Free Republic

The USA’s first openly gay Episcopal bishop, Gene Robinson, has responded to presidential hopeful Rick Perry's anti-gay TV promotion suggesting that "it must break God's heart to see religion used in a political campaign like this." Bishop Robinson of the Episcopal Church showed his distaste in a TV interview with MSNBC and also by writing an opinion piece in the Washington Post newspaper. Perry had stated in his commercial that “You don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t...

Jerry Sandusky has been taken out of his home in handcuffs by the Centre County District Attorney's office to face two new criminal charges of child sex abuse. "Today's criminal charges were recommended by a statewide investigating grand jury, based on evidence and testimony that was received following the initial arrest of Sandusky on November 5th," Attorney General Kelly said in a statement. Sandusky is scheduled to appear in court next Tuesday, December 13, for his preliminary he

More than 1,000 gays, lesbians and transgenders have marched in the Philippine capital to demand equal rights and an end to discrimination, and more support for an AIDS program. Progressive Organization of Gays in the Philippines spokesman Goya Candelario says they’re pushing Congress to pass a law against discrimination that they say denies them jobs and social services. Jessie Dimaisip of the Akbayan political party, which supports gay rights, says they’re also seeking more funds for HIV-AIDS testing and a support program. The Health Department says 7,884 people have been infected with HIV since 1984, including 937 AIDS cases.

WND Exclusive Report: Pedophilia more common among 'gays' Research purports to reveal 'dark side' of homosexual culture Posted: April 29, 2002 1:00 am Eastern By Jon Dougherty © 2011 WND Child molestation and pedophilia occur far more commonly among homosexuals than among heterosexuals on a per capita basis, according to a new study. "Overwhelming evidence supports the belief that homosexuality is a sexual deviancy often accompanied by disorders that have dire consequences for our culture," wrote Steve Baldwin.... ..... "It is difficult to convey the dark side of the homosexual culture without appearing harsh," wrote Baldwin. "However, it is time...

A gay couple who adopted nine boys have been accused of sexually assaulting two of the children.But another adopted son of George Harasz and Doug Wirth insists his two fathers are innocent, and says his siblings have a disorder in which troubled foster children lash out at adults who try to connect with them.  Married 'fathers' Harasz and Wirth, who say they consider caring for hard-to-place children a personal challenge, adopted three sets of siblings, all boys, since 2000. George's two biological children and their mother also live at the large Victorian home in Glastonbury, Connecticut.       Accused: George Harasz,...

<p>George Harasz and Doug Wirth were taken into custody Wednesday afternoon by Glastonbury police. Harasz was charged with assaulting two children and Wirth with assaulting one, police said.</p> <p>But one of the couple's children said Wednesday night that the charges were baseless and that Harasz and Wirth were innocent.</p>

With all due respect, Pope Benedict XVI either lives in an alternate reality or needs better PR handlers. His comments over the weekend to U.S. bishops about the sex abuse of children showed a continued disconnect with the church’s mishandling of this ongoing scandal. The pope referenced the church’s “conscientious effort” to confront sex abuse by priests. Uh? Perhaps the pope meant to say conscientious cover-up. No institution has done more to deny and downplay the sexual abuse of young boys than the Catholic Church. No institution has done more to discredit victims and protect pedophile priests than the Catholic...

ALBANY, NY - A state Supreme Court judge in Livingston County has ruled that a lawsuit challenging the state's same-sex marriage law can proceed. The judge raised questions about whether the June vote to legalize same-sex marriage violated the state's open meetings law. The decision, dated Nov. 18 by Judge Robert Wiggins, took issue with a variety of procedural steps taken by the Senate and Gov. Andrew Cuomo when the June 24 vote was held. The measure passed 33-29, and Cuomo quickly signed it into law.Wiggins, a Republican judge in the rural county outside Rochester, said the Monroe County-based group...

A somewhat bitter U.S. Rep. Barney Frank said today he will not seek re-election in 2012 in a move he said was triggered by redistricting that left him with too many new constituents to serve as a “lame-duck” legislator. “There are too many constraints,” Frank said about his life as a politician and the energy it would take to meet new voters so late in his tenure. “People are skeptical about incumbents,” he added. “There was also this — I don’t like raising money.”

