Free Republic

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...

Last weekend, Incheon, South Korea’s second-biggest port city, held its first-ever gay pride parade. Things took a violent turn, however, as more than 1,000 anti-gay protesters, including Christian groups, verbally and physically pushed back the 300 parade participants. The event was expected to last 20 minutes, but took hours due to the conflict. Since 2003, homosexuality has no longer been classified as “harmful and obscene” in South Korea, but discrimination against the community remains widespread. While the country’s national human rights commission act states that individuals cannot be discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation, members of the...

A once great newspaper's descent into special-interest, sex-obsessed self-parody is now complete. Even if the Gray Lady did have to travel all the way to ladyboy Indonesia to find the subject closest to its Leftist heart just before Christmas. The headline says it all: Transgender Muslims Find a Home for Prayer in Indonesia No, really. As the call to prayer boomed over this midsize university town on a recent Sunday evening, rows of conservatively dressed Muslim women laid out their prayer mats, bowed toward Mecca and murmured prayers in Arabic. As dusk fell, it was a ritual being carried out...

Hi everyone. I'm thinking about taking a breather from Free Republic for a little while. Not long, I'm sure. But, I just don't want it to interfere with my job, and I already had that happen once. I'm reading and posting much too much. I think a short sabbatical should help me break this bad habit.See you all soon .... NOT DURING WORK HOURS!

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- At first glance, the man and woman at the nightclub look like any other couple on a date. He flirts and pours champagne. She looks at him and laughs. Businesswomen in Japan pay up to $50,000 a night for male companionship from "hosts" like Yunosuke. This isn't a date, though. It's business. The woman, a successful executive, has joined a growing number of professional women in Japan in forking out from $1,000 to $50,000 a night for male companionship. They meet their "hosts" in hundreds of clubs that have sprung up around Tokyo - the industry...