Free Republic

MSNBC had a poll a while back: "Should the motto "In God We Trust" be removed from U.S. currency?" The "Yes" answer affirmed, "It's a violation of the principle of separation of church and state." The "No" answer stated, "The motto has historical and patriotic significance and does nothing to establish a state religion." As of my last visit (from August 22, 2008), there were 6594785 responses, and "No" had a commanding lead. Based on a Free Republic comment on November 14 after the poll closed, the ultimate tally was: 81% wanted to keep "In God We Trust," and 19%...

First of all I want to say that were I a resident of California, I would have voted "no" on Proposition 8. In other words, I am in favor of gay marriage. However, I get the feeling the homosexual community believes they now have a monopoly on non race related discrimination. Excuse me, but last time I paid for a sandwich I didn't see any catchy pro-heterosexual slogans on my money. "I'll have a turkey club on whole-wheat and a small soda. Four-fifty, no problem, let me just pull out a five spot with, 'Sex Between a Man and Woman...

“Same Sex Marriage” and Its Threat to Religious Liberty November 29th, 2008 by Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse Tactics used by gay marriage campaigners confirm believers’ worst fears. As wildfires blazed in California last week, anger at the outcome of the state’s referendum on marriage blazed across the country. After a hard-fought campaign over Proposition 8, which defined marriage as the union of a man and a woman, a clear majority of California voters endorsed it, and the gay marriage lobby was enraged. Now, as same sex marriage campaigners take the issue back to the courts, it is unclear what the...

BOSTON - Gay and bisexual men in Massachusetts continue to be the hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic with a significant percentage of new cases appearing among minority men. That’s according to a new report by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that found while the state has had success battling the disease among injection drug users and heterosexual men and women, it has had less success among gay and bisexual men. More than half of HIV infections between 2004 and 2006 were among gay and bisexual men even though they make up less than 10 percent of the population.

We now know that blacks probably didn’t tip the balance for Proposition 8. Myth busted. However, the fact remains that a strikingly high percentage of blacks said they voted to ban same-sex marriage in California. Why? There was one very telling (and virtually ignored) statistic in CNN’s exit poll data that may shed some light: There were far more black women than black men, and a higher percentage of them said that they voted for the measure than the men. How wide was the gap? According to the exit poll, 70 percent of all blacks said that they voted for...

Prop. 8 Thank You Petition An online petition has been posted here where individuals can express solidarity and thanks to the Mormon Church for strongly supporting California’s Proposition 8. The ballot initiative was approved by California voters Nov. 4, thereby amending the state constitution to define marriage as a one-man, one-woman institution. Since the initiative was passed this month, homosexual activists have conducted hostile demonstrations outside Mormon churches and some homosexual leaders have called for retribution against Mormons who supported Proposition 8. The thank-you petition states, “Anyone who participated in this process has come to admire the competence, diligence and...

It’s a national turning point. A figurative call to arms for the queer community. The cross-country response to the passage of California’s Proposition 8 and other anti-gay ballot initiatives is among the greatest and loudest rallying cries for equality ever heard from the LGBT community. Journalist Rex Wockner is calling it “Stonewall 2.0” Others are talking about a new wave of inspiration and the death of a “passive era” of LGBT lobbying and advocacy. Writer Andrew Sullivan says groups like the Human Rights Campaign are becoming increasingly irrelevant in the face of the need to adapt to new realities and...

In the wake of Proposition 8's passage, opponents are railing that churches that supported the ballot measure violated their tax-exempt status. It's a common accusation at the now-weekly protests, gaining enough traction that Geoff Kors, a member of the No on 8 executive committee, said lawyers are investigating the issue. "The Mormon church overstepped its boundaries by being a tax-exempt organization," said Sharone Negev, 54, of San Francisco, who has gone to protests in San Francisco and the Mormon temple in Oakland. "They clearly are not supposed to be involved in political activities." But interviews with experts and activists on...