NEW YORK, NY, November 25, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In the aftermath of the legalization of gay “marriage� in New York state, some commentators had wondered why, despite their leadership role in the fight against the law, the state’s Catholic bishops’ efforts had ultimately seemed so strangely half-hearted, given the high stakes. One of these was gay activist Terence Weldon. Writing after the vote at the blog “Queering the Church,� he said: “the really interesting thing about the Catholic bishops and NY gay marriage is not how vigorously they fought against it (as the headlines would have it), but how lukewarm...

“First base, second base, third base, home run,” Al Vernacchio ticked off the classic baseball terms for sex acts. His goal was to prompt the students in Sexuality and Society — an elective for seniors at the private Friends’ Central School on Philadelphia’s affluent Main Line — to examine the assumptions buried in the venerable metaphor. “Give me some more,” urged the fast-talking 47-year-old, who teaches 9th- and 12th-grade English as well as human sexuality. Arrayed before Vernacchio was a circle of small desks occupied by 22 teenagers, six male and the rest female — a blur of sweatshirts and...

Syracuse police say they are investigating an allegation that Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine molested a team ball boy for more than a dozen years beginning in the mid-1980s. Police stressed to Outside The Lines they are in the early stages of the investigation. The alleged victim, Bobby Davis, now 39, told Outside the Lines that Fine molested him beginning in 1983 shortly before Davis entered the seventh grade. Davis, the team's ball boy for six years beginning in 1984, said the abuse occurred at Fine's home, at the Syracuse basketball facilities, and on road trips, including the...

The College is considering adding language to its application for admission that would allow prospective students to self-identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 told The Crimson. “We want to send a positive signal to students who are grappling with the issue of [sexual orientation] or gender identity,” Fitzsimmons said. “I think this campus is really welcoming to all students and that’s the signal we want to send.” Fitzsimmons said identification as LGBT would not act as a positive “tip” in the application process, unlike other factors like place of...

The BBC's Business Editor Robert Peston has dismissed homophobia claims against him as 'bonkers', after he used the term 'Queer Street'. Mr Peston used the term on his blog to describe the European financial crisis. He also posted a link to the blog on his Twitter account, where he has 95,000 followers. In praising the UK's handling of the situation, he wrote: 'The Debt Management Office, has taken a reassuringly long-term approach to managing the UK government's debts - and without its prudence, we might all be in Queer Street or Skid Row by now.' However, Mr Peston was criticised...

A boy of ten suspected to have been kidnapped by a paedophile was rescued after he was seen banging on a flat window shouting ‘please help, I’ve been kidnapped’. He had been snatched off the street 300 yards from his home. He was found naked and tied to a radiator with a white sheet in the empty flat two hours later after shouting to a passing woman for help. The flat is part of a block which houses some ex-offenders 300yds from the victim’s own home and around 500yds from a school. Jean Masih, 49, saw the boy at the...

(CNN) -- With many focused on the Penn State child sex abuse scandal, a South Carolina military college said Saturday it regrets not pursuing an allegation against a camp counselor further than it did. The Citadel released details on one of its alumni, Louis Neal "Skip" ReVille, who faces charges including criminal sexual conduct with a child. In 2007, the college received an allegation that five years earlier, ReVille invited two campers at The Citadel Summer Camp into his room to watch pornography. They did not touch each other, but engaged in sexual activity, the college said. "Though the general...

News Release Americans For Truth About HomosexualityNovember 10, 2011; Contact: Peter LaBarbera: americansfortruth@gmail.comCHICAGO—The discovery that former Penn State University defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky has been molesting boys as young as 10 years old – and that university officials including head coach Joe Paterno did not do more to apprehend this predator – has shocked America. Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), said the scandal exposes the continuing problem of homosexual predators in society. He offers the following observations related to the PSU scandal: Many openly homosexual (“gay”) men, like CNN anchor Don Lemon, were molested as...

The Penn State University sex-abuse scandal certainly seems unique. College-football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky (shown at left) could have been investigated as early as 1995 for abusing young boys, but instead was allowed to commit his crimes for another 10 years. School athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president for business and finance Gary Schultz face charges of lying to a grand jury investigating Sandusky, and university president Graham Spanier has been fired. And even more headline-grabbing, famed head football coach Joe Paterno has also been discharged. While not accused of any criminally actionable behavior, the gridiron legend is...

Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back and Penn State alum Franco Harris blasted the school's Board of Trustees for its decision to fire Joe Paterno and defended Mike McQueary, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "I feel that the board made a bad decision in letting Joe Paterno go," Harris told the Tribune-Review's Kevin Gorman. "I'm very disappointed in their decision. I thought they showed no courage, not to back someone who really needed it at the time. They were saying the football program under Joe was at fault. "They really wouldn't give a reason. They're linking the football program to the...

