Free Republic

It took a couple of months and was filled with charges and countercharges of dirty tricks and the suppression of free speech, but the Australian plebiscite on gay marriage is finally finished. The people responded in large numbers and in the end, the tally ran fairly close to what the current polling had indicated. More than sixty percent of respondents voted in favor of legalizing gay marriage and now the Parliament is vowing to bring it to a vote before Christmas. (Associated Press) Australians supported gay marriage in a postal survey that ensures Parliament will consider legalizing same-sex weddings...

President Obama is "so proud" that lawmakers in his home state of Illinois have voted to legalize same-sex marriage, he said Tuesday night. "I applaud the men and women of the Illinois General Assembly, a body in which I was proud to serve, for voting to legalize marriage equality in my home state," Obama said in a statement released after the state House and Senate voted earlier in the day. The White House had previously said that Obama would have supported the measure if he were still in the legislature.

Gov. Chris Christie announced today that he was dropping the fight against same-sex marriage in New Jersey by withdrawing his his appeal of a major case that was being heard by the state Supreme Court. Across the state, gay couples have been getting married today for the first time in New Jersey after the Supreme Court refused on Friday to delay the first weddings while it heard Christie's appeal of a lower-court ruling that legalized gay marriage last month. Christie said the court, in rejecting his plea for a stay, had made strong statements that settled the larger case.

Though he disagrees with the ruling, a spokesman for Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) said Friday afternoon that he will cooperate with a New Jersey state Supreme Court ruling that makes gay marriage legal in the state beginning on Monday. "The Supreme Court has made its determination," Christie's press secretary, Michael Drewniak, said in a statement. "While the Governor firmly believes that this determination should be made by all the people of the State of New Jersey, he has instructed the Department of Health to cooperate with all municipalities in effectuating the order of the Superior Court under the applicable law."

31 year old Brent Girouex was arrested on 60 counts of suspicion of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist. The former youth counselor told police he did it to “help with homosexual urges by praying while he had sexual contact with [them]." He claimed the acts would give his victims "sexual purity." Making matters even worse, Girouex has four children of his own and now his estranged wife Erin is speaking out against him now. Girouex admitted having sexual relations with at least four young men but as many as eight have now stepped forward claiming abuse. The man...

General Mills is opposing a Minnesota amendment to ban same-sex marriage, taking a public stand on a contentious issue that most companies have tried to avoid. "We do not believe the proposed constitutional amendment is in the best interests of our employees or our state economy -- and as a Minnesota-based company we oppose it," the foodmaker said in a statement. Golden Valley-based General Mills has consistently ranked atop lists of the best corporate workplaces, including its welcoming policy toward gay and lesbian employees. But like most corporations, it has historically steered clear of controversial issues like the marriage amendment,...

Last night, Presidential candidate and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson announced during an on-line Town Hall Thursday night that he supports civil marriage for gay Americans. Having long supported civil unions for gay couples, Johnson's decision to endorse gay marriage is based on "a great deal of deliberation, discussion with the gay community, and a conclusion that government has no business choosing who should be allowed the benefits of marriage and who should not." Announcing his support for gay marriage, Johnson said, "As a believer in individual freedom and keeping government out of personal lives, I simply cannot find...

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,...

One happy couple who got married in NYC on July 24 Katie Sokoler / Gothamist Six months later, and some conservatives are still freaking out about gay marriage in New York—first, state clerks who opposed the move jumped ship, and now, an upstate judge has ruled that a lawsuit seeking to overturn the marriage equality law can proceed. The gist of the lawsuit, filed by conservative group New Yorkers For Constitutional Freedoms (you may recall them rushing to the defense of another state clerk who refused to marry same-sex couples), is that Governor Cuomo and the Republican majority in the...

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...

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...

Activists say the new law would make an already bad situation worse for Nigeria’s gay community. Although homosexuality is already outlawed in Nigeria, a new law proposing criminal penalties for gay marriages has some worried that the move will alienate the nation from its western allies and make life for gay Nigerians even more dangerous. "If this bill passes into law, the Nigerian government will be sanctioning even greater discrimination and violence against an already vulnerable group," said Graeme Reid, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights director at Human Rights Watch. The new law would punish married homosexual couples...

SAN FRANCISCO (BP) -- Supporters of California Proposition 8 won a major victory at the California Supreme Court Thursday in a case that could have a significant impact on the future of gay "marriage" in America. The justices unanimously ruled that the official proponents of Prop 8 have the right to defend the state constitutional amendment in federal court -- an important decision because the governor and attorney general have refused to defend it. In finding that Prop 8 proponents have what's called legal standing, the justices tossed the issue back to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which...

GRASSTOPSUSA.COM - GIVE YOUR VALUES A VOICE In an email today, Chris Carmouche of GrassTopsUSA.com reports that the same sex marriage bill could have died in Senate Judiciary Committee, if not for the complicity of every Republican member. The Republicans on that committee are: Chuck Grassley (Iowa) - Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (Utah) Jon Kyl (Arizona) Jeff Sessions (Alabama) Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) John Cornyn (Texas) Michael Lee (Utah) Tom Coburn (Oklahoma) Here's the bulk of the email: GOP Senators Who Voted For Gay Marriage Before They Voted Against It So-Called "Homosexual Marriage" May Now Become The Law Of The...

Rick Santorum on Monday accused GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney of being more liberal on gay marriage than President Barack Obama. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, made his remarks during an interview on Laura Ingraham's radio show. When Ingraham asked Romney's stance on a proposed bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Santorum answered: “I would argue that Mitt Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, was to the left of Barack Obama on the issue of gay marriage.” DOMA is the 1996 law that bars federal agencies and the military from recognizing the legal marriages of gay...

BOSTON (BP) -- Some of the nation's top companies such as Google, CBS, Starbucks and Nike have joined forces in a legal brief asking a federal court to force the federal government to recognize gay "marriage." The friend-of-the-court brief asks the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a 2010 lower court ruling that struck down part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. In that ruling, Judge Joseph L. Tauro said the federal government must recognize gay "marriages" from such states as Massachusetts, Vermont and the other four states where it's legal. In essence, the brief argues, the...