November 25, 2008 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE U.S. Bishops Offer Support to Mormons Targeted for Defending Marriage, Backing California's Proposition Eight WASHINGTON—The U.S. bishops offered "prayerful support and steadfast solidarity" to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints in the face of attacks on the church and its members for working to pass California's Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage. The support was offered in a November 21 letter from Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, chairman of the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage, to Thomas S. Monson, president of the Mormon Church. The letter follows. Dear...

The writer Andrew Sullivan sits across the table from you on Chris Matthews' Hardball praising gay-marriage as a symbol of the homosexual community's desire to join the mainstream. He is a Catholic, conservative in many things, and a highly articulate spokesman for his point-of-view. What do you say? The requisite conservative on pundit panels usually falls back on citing heterosexual marriage's 5,000 year history as society's basic building block. Marriage has always been between a man and a woman. 65% of the American people are against homosexual unions. Etc. That's not going to get it. It's a way of brushing...

Mormons have a reason to be nervous. I didn't fully appreciate it two years ago, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first came under an intense political spotlight. In 2006, Mormon officials had begun making the media rounds, prepping for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's expected try for the Republican presidential nomination. This protective measure stood out. No evangelical contingents were giving theological primers in anticipation of Mike Huckabee's run. Few officials were warning Catholics to not do as Rudy Giuliani does on abortion before his run. Why did the Mormons need to do advance work? We...

Angelo Matera | 11.20.08 Issues Why Prop 8 Won: TV Commercials Based on Reason, not Fear To understand why Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that banned gay marriage, won in California, watch the campaign’s TV commercials at the What Is Prop 8? website. Not only were they well-made, featuring a multi-ethnic cross-section of very normal, quasi-hip, young to middle-age Californians, the commercials were models of serious, rational political argument. While anti-Prop 8 commercials resorted to showing Mormon missionaries conducting Gestapo-like home invasions of same-sex households, the “Yes on 8” commercials went out of their way to calmly explain both sides...

ABOVE THE HATE (NOTE: Maggie Gallagher is the president of the National Organization for Marriage, which is sponsoring an AbovetheHate.com campaign.) Take this column with a grain of salt. I've been an opinion journalist for 20 years, but when it comes to marriage I'm an activist for a cause I passionately believe in. This November, in the middle of a great blue Obama tide, Americans in three states spoke up clearly to agree: Marriage is the union of husband and wife. That's an ideal which most Americans, whether they are black or white, Democrat or Republican, evangelical or Mormon, cherish....

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The case of an assault against a young Christian by a homosexual in San Francisco is garnering national headlines." ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Cloud says an angry homosexual grabbed her Bible. She then describes what happened when she asked the man to return it. "And he turned around, and he said no, and he hit me upside the head with the Bible, knocking me to the ground, and began to kick my legs," she recounts. The police were nearby, according to Cloud, and they sprang into action. "The police took him into custody, and they came up to me and...

First, it was Scott Eckern, the director of the nonprofit California Musical Theatre in Sacramento. Now, it's Richard Raddon, the director of the Los Angeles Film Festival: Yet, the anti-Raddon bile continued to bubble in the blogosphere, and according to one Film Independent board member, "No on 8" supporters also berated Raddon personally via phone calls and e-mails. The recriminations ultimately proved too much, and when Raddon offered to resign again, this time the board accepted. . . ."I'm personally saddened by the outcome," said Film Independent board member Bill Condon, the writer-director of "Dreamgirls." "Someone has lost his...

More than 3,000 people, including longtime Mormon critic James Dobson of Focus on the Family, have signed an online petition thanking the LDS Church for its efforts on behalf of California's traditional marriage initiative known as Proposition 8. "Anyone who participated in this process has come to admire the competence, diligence and moral courage that so many members of your faith community displayed as part of this coalition effort -- as Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons and people of other faith communities all came together to fight this great battle for marriage," says the petition, which is addressed to LDS President Thomas...

