Free Republic

Although the Republican Party Platform opposes abortion and homosexual marriage, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), which provides funds to GOP candidates, is providing money to two Republican candidates who are homosexual, and who support gay marriage and abortion. One of the candidates, Carl DeMaio, has also received $15,000 from the political arm of House GOP leaders Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), meanwhile, has spoken out and said that individual House members can contribute directly to candidates, but dues that he and other members pay to the NRCC should not necessarily go...

Workers in civil partnerships are entitled to the same benefits as married couples, the European Court of Justice has ruled, in a case that could have a profound impact on employment contracts and welfare regimes across the bloc. In a judgment on Thursday (12 December), the Luxembourg-based court found that denying equal rights to benefits amounted to discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. The ruling comes in response to a case lodged in 2012 by Frederic Hay, a French bank worker with Credit Agricole. Hay brought the case after being denied extra days of leave and a salary bonus...

The nation’s largest freight rail carriers announced Wednesday they will provide health care benefits to the same-sex spouses of their employees, one day after legally married, gay engineers filed a federal lawsuit in Seattle. Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF Railway Co., read the statement from the National Railway Labor Conference to The Associated Press. The conference represents the railroad companies in dealings with labor groups, lawmakers and courts. Same-sex spouses will be eligible for dependent health care coverage starting Jan. 1, the statement said. …

Australia’s highest court has struck down a landmark law allowing the country’s first gay marriages, shattering the dreams of more than two dozen same-sex newlyweds whose marriages will now be annulled less than a week after their weddings. The federal government had challenged the validity of the Australian Capital Territory’s law that had allowed gay marriages in the nation’s capital and its surrounding area, starting last Saturday. […] The High Court unanimously ruled that the ACT’s law could not operate concurrently with the federal Marriage Act, which was amended in 2004 to define marriage as between a man and a...

The Irish Government has announced that it will hold a nation-wide referendum to seek approval for the legalization of same-sex marriage in this predominantly Catholic country before the summer of 2015. The Catholic Church said it will actively push for a rejection of this proposal.

The Georgia National Guard this afternoon indicated it intends to ignore a directive from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and will continue to send same-sex spouses of National Guard personnel elsewhere for benefits guaranteed by the Pentagon. Here's the statement received late Friday from Joseph Quimby, deputy director of public affairs for the state Department of Defense: “The State of Georgia does not recognize same sex marriages and is not authorizing the Georgia National Guard to process the applications for same-sex married benefits at state facilities. Any personnel seeking to apply for same-sex married benefits will be referred to federal facilities.”...

SPRINGFIELD-The head of Springfield’s Roman Catholic diocese moved Tuesday to scuttle a silent protest by same-sex marriage advocates planned at the capital city’s largest Catholic church, calling their plans to pray the rosary for marriage equality “blasphemous.”Advocates for the Senate Bill 10 plan to attend a 5:15 p.m. Tuesday Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception as part of what organizers describe as a “loud Catholic Presence for marriage equality” that will wrap up a daylong rally in support of the stalled legislation.But Bishop Thomas Paprocki, head of the Springfield Catholic diocese, said anyone wearing rainbow sashes won’t be...

Same-sex marriages will begin within days in New Jersey after the state's highest court ruled unanimously Friday to uphold a lower-court order that gay weddings must start Monday and to deny a delay that was sought by Gov. Chris Christie's administration. "The state has advanced a number of arguments, but none of them overcome this reality: Same-sex couples who cannot marry are not treated equally under the law today," the court said in an opinion by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner. "The harm to them is real, not abstract or speculative."(continued)

Dear Readers. I received a survey request (filled in below) from the Media Research Center (MRC). Initially I was expecting just another multiple choice form that misses many of the key issues of the day. Much to my delight, this one actually had, in addition to MRC's preferred topics,  "other" as choices. And what was even more special, MRC provided a space in which to spell out the other choice(s). Burned out naif that I am, I have my doubts they will actually read what I put in the boxes. I know, many of you think I must be crazy...