(See link)

Serial child sex abuse; what could Sandusky's wife have known?Updated: Nov 11, 2011 7:02 PM EST By Gordon Boyd CHATTANOOGA (WRCB)-- Chattanooga native Dorothy 'Dottie' Gross Sandusky not only has been her husband Jerry's partner in life, and in the raising of six adopted children; but also in his 'Second Mile' charity. Pennsylvania prosecutors allege the former Penn State defensive coordinator used Second Mile to find, groom and rape at least six young boys between 1994 and 2009. Some of the alleged attacks are believed to have occurred in the couple's home. So how, many ask, could Dottie Sandusky not...

A local congressman is joining three other openly gay colleagues in a new video message to help teens cope with bullying over their sexual orientation. U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, who represents Foxboro,

A decade before Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was accused of sexually assaulting young boys, he wrote a book about his life. The book, oddly titled “Touched,” is listed (but not currently available) via Amazon.com, and its sales page is fast becoming a gathering place for those angry at Sandusky for what appears to be a long history of sexual abuse. “Jerry Sandusky’s book is appropriately titled,” wrote one Amazon customer. “It shows the deeper evil that he lives with everyday. We just found out what type of person he really is: a low life animal! He has brought...

The Bexar County District Attorney's Office and SAPD are looking into an alleged incident back in 1999 that reportedly happened in San Antonio. The San Antonio connection involves the 1999 Alamo Bowl when Penn State went up against Texas A&M. The grand jury indictment, alleges Sandusky brought a young boy to San Antonio to attend the Alamo Bowl. He is identified as "Victim 4." Sandusky reportedly threatened to send the victim home if he didn't cooperate with the illegal activity. Sandusky is also accused of giving Victim 4 gifts, clothing, and passes to various sporting events. Sandusky allegedly guaranteed Victim...

Former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky has been charged with sexually abusing eight children, with something like a dozen more also claiming they were victimized. That's horrible. Powerful PSU figures appear to have attempted to cover up what they knew. That makes it even worse. But if one rumor turns out to be true, this may become a story too awful to compare to any other. There's been nothing reported by an investigative journalist or law enforcement official so far, but a handful of media members are talking about investigations into whether Sandusky may have shared some of his victims...

A Harrisburg civil attorney who has been advising some of the alleged victims of former Penn State defensive coach Jerry Sandusky released a statement today about the board of trustees action last night firing coach Joe Paterno. "The board of trustees got it wrong. They should have consulted the victims before making a decision on Mr. Paterno," Ben Andreozzi said. "They should have considered these victims watch TV and are aware of the students' reaction and may not want to be associated with the downfall of Mr. Paterno. The school instead elected to do what it felt was in its...

Mifflin and Centre Counties Fire and EMS Live Audio Feed 30 State Troopers moving in on the crowd from the North, University and local police from the South, trying to clear the streets. http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?action=wp&feedId=1164

Penn State University President Graham Spanier will either resign or be voted out by the end of today, a source close to the board of trustees told The Express-Times. An interim president, most likely Executive Vice President and Provost Rodney A. Erickson, will be appointed and a nationwide search for a permanent replacement will begin, according to the source who requested anonymity. Spanier was made aware in 2002 that a graduate assistant coach had seen former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky allegedly sexually assault a young boy in a shower in the Penn State locker room, according to grand jury testimony....

UPDATE - Nov. 9: The Associated Press is reporting that Joe Paterno has decided to retire at the end of the season. As the amount of alleged victims in the Jerry Sandusky case climbs rapidly, reports are emerging that Penn State head coach Joe Paterno's coaching career will soon come to an end. Official support for Paterno is reportedly "eroding," even as Nittany Lion fans rally in support of the longtime coach. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Paterno's 46 years as Nittany Lion head coach "will soon be over, perhaps within days or weeks." According to two sources...