Last week in a Denver suburb, someone lit a Book of Mormon on fire and dropped it on the doorstep of a Mormon temple, presumably as a statement about the church’s support of Proposition 8 in California, an initiative that amended the state constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. In a move that may make gay-rights supporters’ heads spin, the incident is being investigated as a hate crime. The outbreak of attacks on the Mormon church since the passage of Proposition 8 has been chilling: envelopes full of suspicious white powder were sent...

Richard Raddon, the director of the Los Angeles Film Festival who has been at the center of controversy ever since it was revealed almost two weeks ago that he had contributed $1,500 to the campaign to ban gay marriage in California, resigned from his post over the weekend. The nonprofit arts organization Film Independent sponsors both the Los Angeles Film Festival, held in May, and the popular Independent Spirit awards. Raddon is a member of the Mormon Church, which actively called on its congregants to work for the passage of Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between...

Under mounting pressure, LA Film Festival director Richard Raddon has ankled his post. Raddon and Film Independent (FIND), the festival's parent org, have faced a barrage of protests over Raddon's contribution to the successful Yes on Prop 8 campaign that banned same-sex marriage in California. After bloggers published his name, culled from public records of donors, Raddon tendered his first resignation on Nov. 13 to Film Independent’s board of directors, which was not accepted. Film Independent then released a statement saying, in part, "Our organization does not police the personal, religious, or political choices of any employee, member, or filmmaker."...

The State of California is investigating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints because they helped to defend true marriage as between one man and one woman. The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) was created by the Political Reform Act of 1974, itself a ballot initiative passed by California voters as Proposition 9. It is now being used as a tool to persecute those who defend marriage, wielded by a savvy ex political consultant who does not like the position taken by the Church or the results of the latest Proposition 8 initiative...“Californians Against Hate was established in...

Left to their own devices, most Americans can work these differences out in politics much as they do in their everyday lives, as untidy as these solutions may be. Unfortunately, when the courts short-circuit this process, they do three things corrosive to our politics. First, they act as dishonest referees, imposing one set of preferences over another. Second, they cheat the American people of an honest political contest, where candidates need to persuade the people of their views to put them into effect. Ed Whelan, a former Justice Department official who now runs the D.C.-based Ethics and Public Policy Center,...

Following California’s statewide vote affirming one-man, one-woman marriage, radical homosexual activists have resorted to hostile protests against churches and pro-marriage advocates. These attacks pose a threat to safety and civility across the nation. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has done nothing to stop these attacks. In fact, in the midst of some of the most hate-filled protests to date, Schwarzenegger urged those opposing marriage by saying “don’t give up” and then calling on the state Supreme Court to overturn the constitutional amendment as unconstitutional! Emergency Petition To Gov. SchwarzeneggerArnold Schwarzenegger is acting in a lawless manner – refusing to accept even...

California officials are planning to investigate whether the Mormon church gave an accurate accounting of its role in the campaign that succeeded in getting a same-sex marriage ban approved in the state. The action by the California Fair Political Practices Commission came in response to a complaint filed two weeks ago by a gay rights activist. Fred Karger, founder of Californians Against Hate, accuses the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of failing to report the value of the work it did to support Proposition 8. Roman Porter, the agency's executive director, said Monday that the decision to open...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California's gay marriage ban could open the door to legal discrimination against unpopular groups if the state Supreme Court allows the voter-approved measure to stand, blacks, Latinos, Asians and other minorities said. The November 4 vote, supporting an end to legal same-sex marriage in the most populous U.S. state, has caused a nationwide furor as opponents of the measure decry what they consider a civil rights violation. California's highest court agreed on November 19 to hear a challenge, based on whether the state constitution requires support from the legislature -- as well as a majority vote...

It appears highly unlikely that a federal constitutional amendment that says that marriage shall be between one man and one woman (thus banning homosexual marriage and polygamy) will become a reality any time soon. When Republicans had a strong majority in the U.S. Senate, they failed to pass a federal constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage because some Republicans (like McCain) and the overwhelming majority of Democrats said that marriage was an issue that should be left up to the states. Constitutionally speaking, the issue of marriage has been left to the states to deal with for over 200 years. But,...

