For centuries, the traditional family was the basic building block of our society, but now that concept is being diluted because of the redefinition of "family" and "marriage".  The actions of a few leftist judges in the northeastern part of the country can affect all fifty states, so the only sure way to address this matter legally, aside from the wholesale impeachment of public officials, is through an amendment to the Constitution.  But even that solution is questioned by some conservatives.

There was never any confusion about homosexual marriage until very recently:  It was perverse, and we all agreed that it was perverse.  But now there are varying opinions and dissimilar laws in almost every state, and the resulting confusion is one of the poisonous fruits of liberalism.

Subtopic:  Same-sex marriage activists lash out at Chick-Fil-A.

Spin-off page:  Civil disobedience related to same-sex marriage laws.

Background, overview and recap articles:

Does Buttigieg Really Have a Husband?  It is true that Buttigieg is legally married, but that is a legal fiction.  The Britannica Encyclopedia defines a legal fiction as "a rule assuming as true something that is clearly false."  The idea that a man can have a husband is clearly false — he can only have a wife — despite claims to the contrary.  Buttigieg's "marriage" is recognized by the positive law, or by what lawmakers and judges posit, but it is not recognized by the natural law.  The natural law, which was first promulgated by Aristotle and Cicero (and later amended by Aquinas), holds that morality is a function of human nature, and that we can arrive at moral strictures on the basis of observation and reason.  As human beings, Aquinas said, we are given to three natural inclinations, one of which is reproduction (the others being self-preservation and reason).  Reproduction has been ordained by nature, and nature's God, as the province of a man and a woman.  Two men cannot reproduce anymore than two women can.  It therefore makes no sense to say that people of the same sex can marry.

Capitulating on 'Same-sex Marriage'.  The Supreme Court's 5-4 Obergefell ruling that supposedly "legalized" same-sex marriage was a complete political sham having no basis in actual constitutional law.  (In addition, two of the liberal justices should have recused themselves.)  As Justice Clarence Thomas hinted, it needs to be scrapped.  To claim that the Constitution includes or implies such a "right" is simply nonsense.  Previously, dozens of states rightly banned same-sex marriage to underscore that truth.  You can't repeal the laws of nature.  There is no such thing as same-sex "marriage."  The concept is an invention of the LGBT movement.  The federal government cannot force people to believe a lie.  Same-sex marriage enshrines into law a behavior that is fraught with horrible medical and psychological problems.  America's medical associations have shamelessly — and completely unscientifically — sold out on this point.  Not the least, there is the religious aspect that is well known to nearly everyone.  To put it succinctly, men using one another as women will always constitute a perversion.  Don't blame me; blame God.

The 'Transgender' Endgame.  First of all, let it be noted the lightning speed in which we've descended down this wicked slope.  With nothing in science or morality to back the notion that "gender is a spectrum" or that one can actually "transition" from one sex to another, in less than a decade we've gone from the foolish and evil notion that marriage is whatever we define it to be to sex (gender) is whatever we define it to be.  As is the case with same-sex "marriage," children are again victims.  Not only children, but parents of vulnerable and deceived children are victims as well.  In early 2019, in Public Discourse, the journal of the Witherspoon Institute, five mothers anonymously published their concerns over their supposed "transgender" children. [...] [W]hat we are dealing with here is not mere mental illness.  This is evil — pure and simple evil right out of the pit of hell.  We will not win this fight unless it is dealt with as such.

Narcissus Revises Christianity, Makes It Liberal.  Nowhere in the entire Bible is there any positive reference to same-sex activity, yet there are numerous vilifications of same-sex activity.  Jesus does tell us to engage in sex — with the opposite sex.  Jesus laid down a specific model for marriage in Matthew 19:4-12, referring back to Genesis and the fact that male and female were created for permanent unity as one flesh.  To those raising caveats, Jesus makes clear that if people cannot respect that model, they must live as a "eunuch" (Matthew 19:12) and have no marriage or sexual relations at all.  In addition, Jesus describes two sexual sins (adultery and sexual impurity) as "defilement" even if only spoken (Matthew 15:19).  The other defilements are evil thoughts, murder, theft, slander, and blasphemy.  Given the myriad references outside the four gospels labeling homosexuality defilement, abomination, unnatural, etc. — would you, if you felt same-sex desires, be willing to gamble your salvation on the pro-gay interpretation of Jesus?

Redefining marriage.  For thousands of years and in virtually all cultures marriage has always been the exclusive lifelong union of one man and one woman.  Yet there is now pressure to redefine marriage in law to create same-sex marriage.  Redefining marriage would have serious consequences and would be imposed on the whole of society.  Concerns are growing that the next step could be the legalisation of polygamy.  There would be alarming implications for religious liberty.  Homosexual marriage sends out the message that having a mother and a father is not important for children.  Familiar words such as 'husband' and 'wife' would be abolished in law and by government bodies.  The new definition of marriage would be promoted in schools and by other public authorities.

Timely news and commentary:

Vivek Ramaswamy doesn't understand the consequences of supporting homosexual 'marriage'.  Vivek Ramaswamy's single hurried sentence about same-sex "marriage" at Sunday's massive Trump rally at Madison Square Garden unwittingly sets in motion a destructive nuclear chain-reaction for future generations of children.  "Our message to gay Americans tonight is this," announced the former GOP presidential candidate, now one of Donald J. Trump's most ardent, outspoken supporters. "You're free to marry who you want without the government standing in your way."  Ramaswamy's blithe comment, met with silence and zero resistance in the famed arena packed with 75,000 souls, demonstrates that the impossible notion of same-sex "marriage" has been accepted in conservative circles as not only tolerable but as "normal," without regard to the policy's dire repercussions.  His comment also reflects the fact that at the moment, there is virtually no political will to be found anywhere in Washington, D.C., or throughout the Republican Party, to overturn Obergefell, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 decision which has obscured — if not eviscerated — the immutable definition of marriage.

Bogus Term 'White Supremacy' is Just War on the West.  Whenever words or phrases appear out of the blue and achieve rapid currency — think "disinformation" — they're almost always top-down attempts at mind control or mental conditioning.  In sneaky fashion, a new phrase can be just a tweak of a former phrase yet the tweak will shift one's mindset. [...] In our age obsessed with race and sex — another top-down phenomenon — the most obvious verbal engineering, and therefore social engineering, is happening with regard to ethnic heritage and sexual ethics.  Many remember when "gay" meant happy or merry, while now the word applies almost exclusively to homosexuals.  But even that was not enough for those seeking to normalize same-sex relations.  So "gay" was followed not only by "same-sex marriage" but also by the contrived term "homophobic," nonexistent in older dictionaries.  The phrase is an obvious subversive political weapon, casting traditionalists as pathological when homosexual conduct was, traditionally, the vice and the pathology.

Transgender Mariah Carey impersonator divorces [him]self after one year of "marriage".  Sometimes, even the best partnerships fall apart, despite every effort to save the union.  And there's no better example than transgender influencer, model, and Mariah Carey impersonator "Suellen" Carey, who has announced an end to his one-year marriage ... to himself.  [Tweet]

Every single conservative fear about gay marriage came true.  [Thread reader]  [#1] Gay marriage is a slippery slope.  For years, when conservatives worried that gay marriage could lead to things like polyamory or polygamy, the Left scoffed. [...] [#2] Religious liberty will be harmed.  In 2015, Marco Rubio warned that "we are at the water's edge of the argument that mainstream Christian teaching is hate speech."  He was roundly mocked by liberals. [...] The Daily Beast accused him of a "pathetic persecution complex."  But Rubio was obviously correct.  Almost immediately after the Left won on gay marriage, they launched a coordinated campaign to persecute religious Americans who still believed in the traditional definition of marriage.  And in many cases, the courts... just let them do it.  The victims of this campaign are real people, with real names and faces.  Jack Phillips, a Christian baker in Colorado, politely refused to custom-bake a cake endorsing gay marriage.  As a result, he's been in court for more than a decade, and has lost 40% of his business.  [#3] Christian institutions will be persecuted for their beliefs. [...]

Not to mention AIDS, gonorrhea, chlamydia, monkeypox and syphilis.
UCLA study:  Gay couples at greater risk from climate change.  A new study out of UCLA says same-sex couples are at greater "risk of exposure to the adverse effects of climate change" than straight couples.  These effects include "wildfires, floods, smoke-filled skies, and drought," according to a report from KQED.  Same-sex couples disproportionately live in coastal regions and cities, which are more vulnerable to such disasters.  They're also more likely "to live in areas with poor infrastructure, worse-built environments."  Washington DC, which rates high for "climate risks" such as heat waves, floods, and "dangerously strong winds," has the greatest proportion of gay couples in the U.S.

Former Kentucky Clerk Ordered to Pay $260,000 in Legal Fees after Refusing to Issue Marriage License to Same-Sex Couples.  A former county clerk in Kentucky, Kim Davis, must pay a total of $260,104 in legal fees and expenses to a same-sex couple whom Davis denied a marriage license because of her religious beliefs.  The new sum is in addition to the $100,000 in damages a jury ruled Davis must pay to the couple who sued, David Ermold and David Moore.  The Davis case gained international notoriety in 2015 when she was jailed for refusing to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple.  Davis maintained that she had been faced with a "seemingly impossible choice" between following her conscience and losing her freedom.  A Democrat and a Christian who was elected to the post of Rowan county clerk in 2014, Davis surged into the spotlight when she refused to issue licenses after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage.  After defying a federal court order and losing a string of appeals, she was jailed for five days in 2015.

Methodist Church Of Great Britain Says Terms "Husband" And "Wife" Are Offensive.  You won't be surprised to learn the Methodist Church of the UK now thinks it can marry two men to each other.

The Methodist Church of Great Britain Labels Terms 'Husband' and 'Wife' Offensive.  The Methodist Church of Great Britain has called on its ministers, deacons, and elders to stop using offensive terminology such as "husband" and "wife" to avoid making assumptions that are not "the reality for many people."  The church added the changes to its "Inclusive Language Guide," an initiative aimed at preventing the use of "hurtful language" directed at groups the Methodist Church believes have been "marginalised and/or demonised by common culture."  The church plans to update the Inclusive Language Guide every six months to avoid using language that could offend groups it perceives as marginalized.

The Editor says...
The words husband and wife have been in the Bible for centuries.  If you are a church leader and you find those words (or the Bible itself) offensive, perhaps you should choose another line of work.

