Free Republic

For the first time in Texas history, a same-sex relationship has been recognized as a common-law marriage. Travis County Probate Judge Guy Herman signed a judgment acknowledging that Stella Powell and Sonemaly Phrasavath met the legal requirements to be considered married even though their eight-year relationship did not include a marriage license. Herman’s order, signed Monday but distributed Tuesday, ended Phrasavath’s quest to have her relationship with Powell, who died last year, recognized as a marriage after Powell’s siblings filed a probate suit stating that she had died single because she could not marry another woman under Texas law. The...

The German family structure is changing, with nearly a third of every family no longer living in the “classic model” and big differences in what family looks like in the former East and West, statistics agency Destatis announced on Monday. The 2013 Microcensus showed that 70 percent of families consisted of a married couple and at least one child under the age of 18. And while the classical model still dominates, the figures show it’s in decline. In 1996, 81 percent of families centered on a married couple.Today, 20 percent of children live with single parents, up six percent from...

OTTAWA -- A convicted killer with a record of drug addiction and fleeing parole has earned a 72-hour conjugal visit with his gay lover at Ontario's Joyceville penitentiary. Kevin Joseph Humphrey, a former fugitive who became subject of a Canada-wide warrant in 2002, spent the past weekend at the so-called "love shack," according to a prison source. When he repeatedly went on the lam, police considered Humphrey dangerous because of his drug addiction and violent criminal record. The former Toronto man was convicted of second-degree murder in the 1983 robbery slaying of Charles Palmer in Minden, Ont. Correctional Service of...