Former President George H.W. Bush was an official witness at the same-sex wedding of two longtime friends, his spokesman said Wednesday. Bush and his wife, Barbara Bush, attended the ceremony joining Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen as private citizens and friends on Saturday, spokesman Jim McGrath said. …

Legally married same-sex couples enjoy the same federal rights as other married couples when it comes to pensions, 401(k)s, health plans and other employee benefits, even if they live in states that don’t recognize their union, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The new guidance is the latest effort by the Obama administration to clarify questions left unanswered after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in June which invalidated part of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. … “This decision represents a historic step toward equality for all American families, and I have directed the department’s agency heads to ensure that they...

A Pennsylvania judge on Thursday ordered a suburban Philadelphia clerk to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Commonwealth Court Judge Dan Pellegrini said Montgomery County Register of Wills D. Bruce Hanes did not have the power to decide on his own whether Pennsylvania’s same-sex marriage ban violates the state constitution. It was not immediately clear what the decision would mean to those who have already received a license. …

is this guy for real?

In May, TheBlaze told you about Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, an Oregon-based bakery that has fallen under intense scrutiny. Throughout 2013, the Christian couple and their business have been in the midst of a media firestorm after refusing to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple. From threats to vicious phone calls and e-mails, the Klein family has been inundated with angry responses. Now, Aaron and Melissa have announced that they are shutting down their shop. In a brief phone interview earlier this month, Melissa told TheBlaze that the couple has continued to...

A Gresham bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, prompting a state investigation, shut its doors. On Sunday, KGW stopped by Sweet Cakes by Melissa and found the bakery completely empty. All counter tops, display cases and decorations were gone. Hanging in the window was a sign from the Oregon Family Council that read "Religious freedom is under attack in Gresham." As first reported in Willamette Week, Sweet Cakes by Melissa posted on its Facebook page, “This will be our last weekend at the shop we are moving our business to an in home bakery....

Former Illinois GOP Chair Pat Brady, who was pushed out by party conservatives because of his vocal support for same-sex marriage, is writing his next chapter by tackling the same issue. Starting in November, Brady plans to begin lobbying Republican state lawmakers on passing same-sex marriage on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU has tapped Brady and his consulting firm, Next Generation Public Affairs, to help push the legislation through the Illinois House. “Illinois is one of the top-priority states, urgency-wise. I’m working for them at their direction,” Brady told the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday. “I’m concentrating...

I received yet another email request for funds from the Tea Party "Patriots" Citizens Fund. Here is the maddening segment of Jenny Beth Martin's reasons for her request for funds. 2) We need to bombard targeted Senators with ads. The constituents of every single wishy-washy “Republican” need to understand what is at stake. We just don’t yet have the funding we need to buy these ads.  Someone this stupid has no business being in the business of fighting the Establishment. As far as I am concerned, she is essentially an antidisestablishmentarian.  Hey, maybe I'm overly sensitive, but am I wrong...

The Associated Press reports that some churches are taking steps to change their bylaws after the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the federal Defense of Marriage Act out of a desire to protect themselves from potential claims by same-sex couples. The article reported that some critics argued that such changes were unnecessary and amount to “a solution looking for a problem.” But as an attorney who defends the constitutional freedoms of churches on a daily basis, all the assurances of those who have been actively seeking to redefine marriage that they will not target churches ring hollow in light of...

This past weekend, students and friends of our ministry school in North Carolina conducted a survey at the gay pride event in Charlotte. The survey was entitled, “Are You Open Minded?”, and it led to some fascinating interaction, highlighting the moral malaise of this generation. But first, some of the results of the survey, which provided a random sampling of the multiplied thousands who attended Charlotte Pride. Slightly more than 100 people responded to our questions, 52% female, 47% male, and one self-identified as genderqueer (this was in response to the category “other”; another respondent, while identifying as female, also...

Conservative critics are blasting the Defense Department for giving gay troops an early wedding gift: up to 10 days uncharged leave time for same-sex marriages.