East Lansing to pay 6-figure settlement in Country Mill farmers market lawsuit.  The city will pay about $42,000 in damages and another $783,800 to cover the legal costs of a vendor who sued the city for excluding him from the city's farmers market because of his religious beliefs.  The terms of the settlement in favor of Country Mill Farms and its owner, Stephen Tennes, were disclosed in a final judgement entered Friday in U.S. District Court.  The order, signed by Judge Paul Maloney, includes a permanent injunction preventing the city from finding Tennes in violation of its vendor guidelines for declining to host same-sex weddings.

Gen Z's Support For Gay Marriage Has Dropped Dramatically.  Support for gay marriage among Generation Z has fallen 11% since 2021, according to a Thursday poll from the Survey Center on American Life.  The poll revealed a number of political shifts amongst Gen Z, including changing attitudes on gay marriage, feminism, political affiliation and belief in political leaders.  Support for gay marriage among Gen Z fell from 80% in 2021 to 69% in 2023.  Gen Z men also appear to hold less favorable views of feminism than their Millennial counterparts; 43% of Gen Z men identify as feminists compared to 52% of millennial men, while 28% of white Gen Z men identify as liberals compared to 34% of white millennial men, according to the poll.  [Tweet]

How are those "gay" marriages working out?
Florida Man Arrested for Drugging His Husband, Brutally Murdering Him.  On November 3, 2023, at approximately 8:00 a.m., Marion County Sheriff's Office Major Crimes detectives arrested Herbert Swilley for the first-degree murder of his husband, 59-year-old Timothy Floyd Smith.  On Saturday, March 25, 2023, at approximately 10:50 a.m., MCSO deputies responded to an apartment, located at 1980 SE 40th Street Road, Ocala, to conduct a well-being check on Timothy Smith, who did not show up for work on Friday, March 24.  When deputies made entry to the residence, they located Timothy, who was deceased.  [Lurid details omitted.]  The investigation revealed that Timothy had previously suffered domestic abuse by Swilley.  It was also learned that Timothy was close to securing a new job in another county and was planning to relocate there without Swilley.  Investigators also uncovered that Swilley stood to profit from Timothy's death, as he was listed as the beneficiary of Timothy's life insurance policies, which totaled $333,000.00.

Texas goes after a judge who refused to perform gay weddings.  Texas is a battleground.  With its 38 electoral college votes, if Democrats can flip it, they will hold the White House.  One of the wars being waged is in the judiciary, and one of the targets is McLennan County Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley.  She was investigated for referring same-sex weddings to a colleague instead of performing them herself, and her fate as a judge now rests with the Texas Supreme Court. [...] One of the roles a Justice of the Peace performs in Waco's courthouse is to officiate at weddings.  In 2015, though, when the [U.S.] Supreme Court found a magical right in the Constitution that forced states to legalize same-sex love, Hensley, along with other judges in conservative Waco, retired from performing any weddings so that she wouldn't be forced to perform same-sex weddings.

The Editor says...
I wouldn't worry too much about this case.  The Texas Supreme Court is the one part of the state government that isn't infested with RINOs.

$0 and then $100,000: 2 juries split on same-sex duo suing Christian clerk.  One of two juries deliberating "damages" to be paid by former Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk Kim Davis has returned a verdict of zero dollars.  A report from Liberty Counsel, which has been working on Davis' case for a number of years, revealed Wednesday that the jury hearing the Yates v. Davis case "returned a verdict of zero damages."  The plaintiffs had sought $300,000 in the trial before the leftist Judge David Bunning, who, when the dispute arose, ordered Davis to jail.  She was caught in a quandary when the Supreme Court created, in a ruling "untethered" to the Constitution, the status of same-sex "marriage" all across the country.  When that order came down, of course, many state laws still prohibited those licenses.

Report from the Sausage Factory.  RINOs sprung a new one-page platform out of nowhere; so minimal, vague and watered down as to not really be a platform at all.  The existing platform has long been a hindrance and embarrassment for Neo-Cons, RINOs, Feminists, Log Cabin Republicans, et al.  They desire a new platform that won't contradict their positions. [...] The most controversial plank was the family.  The one-page platform included no family plank at all.  Although a family plank was put back in, the one thing it could not, must not include was affirmation of one-man one-woman marriage.  One delegate from California's central coast reminded everyone of his warning years ago when the Log Cabin group was first admitted that notwithstanding all their assurances to the contrary, they would seek to remove one-man one-woman marriage from the platform "and now, here we are."  The Log Cabin Republicans retorted that they are good republicans, professing support for "traditional family values" (whatever that means in their world) and are not like those "other crazies out there."

Court Sides With Catholic School That [Terminated an] Employee Over Her Gay Marriage.  The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a former Catholic school employee Thursday whose contract was not renewed after disclosing her same-sex marriage.  Michelle Fitzgerald, the school's former co-director of guidance, filed a lawsuit in 2019 after the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and Roncalli High School informed her that the school did not intend to renew her contract for the next year because she had violated her terms of agreement by being in a same-sex relationship, according to the lawsuit.  Judge Richard Young rejected Fitzgerald's appeal to a previous ruling, noting that she had violated the terms of her contract by entering into a same-sex relationship, which goes against the Archdiocese's beliefs about marriage.

Progressivism's Rejection of Civil Rights.  When it comes to protecting religious freedom in America, forget about the civil rights community.  Just like President Biden, these groups have now surrendered to progressive ideologies, unwilling to defend anyone who disagrees with them — even if the opposition is grounded in sincerely held religious belief.  A look at this past Supreme Court term proves this point.  Take, for example, the recent case involving Lorie Smith, a Christian website designer who wanted to expand her business to offer wedding websites for couples celebrating traditional marriage.  Smith went to court, concerned that Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA), a broadly defined public accommodations law outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation could compel her to design websites for same-sex weddings.  Smith explained that she had no problem working for gay clients, but that she couldn't use her talents to celebrate unions that were at odds with her beliefs.

Justice Jackson's emotional dissent relied on an objectively flawed study.  In 2015, Obergefell v. Hodges presented a simple question:  Does the Constitution contain a federal right to same-sex marriage?  The simple answer, again, was no.  And if the Founders had ever contemplated same-sex marriage, these sophisticated men who fully understood homosexuality's existence would have fallen on the floor laughing.  They would then have pointed out that pretending to find such a right in the Constitution would create a head-on collision between the explicit right to practice religion without government interference and a plucked-from-the-air decision that gives federal and state governments the right to force religious people and institutions to support same-sex marriage... or else.  Nevertheless, Justice Kennedy wrote a heartfelt romance, all about people loving people being the happiest people... Well, something like that.  Let's just say that his brief was long on emotion and short on law.  The Court, once again, usurped the will of the people through a unilateral and unconstitutional amendment process.

Pro-family author explains how same-sex 'marriage' in Massachusetts led to the Obergefell decision.  According to [Amy] Contrada, the reason why Massachusetts began allowing same-sex "marriage" in 2003 is because of a lack of conservative leadership and the scheming of politicians from both parties, highlighting the state's then-Republican Governor Mitt Romney in a constitutional fight that dates to the late 1990s.  At that time, she explains, there was a push for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman after Vermont passed a same-sex "civil unions" law.  A petition supporting the amendment managed to receive enough support for the state legislature to vote on it.

Should Christians Declare A State Of Emergency, Too?  Less than six months after President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified gay marriages, the Human Rights Campaign declared its first-ever "state of emergency" for "LGBTQ+ people."  Why?  Because of a supposed spike in "legislative assaults sweeping state houses this year."  "More than 75 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been signed into law this year alone, more than doubling last year's number, which was previously the worst year on record," the HRC says.

Nancy Pelosi's Theology and Her Politics.  Is the Bible ambiguous about marriage?  It teaches that the institution of marriage is as old as mankind, in which a man and woman unite to oneness.  Jesus emphasized that marriage is a permanent unity of man and woman, the two becoming one.  Proscriptions against homosexual behavior are well known, so homosexuals calling themselves married is profanation.  Christians aren't homophobic (i.e., afraid of homosexuality).  Rather, Christians are homoabdico, aligning with the Lord in disapproving of homosexual behavior.  Similarly, Christians aren't transphobic (i.e., afraid of transsexuality).  Rather, Christians are transabdico, disapproving of transgender transitions, associated with irreversible reproductive system damage, surgical mutilations, and bodily damage done pharmacologically.  After this lucrative medical malpractice, every natural cell in the body testifies to an unchanged biological sex.  And fully "transitioned" victims have rates of suicide 20x higher (i.e., a 2,000% increase) than otherwise.

Major Christian Church On Brink Of Schism As Conservative Bishops Slam Same-Sex Marriage Blessings.  A dozen conservative Anglican archbishops from various global churches announced that they no longer recognized the Archbishop of Canterbury as the leader of the Anglican Communion Monday, weeks after the Church of England approved the blessing of same-sex unions.  The decision to bless such unions, made earlier February, meant that the Church of England "had chosen to break communion" with foreign churches that "remain faithful to the historic biblical faith," a group of archbishops from the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (GSFA) said in a press statement.

Child Abuse in the Name of Wokeness.  The case concerns a gay couple, calling themselves married, who were arrested for abusing the two boys they adopted. [...] The arrested men are Zachary Jacoby Zulock and his putative spouse, William Dale Zulock, Jr.  The men are in their 30s, live in a large suburban house, and are active in the Pride and BLM movements.  I'll give you one guess which political party they support.  They are accused of unspeakable acts against their two adopted boys — ages 6 and 8 at the time of the offenses.  The charges include child pornography, child rape, and pimping the boys out to other pedophiles in the greater Atlanta area.  I won't go into details about the abuse, because it's not necessary for the point I want to make.  According to Cathell's report, officials in Georgia expedited the Zulock adoption — even to the point of minimizing the candidates' background check.  We now know that one of the men, Zachary Jacoby Zulock, had been accused of raping a child in Oxford, Georgia in 2011.  Apparently, the investigation was less than rigorous.

A Massive Effort at Moral Rebuilding Is Necessary.  I think it fair to say that political economy in our time does not take the home seriously, because it does not take virtue and vice seriously, as the political economists themselves are mainly content with the withering of religious life — they having been brought up in, and having accepted, the dissolution of sexual morals that is rendering America a nation of broken homes, amputated families, fatherless children, and dispirited lovelessness between young men and women, some of whom are condemned to loneliness because they do not sin, and others condemned to that and worse because they do. [...] In all our rush to define the essence of marriage out of our consciousness by extending the category to couples who by definition cannot perform the marital act, we have heard hardly a whisper about all the moral and social questions that bear upon marriage — no whisper at all about divorce, for example, and none at all about how you can possibly promote sexual continence, let alone chastity, while countenancing and blessing actions that presume incontinence and unchastity and that far surpass them in physical and moral harm.

