Free Republic

Together with my good friend and occasional courtroom adversary David Boies, I am attempting to persuade a federal court to invalidate California's Proposition 8—the voter-approved measure that overturned California's constitutional right to marry a person of the same sex.... Many of my fellow conservatives have an almost knee-jerk hostility toward gay marriage. This does not make sense, because same-sex unions promote the values conservatives prize. Marriage is one of the basic building blocks of our neighborhoods and our nation. At its best, it is a stable bond between two individuals who work to create a loving household and a social...

Former First Lady Melania Trump is helping the homosexual ‘conservative’ group Log Cabin Republicans kick off its ‘Road to Victory’ campaign at her and her husband’s Florida resort home on April 20. ... PALM BEACH, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — After an extended absence from public view, former First Lady Melania Trump is reportedly set to return to the campaign trail for her husband starting with a fundraiser for homosexual “conservative” group Log Cabin Republicans at her and husband Donald’s resort home of Mar-a-Lago. The news puts to rest unsubstantiated rumors that Mrs. Trump was distancing herself from the former president’s 2024...

Don Lemon and Tim Malone were all smiles as they headed home from their glitzy New York City wedding. The newlyweds strolled hand in hand as they exited Ralph Lauren's Polo bar just before midnight on Sunday. Lemon, 58, tied the knot with Malone, 40, in an intimate ceremony at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church before leading guests on foot over to the reception. Disgraced sex pest broadcaster Matt Lauer, fired CNN boss Jeff Zucker and alleged killer Alec Baldwin were among the high-profile attendees. The grooms appeared in good spirits as they exited their venue in the same coordinated velvet...

On Wednesday, Thailand’s House of Representatives voted 400-10 in favor of same-sex “marriage.” Only 10 lawmakers voted against the bill. Two abstained and three didn’t vote. The country’s Senate “rarely rejects any legislation that passes the lower house,” the Associated Press noted. Once it passes the Senate, it then must be approved by the majority-Buddhist country’s king. In addition to redefining marriage, the bill “extends all rights and protections contained in the Civil and Commercial Code to LGBTI+ persons,” the pro-LGBT group “Fortify Rights” said in a press release. The group’s lobbying to add the “gender-neutral language of ‘parent’ addition...

The Coptic Orthodox Church has reportedly suspended its dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church over the Catholic Church's decision to allow priests to bless same-sex couples. Coptic leadership held a Holy Synod last week in Wadi El-Natrun, Egypt. The church hierarchy recommended various issues, including recognizing assorted monasteries, adding mental health topics to marital counseling and praying for unity within the Orthodox Church.Coptic Orthodox spokesman Father Moussa Ibrahim explained in a video that "the most notable" action from the annual Holy Synod was "to suspend theological dialogue with the Catholic Church after its change of position on the issue of...

In the first signals of how he’ll act on legislation approved by Virginia’s Democratic General Assembly, Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a largely symbolic bill protecting same-sex marriage but took a more adversarial stance to bills dealing with gun control, reproductive rights and marijuana. Youngkin had until Friday night to take action on 84 bills the legislature sent to him on a shorter-than-usual timeline. He vetoed eight, recommended changes to 12 and signed the rest. The General Assembly finished its work Saturday without taking up any of the governor’s initial amendments and vetoes, which means they will be dealt with during...

'It's not loving to help somebody celebrate stepping into the fury of God's judgment'Pastor John MacArthur recently repudiated Pastor Alistair Begg's comments suggesting Christians ought to attend LGBT weddings.Responding to a congregant who asked for his take on the controversy during a question-and-answer period at his Grace Community Church in Los Angeles last weekend, MacArthur also suggested Begg's advice will tarnish the Christian radio personality's otherwise faithful 40-year ministry.John MacArthur’s first public comment (that I know of) regarding Alistair Begg’s counsel to grandmother to attend her grandchild’s transgender wedding.Q and A, Grace Church, Feb. 18, 2024https://t.co/E5MZZfkgwL via @YouTubepic.twitter.com/iHcY4Cl0Q4— The...

Aleksei Navalny has reportedly died in prison, and the timing of this tragic event for the sake of proving the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the anti-American right on the Russia question is absolutely perfect, coming on the heels of a series of humiliating videos of Tucker going to Moscow and declaring it heaven on earth. It’s one thing to just be wrong in normal and understandable ways. It’s completely different to go abroad and declare, “This poor country has food that is affordable in American dollars! They’ve developed technology to stop the shopping carts from rolling away!” Quotes don’t...

The Greek parliament on Thursday passed a law legalizing same-sex marriage, in a landmark victory for human rights in Greece and making it the first majority Orthodox Christian country to establish marriage equality for all. The decision, supported by 176 out of 300 lawmakers in parliament and with 78 against, follows months of polarized political and public discourse, and has been welcomed as a long-awaited vindication by the country’s LGBTQ+ couples.

A screenshot of a now-archived version of the Shepherd's Conference website shows Pastor Alistair Begg listed as a speaker for the March conference. Begg's name is no longer listed on the website.Pastor, author and Christian radio personality Alistair Begg continues to face fallout from comments he made in a podcast last year about advice for Christians and same-sex weddings.Begg’s bio has been removed from the website of the Shepherd’s Conference, a ministry of Grace Community Church led by Pastor John MacArthur, following controversy over Begg’s advice for a grandmother about attending her LGBT-identified grandson’s wedding.An archived version of the site...