Brian Streeter's stomach is churning over this. Having had Jerry Sandusky conduct three-day youth football camps at Penn State Behrend in July for eight years, Streeter can only hope no child camper dealt with what Sandusky was arrested for Saturday. "You have a sick feeling because you hope that none of the individuals that participated in the program here were harmed," the Behrend athletic director said. "That's not why we run our programs." A former Penn State assistant, Sandusky was charged with 40 criminal counts of child sex abuse. SNIP If something did happen with Sandusky during his time at...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A former Penn State assistant football coach accused of sexually abusing boys operated a series of youth sports camps at a satellite campus for six years after he was prohibited from taking youths onto the school's main campus by the athletics director and the senior vice president, who have been charged with failing to tell police about him. The ban against Jerry Sandusky was imposed in 2002, the year a graduate student claimed to see him assault a child in a locker room shower. But Sandusky held summer football camps through his Sandusky Associates company at the...

One of the questions surrounding the sex-abuse case against Jerry Sandusky is why a former district attorney chose not to prosecute the then-Penn State assistant coach in 1998 after reports surfaced that he had inappropriate interactions with a boy. The answer is unknowable because of an unsolved mystery: What happened to Ray Gricar, the Centre County, Pa., district attorney? Gricar went missing in April 2005. The murky circumstances surrounding his disappearance — an abandoned car, a laptop recovered months later in a river without a hard drive, his body was never found — have spawned Web sites, television programs and...

When? When should Joe Paterno have gone above his athletic director? That's the question the legal community and college football fans and media try to wrap their heads around in assessing the despicable allegations coming out of Happy Valley. But for eight young adults, their question would have been far more urgent and desperate as Jerry Sandusky allegedly robbed them of their innocence, one by one: When is somebody going to put an end to this? On Sunday, Paterno issued a 265-word statement that attempted to offer perspective in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal that is gutting Penn...

About 50 minutes before it was about to begin, PSU administrators canceled Joe Paterno's weekly news conference Tuesday. Penn State administrators have canceled Joe Paterno's weekly news conference in which he was expected to field questions about a sex abuse scandal involving a former assistant coach. Paterno's son Scott tells The Associated Press on Tuesday that the decision was made by President Graham Spanier's office. Scott Paterno says his father was disappointed and was prepared to take questions about the scandal as well as the upcoming game against Nebraska. Rocked by an alleged child sex abuse scandal, Penn State issued...

For every moment Joe Paterno keeps his job as Penn State's head coach, the institution as a whole and the athletic department in particular loses a significant amount of credibility. Paterno must be fired immediately for not appropriately reporting his knowledge of the despicable, horrific, mortifying, inhumane sexual crimes Jerry Sandusky is accused of committing against young boys -- some of which happened at Penn State's athletic facilities, according to a Pennsylvania attorney general report. The problem, though, is some of the people in charge of making such a decision to fire Paterno have been equally culpable of failing to...

Sandusky (left, in a 1999 photo) is charged with sexual abuse of eight boys Could it be that on some deep and horrible psychological level, it was precisely the fact of Joe Paterno’s moral authority—and God, did he have it, not only as much as anyone in college football, but as much as any prominent person in America in any field—that enabled this revolting daisy chain of denial to exist at Penn State? Because, after all, he was a great man. A great moral man. Great moral men don’t hire depraved monsters. Great moral men don’t let things like this...

A former Penn State defensive coordinator was accused Saturday of sexually abusing eight boys in a case that has rocked the Big Ten university. Jerry Sandusky, 67 years old, was arrested Saturday and released on $100,000 bail after being arraigned on 40 criminal counts, the state attorney general's office said. In addition, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, 57, and Gary Schultz, 62, the school's vice president for finance and business, have been charged with perjury and failing to report what they knew about the allegations. Mr. Schultz's position includes oversight of the university's police department. They were expected...

So what manner of a man is this Jerry Sandusky? On Nov. 13, 1999, he received a standing ovation from a crowd of 96,480. It was the occasion of his official retirement as dean of Linebacker U's impenetrable defense. For a long, long time, he was thought to be the successor to Joe Paterno. When he finally decided to leave the fold, after 32 years of unswerving loyalty and uncommon patience, --snip-- It has been over 10 years since Sandusky left Penn State to devote all of his time to the Second Mile, a charitable organization he and his wife...

It has been 47 years since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and 46 years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act. And yet the political leaders of this nation of liberty cannot seem to muster the courage and principle to sweep away one remaining example of institutionalized, government-sanctioned discrimination: The 1996 law that denies the right of marriage to same-sex couples. The law, the Defense of Marriage Act, was passed in the heat of election-year fear and bigotry against men who want to marry other men, and women who want to marry other women. It was a...

Former Penn State football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abused eight young men, state prosecutors said.