The group that persuaded California voters this month to pass Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, now is fighting its friends as well as its foes. Other conservative groups that loudly backed Prop. 8 are being targeted as too extreme and off-putting by ProtectMarriage.com, which put the constitutional amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot and hopes to help persuade the state Supreme Court to uphold the measure. "We represent the people who got things done, who got Prop. 8 passed," said Andrew Pugno, general counsel for the Yes on Prop. 8 campaign. "An important part of defending Prop. 8 is...

Pepperdine University President Andrew Benton recently interjected himself into a controversy concerning a commercial in support of California Proposition 8. His ostensible purpose in doing so was to quell a wave of outrage from radical gay activists in California. If anything, his actions will embolden those who prefer intellectual terrorism over civil political discourse as a means of shaping public policy. His actions will also further diminish the reputation of Pepperdine as a conservative Christian university. The controversy began when Law Professor Richard Peterson appeared in the following television ad. President Benton responded with the following: “I want to provide...

A week after the election, I was riding the bus home in Santa Monica when we went past one of the many protests around the city against the narrow passage of Proposition 8, which amended the California constitution to eliminate marriage rights for an entire class of people. The bus driver surveyed the situation and exclaimed, loud enough for the passengers to hear, "sodomites!" I've been so hurt and angry since my theoretically liberal and gay-friendly state passed Proposition 8 that I instantly replied, just as loudly, "Hey, I'm one of those sodomites, too!" Maybe I should have had a...

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is becoming a potent political force. Last year's story was that Mormons had risen to some of the highest offices in America -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid belongs to the church, as does former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. This year's headline is that, with the encouragement of their religious leaders, Mormons gave loads of money and man-hours to pass Proposition 8 in California, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. Indeed, they were probably the most organized and consequential force behind the measure's passage. But in the face of post-election protests...

About 13 Christian young people who had gone to 18th and Castro streets Friday night, November 14, soon had to be escorted out of the neighborhood by police after dozens of angry people confronted and surrounded them. The Castro has been a gathering spot over the past couple of weekends for people rallying against the passage of Proposition 8, but there apparently hadn’t been any large protests in the neighborhood that night. Missy Huff, a 21-year-old with Promised Land Fellowship, said she and about 13 other young people gathered at the intersection to play guitar, sing, and worship, something she...

Seems like the libs should be much farther ahead than they are. What's with all this vote scrapping? gnawing, biting and scratching to get a dufus like Franken elected? The stupid libs are doing all this for Franken-furter? vote-stealing in Georgia, where Atlanta votes? AND WITH ALL THE ANTI-FAMILY PROPOGANDA, YOU STILL CAN'T MANAGE A WIN AT THE BALLOT BOX WITH A TRIVIAL ISSUE LIKE GAY MARRIAGE? Will the left damage the country? Oh yes, they will. But it looks to me like we are far from being a Socialist nation. Already, without Eclair even taking office, he can't impose...

Some California Republicans are saying they have found a key to expanding their fast-shrinking base, and it lies in the most glaring aspect of the Proposition 8 election results: the minority vote that went overwhelmingly for it. With seven in 10 blacks and 53 percent of Latinos voting in favor of the ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage, Republicans say they are confident that their common interests with minorities on traditional family and social issues can help forge new political alliances. "It shows there are issues the Republican party and minorities can agree on," said Mike Spence, president of the...

Should there be boycotts, blacklists, firings or de facto shunning of those who supported Proposition 8? That's the issue consuming many in liberal Hollywood who fought to defeat the initiative banning same-sex marriage and are now reeling with recrimination and dismay. Meanwhile, activists continue to comb donor lists and employ the Internet to expose those who donated money to support the ban. Already out is Scott Eckern, director of the nonprofit California Musical Theatre in Sacramento, who resigned after a flurry of complaints from prominent theater artists, including "Hairspray" composer Marc Shaiman, when word of his contribution to the Yes...

