Free Republic

The mentally ill wound up on the streets. The problem worsened when the Obama administration and homeless advocates won a lawsuit to prevent Boise, Idaho, from outlawing camping on sidewalks and public parks. President Barack Obama’s Justice Department deemed homelessness a legally protected lifestyle choice. Ridiculous. A person who “chooses” street living, instead of shelter or hospitalization, is exposed to hypothermia, disease and crime. On average, a homeless person survives only to age 48, losing 30 years of a normal lifespan. It’s worse for women. Allowing that choice is neither compassionate to the homeless nor fair to the rest of...

It claims to be the first radio station of its kind in the United States and its getting a lot of different listeners. “We’re like 420 friendly, we play music for stoners, we have marijuana comedy, this summer we’re giving away trips to Amsterdam and Jamaica,” Gary Ganja said as he started a show in mid-June. The radio station at Smokin’ 94.1, which includes DJ’s named Mary Jane, Ed Blaze, Stoney Reynolds and the owner Gary Ganja, started on June first. Its marijuana themed from what goes out over-the-air down to the décor inside the office space and, for now,...

Pot may be legal in Colorado, but you can still be fired for using it. The state Supreme Court ruled 6-0 Monday that a medical marijuana patient who was fired after failing a drug test cannot get his job back. The case was being watched closely by employers and pot smokers in states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana. Colorado became at least the fourth state in which courts have ruled against medical marijuana patients fired for pot use. Supreme courts in California, Montana and Washington state have made similar rulings, and federal courts in Colorado and Michigan also...

<p>Sissy Goodwin calls his cross-dressing lifestyle 'gender independence' After nearly seven decades in Wyoming, for much of that time facing heartbreak, discrimination and even physical violence, the cross-dresser has finally decided to leave the Cowboy State.</p> <p>Sissy Goodwin, who was profiled in the Los Angeles Times in 2013 for his insistence, despite an often-macho Western ethic, to lead the life he chooses -- as a man who prefers to dress in women's clothing -- is retiring in May from his job as a college science instructor in Casper.</p>

"President Barack Obama’s gay allies are ignoring his endorsement of the long-standing claim that sexual orientation is a matter of choice."

President Obama: “I will tell you peoples’ hearts have opened up on this issue, I think people know that treating folks unfairly, even if you disagree with their lifestyle choice, the fact of the matter is they’re not bothering you. Let them live their lives and under the law they should be treated equally." You Tube Interview With President GayLove

Gay men just got a step closer to being able to donate blood. Since 1983, men who have had sex with men anytime since 1977 were barred from donating blood, a policy put in place because of the HIV/AIDs epidemic, which especially ravaged the gay community in its early years. But on Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on Blood and Tissue Safety voted 16-2 to tweak the ban, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, suggesting instead that men who have had sex with men could give blood, but with a caveat. They’d have to be abstinent for...

No excerpt from IHE allowed, story here. To summarize, an engineering education magazine publishes a letter by a professor critical of homosexuality, and many are appalled.

Pop quiz, no cheating allowed: if you had to guess, would you say that HIV and AIDS rates among gay men in the United States are A) declining, B) remaining stable, or C) rising? The correct answer is C) rising, at an alarming 8% per year . HIV incidence -- that is, the proportion of a population infected -- among gay men in the United States rises by that amount every year since at least 2001. Overall, this incidence, at 15.4% cumulatively, is just slightly lower than the incidence among gay men in Sub-Saharan Africa.

More than six decades ago, when the federal standards on the strength of airplane seats and seat belts were written, government regulations specified that seats be designed for a passenger weight of 170 pounds. But now the average American man weighs nearly 194 pounds and the average woman 165. Now, some engineers and scientists have raised questions about whether airplane seats, tested with crash dummies that reflect the 170-pound rule, are strong enough to protect heavy travelers. “If a heavier person completely fills a seat, the seat is not likely to behave as intended during a crash,” said Robert Salzar,...

White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett apologized to the gay community Thursday after she referred to homosexuality as a "lifestyle choice" during a discussion about the wave of recent teen suicides. "I meant no disrespect to the LGBT community, and I apologize to any who have taken offense at my poor choice of words," Jarrett said in a written statement. The Obama confidante made the off-hand comment in an interview Wednesday with The Washington Post. She was talking about a speech she delivered Saturday to the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, on teens who've killed themselves after being...

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. -- A man said he was fired from his hotel job for his sexual orientation and claims the owner who let him go dared him to sue. David Hill is looking for a new job after he said he was fired Tuesday from a former Brentwood Holiday Inn, which now goes by the name Artee Hotel. "They literally said to me because of my orientation and my alternative lifestyle, that I was not a fit for the hotel," said Hill. Hill said he used to be the human resources director and is shocked at the owner's decision to...

HILLSBORO, Ore. -- John Shipley calls it the "weirdest, sickest case" he's ever investigated. The detective with the Washington County Sheriff's Office says a woman and three men put a 15-year-old Bethany girl through a course of sado-masochistic discipline that included rape. "In the back of our mind, we're concerned that these four individuals have done this to other children," Shipley told The Oregonian newspaper. "These four people are 'out there' in terms of responsibility and knowing how to treat children." Stephanie Lynn Leblanc-Porter, 38, and David Raymond Guy Davies, 44, are charged with rape, sodomy, sexual abuse, unlawful sexual...

CHICAGO - A woman in her 30s who is one of the four organ transplant patients infected with HIV and hepatitis was not told that the infected donor was high risk, and had previously rejected another donor "because of his lifestyle," her attorney said. Attorney Thomas Demetrio filed a petition Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of the woman, asking officials to keep a hospital and an organ procurement center from destroying or altering any records involving the donation. "She's really a mess right now," Demetrio said of the Chicago-area woman. "She's still in shock." The patient, identified...

The two lovers are, in many ways, the perfect couple. They hold hands, hug and finish each others' sentences. They own their tidy, well-furnished house together, pay taxes, and are active in their neighborhood association. They've lived together for 11 years, and although they've always wanted to, they can't marry. It's against the law — Kent Kullby and Tim Smith are men. On Sept. 18 the Eugene City Council will consider a unanimous recommendation from the city's Human Rights Commission to give Kullby and Smith and other unmarried couples like them the next best thing to marriage, a domestic partner...