Government Should Get Out of the Marriage Business.  There is a way to undercut the left's sustained attack on religion, expressed most recently through its assaults on traditional heterosexual marriage.  The answer is to take government out of "marriage," while continuing to allow it to control what are essentially the business aspects of two people joining together.  Tanya Berlaga has clearly shown why the "Respect for Marriage Act" is no such thing.  And, as legal briefs so commonly say, Berlaga's arguments are incorporated by reference herein.  While she discusses marriage's proper role in society, space likely prevented her from reviewing the government's role in marriage.

Joe Biden Signs Same-Sex Marriage Bill: 'Nothing More Decent, More Dignified, More American'.  President Joe Biden signed a bill making same-sex marriage legal nationwide on Tuesday, describing it as a victory for freedom in America.  "There is nothing more decent, more dignified, more American about what we are doing here today," Biden said during his speech at the White House before the signing.

Joe Biden Goes From Senile to Disgusting in Remarks on Gay Marriage Law.  As you're probably aware by now, a number of Republicans stabbed their voters in the back to pass the Orwellian-named "Respect for Marriage Act."  It's a law so bad in its execution and so misleading in its branding that I almost feel obliged to use quotes every time I mention it.  There is nothing respectful about it in regard to the institution of marriage.  I covered some of the major issues with the law previously, and I won't rehash that here.  Rather, this article centers on Joe Biden's Tuesday appearance marking the passage of the "Respect for Marriage Act."  During his remarks, he managed to run the gambit from senile to disgusting.  Biden is constantly finding fresh ways to be the worst president in modern history.

House Passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill with Support of 39 Republicans.  The House of Representatives passed legislation with bipartisan support on Thursday that would codify same-sex marriage protections.  Lawmakers voted to enact the bill 258 to 169, with 39 Republicans breaking with their party to join 219 Democrats on the motion.  Last month, the bill cleared the Senate, with moderate Republican senators Susan Collins, Rob Portman, and Thom Tillis reaching across the aisle to provide the necessary GOP votes.  The measure now goes to President Biden's desk for final approval.  Many Republicans objected to the Respect for Marriage Act on the grounds that it lacked sufficient provisions prohibiting discrimination against religious institutions and individuals.  An amendment adopted by the Senate is intended to ensure that nonprofit religious organizations won't be forced to help facilitate same-sex marriage, but conservatives in the upper chamber argue it doesn't go far enough in protecting dissenters.

The Supreme Court is preparing to strike down forced speech.  In a case argued at the Supreme Court this week, a Colorado website designer appealed a decision from lower courts requiring her to create wedding websites for gay couples in violation of her religious belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.  The Court is likely to reverse the lower court decision, and allow her to decline to create such websites.  The liberal minority on the Court and the liberal media argue that such a decision will lead to a new Jim Crow era where the providers of public accommodation are allowed to refuse services to people on the basis of their sexual preferences or skin color.  That argument is incorrect and probably not even sincere.  Here's why. [...]

Justice Gorsuch Accuses Colorado of Forcing Christian Baker to Undergo 'Reeducation Program'.  Justice Gorsuch slammed the State of Colorado on Monday for forcing a Christian baker to undergo a "reeducation program" after he refused to create a custom cake celebrating a same-sex marriage on the grounds that it violated his religious convictions.  The comment came during opening arguments before the Supreme Court on a case involving a Christian web designer who said she would refuse to produce a personalized website advertising a same-sex wedding if a client came to her seeking such a site.  In 2018, the Court handed a narrow victory to cake artist Jack Phillips in Masterpiece Cakeshop, ruling that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission acted with unusual religious animus in 2012 when it ordered Phillips and his staff to receive anti-discrimination training.  However, the decision did not make a major judgment on the compelled speech issue at the heart of the case, which the Court is finally expected to address in the 303 Creative case currently before it.

Supreme Court weighs web designer's refusal to work on same-sex weddings.  Conservative Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared sympathetic toward an evangelical Christian web designer's bid to avoid working on same-sex weddings as they weighed the latest clash between religious conservatives and LGBTQ rights.  But after two-and-a-half hours of arguments that included a broad array of tough hypothetical questions directed at both sides, involving far-fetched scenarios like a "Black Santa" at a shopping mall refusing to serve children dressed in Ku Klux Klan outfits, it is unclear how exactly the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, will rule.  Lorie Smith, who opposes same-sex marriage on religious grounds and runs a business in Colorado designing websites, is seeking an exemption from a state law that outlaws discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in public accommodations.

If Marriage Can Mean Anything, It Will Soon Mean Nothing.  No matter how you define "marriage," there is zero respect for it in the so-called Respect for Marriage Act.  You may believe it serves to federally codify the Supreme Court's Obergefell decision that rejected marriage as a male-female union.  Maybe it would do so temporarily.  But that's not the endgame.  If you're paying attention, you can see that the Senate's recent 62-37 vote for cloture on HR 8404 puts us one step closer to abolishing state recognition of marriage entirely.  That's where this train is headed.  This will happen the same way such things always happen — through a demonization campaign that frames skeptics as bigots who are guilty of discrimination.  That's how you get Democrat-pliable Republicans such as Mitt Romney and craven Supreme Court justices like Anthony Kennedy to sign on.  That's how you manufacture a public opinion cascade, warning average Americans that they'll be pummeled with lawsuits and ostracism if they dare think out loud.

Senate Passes vote to make same-sex marriage federal law - with 11 Republicans cooperating.  The United States Senate voted to enshrine the right to same-sex and interracial marriage into federal law on Tuesday [11/29/2022].  The Respect For Marriage Act passed on a 61-36 vote.  Eleven Republicans voted with Democrats on the measure.  It now heads back to the House of Representatives, where it's likely to pass the Democrat-controlled chamber swiftly enough to head to President Joe Biden's desk before the current Congressional term is over.

The 'Transgender' Lie: How We Got Here.  As I've often noted, marriage (the union of one man and one woman for life) is older than God's covenant with the nation of Israel, older than The Law, older than the church.  Marriage is one of the earliest truths revealed by God.  If anything is true, marriage as the union of one man and one woman is true.  Yet here we are, and the left's war on the truth rages on.  Because when one abandons eternal truth, there is virtually no limit to the extremeness and no end to the amount of folly that will follow, we now find ourselves regularly and passionately having to debate who is a male and who is a female.  Ignoring virtually the only thing with more precedent than marriage, the left throughout America is making laws and policies that redefine male and female.  Schools, corporations, states (where Democrats are in control), the federal government (when Democrats are in control), the military, and so on are pretending we don't know who is a male and who is a female.  Leftist judges are agreeing with this absurd evil.

The 'Respect For Marriage Act' Is An Exercise In Tyranny, And Everyone Knows It.  It's not hard to game out what happens if the misnamed Respect for Marriage Act passes, codifying Obergefell and enshrining gay marriage in federal law.  Everyone, including the dozen Republican senators who voted to advance the legislation last week, knows exactly what will happen.  It's not some big mystery.  What will happen is this:  Christians, Jews, Muslims, and anyone else who dares maintain that marriage is a lifelong conjugal union between one man and one woman — the definition of marriage for thousands of years until the U.S. Supreme Court descended from Mount Sinai with Obergefell v. Hodges inscribed on stone tablets — will be branded a bigot and driven from the public square and marketplace.  Anyone who owns a small business related to the wedding industry — photographers, bakers, website designers, venue owners, caterers, florists — will be sued into oblivion if they refuse services to same-sex couples.  Religious colleges and universities will lose their tax-exempt status.  Religious institutions of every kind, if they hold to their teachings and traditions about marriage, will face an onslaught from the Department of Justice and the federal bureaucracy.

These 12 Republicans Just Voted for Radical 'Respect for Marriage Act'.  The United States Senate voted Wednesday to advance the so-called Respect for Marriage Act.  HR 8404, which passed the House of Representatives in July, "provides statutory authority for same-sex and interracial marriages," repealing provisions that define marriage as between a man and a woman.  The legislation also "repeals and replaces provisions that do not require states to recognize same-sex marriages from other states with provisions that prohibit the denial of full faith and credit or any right or claim relating to out-of-state marriages on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin," allows "the Department of Justice to bring a civil action," and "establishes a private right of action for violations."  Democratic advocates say the legislation promotes equality, but religious leaders strongly warned that it explicitly targets people of faith.

Christian baker WINS in California over gay wedding cake lawsuit.  In a surprising ruling, a Christian baker has won in the state of California after being sued by the state for discrimination against a gay couple.  Cathy Miller, owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, refused to make a cake for a gay couple's wedding and a judge in California's Superior has ruled that the Constitution protects Miller's freedom of religion.

Court Rules on Rights of Christian Baker in Same-Sex Wedding Case.  A Christian baker has won a legal victory in her battle for religious freedom in California.  This week, attorneys from the Thomas More Society secured a First Amendment win in their defense of Cathy Miller, owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, CA.  Miller was exonerated on charges that followed her religious objection to creating a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-Del Rio, due to her Christian beliefs.  Judge J. Eric Bradshaw of the Superior Court of California ruled, "The evidence affirmatively showed that Miller's only intent, her only motivation, was fidelity to her sincere Christian beliefs."

The Never-Ending Persecution Of Jack Phillips.  By the time I visited Masterpiece Cakeshop in 2016, Jack Phillips, the man who had famously refused to bake a specialty cake celebrating the wedding of a gay couple, had been the victim of a four-year campaign of harassment by the authoritarians at the Colorado Civil Rights Commission intent on punishing him for a thought crime.  Now Phillips is back in the news, as his lawyers attempt to get new charges against him dismissed on appeal from a Colorado judge's decision last year.  For the past decade, the media and lawyers and judges and leftists have misrepresented Phillips' position.  No, the baker never turned a gay couple away from his shop.  Or a transgender person.  Or anyone else.  No, he never refused to sell anyone a wedding cake (ceremonial, in the case that made him famous, as the request predated both Obergefell and Colorado's recognition of gay marriage).  Philips refuses to create any specialty item from scratch that features any message that conflicts with his long-held religious beliefs.  He will refuse to create such cakes for any customer, gay or straight or black or white.

Why We Will Never Control Medical Costs.  The purposes of medicine are expanding rapidly beyond treating actual illnesses/injuries and promoting wellness, to also facilitating life fulfillment and making personal dreams come true.  Latest case in point:  A gay couple has filed a class-action complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against the City of New York, suing for unlawful workplace discrimination because they were denied coverage for fertility services.  If successful, health insurance nationally may eventually be required to pay for IVF/surrogacy services for male gay couples.