The Anti-Defamation League, the Bar Association of San Francisco and three other legal or civil rights groups also submitted letters supporting efforts to get the court to delay implementation of Proposition 8 so gay couples can continue getting married until the legal issues are resolved. Thousands of gay rights supporters waved rainbow flags and homemade signs on Saturday outside California's capitol to protest a voter-approved ban on gay marriage. The protest was the latest of several demonstrations held around the country since Californians adopted Proposition 8, which amended the California Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a...

Just so we're clear, the ongoing gay rage after California's vote isn't about benefits. California's civil unions were materially indistinguishable from marriage. That state's Supreme Court said so when it ruled that this wasn't enough. Nor is it about having a family. Gay couples have those. Billboards around our town point this out. As one woman among the 200 protesters in downtown Milwaukee last weekend put it, "We want our family recognized." Which is to say it's not about gay people at all. It's about you. Their love isn't at issue. Your love for their love is. Employer benefits were...

SACRAMENTO — Some California Republicans are saying they have found a key to expanding their fast-shrinking base, and it lies in the most glaring aspect of the Proposition 8 election results: the minority vote that went overwhelmingly for it.With seven in 10 blacks and 53 percent of Latinos voting in favor of the ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage, Republicans say they are confident that their common interests with minorities on traditional family and social issues can help forge new political alliances."It shows there are issues the Republican party and minorities can agree on," said Mike Spence, president of the...

A supporter of Proposition 8, fed up with what he believed was the gay community's and "liberal media's" refusal to accept the voters' verdict, fired off a letter to the editor. "Please show respect for democracy," he wrote, in a letter we published. What he encountered instead was an utter lack of respect for free speech. Within hours, the intimidation game was on. Because his real name and city were listed - a condition for publication of letters to The Chronicle - opponents of Prop. 8 used Internet search engines to find the letter writer's small business, his Web site...

After the passage of Proposition 8, some are calling for boycotts and firings. Others worry about free speech rights being trampled. Should there be boycotts, blacklists, firings or de facto shunning of those who supported Proposition 8? That's the issue consuming many in liberal Hollywood who fought to defeat the initiative banning same-sex marriage and are now reeling with recrimination and dismay. Meanwhile, activists continue to comb donor lists and employ the Internet to expose those who donated money to support the ban.

At 14 words – "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California" – Proposition 8 may be the shortest initiative on record, but it has spawned a deep stack of legal arguments over amending the California Constitution. Its opponents contend this is no mere constitutional amendment. They say it's a constitutional "revision" – in other words, a change to the state's legal foundation so profound that it can't be accomplished through the initiative process. A revision requires passage by two-thirds of the Legislature or by a constitutional convention and, only then, by a majority...

On a temperate night in the City by the Bay last month, a community gathered to honor one of its fallen with the world premiere of "Milk." Gus Van Sant's film stars Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the San Francisco city supervisor who, along with Mayor George Moscone, was shot and killed on Nov. 27, 1978. In front of the Castro Theatre, the cast and civic VIPs stopped for interviews. There was Josh Brolin, who plays Dan White, the city supervisor who pulled the trigger. There was James Franco, who plays Milk's most significant other. Across the street, people waved...

The cornerstone of modern propaganda, PR, and advertisement is this: repetition, not truth, formulates popular convictions. We continue to hear in the media the argument that redefining marriage has led to abolishing anti-miscegenation laws (which forbade marriage between whites and non-whites) in the United States, and that those who claim to protect marriage today have the same mindset as those who promoted laws against interracial marriages in nineteenth-century America. This sophist non-sense is part of the continuous battle against traditional marriage, and a new moral smokescreen to trick those unaware of the history and purposes of marriage as a sacred...

Park Township, MI — The elections are over, the people have spoken (or perhaps more accurately, the people have grumbled) and we no longer have to endure endless political ads. On a whim, I drove by our local Democratic headquarters yesterday, and to my surprise, I noticed that it was quiet. All the windows were still intact, the cars parked there still had inflated tires, signs hadn’t been defaced, and there was not a single protester marching in front of their door. Weird. I drove down Eighth Street and was amazed to find that there were no pickets in front...