August 31, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Many Americans have been shocked by reports about a recent pro-pedophilia conference in Baltimore in which psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, representing institutions like Harvard and Johns Hopkins, sought to present pedophilia in a sympathetic and even positive light. But why should this surprise us? Academic articles in scholarly journals have been presenting pedophilia in a sympathetic light for years, and, as Matthew Cullinan Hoffman noted, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) released a report in 1998 “claiming that the ‘negative potential’ of adult sex with children was ‘overstated’ and that ‘the vast majority of...

When she first showed up at Children of the Night, a privately-funded residential facility, Jane was angry. Arrested more than 20 times as a prostitute, she had been hardened by the street. She threw things at her counselors. Everyone was terrified in having to deal with her. “She was just afraid. She was use to being treated so rough,” said Lois Lee, the Los Angeles group’s founder and president. “She didn’t know what to do with someone nice.” Jane, not her real name, was just 14 when her life was hijacked in Seattle by a 36-year-old man who said he...

Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe is pressing ahead with a felony assault charge that could put a paraplegic grandfather in the slammer for up to 10 years for whacking his 3-year-old granddaughter’s alleged molester with a Louisville slugger after setting a trap for his arrest. As a result of 57-year-old Martha’s Vineyard computer salesman Frank Hebert’s unconventional citizen’s arrest, Joshua A. Hardy, 27, of Middleboro, now faces child molestation charges in a second case out of Wareham involving another little girl, authorities tell the Herald.

LONDON, December 1, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A “blanket ban” on convicted sex-offenders adopting children is discriminatory, says a report from Helen Reece of the London School of Economics. Reece, a family law expert, has said that each case should be examined separately “on its merits.” “Sex offenders shouldn’t all be tarred with the same brush,” Reece said. “People need to be carefully screened for adoption and fostering, but each case should be taken on its merits. “There shouldn’t be blanket rules. What somebody has done before is not necessarily what he or she will do again. When someone has served...

A 54-year-old Vancouver man has been arrested for allegedly assaulting a 15-year-old North Vancouver youth after using a new mobile GPS technology designed to help gay men hook up. Brent Tynan, 54, of Vancouver, faces charges of sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual assault, RCMP Cpl. Marlene Morton said in a press release. Police said the 15-year-old youth said he met the suspect through an application called Grindr, a social networking tool that connects users to gay and bisexual men who are nearby, Morton said. The application works on mobile devices that have a built-in GPS function to...

WAUKESHA, Wis. - A Wisconsin teen convicted of using Facebook to blackmail dozens of classmates into sex has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Nineteen-year-old Anthony Stancl of New Berlin showed no emotion as the sentence was handed down Wednesday. Stancl pleaded no contest in December to two felonies, including repeated sexual assault of a child. He apologized during sentencing, saying he has learned to understand what his victims went through. He had faced a maximum 30-year sentence. Stancl is accused of posing as a girl on Facebook and tricking more than 30 male classmates into sending him...

House members returned from their recess over the holidays today, and health care legislation was the number issue on the agenda. The Senate race in Massachusetts, though, could change the dynamics of the debate, should GOP State Senator Scott Brown prevail next week. The Democrats risk losing their 60-seat filibuster proof majority with a Brown win. However, while the special election for the Massachusetts Senate seat previously held by Ted Kennedy has yet to be decided, the Brown campaign has already charged that Massachusetts Democrats will find a way to keep Mr. Brown from being certified, should he win, before...

For federal prosecutors, Rhonda Bays' case is particularly appalling. For defense attorney Kyle Fletcher, Bays is a sick woman used by her boyfriend for his own "evil exploits." Bays let her boyfriend molest her 4-year-old relative, videotaped the incident at an Orlando hotel and later offered a 2-year-old for potential abuse. Bays, who once ran for mayor of Umatilla, has pleaded guilty in federal court and faces up to 30 years in prison. Her boyfriend, Tanner Stickney, has a plea deal in place with federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., that calls for him to serve 15 years in federal prison....

When he took the post of culture minister of France last June, Frédéric Mitterrand probably did not think that a four-year-old tell-all book could come back to haunt him. But this week his admission in a 2005 autobiography that he paid for sex with “boys” in Thailand became the subject of a campaign to oust him from the cabinet of President Nicolas Sarkozy. The reason for the sudden interest in Mr. Mitterrand’s prose was his quick and energetic defense last month of the film director Roman Polanski, who is fighting extradition to the United States from Switzerland over a charge...