Persecuting Christians who refuse to do work for same-sex weddings is nothing less than bigotry.  Emilee Carpenter is a gifted photographer whose lavish images celebrate all kinds of people — Christian, Jewish, black, white, straight, gay and everything in between.  She aims her lens at clients without fear or prejudice — with one notable exception.  She refuses to take pictures of same-sex weddings.  That's non-negotiable.  And it could cost her — big time. [...] Carpenter has declined requests by same-sex couples to document their weddings.  So she researched potential penalties — hefty fines, revocation of her business license, even up to a year behind bars — and freaked out.  In April 2021, she sued New York, claiming its human-rights law forcing her to shoot same-sex marriages ran afoul of her First Amendment rights to free speech, free association and free religious expression, and violated the establishment clause and her right to due process.

Christian bakers fined for gay 'wedding' cake refusal take case back to US Supreme Court.  The Christian bakers who were slammed with fines and ultimately lost their business after they refused to bake a cake for a gay "wedding" are once more bringing their case before the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the state violated their due process and First Amendment rights.  The Supreme Court had previously reviewed the case in 2019 before remanding it to a lower court.  Attorneys with the public interest law firm First Liberty Institute announced Wednesday that they submitted a petition for a writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court.  In the petition, the attorneys asked the Court to review Melissa and Aaron Klein's case stemming from a 2013 discrimination lawsuit.

Christian baker in Oregon returns to Supreme Court over refusal to bake same-sex wedding cake.  A Christian baker is back at the Supreme Court, asking the justices once again to take up her challenge to Oregon's public accommodations law after the state put her out of business for refusing to create a custom wedding cake for a same-sex couple.  Melissa Klein and her husband Aaron owned "Sweet Cakes by Melissa."  They served all customers without discrimination until 2013 when they were approached by repeat customers for a custom cake — but this time it was to celebrate the same-sex marriage of a lesbian couple.  They refused to participate, citing the Bible's teaching against homosexuality and their faith.  As a result, the couple filed a complaint with the state, which fined them $135,000.

Can the United States Stop the March to Self-Destruction?  Then, the radical left, again using the Civil Rights Movement as the backdrop, decided to create the latest incarnation of a so-called civil rights crusade: the mainstreaming of a phenomenon hitherto regarded as a mental disorder, gender dysphoria.  And sticking with the overwhelmingly effective blueprint, another intimidation epithet to go along with racism and homophobia was devised: transphobia.  There was no initial redeeming aspect of the transgender movement, as it was concocted to draw in another gullible generation seeking relevance and meaning in their vapid lives.  Beyond producing another group of credulous halfwits, it further advances the destruction of the family and the Judeo-Christian underpinning of the nation while dismantling what was once a cohesive American society.  Its adherents promulgate the mutilation of willfully confused children on the altar of Marxism.  If the United States is to stop the march to self-destruction, then the vast majority of Americans who do not identify with the left need to wake up and understand that the American left is not an unstoppable monolithic leviathan crushing everyone in its path.

State Supreme Court Sides With Catholic Church Who Fired Teacher In Same-Sex Marriage.  The Indiana Supreme Court unanimously ruled Wednesday in favor of Catholic schools under the Archdiocese of Indianapolis who fired a teacher because of his same-sex marriage.  Joshua Payne-Elliott, a former teacher at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, sued the archdiocese after he was fired in 2019 for entering a same-sex marriage in 2017, breaking the school's contract that prohibits same-sex relationships, according to the court opinion.  The court ruled in favor of the archdiocese, which ordered the school to fire Payne-Elliot for breaking the contract.

Gay Married Couple Charged With Using Their Adopted Children for Child Porn.  The facts at hand are about as revolting as they can possibly be.  A married gay couple in metro Atlanta, William Dale Zulock, 32, and Zachary Jacoby Zulock, 35, is accused of using their two adopted boys in child porn films.  The case raises numerous questions that will never be answered because no one will dare to raise them.  Atlanta's WSB-TV reports that Bill and Zack are now "facing child sex crime charges for acts deputies say they committed against their adopted children."  Following a lead regarding the downloading of child pornography, the Walton County Sheriff's Office raided the Zulocks' home in Loganville, Ga., and questioned one of the Zulocks, although which one was not disclosed.  The on-the-spot Zulock immediately crumbled under questioning and "admitted to collecting child porn."  He also "identified a second suspect in Oxford" who was "making the child porn with at least one child who lived in his home."

Court upholds right of Catholic school not to employ LGBT teacher in same-sex union.  A Federal appeals court on Thursday [7/28/2022] ruled that a Catholic high school has the right to end its employment of a teacher who entered into a same-sex union in violation of church teachings.  The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Starkey v. Roncalli High School and Archdiocese of Indianapolis that religious schools have a constitutional right to choose who teaches their faith to the next generation.  The appellate court asserted that Lynn Starkey's role as a guidance counselor included ministerial duties, a ministerial exception under the First Amendment allowed the school to not renew her contract.  A district court ruling previously came to the same conclusion.

GOP Leaders to Religious Right:  We Don't Care About Marriage.  For all of the media's hyperventilating about the GOP's "culture war," most Republicans show little to no interest in fighting it.  In truth, the "culture war" is hopelessly one-sided, pitting tenacious Democrats against irresolute or decadent Republicans.  Take Nancy Pelosi's recent gay marriage bill.  It passed in the House of Representatives not in spite of the GOP but in part because of it: 47 Republicans, including members of GOP leadership, joined the Democrats in supporting the bill.  Imagine the cries of horror from the media and the Democratic base if 47 Democrats ever voted for a piece of GOP legislation on a crucial social issue.  That's inconceivable.  The Democrats never wave the white flag in the culture war.  But the GOP can't even summon the energy to back Bill Clinton's Defense of Marriage Act.  That's now considered an "extreme" stance by many GOP elites.

Senate GOP support for same-sex marriage bill could deny Democrats a wedge issue.  Senate Republicans may yet sink House-passed legislation that would essentially codify federal same-sex marriage rights granted by the Supreme Court in 2015.  But that was far from certain Wednesday as the Senate began informally considering the Respect for Marriage Act, which cleared the House 24 hours earlier with unanimous Democratic support and 47 out of 204 available Republican votes.  There immediately appeared to be four GOP votes for the bill, while several other Senate Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, were noncommittal.  In other words, it's quite possible the 10 Republican votes needed to break a filibuster and send the legislation to President Joe Biden's desk could materialize.

Gay Marriage:  An Odd Solution to Legitimate Problems.  [Scroll down]  I'm not sure when, but at some point, the courts defined marriage as a right.  This is wrong. [...] Marriage being a right completely ignores the function of marriage.  Historically marriage has been about three things:  bringing families together, perpetuating the family tree, and social approval for sexual activity between the individuals involved.  None of these are things an individual can do without other people's permission.  Rights tend to be things that don't require consent from other people.  Freedom of Religion, freedom of speech, the right to keep and bear arms, the right to be secure in your papers and effects — you don't need permission for any of these.  But a right to marriage?  You need permission before sexual activity.  You need permission before making an alliance between families.  You need permission before creating life.  If any of those things happen without permission, it can become a crime, sometimes a very serious crime.

Judge rules that Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage license to same sex-couples in 2015 violated their constitutional rights.  A federal judge has ruled that a former Kentucky clerk violated the constitutional rights of two same-sex couples who were among those to whom she wouldn't issue marriage licenses — a refusal that sparked international attention and briefly landed her in jail in 2015.  US District Judge David Bunning in Ashland issued the ruling Friday in two longstanding lawsuits involving Kim Davis, the former clerk of Rowan County, and two same-sex couples who sued her.  With the decision, a jury trial will still need to take place to decide on any damages the couples could be owed.  Bunning reasoned that Davis 'cannot use her own constitutional rights as a shield to violate the constitutional rights of others while performing her duties as an elected official.'

Supreme Court to decide whether the state can override your freedom to choose what you say.  In New Mexico, Jonathan and Elaine Huguenin had to close their photography studio.  In Washington, florist Barronelle Stutzman was forced to retire.  In New York, photographer and blogger Emilee Carpenter is risking jail time.  And in Colorado, cake artist Jack Phillips is back in court, enduring his 10th year of litigation.  What connects these individuals?  Each is trying to earn a living and stay true to their values.  Because of their faith, each treats their clients with the utmost respect and dignity and serves clients of all different backgrounds regardless of who they are.  For them, there is no distinction between professing their faith on Sunday and earning a living on Monday.  And for that, they each have a target on their back.  The government is trying to force them to affirm messages contrary to their faith and to back state-approved views about marriage.

Supreme Court to weigh whether webpage designer can deny services to same-sex couples.  The Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday [2/22/2022] to hear a case over whether a wedding website designer can decline to provide services to same-sex couples under Colorado's anti-discrimination law.  Lori Smith, a Christian graphic artist and webpage designer, is seeking to expand her services to create webpages for weddings but argues her religious convictions prevent her from making websites for same-sex couples.  Her standpoint conflicts with Colorado's civil rights laws requiring businesses to be accessible to all clients regardless of sexual orientation.

Scores of congregations quit United Methodist Church over gay clergy, same-sex marriage.  At least 130 congregations have quietly walked away from the United Methodist Church in a schism over the denomination's planned acceptance of same-sex marriage and homosexual clergy.  The breakaway congregations are keeping their church property thanks to a "conscience clause" enacted by the group's legislative assembly in 2019.  The United Methodist Church General Conference, the church's governing body, is expected this year to approve a separation plan that would create two denominations:  one affirming bans on gay clergy and same-sex marriage, and one permitting homosexual clergy and same-sex marriage.  That move has been postponed because of the pandemic and might be delayed again.

N.Y. wedding photographer to appeal court ruling compelling gay-wedding photoshoots.  Wedding photographer Emilee Carpenter is appealing a New York federal judge's ruling that her attorneys say compels the evangelical Christian to create photo displays for same-sex weddings.  "This is a free speech issue.  And I believe that all artists should be free to choose the messages they promote," Ms. Carpenter, 27, told The Washington Times.  Attorneys for the public interest law firm Alliance Defending Freedom told the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York on Wednesday that they will appeal a December ruling issued by Judge Frank P. Geraci Jr., an Obama appointee.

All European Union Nations Must Legally Recognize Same-Sex Parents, Court Rules.  The European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday that same-sex parents and children must be legally recognized as family in all member states.  The ruling determined children have a legal guarantee of free movement between countries, a key right for European Union citizens.  The right was used as the basis for the new requirement that all member nations must acknowledge the family relationship, rather than allowing individual nations the right to the decision.  The case involved Bulgarian authorities who would not legally provide an infant daughter of a same-sex couple a birth certificate, claiming the child was ineligible to have two mothers.

