life was the title of the full-day conference sponsored by the Pennsylvanians for Human Life on October 24. The event brought together hundreds of pro-family leaders from across the Keystone State committed to defend innocent life against the culture of death. TFP Student Action members manned a booth at the event and distributed pro-family literature. What attracted most attention at the busy booth was the TFP petition urging the president of the University of...

Hey gays, I mean guys, can I talk to you for a minute? Last Tuesdays loss in Maine was a tough blow (definitely no pun inteded, gross). 31 states have now shot down gay marriage. Here's the thing, you are going about it all wrong. If you want the government to stay out of your lives, so that you can live the lifestyle you want, why are you lobbying so hard for the government to interfere on the issue? If you want to continue to gay-out with your lovers, without the government telling you no, then why are you trying...

It is too hard for me to swallow the fact that a properly passed law in Maine was repealed in a public referendum. This just seems wrong. The proper course of action was to throw out the bums who passed the law in the first place and then have a subsequent legislature / Governer repeal the law. While the "outcome" in this case was favorable to conservative point of view, it is impossible for me to see how it benefits the conservative movement in the long run. Remember, gay marriage was made legal in Maine by the elected government -...

I haven't heard this argument before by homosexuals but here it is: "Taxes have everything to do with "no taxation without representation." Why should homosexuals have to pay taxes if they are going to be treated as second class citizens? Why should their tax dollars go to the govt? But if you and I can have our benefits left to our spouses and get tax breaks for filing, then everyone in a domestic partnership should have that right. The govt should support all marriage or no marriage. It should represent all it's constituents. We can't just apply the ideals of...

PORTLAND, Maine — Voters on Tuesday repealed the state’s same sex marriage law after an emotionally charged campaign that drew large numbers to the polls and focused national attention on Maine. In a defiant speech to several hundred lingering supporters, No on 1 campaign manager Jesse Connolly pledged that his side “will not quit until we know where every single one of these votes lives.”

In a stinging setback for the national gay-rights movement, Maine voters narrowly decided to repeal the state’s new law allowing same-sex marriage. With 87 percent of precincts reporting early this morning, 53 percent of voters had approved the repeal, ending an expensive and emotional fight that was closely watched around the country as a referendum on the national gay-marriage movement. Polls had suggested a much closer race. With the repeal, Maine became the 31st state to reject same-sex marriage at the ballot box. Five other states - Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire and Vermont - have legalized same-sex marriage, but...

In Washington State, another referendum on gay couples' equality was also a squeaker. But in this one, gay couples won. The state's domestic partnership law grants gay couples all the rights of married couples at a state level. The usual forces tried to reverse it, as they tried in Maine. But in Washington, the gay side won by 51.1 to 48.9 percent. Again, it's such a slender margin, it's stupid to draw any vast conclusions. But I do want to point out that, from the perspective of just a decade ago, to have an even split on this question in...

For Washington go to http://protectmarriagewa.com/ and and for Maine http://www.standformarriagemaine.com/index.php?home=1 If you know anyone in these states that can go vote to protect marriage or can donate, get other people to the polls let them know

Yes on repeal of gay marriage 51% No on repeal of gay marriage 47%

Read this BEFORE you get married This article appeared in the weekly parish bulletin column of St. Lambert's Church in Skokie, IL. The author is "The Rev. Know It All" the resident apologetics personality of the pastor Fr. Richard Simon. Here it is in its entirity: ********************************** Warning:: THIS EPISODE OF THE REV. KNOW IT ALL IS EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE. IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU OR ANYONE YOU KNOW. PLEASE READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE. THE REV. KNOW IT ALL IS NOT OPPOSED TO ALL WEDDING CELEBRATIONS. HE IS NOT TALKING ABOUT YOUR WEDDINGWHICH WAS A TRIUMPH OF PERSONAL SANCTITY AND GOOD...

Over the last several months homosexual activist campaign workers from across the country have been traveling to Maine to campaign against the upcoming vote for traditional marriage. It's been largely paid for by national homosexual groups. But all along the Massachusetts homosexual lobby has been a major organizing and fundraising arm of the pro-gay marriage push in Maine.

Public Policy Polling: Marriage still close in Maine via kwout

The following statement can be attributed to Marc Mutty, chairman, Stand for Marriage Maine: “I want to alert you to a disturbing development that confirms what we have been saying about the larger threat that redefining marriage poses to every Mainer. “Don Mendell, one of our spokesmen who appeared in a television ad for Stand for Marriage Maine, has come under attack by our opponents. “Don is a high school guidance counselor and licensed social worker. His appearance in the television ad prompted a complaint to the Maine Department of Professional and Financial Regulation – requesting that his license to...