Addressing the controversy surrounding the Vatican's decision to allow blessings for same-sex couples, Pope Francis said the critics of the guidance, except for Africans, belong to "small ideological groups."The pontiff claimed that even in Africa, the resistance is more cultural, as homosexuality is generally not tolerated, Reuters quoted him as saying in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa.Francis was referring to the December 2023 document "Fiducia Supplicans" issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which has sparked widespread debate within the Catholic Church. The guidance stated that priests may bless same-sex couples that approach them...

If Christians want to convey love, there are other — and truer — ways of doing so than attending a celebration of sin.Alistair Begg, a 71-year-old evangelical Scottish pastor of Cleveland’s Parkside Church, who has an influential radio ministry called “Truth For Life,” should repent of the dangerous advice he gave on his program.In response to a question from a grandmother as to whether she should attend her grandson’s wedding to “a transgender person,” Begg said that, so long as the grandson knows that she “can’t countenance … the choices that he has made in life,” she should “go to...

The Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople weighed in today on the gay marriage and adoption controversy currently raging in Greece. Constantinople has dozens of dioceses in Greece, including those on the island of Crete, whose Eparchial Synod also issued a statement last week. The hierarchs of the Church of Greece also unanimously voted against gay marriage and adoption on Tuesday. And yesterday, the Synod of Constantinople reiterated the Church’s stance against gay marriage. Its communiqué reads: The Holy and Sacred Synod, convening under the presidency of His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch in its regular session today, Wednesday, January...

Pope Francis is seeking to clarify that the Catholic Church is not changing its teachings about homosexual practices and same-sex relationships as the Vatican faces criticism for approving a document allowing priests to bless same-sex couples. Delivering remarks at the plenary session of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Friday, the pontiff addressed the “Fiducia Supplicans” declaration handed down by the Vatican office last month. The declaration, published on Dec. 18, allows priests to bless same-sex couples while stressing that “one should neither provide for nor promote a ritual for the blessings of couples in an irregular situation.”As...

Has Pope Francis stepped in it?After putting out a document calling for the blessings of people in "irregular" marital situations and gay marriage, Africa's Catholic bishops aren't taking this well.One after another, they are putting out statements of their own condemning the idea: Bishops in Malawi have prohibited the implementation of the Vatican declaration on the blessing of “same-sex couples” and couples in other “irregular situations,” Fiducia Supplicans, which the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released Dec. 18.https://t.co/4sr3nVPiOq — Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) December 20, 2023 Cameroon's bishops issue 1 of strongest statements rejecting #PopeFrancis' Fiducia Supplicans: “we...

According to much of what's read in the media and among some advocates, the Vatican's changed! It's finally come around to embracing the LGBTQ+ agenda, and is now offering blessings for gay couples for inclusivity's sake, and who knows, soon may be offering gay marriages! Here is some of the cheering from Christopher Lamb at CNN:With five words, uttered right at the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis changed the Catholic conversation about LGBTQ+ people. In 2013, when asked by a journalist about gay priests, the pope famously replied: “Who am I to judge?”Over the last decade the pope has...

Are we fighting in Ukraine in order to “queer the Donbass”? That phrase, which I believe originated with TAC’s editor-at-large Rod Dreher, implies that the ideological package that NATO rallied to Ukraine to defend includes not only freedom and democracy but also pride parades and drag queen story hour. That would, of course, be a ridiculous reason to fight a war. Many Americans don’t want to queer their own kids’ elementary school, much less an industrial Slavic province five thousand miles away. In August 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky pledged that his government would introduce legislation to create civil partnerships for...

As Florida business owner Joe Mills remembers it, all the questions about whether the 14,000-memberFirst Baptist Church Orlando is now affirming same-sex relationships began after he started a Bible study group on Facebook with two of his gay friends called The Gospel Gathering while actively participating at the church. The group, which describes itself as a gathering “of Christian believers who want to worship God in a safe and nonjudgmental environment where all are welcome,” has 98 members. It was launched in May 2021 by Mills and his friends, Kevin Copley and David Speight. All three men are gay but...

A former Fox News staffer has filed a lawsuit against the network and Tucker Carlson's executive producer for sexual assault and alleged the network prevented him from reporting it. The lawsuit, filed Monday in the Southern District of New York, claimed that Andrew Delancey, a former Regional Producer with Fox News Edge, was sexually assaulted by Tucker Carlson's Senior Executive Producer Justin Wells. -snip- Wells was fired at the same time as Carlson - but now works as a producer on Carlson's new X chat show. Delancey alleged Wells first made contact with him in 2007 through a Facebook group...

A Democratic former mayor pleaded guilty to 140 charges for child porn possession and distribution. Patrick Wojahn—who served for nearly eight years as mayor of College Park, Md., before his arrest and resignation in March—pleaded guilty to 60 counts of distribution of child pornography, 40 counts of possession of child pornography with the intention to distribute, and 40 counts of possession of child pornography. Wojahn, who listed his pronouns in his Twitter bio, said in his resignation letter that he was stepping down to address his "mental health." The ex-mayor also has connections to the Biden administration. Wojahn in a...