Florist ends battle over refusal to service same-sex wedding.  A Washington state florist has agreed to retire from her business and pay a $5,000 settlement to close out a case accusing her of illegal discrimination against a same-sex couple that had wanted her to provide custom floral arrangements for their wedding ceremony.  Barronelle Stutzman also agreed to cancel her request for a rehearing of her case before the U.S. Supreme Court.  She said the $5,000 payment to the two men was a way to exit without having to compromise on her religious beliefs and not have to pay large fees to lawyers for the couple.  "I am willing to turn the legal struggle for freedom over to others.  At age 77, it's time to retire," she wrote in a letter announcing her decision to settle.

Buttigieg's Babies.  The national news media gushed with worshipful joy over the fact that Peter Buttigieg has acquired twin babies.  Other babies may have been born to members of this administration, but the national media carried no stories about them. [...] Buttigieg attempts to control the new-parent narrative by releasing an already infamous, staged photo of the two "fathers."  But this black and white photo does the opposite.  It captures the narcissism and self-centeredness of all sexuality-based consciousness — hetero, homo, pano, transo.  Sexuality based consciousness is the opposite of the unique chance of selfless love granted to a mother.  The two men appear absorbed in each other and relate to the supposed babies as props, which is what they may well be in this photo.  This is a very different psychological dynamic from a new mother and child.  These two healthy men stagecraft themselves as hospital patients, pretending to be birth parents and canceling the existence of the birth mother.  They are already claiming total control over the identities of these babies.  The babies are widely reported to be fraternal twins, which is more common in artificial procreation.

Adults Raised by Gay Couples Speak Out Against Gay 'Marriage' in Federal Court.  Four adult children of same-sex parents have submitted amicus curiae briefs in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals asking that it oppose the legalization of same-sex "marriage."  The Court, in New Orleans, La., heard arguments on Jan. 9 as it considers whether to uphold traditional marriage — defined as being between one man and one woman — in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.  B.N. Klein, Robert Oscar Lopez, Dawn Stefanowicz, and Katy Faust all grew up with homosexual parents.  All four argued that redefining marriage to include same-sex couples would harm children by depriving them of a mother or father.

I Could Lose Everything After 'Devastating' End to 8-Year Court Battle Over Same-Sex Wedding, Florist Says.  When the Supreme Court announced July 2 that it had declined to take up florist Barronelle Stutzman's case, it left her on the losing side of an eight-year court battle.  In 2013, one of Stutzman's longtime customers asked her to design floral arrangements for his same-sex wedding.  She told him that because of her religious beliefs, she could not design an arrangement for the wedding, but she referred him to several other florists.  A few weeks later, she learned she was being sued.  The Washington state "attorney general, without any complaint from Rob [Ingersoll] and Curt [Freed], sued me personally and corporately, and the ACLU got ahold of Rob and Curt and also sued me personally and corporately," Stutzman told The Daily Signal.  Now, the Washington state Supreme Court ruling against the Christian florist stands because the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up Stutzman's appeal.  The Supreme Court's move could cost Stutzman everything.

State Department to fly 'Progress' flag in honor of Pride Month.  The State Department will fly its pride flag later this month.  Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed at an Atlantic Council event Monday [6/21/2021] that the department will fly the "Progress" flag for the first time to mark Pride Month.  Blinken described the flag — which incorporates a black, brown, light blue, pink and white chevron into the traditional rainbow-colored pride flag — as "a symbol that encompasses the diversity and intersectionality of LGBTQI persons and communities around the world."  The secretary said the flag would be flown for three days beginning June 26, the anniversary of the 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v.  Hodges that legalized gay marriage nationwide.

Supreme Court unanimously rules in favor of Catholic foster agency in case that pitted religious freedom against LGBTQ rights.  The US Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Thursday in favor of a Catholic child welfare organization, saying the charity has a right to decline to place foster children with same-sex couples.  Catholic Social Services sued the City of Philadelphia after it informed private agencies that provided foster care services that it would not refer children to the agencies unless they agreed to nondiscrimination requirements.  Catholic Social Services argued that it had the right to opt-out of the nondiscrimination requirement, citing the First Amendment.

Supreme Court sides with Catholic foster agency that excludes same-sex couples in 9-0 ruling.  The Supreme Court sided unanimously with a Catholic foster agency in a dispute against the city of Philadelphia over whether it should be banned from participating in the city's foster program because it excludes same-sex couples.  The group, Catholic Social Services (CSS), claimed that "Philadelphia's attempts to exclude the Catholic Church from foster care" violated the First Amendment.  Lawyers for the city, meanwhile, said that CSS "lacks a constitutional right to demand that DHS offer it a contract that omits the same nondiscrimination requirement every other FFCA must follow when performing services for the City."  In a 9-0 ruling, the justices sided with Catholic Social Services.

London Has Fallen:  Pastor Is Arrested By Police For Quoting Bible Verses Stating Marriage Is Only Between A Man And Woman.  A Christian pastor who was arrested after he preached from the Bible said yesterday he had been treated 'shamefully'.  John Sherwood, 71, was led away in handcuffs and questioned at a police station overnight.  After being accused of making homophobic comments outside Uxbridge Station in west London Thursday evening (April 7), deputies pulled him off his mini-stepladder where he used it to preach on the street corner while handcuffed behind his back — leaving bruises all over this body.  [Video clip]

Austrian Catholics fly rainbow flag after same-sex blessing ban.  The Catholic church of the parish of Hard is one of many in Austria which decided to fly the rainbow flag in solidarity with the LGBT community after the Vatican ruled last month that the Church couldn't bless same-sex partnerships.  The powerful Vatican office responsible for defending church doctrine, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), handed down a ruling that same-sex unions could not be blessed despite their "positive elements".  The office wrote that while God "never ceases to bless each of His pilgrim children in this world... he does not and cannot bless sin".  Hard's parish priest Erich Baldauf says he and the hundreds of other clergy who belong to the reform-oriented "Priests' Initiative" movement decided to fly the flag to show "that we do not agree with this outdated position", with many other churches also making the gesture.

Roman Catholic Church Affirms Teaching on Marriage, Media Hardest Hit.  On Monday [3/15/2021], the Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's 2,000-year-old doctrine that marriage is between one man and one woman and that homosexual acts are illicit.  Therefore, the Vatican stated that the church cannot bless same-sex weddings because that would lead to confusion about the doctrine of marriage.  This should not surprise anyone with a basic familiarity with historic Christianity or with the Roman Catholic Church.  The New Testament clearly condemns homosexual activity and Jesus explicitly affirmed the teaching of Genesis that marriage is between one man and one woman.  The Catholic Church has a 2,000-year tradition of upholding this basic definition of marriage that, in historical terms, only came under fire yesterday.  Yet legacy media outlets reported the Vatican's decision as if it were new and shocking.

The Editor says...
Why wasn't this statement made by the Pope 20 years ago?

Gay poly throuple makes history, lists 3 dads on a birth certificate.  A gay, polyamorous California throuple made history in 2017 when they became the first family in the state to list three parents on a birth certificate.  Their reproductive journey and legal battle to become fathers to Piper, now 3, is detailed in "Three Dads and a Baby" (out March 9, Cleis Press), written by one of her dads, Dr. Ian Jenkins.  Jenkins and his partners, Jeremy Hodges and Dr. Alan Mayfield, don't see their family — which now also includes their son, Parker, 1 — as unusual.

They caved:
Major evangelical adoption agency will allow LGBTQ families to adopt and foster children for the first time.  Evangelical Christian adoption agency Bethany Christian Services will now allow LGBTQ couples to adopt children nationwide for the first time in its 77-year history, the group announced Monday [3/1/2021].  The Michigan-based adoption and foster agency, one of the largest in the nation, had previously refused to work with same-sex couples on faith-based grounds and instead referred prospective parents to other agencies, according to the New York Times.

Virginia Values Act Makes Everyone Who Disagrees a Bigot.  A federal court in Virginia last week held a hearing on a wedding photographer's lawsuit challenging a state law that he says requires him to participate in same-sex weddings against his personal Christian beliefs.  Lawyers representing photographer Bob Updegrove asked the court Friday to stop enforcing the law while his lawsuit against Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring proceeds.  In a public statement, Jonathan Scruggs, one of Updegrove's lawyers with Alliance Defending Freedom who argued on his behalf, said:  ["]Photographers, like all other Americans, should be free to peacefully live, work, and create art that's consistent with their deeply held beliefs — without the fear of government punishment.  Because of the state's interpretation of its law, photographers like Bob face an impossible choice:  Violate the law and risk bankruptcy, promote views against their faith, or close down.  Virginia has a long and important history of protecting constitutional freedoms, and this kind of government hostility toward people of faith has no place in a free society.["]

We Were Laughed Out of Court because the Courts Have Become Ridiculous.  [Scroll down]  The public supported a basic truth:  the sexual relationship between a man and a woman is unlike any other relationship, especially because this one uniquely produces new human life; hence, society needs to recognize the sacred nature of such a bond rather than muddle it with analogies to same-sex relationships, which are in many ways hard to differentiate from friendships. [...] The strongest and most resonant argument for marriage was the crudest one I saw in comments all across the internet:  the anus is not a sexual organ, and two people of the same sex can't create a baby unless they buy one or steal one from other people.  The next strongest argument is equally basic:  Have you seen the photos from gay pride parades?  Is that a good environment for raising kids?  These points are harsh, but people understand them immediately, and liberals do not have effective counterpoints against them because they're so obvious.

Catholic leaders condemn Pope Francis' endorsement of same-sex unions.  Pope Francis' support for same-sex unions is being openly criticized by several Roman Catholic leaders in America — who say his recently revealed pro-gay remarks cause "confusion and error" and fly in the face of church teachings.  Cardinal Raymond Burke, a frequent critic of Francis, said the pope's comments should be "rightly interpreted as simple private opinions of the person who made them."  "Such declarations generate great bewilderment and cause confusion and error among Catholic faithful," Burke, a member of the Vatican's highest court, said in a statement Thursday [10/22/2020] on his website.  He added that Francis' views were contrary to Catholic teachings.