SEATTLE Conservatives here, a droll minority, say that under this city's quota system, when a conservative enters the city, one already here is required to leave. They also say that Washington is actually two states: There is what you can see from atop this city's Space Needle -- meaning, this liberal city -- and there is everything else, extending to the Oregon, Idaho and Canadian borders. On Tuesday, Washington residents will vote in a referendum that has national significance because of a controversy about disclosing the names and addresses of those who signed petitions to trigger the referendum. Disclosure threatens...

AUGUSTA, Maine — A high school guidance counselor who appeared in a television ad opposing gay marriage is reportedly the target of an effort to rescind his state license, according to campaign officials. Don Mendell of Nokomis Regional High School in Newport was featured in an ad by Stand for Marriage Maine in support of Question 1, which seeks to overturn a new state law allowing same-sex couples to wed. Now, a guidance counselor from another school has filed a complaint with state regulators requesting that Mendell’s license to practice social work in Maine be revoked because of his statements...

Barack and Michelle Obama: Mr&Mrs show irks voters As political woes mount, not all have been won over by the first couple’s intimate revelations Tony Allen-Mills in Washington With difficult state elections and a crucial military decision looming, President Barack Obama sat down with his wife Michelle last month to give an in-depth magazine interview about a subject that has hitherto not ranked highly on the White House political agenda — the state of the first couple’s marriage. The president used the occasion to complain that when he recently hopped aboard Air Force One to fly his wife to New...

The D.C. City Council Washington D.C., Nov 1, 2009 / 03:10 am (CNA).- A Washington, D.C. City Council proposal to recognize same-sex “marriage” would redefine marriage and could force Catholic educational and charitable institutions to close or face lawsuits, burdensome regulation and the compromising of their faith, the Archdiocese of Washington has warned.The proposed law, called the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009, redefines marriage as “the legally recognized union of two people.” It says a religious association or a non-profit associated with a religion shall not be required to provide services, accommodations, facilities or...

Michelle Triola Marvin dies at 75; her legal fight with ex-lover Lee Marvin added 'palimony' to the language After their cohabitation of six years, she took him to court, seeking $1.8 million, but won just $104,000, and that award was later thrown out.Michelle Triola Marvin, a former nightclub singer whose claims as the onetime live-in girlfriend of actor Lee Marvin led to a landmark ruling that established the legal concept of palimony, has died. She was 75. Marvin, who had fought lung cancer for the last 18 months, died Friday at the Malibu home she shared with actor Dick Van...

Thursday, October 29, 2009 Building a better marriage By Mary DeTurris Poust Ask any Catholic couple for the secret to their marital success and they're likely to focus on two key things: communication and faith. Without those crucial elements, marriage can quickly become a business partnership rather than the sacramental relationship it is meant to be. The Church tries to ensure, through Pre-Cana programs, that young couples are aware of that reality before they say walk down the aisle to say, "I do." Now the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., is offering a DVD, "When Two Become One: An...

“Do not doubt the direction we are headed and the destination we will reach.” With those words to gay activists at the annual Human Rights Campaign (HRC) fundraiser this month, President Obama again signaled -- with the wink-and-a-nod style with which he is so adept -- his support for same-sex marriage. Few people believe the president when he insists he opposes gay nuptials. But the more significant issue is not whether the Obama administration’s “destination” on marriage is same-sex marriage. It clearly is. The key issue is whether, based on who the president surrounds himself with, the administration will put...

IFI E-Alert:: Marriage Rally and Lobby Day -- Oct. 29th 10/20/2009 8:10:00 AM By David E. Smith, Executive Director -Illinois Family Institute Approximately eight hundred Illinois citizens from around the state joined IFI & other Christian leaders in Springfield last year to rally, pray, and lobby for natural marriage, religious freedom, parental rights and the innocence of our children. Click HERE to download a flyer to distribute at church and in your community. Join IFI and Illinois families from around the state to take a stand for protecting marriage, religious freedom, parental rights and the innocence of our children! Plan...

Abstract: Supporters of Proposition 8 in California have been subjected to harassment, intimidation, vandalism, racial scapegoating, blacklisting, loss of employment, economic hardships, angry protests, violence, at least one death threat, and gross expressions of anti-religious bigotry. Arguments for same-sex marriage are based fundamentally on the idea that limiting marriage to the union of husband and wife is a form of bigotry, irrational prejudice, and even hatred against homosexual persons. As this ideology seeps into the culture more generally, individuals and institutions that support marriage as the union of husband and wife risk paying a price for that belief in many...