Here's one example from before the election via the Daily Kos: But when the church and its members invest millions of dollars in an attempt to write discrimination into my state's constitution and divorce my friend Brian against his will, there will be hell to pay.So what am I asking you to do? Some distributed research.There is a list of a bunch of Mormon donors to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign (in case that one goes down, here's a mirror with slightly worse formatting. Here's what I'm asking for:This list contains information about those who are big donors to...

I've been neglecting my blog, I admit it, but now that I think I finally have a layout that I like, perhaps I will more likely to post. I have pictures from Halloween, my trip to NYC, and other musings, however, right now, I am still fixated on the fact that my fellow Californians passed Proposition 8, thereby banning gay marraige. California is supposed to be one of the more liberal states in the Union, yet here we are, a bunch of biggots. That's honestly how I feel. There isn't any acceptable form of bigotry in today's day, unless you...

With another Proposition 8 protest expected to bring thousands to the Capitol in Sacramento today, both sides continue to accuse each other of a four-letter word in the same-sex marriage debate, and it isn't "love." It's about the polar opposite — hate. A pro-Proposition 8 group, the National Organization for Marriage, has a new Web site, AboveTheHate.com, that allows people to sign an electronic letter to "say 'Enough!' to the campaign of hate and intimidation" against supporters of the marriage ban. In the 18 days since California voters banned same-sex marriage by 52-48 percent, the heat on both sides of...

The emotion and strong-feelings on both sides of Proposition 8 divided leaders in the African-American community on Friday night. At the annual NAACP Banquet in San Francisco some pastors chose to boycott because of another's stance on same-sex marriage. "Seizing our moment of triumph" was the NAACP celebratory theme for this major fundraiser, but conversation often still centered on Proposition 8 and Rev. Amos Brown's much publicized stance to support same-sex marriage civil rights. "Tonight our national president, Ben Jealous, will be here to show he stands with us. And for the state president Alice Huffman to be here, to...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Catholics played a pivotal role in the success of Proposition 8, from pulpits down to the pews. Bishops lobbied for its passage, priests preached about it, and laypeople overwhelmingly voted for it. The Bay Area has a large and vibrant gay Catholic community, and they have many allies among straight Catholics. So it has led some to question how the region's dioceses, which include myriad diverse groups, could be opposed to what many view as secular rights. "It makes me very, very, very disenchanted with the Archdiocese (of San Francisco) as an institution," said Kevin Sullivan, 50,...

Among the many new ''rights'' being conjured out of thin air, a new one seems to be a ''right'' to win. Americans have long had the right to put their candidates and their ideas to a vote. Now there seems to be a sense that your rights have been trampled on if you don't win. Hillary Clinton's supporters were not merely disappointed, but outraged, when she lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama. Some took it as a sign that, while racial barriers had come down, the ''glass ceiling'' holding down women was still in place. Apparently, if you don't...

A supporter of Proposition 8, fed up with what he believed was the gay community's and "liberal media's" refusal to accept the voters' verdict, fired off a letter to the editor. "Please show respect for democracy," he wrote, in a letter we published. What he encountered instead was an utter lack of respect for free speech. Within hours, the intimidation game was on. Because his real name and city were listed - a condition for publication of letters to The Chronicle - opponents of Prop. 8 used Internet search engines to find the letter writer's small business, his Web site...

Another protest against Proposition 8 is planned for San Francisco tonight. The proposition approved by voters on Nov. 4 bans gay marriages in California. Tonight's event is being planned by One Love San Francisco. Organizers are getting the word out through social networking sites and e-mail. They hope to have a bigger impact than the rally last weekend had. They say it will be a non-violent civil rights march, designed to peacefully impact businesses along Market Street. The march and sit-in is scheduled to begin at 5:30 outside the ferry building. The last Friday night rally caused traffic nightmare as...