Pope endorses same-sex civil unions in new documentary film.  Pope Francis endorsed same-sex civil unions for the first time as pontiff while being interviewed for the feature-length documentary "Francesco," which premiered Wednesday at the Rome Film Festival.  The papal thumbs-up came midway through the film that delves into issues Francis cares about most, including the environment, poverty, migration, racial and income inequality, and the people most affected by discrimination.  "Homosexual people have the right to be in a family.  They are children of God," Francis said in one of his sit-down interviews for the film.  "You can't kick someone out of a family, nor make their life miserable for this.  What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered."

Loose canon:
Pope Francis Reportedly Calls For 'Civil Union Law' For Same-Sex Couples, A Break From Catholic Teaching.  Pope Francis reportedly called for a "civil union law" for same-sex couples in a documentary that premiered Wednesday [10/21/2020].  "Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family.  They're children of God and have a right to a family.  Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it," Pope Francis said in the documentary "Francesco," according to the Catholic News Agency.  The documentary premiered Wednesday at the Rome Film Festival and will premiere in the U.S. on Sunday.  Discussing civil unions for same-sex couples, the pope reportedly continued:  "What we have to create is a civil union law.  That way they are legally covered.  I stood up for that."  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are "contrary to the natural law," and are approved "under no circumstances."  "Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered,'" the Catechism said.

Wikipedia bans editors from expressing support for traditional marriage.  Wikipedia has decided to restrict its editors from expressing opposition to same-sex marriage on its platform — a decision that comes months after co-founder Larry Sanger said the site's neutrality policy was "dead."  Volunteers who write and edit Wikipedia's articles can no longer include on their profile page any "userbox" — a badge expressing their beliefs — that is against gay marriage.  For example, one such userbox states, "This user believes marriage is between one man and one woman." The decision was made after a recent discussion where "predominantly left-wing editors" argued such a stance was "discriminatory" and against site policy, according to Breitbart.

Justices Thomas, Alito slam Obergefell same-sex marriage decision as Supreme Court denies Kim Davis case.  Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said Monday that Obergefell v.  Hodges, the Supreme Court case that mandated all states recognize same-sex marriages, is "found nowhere in the text" of the Constitution and threatens "the religious liberty of the many Americans who believe that marriage is a sacred institution between one man and one woman."  The statement was written by Thomas and joined by Alito about the case of Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who said she would not give same-sex couples marriage licenses.  The two justices said they agreed with the consensus of the court that it should not take Davis' case, but only because it did not "cleanly present" the "important questions about the scope of our decision in Obergefell."  Thomas and Alito dissented from the original Obergefell decision and their statement Monday could indicate that they would vote to overturn it if presented the chance.

The Supreme Court Imperils Parents' Right to Pass Their Values on to Children.  The Supreme Court's recent decision in Bostock v. Clayton, which ruled that the Title VII prohibition on sex discrimination in employment extends to discrimination based on sexual orientation and transgender status, is likely to have more widespread implications than many people realize. [...] The current culture already makes it difficult for parents to teach their children that, for instance, maleness and femaleness are grounded on objective biological reality rather than subjective self-perceptions, or that the purpose of human sexuality is not ultimately pleasure or self-expression, but to unite a man and woman in marriage and enable them to form a family.  And whatever one's beliefs about these issues, parents, not the state, should be the ones to decide what their children are taught about these controversial and sensitive matters.

GOP congressman who officiated gay wedding loses primary.  A freshman Virginia GOP congressman who angered social conservatives in his district when he officiated a gay wedding lost his party's nomination.  U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman lost a GOP convention Saturday that was done via drive-thru because of the coronavirus pandemic.  He was defeated by Bob Good, a former official in the athletics department at Liberty University.

Former Pope Benedict links gay marriage, 'Anti-Christ'.  Retired Pope Benedict XVI links "homosexual marriage" to the "spiritual power of the Anti-Christ" in a new authorized biography published in Germany.  "One hundred years ago, everybody would have considered it to be absurd to speak of a homosexual marriage," the pope emeritus said, according to press reviews of the new book.  "Today, one is being excommunicated by society if one opposes it."

Woman was digging her wife's grave when cops arrived, prosecutor says at murder trial.  A woman accused of killing her wife in 2017 was digging a grave when police arrived at their home, a prosecutor said Thursday [1/23/2020].  Laura Bluestein appeared before Judge Terrence Cook and jurors in Mount Holly for opening statements in her trial on counts of murder, tampering with evidence and a weapons charge.

Texas commission sued for bashing justice of the peace for her Christian faith.  A Texas justice of the peace is suing the state for punishing her for devising a solution to accommodate her Christian belief that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.  Judge Dianne Hensley initially refused to officiate any weddings after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2015 that same-sex couples have a right marry.  But in August 2016, she resumed officiating weddings and "politely referred" same-sex couples to willing local judges.  There have been no complaints about her system, but the State Commission on Judicial Conduct investigated and issued a "public warning" against the judge.

The Strange Alliance:  Secular Humanism and Neo-Paganism.  The latest homosexual propaganda that has recently appeared on TV is an ad entitled "Beyond I do".  It presents two totally silent lesbians holding several small children and looking very content.  The message is clear:  Gay marriage is not the end of the homosexual rights campaign but its new beginning.  The Gay rights campaign is exactly that, a military style campaign with both short term and long term objectives.  Homosexual marriage once celebrated by the Progressives as the capstone of Gay rights is now viewed by the same people as a new corner-stone to build America's pagan future on.

Under pressure, Hallmark pulls gay-themed wedding ads.  Under pressure from a conservative advocacy group, The Hallmark Channel has pulled ads for a wedding-planning website that featured two brides kissing at the altar.  The family-friendly network, which is in the midst of its heavily watched holiday programming, removed the ads because the controversy was a distraction, a spokesperson said in an interview Saturday [12/14/2019].

Hallmark Channel Pulls Ads Featuring Lesbian Kiss After Backlash.  In early-December, the Hallmark Channel, known for its cheesy Christmas romance movies, began airing commercials for Zola, a wedding planning and registry website.  The commercials feature several different couples talking about the benefits of using Zola while standing at the wedding alter in front of friends and family.  Two of the three couples in the series are heterosexual, while the third couple is lesbian.  Some of the spots are shorter, focusing on only one couple, while others involve a cutting together of all three.  At the end of the commercial, the couples kiss.

The next day...
Hallmark Channel reverses decision to ban ads featuring same-sex couples.  The Hallmark Channel is reversing its decision to pull advertisements featuring same-sex couples and apologizing for removing them in the first place, a network spokeswoman told CNN Business.  The decision comes after Hallmark parent company Crown Media Family Networks faced calls for viewers and advertisers to boycott its television channel.  The ads, from online wedding planning company Zola, showed same-sex couples celebrating marriages.

Hallmark Channel Reinstates Same-Sex Wedding Commercials It Initially Pulled.  The Hallmark Channel, after initially removing a commercial depicting a lesbian wedding, has said it will restore the commercial to its airwaves, according to Fox News.  The commercial for the wedding planning site Zola was taken down by Hallmark after widespread complaints, which the network said "was creating a distraction." Zola subsequently pulled all of its other ads from Hallmark, including the ones featuring normal couples, following the decision.

Texas Judge 'Publicly Warned' by Ethics Commission for Performing Only Opposite-Sex Marriage Ceremonies.  Waco, Texas Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley was given a "public warning" recently by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for her practice of performing only opposite-sex weddings but not same-sex ceremonies.  In the words of the Commission's order, Judge Hensley's religiously motivated policy was ethically wrong for "casting doubt on her capacity to act impartially" as a judge.  That's a serious ethics finding and could lead to even further actions from the Commission if Hensley continues the practice.

Texas judge warned over refusal to perform same-sex marriages.  A Texas judge received a public warning Monday [12/2/2019] from the state's Commission on Judicial Conduct for refusing to perform same-sex marriages.  McLennan County Justice of the Peace Dianne Hensley has said her "Bible-believing" Christian conscience did not allow her to perform same-sex weddings and believes she's entitled to a "religious exemption." Hensley continues to perform weddings for heterosexual couples.  The order made public Monday said Hensley was violating Texas Code of Judicial Conduct which states, "A judge shall conduct all of the judge's extra-judicial activities so that they do not cast reasonable doubt on the judge's capacity to act impartially as a judge," according to the Waco Tribune-Herald.

The View's Joy Behar:  Buttigieg Has a 'Very Traditional Marriage'.  Joy Behar, co-host of "The View," expressed her support of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Monday, saying that the mayor of South Bend, Ind., is "in a very traditional marriage."  Traditional marriage is defined as the union between one man and one woman.

Here are five questions that need to be asked.  [#2] Second, do the other Democratic presidential candidates support Beto O'Rourke's proposal to cut off tax deductibility for any church or other religious institution that does not recognize gay marriage?  This is a boldly radical idea comparable to O'Rourke's call for compulsory gun confiscation.  How do the other candidates handle their slavish devotion to identity politics when faced with this bold but politically deadly proposal?

Democrats Are Going to Regret Beto's Stance on Conservative Churches.  The issue of gay rights and recognition and acceptance of the LGBTQ community has moved at warp speed — in political terms anyway — this past decade.  "I believe marriage is between a man and a woman.  I am not in favor of gay marriage," said the candidate Barack Obama in 2008.  At Thursday night's nationally televised forum on LGBTQ rights, candidate Beto O'Rourke showed how far, and how quickly, the Democratic Party has moved.  The former Texas congressman caused quite a stir when he said he would support revoking the tax-exempt status of religious institutions — colleges, churches, and charities — if they opposed same-sex marriage.

Trump vs.  Warren:  Trump Builds, Warren Destroys.  One of [Elizabeth] Warren's more extreme "plans" is her support for the Refund Equality Act — a bill that would refund taxes to homosexual couples who previously filed as unmarried singles.  The point is that in the past, before the legal recognition of gay "marriage," homosexuals living together were single.  That is why they filed as singles.  Warren wants to extend tax refunds to them retroactively.  A disturbing pattern emerges in Warren's plans for America.  At every point, they pit one class of Americans against another.  Women versus men.  Blacks versus whites.  Gays versus straights.  Disabled versus abled.  And especially poor versus rich.  In the past, despite whatever disparities that existed, Americans saw themselves as one people.  They believed that their treasured citizenship as Americans was more important than any differences.

Michigan Anti-Christian Adoption Policy Shot Down.  U.S. District Judge Robert J. Yonker has halted implementation of a new policy in Michigan that forces faith-based adoption agencies to choose between violating their beliefs on same-sex marriage or closing their doors.  In his written opinion, Yonker says that the original policy in place for years already "ensures non-discrimination in child placements," but the new policy "would replace this with a State-orthodoxy test that prevents Catholic believers from participating."  As readers learned last April, this new policy was the work of Michigan's renegade attorney general Dana Nessel, who used her authority to settle a pretextual discrimination lawsuit, Dumont v. Gordon, filed by the ACLU on behalf of two lesbian couples targeting Christian agencies.