Mr. Holder and Miss Schmaler, however, are not the only powerful Obama administration officials who want to redefine one of our society's central institutions. Cass Sunstein, Mr. Obama's powerful "regulatory czar," is equally out of touch. In a new edition of his book "Nudge," coauthored with Richard Thaler, the authors call marriage an "anachronism" and its benefits "surprisingly low." The book goes on to complain that marriage, "produce* unnecessary polarization. ... the most obvious difficulty is that religious organizations insist that they should be permitted to define marriage as they like, while same-sex couples insist that they should be able...

IFI E-Alert:: Marriage Rally and Lobby Day -- Oct. 29th 10/20/2009 8:10:00 AM By David E. Smith, Executive Director -Illinois Family Institute Approximately eight hundred Illinois citizens from around the state joined IFI & other Christian leaders in Springfield last year to rally, pray, and lobby for natural marriage, religious freedom, parental rights and the innocence of our children. Click HERE to download a flyer to distribute at church and in your community. Join IFI and Illinois families from around the state to take a stand for protecting marriage, religious freedom, parental rights and the innocence of our children! Plan...

This latest instance sees the financing of up to 150 million dollars for Islamic “selected projects and funds.” Not anything specific, just throw a big wad of taxdollars in the direction of the Islamic World to show what a big-hearted guy he is. It’ almost like how he spends mega-dollars on his personal with business connections trips all around he globe on lavish luxury trips, complete with shopping side trips for his family. Of course the White House is quoted as saying that “The Global Technology and Innovation Fund will ‘catalyze and facilitate private sector investments’ throughout Asia, the Middle...

The Washington, D.C., City Council will hold hearings Monday on whether it should legalize gay marriage in the district. So far, city leaders have rejected the call for a public vote, saying marriage is a civil rights issue that should not be on the ballot. But some local pastors and other citizens believe the voters should decide in a referendum. Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, joined the CBN News Channel’s Midday program to discuss the national implications should the law be passed. Click play to watch the interview. Also, click here for more on concern surrounding gay...

(CNN) -- Voters in Maine will decide next week whether to overturn the legislation signed by Gov. John Baldacci nearly six months ago that allows same-sex couples to wed. Baldacci, who originally opposed the legislation, said upholding the bill comes down to a fundamental understanding of equal protection and constitutional responsibility. "Initially, I had the opinion for several years that civil unions were the limitations of what I was willing to support," Baldacci said. "But, the research that I did uncovered that a civil union didn't equal a civil marriage." On May 6 when Baldacci signed the legislation, he did...

Abstract: Supporters of Proposition 8 in California have been subjected to harassment, intimidation, vandalism, racial scapegoating, blacklisting, loss of employment, economic hardships, angry protests, violence, at least one death threat, and gross expressions of anti-religious bigotry. Arguments for same-sex marriage are based fundamentally on the idea that limiting marriage to the union of husband and wife is a form of bigotry, irrational prejudice, and even hatred against homosexual persons. As this ideology seeps into the culture more generally, individuals and institutions that support marriage as the union of husband and wife risk paying a price for that belief in many...

In light of Cass Sunstein's recent assault on marriage, I humbly repost a piece I did back in July on Obama's ultra-radical regulatory czar... Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor and friend to the national Messiah, has been tapped to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Sunstein was one of the major influences on a young Obama’s attitudes on government regulation and economics, a scary proposition considering the degree to which the Obama administration is attempting to pull us toward Soviet-style communism. According to the Journal, many of those...

The U.S. government should abolish its sanctioning of marriage, argued Cass Sunstein, President Obama's regulatory czar. Sunstein proposed that the concept of marriage should become privatized, with the state only granting civil union contracts to couples wishing to enter into an agreement. Sunstein explained marriage licensing is unnecessary, pointing out people stay committed to organizations like country clubs and homeowner associations without any government interference. "Under our proposal, the word marriage would no longer appear in any laws, and marriage licenses would no longer be offered or recognized by any level of government," wrote Sunstein and co-author Richard Thaler in...

The U.S. government should abolish its sanctioning of marriage, argued Cass Sunstein, President Obama's regulatory czar.

Video of Philip Spooner, an 86-year-old D-Day veteran who spoke at a Maine Judiciary Committee meeting in favour of gay marriage. He said: I am here because of a conversation I had last June, when I was voting. The woman at my polling place asked me, do I believe in equality for gay and lesbian people. I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that. It made no sense to me. Finally I asked her: what do you think I fought for in Omaha Beach? He says that he and his late wife of 54 years had four...

Carole Bigwood sewed the white wedding dress, baked the wedding cake, and beamed as her little baby girl walked down the aisle to meet her tuxedoed groom as "Here Comes the Bride" strained through the speakers. So what made this wedding different from your average nuptials? It was her two dogs getting hitched — all in the name of fun! Dog nuptials – as silly as they might seem — are growing in popularity, as owners look for ways to create lasting memories with the animals they consider part of the family. "People do these events because they’re joyful," pet...

In George Orwell's novel, "1984," Newspeak refers to language designed by a totalitarian regime to control thought and make subversive speech impossible. It destroyed words with prohibited meanings so that heretical thoughts couldn't be expressed. A form of censorship, Newspeak employed euphemisms and words deliberately opposite the reality they described. For example, "joycamp" was the term assigned to forced-labor camps. The "Ministry of Truth" was in actuality an organ of disinformation. Newspeak was created to institute thought control and thereby exert political control through restrictive changes to the language. The term is now commonly used to refer to attempts to...

SEATTLE — Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has temporarily blocked Washington state officials from releasing the names of people who signed a ballot measure on gay rights. Kennedy's ruling Monday temporarily blocks a federal appeals court ruling last week that ordered the release of the names. Kennedy said his order would remain in effect while he considers a request by a pro-marriage group that asked him to reverse the appeals court ruling. The case involves Referendum 71, a ballot initiative that asks Washington voters to approve or reject the state's so-called "everything but marriage" law, which grants registered domestic partners...

A Louisiana judge, Keith Bardwell, from the Tangipahoa parish is yet another symptom that racism is still a problem in America in 2009, despite the election of the first African-American President. Justice of the peace Bardwell is now in the middle of a growing controversy, likely to end his career, after refusing to give a marriage license to an interracial couple. Barwell said he denied the license “out of concern for the couple’s future children.” Bardwell insists that he is not a racist, and that he has a lot of Black friends that he “welcome to his house, and even...

A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. "I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else." Bardwell...

A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. "I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else." Bardwell said...

Same-Sex Unions “One of the most troubling developments in contemporary culture is the proposition that persons of the same sex can "marry." This proposal redefines the nature of marriage and the family and, as a result, harms both the intrinsic dignity of every human person and the common good of society. Marriage is a unique union, a relationship different from all others. It is the permanent bond between one man and one woman whose two-in-one-flesh communion of persons is an indispensable good at the heart of every family and every society. “Same-sex unions are incapable of realizing this specific communion...

A federal appeals court says Washington's secretary of state can release of names and addresses of people who signed petitions calling for a public vote on the state's expanded benefits for domestic partners. A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday issued an order reversing a decision from U.S. District Judge Ben Settle in Tacoma, who held that releasing the names could chill the First Amendment rights of petition signers. Nevertheless, the names aren't being immediately released. A Thurston County judge on Wednesday forbid the release of initiatives and petitions until the 9th Circuit could rule,...

Washington » Cohabitation, divorce, contraception and same-sex unions are undermining the traditional meaning and purposes of marriage, the nation's Catholic bishops warn in an upcoming statement. "We are troubled by the fact that far too many people do not understand what it means to say that marriage -- both as a natural institution and a Christian sacrament -- is a blessing and gift from God," the bishops say in a "pastoral letter" to be adopted at next month's U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting in Baltimore. National Catholic Reporter, an independent weekly newspaper, obtained a draft of the 57-page document,...

President Barack Obama p>Washington D.C., Oct 12, 2009 / 11:35 am (CNA).- This past Saturday evening, Barack Obama became the first U.S. President to make an appearance at the Human Rights Campaign, the largest pro-gay “marriage” organization in the country. President Obama delivered an impassioned speech in which he criticized the concept of the  traditional family and announced that his administration will work to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA.) Speaking at the black-tie event, President Obama assessed the progress made by the gay agenda, saying, "despite the real gains that we’ve made, there’s still laws to change...

In a few weeks, voters will take to the ballot box to decide whether to overturn a law that allows same-sex couples to wed. "If it passes, it's going to p--- a lot of people off," said Vallejoan Clifton Joullian, who married his partner Barry last year while it was still legal to do so in California. The situation might sound familiar to Californians who wrestled with last November's Proposition 8, a same-sex marriage ban eventually approved by voters. But it is in Maine where the next major battle for -- or against -- same-sex marriage will take place. Question...

After the bombing of Samarra's famed Shiite Askariya shrine in February 2006, a spate of sectarian-based attacks claimed the lives of many Iraqis. The victims were mostly male, leading to a surge in the number of widows in the country. Indeed, more than 1 million Iraqi women have become widows in the past three years, according to Samira Al Musawi, the head of the Women and Child Committee in the Iraqi parliament. So, in 2006, Iraq's Al Ethar NGO, a nonprofit organization that provides women and their children with money and free health care, began a controversial new program to...