Judge Upholds Right of Faith-Based Adoption Agencies to Adhere to Marriage and Family Beliefs.  A federal judge ruled Thursday [9/26/2019] that faith-based adoption agencies in Michigan, even those that contract with the state, have the right to their beliefs about marriage and family when they place children in homes.

California adds Iowa to 'travel ban' over refusal to fund gender transitions.  California announced last week that it has added Iowa to the list of states on its ever-expanding "travel ban" list because of that state's new prohibition against funding gender-transition surgeries under Medicaid.  The announcement by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra means that as of Oct. 4, California will no longer offer taxpayer-funded trips to Iowa for any public employee or student at a state-run university.  Becerra's authority came from a 2016 California law signed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown that bars state-funded travel to other states that undercut LGBT rights.  The blacklist already included Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma and Mississippi.

The Editor says...
California is attempting interfere with the other states entirely for the purpose of endorsing and legitimizing homosexuality.

Mormon leader reaffirms church's opposition to gay marriage.  The leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reaffirmed the religion's opposition to gay marriage Tuesday, while explaining that leaders lifted a short-lived ban on baptisms for children of gay parents because they felt the "heartache" it caused.

Culture War:  Conservatives In Congress Should Push A 'Defense Of Monogamous Marriage Act'.  On perhaps no cultural issue has the Right more clearly waved the white flag than it has on the issue of marriage.  The National Organization for Marriage, which for years existed as the leading organization pushing back against the homosexual rights movement's a historical revisionism and redefining of marriage, now exists as a hollowed out shell of itself.  Never mind that the ludicrous 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case that bastardized the Fourteenth Amendment in an astonishing black-robed power grab to constitutionalize same-sex nuptials and impose it upon a divided citizenry, Obergefell v. Hodges, had all the jurisprudential heft of the infamous Dred Scott diktat.  Rare is the social conservative, these days, who seems enthused about trying to chip away at Obergefell's (il)legal foundation; most pro-conjugal marriage social conservatives resist the temptation to go on the offensive and are instead content to defensively crouch and demand values-neutral pluralistic religious liberty "tolerance."

Bishop Bambera and the Jack Anderson Scandal.  [Scroll down]  I called the diocese of Wilmington and asked how a former priest who rejected the Catholic faith (and therefore in the eyes of the Church is a public heretic) and entered a gay marriage could licitly serve as a "defender of the [marital] bond" on a Catholic tribunal.  The Wilmington officials to whom I reached out either declined to answer the question or ignored my calls. [...] Here was a former priest turned Episcopalian in a gay marriage telling a bishop who has approved his presence on a canon law tribunal that he shouldn't "quote canon law" and that he should come clean about his real opinion of gay marriage.  Extraordinary.  Could the dysfunction in the Catholic Church in America be any clearer?

Swiss Catholic Diocese Welcomes Gay Civil 'Marriage' and Church Blessing for Gay Couples.  Although the Catholic Church teaches that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered" and cannot be approved under any circumstances, the Catholic Diocese of Basel, Switzerland has announced that it welcomes the new same-sex civil "marriage" plan the country is adopting.  Further, the diocese said it is certianly willing to bless such "marriages" in a special ceremony, but not perform homosexual weddings.  "We welcome the proposed regulations that give homosexual partnerships a stable and reliable legal coverage," said Hansruedi Huber, communications director for the diocese, as reported by ChurchMilitant.com.

Kim Davis wins in appeals court.  Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed for not issuing marriage licenses after the Supreme Court created same-sex marriage, has won an appeals court decision.  She was sued by a same-sex couple that targeted her office after she stopped issuing licenses in 2015.  Judge David Bunning ordered her to jail after she requested a religious accommodation from the state, which she eventually obtained from the state legislature.

Gay marriage backlash.  It's one thing for a government to permit gay marriage.  It's one thing for individuals of same sexes to live together, love each other and refer to themselves as "married," based on certificates signed by clerks of local court systems around the country.  It's quite another for a church to claim to adhere to biblical truth while "marrying" same-sex partners.  And yes, that's "marrying" in quotation marks because, biblically speaking, God is the creator of marriage and He made clear His definition is one of uniting man with woman.

Kamala Harris:  I Will Not Let Trump Take America Back to Before Same-Sex Marriage Was Legal.  On Sunday MSNBC played a clip from the Alice B. Toklas Club Annual Pride Breakfast in San Francisco in which 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) said she was running for president so President Donald Trump could not take the country back before all couples could marry.  Harris said, "The current occupant of the White House has no appreciation, no interest clearly and probably no knowledge of this history, of this work."

Elizabeth Warren promises reparations for gay couples.  Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., reintroduced a bill on the campaign trail this week, which could mean $57 million in tax refunds for married LGBT couples.  The Refund Equality Act, which was originally introduced in 2017, would allow LGBT couples who were married prior to the 2013 Supreme Court strike-down of the Defense of Marriage Act in U.S. v. Windsor to amend tax returns from the time that they were married.  Prior to 2013, 10 states had legalized same-sex marriage, but were required to file their federal taxes as individuals.

The Left's Latest Obsession:  Buying a Cake.  Leftists in America have managed to turn buying a cake into the modern version of the Selma march.  For one Colorado baker, this has become a march to the courthouse, over and over again.  Militant LGBT activists are once again picking on Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, a Denver suburb.  Jack is no stranger to controversy, but not by his choice.  He is now facing his third legal challenge from LGBT militants in their unending quest to force Jack, in Orwellian fashion, to deny his religious beliefs.

Trump administration to reportedly allow federally funded adoption agencies to reject same-sex couples.  President Trump's administration will reportedly reverse his predecessor's policy of blocking federal funding for religious adoption organizations that refuse to serve same-sex couples.  Administration officials, according to Axios Friday, debated to decide between two different provisions — a religious-based exemption and striking down the previous administration's rule altogether — to accomplish their goal without facing defeat in the courts.

Same-sex wedding lands St. Petersburg Methodist pastor in hot water.  The Rev. Andy Oliver of Allendale United Methodist Church has made no secret of the fact that he is willing to perform same-sex marriages.  In February, when his denomination voted against a proposal to let regional church bodies decide whether to ordain gay and lesbian people in relationships, allow clergy to officiate at same-sex marriages and hold such ceremonies in a church, his congregation took out a full-page newspaper ad to apologize for the decision.

Catholic farm family fights Michigan city to stay OUT of gay-wedding business.  A city in Michigan is punishing a Catholic farm family because they refuse to allow gay weddings.  The short of it is that this Catholic family was denied entry into the farmers market in East Lansing back in 2016 after the city found out that the Tenneses don't allow gay marriages on their farm.  They had previously been a part of the farmers market for the past 7 years.  Now they are fighting it out in court and hope that the recent victory by Colorado baker Jack Phillips will help them.

Catholic farm family fights to stay out of gay-wedding business with help from Colorado baker.  All Steve and Bridget Tennes want is to sell their apples, peaches and blueberries at a Michigan farmers market without being required to get into the same-sex wedding business, and they are hoping for an assist from Colorado baker Jack Phillips.  The Tenneses, who make their home on the Country Mill Farm with their six children, contend that their Catholic faith has been maligned by East Lansing officials who have sought to bar them from the city's farmers market over their refusal to host same-sex ceremonies on their property.

Lesbians Demanding Wedding Cake [are] 'Trespassing,' Lawyers Say.  Lawyers representing a Christian cake artist in California contend in response to a lawsuit by the state that a same-sex couple demanding that she prepare a cake for their wedding against her will were trespassing.  The state now has sued Cathy Miller twice over the claim.  A judge ruled in the first case that Miller's refusal to make the cake was protected by the First Amendment.  The brief by the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund makes the same argument but also asserts the same-sex couple "fraudulently" presented themselves as customers to provoke a lawsuit and, therefore, were "unlawful trespassers."

When the Rainbow Goes Over the Cliff.  From outward appearances, the four little black kids singing a song called "We Are Provided For" seemed happy.  Along with two other Children of Color, they had been adopted by a married white lesbian couple named Sarah and Jennifer Hart.  This odd menagerie consisted of three siblings adopted from one family and three from another, and along with their sexually atypical moms, they constituted a progressive Brady Bunch who presented a grinning face to the world. [...] To the outside world, the only hint that all was not as it seemed was an observer's comment that it seemed the moms would "parade" the children around in public without showing them much affection.  Then came the murmurs of abuse, which seemed to trail the family wherever they moved — and they moved often.  While the Harts were living in Minnesota, state officials received six separate reports of abuse or neglect and found that two of them were legitimate.

7 Reasons Why the Equality Act Is Anything But.  [#3] It could shut down charities.  Foster care and adoption agencies, drug rehabilitation centers, and homeless centers already face challenges under state and local policies on sexual orientation and gender identity.  In Philadelphia, just days after the city put out an urgent call for 300 additional families to foster children, the city halted child placements by Catholic Social Services because of the organization's belief that every child deserves both a mother and a father.  Although same-sex couples have the opportunity to foster children through the state or every other agency in Philadelphia, the city canceled its contract with Catholic Social Services.  The agency's approved foster homes remain available while children languish on the waiting list.  A federal sexual orientation and gender identity law would make this situation a national phenomenon, which would spell disaster for the 437,500 children in foster care nationwide.  Other charities would be affected, too.

Britain's 'First Transgender Family' Now Transitioning Their 5-Year-Old Son To Female.  A family dubbed Britain's "first transgender family" has announced that they are encouraging the gender transition of their five-year-old son, Jayden.  According to the family, Jayden, a biological male, likes dresses and hates "everything about being a boy."  The little boy's "step-dad," Greg Rogers, is a 27-year-old biological female who now identifies as a male.  The child's mother is a 21-year-old woman named Jody.  Both Jodi and Greg are furious that concerned citizens (referred to as "trolls" by many U.K.-based outlets) have reported them to social services for apparent child abuse.  The couple, however, maintain Jayden — who is on track to medically "transition" in a few years — is properly cared for.

Democrat introduces bill to remove words 'husband' and 'wife' from federal law.  Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., is introducing a bill to rewrite federal laws with gender-neutral terms, codifying the progressive ideological tenet that distinctions between men and women are exclusionary.  Her bill, according to The Hill, would replace the terms "husband" and "wife" in federal law with the word "spouse."  "While the landmark Supreme Court decision ending the ban on same-sex marriage was a historic step in the right direction, there is still more work to be done to ensure that the LGBTQ community is treated equally under the law in all respects," Brownley said.

Don't Ignore The Child's Perspective On Gay Couples Commissioning Babies.  Every week or so, another glossy article is published about a gay couple (or single) who has created children with the help of the ever-growing fertility industry.  The latest:  "Gay Men Increasingly Turn to Surrogates to Have Babies."  The article gives an emotional, sympathetic picture of two adult men who used technology to achieve what their joint biology prohibited:  having twin daughters.  Not surprisingly, the author spends no time considering the emotional wellbeing of the two little humans created through this expensive, exploitive, and experimental process.

Kim Davis, Clerk in Gay-Marriage War, Ousted in Race.  Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk made famous by her refusal to sign marriage licenses for gay couples, lost Tuesday [11/6/2018] in her reelection bid for the Rowan County clerkship.  Davis, a Republican, lost to Democratic challenger Elwood Caudill Jr. by about 700 votes.

5-Year-Old Girl Allegedly Assaulted in School Bathroom, Transgender Policy Being Investigated.  A five-year-old girl allegedly was sexually assaulted at school in the girls' bathroom by a boy who identifies as gender-fluid, sparking an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) into the Decatur, Georgia school's transgender bathroom policy.  According to a legal complaint by Roger G. Brooks of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and Vernadette R. Broyles of Georgia Adoption & Family Law Practice, the boy, who was also five years old, reportedly assaulted the girl as she was leaving a bathroom stall at Oakhurst Elementary School in November 2017.

Obama's Social Experiments Are Wreaking Havoc on America Today.  [Example #4]  Same-sex marriage:  A few months after Obama supported same-sex marriage, a homosexual couple approached Jack Phillips, the baker and owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, requesting he bake them a cake for their same-sex wedding.  When he refused, the couple reported him to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.  The Colorado Civil Rights Commission ruled that Jack Phillips had discriminated against the couple on the basis of sexual orientation.  This was not true, however.  Phillips offered to sell them any other product in his shop, but he would not bake a cake specifically for their wedding, because he considers marriage to be between one man and one woman.  The Supreme Court found that the commission had violated Phillips' right to the free exercise of religion by engaging in animus against him.  Even so, the commission went after Phillips again — this time for refusing to bake a cake celebrating a gender transition, from a man who (Phillips suspects) also requested Satanist cakes, one with a sex toy.  Same-sex marriage was not yet legal in Colorado when the gay couple first approached Phillips, but they may have taken the hint from President Obama that the power of the state would be used to ensure that dissent on LGBT issues would be redefined as "discrimination."  Indeed, Phillips is far from alone, and religious freedom battles are ramping up, two years after Obama left office.

Army clears Baptist chaplain accused of discriminating against lesbian couple.  The Army has exonerated a decorated Fort Bragg chaplain and his assistant after they were accused of discrimination against a same-sex couple.  The chaplain — Army Maj. Scott Squires — and Sgt. Kacie Griffin, his assistant, had been facing dereliction of duty charges for declining to lead a marriage retreat that included a same-sex couple.  "We are grateful that the Army has rejected and abandoned these baseless charges," First Liberty Institute attorney Mike Berry told the "Todd Starnes Radio Show."  "The United States military is no place for anti-religious hostility against its own military chaplains," said Berry, who is representing both the chaplain and the assistant.  "Chaplains like Scott Squires and Kacie Griffin do not have to give up their First Amendment rights in order to serve their fellow soldiers."

The Problem with Gay Marriage.  When the institution of marriage is compromised; when single mothers proliferate and are even applauded; when children are separated or alienated from their parents; when the bonds of heterosexual intimacy are breached; when gender politics sabotages concord between the sexes; when same-sex couples receive the same rights, privileges, and rewards as child-bearing couples; and when matrimony becomes the prerogative of any group whatsoever with no relation to fecundity or cultural stability, the underpinnings of Western society will inevitably collapse.  This is why Marxism, for example, considers marriage an institution that needs to be destroyed, since procreant marriage with all its attendant responsibilities is the foundation of bourgeois society.

Democrats Endorse Judicial Tyranny.  For example, legalizing pornography, coddling criminals, declaring abortion to be a fundamental right, redefining libel/slander, and redefining marriage have all been the result of the Supreme Court defining policy, not interpreting the Constitution and the law.  In most cases the Court went directly against the expressed will of the people and imposed laws on Americans that were only supported by the tiny elite who run the Democratic party. [...] 55,000,000 Americans had voted against redefining marriage — even uberliberal California resoundingly passed Prop 8, which declared that marriage was between a man and a woman, but the Supreme Court decided that the people didn't know what was best for them and imposed what Democrats wanted on the people.

Going Fatherless on Father's Day.  Gay Pride Month, if you somehow haven't noticed, is this June.  It happens to coincide with the Obergefell decision, June 26, 2015, when Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and a handful of robed liberals rendered unto themselves the ability to redefine the multi-millennial, Western, Judeo-Christian, human, Biblical, biological, natural conception of marriage between a man and a woman.  Obergefell is celebrated at the website of the official Gay Pride Calendar by the unforgettable image of President Barack Obama's White House illuminated in rainbow colors.  It's ironic that liberals at Google and the Obama White House would, without any sense of contradiction, celebrate both things; that is, Father's Day and Obergefell.  What's the irony?  The irony is that by redefining marriage in America, and forcibly imposing that redefinition upon all 50 states via judicial fiat, leftists from Barack Obama to Google's anonymous powers have pioneered a form of family that is, flatly, fatherless.  Think about it:  a family of two married women is a family without a father.  Why purposely create fatherless families?

Maryland gubernatorial candidate kisses his husband in TV ad to [anger] Donald Trump.  A Democrat running for governor in Maryland kisses his husband in a new commercial to "piss off Donald Trump and the Republicans."  State Senator Richard Madaleno also touts his commitment to Planned Parenthood, public education and restrictions on gun ownership in the 30-second spot released Wednesday [6/6/2018].  He says he is "running for governor to deliver progressive results and stand up to Donald Trump."

Goodbye, Netflix.  Marriage, as an societal institution, was strictly monogamous in ancient Rome, and strictly heterosexual in nature.  The laws were structured toward the advancement of its civilization — namely, the production of children who would become Roman citizens.  There were never codified laws allowing same-sex "marriage" among Roman citizens.  The suggestions that it even occurred at all amount to singular and depraved examples.

Connecticut Wants More LGBT Families to Adopt and Foster Children.  Connecticut's child welfare agency has launched an initiative to actively recruit members of the state's LGBT community to become foster and adoptive parents, bucking recent efforts in some states to curtail gay adoptions.

Mormon support for gay marriage is on the rise.  According to a 2017 survey, members of the Mormon faith are increasingly supportive of gay marriage.  Roughly 40,000 phone interviews were tallied in last year's survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, which found that 40 percent of Mormons now support gay marriage — up from 27 percent in 2013.  Among the 18 to 24 age group, support is now at 52 percent.

Kansas approves adoption bill seen as anti-LGBT.  Kansas lawmakers have joined their counterparts in Oklahoma in passing legislation to grant legal protections to faith-based adoption agencies that won't place children in LGBT homes.

Dem to resign after ethics report linked to charges against husband.  State Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, for decades one of the most powerful Democrats in Massachusetts, announced Thursday [5/3/2018] that he will resign Friday after 31 years as a lawmaker because of a scandal involving his estranged husband.  His decision follows Wednesday's release of an ethics report that states Rosenberg "failed to protect the Senate" from his estranged husband, who faces charges of racially and sexually harassing Senate employees.

We can't discuss gay "marriage" without the truth..  The Big Gay Lie that leftists and the media have been pushing for decades is that people who suffer from same sex attraction and act on that are just like heterosexuals.  The reality is that the gay lifestyle is massively promiscuous and is based on the total objectification of people.  Gays have far more sexual partners than the vast majority of heterosexuals.  Gay "marriage" in Europe has been anything but marriage.  They tend to last about 2 years and in each month of that time each "spouse" has sex with, on average, on person other than their spouse.  Gays have a wide spectrum of diseases; it's safer to smoke than to live the gay lifestyle.  Pro-gay researchers have established over and over that there are no long term gay monogamous relationships.  In fact the less faithful two gays are to each other the longer their relationship lasts.

They Keep Telling Us Who They Are.  The California legislature is processing a bill to ban and criminalize all speech, all writing, that goes against "LGBTQ priorities".  Assembly Bill 2943, which has already sailed through two committees, would criminalize "efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions."  It seems to be aimed at practicing psychologists, psychiatrists, or counselors whose clients ask them to help them get rid of unwanted sexual attractions; but the bill is so vaguely written that it could be used against virtually anybody — commentators who dissent from the agenda of Organized Sodomy, parents who teach their children that there are only two "genders," and Biblically orthodox churches where homosexual acting-out is presented as a sin.

Leftist Propaganda Thwarts Unity.  The Americans who listen to the Washington Post, the New York Times, and all the networks are being systematically lied to. [...] The MSM are why so many Americans believe that 25% of Americans are gay rather than the real value of around 2%.  In entertainment, gays are grossly overrepresented, and MSM-coverage rarely discusses either the true nature of the gay lifestyle or the actual number of people who suffer from same-sex attraction.  Clearly, if one in four Americans is gay and the gay lifestyle is just like the heterosexual lifestyle, supporting a version of "marriage" that includes same-sex couples is not that strange.

Rev. Graham to Trump:  Please Help Army Chaplain Being Persecuted by LGBT Enforcers.  Evangelical Christian Rev. Franklin Graham called upon President Donald Trump "to do something about" an Army chaplain, who is a Baptist, and who faces "serious punishment" because he refused to allow a lesbian couple to partisipate in one of his marriage retreats.  "Mr. President, I hope you will be able to do something about this," said Rev. Graham in an April 18 post on Facebook.  "You are the commander in chief of the U.S. Armed Forces."  "Army Chaplain Scott Squires is being punished for doing his job," said Graham.  "He's facing serious punishment for explaining to a soldier that he couldn't conduct a marriage retreat that would include same-sex couples — because of his belief in the biblical definition of marriage."

The Perversion of America.  Do we have a right to our own opinions, or is it now "hate speech" for anyone to say they disapprove of homosexuality?  This concerned the late Justice Antonin Scalia in the series of decisions — Lawrence v.  Texas (2003), United States v.  Windsor (2013), and Obergefell v.  Hodges (2015) — in which the Supreme Court first struck down the right of starts to outlaw sodomy, then voided the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, and finally mandated that same-sex marriage must be recognized in all 50 states.

Woman says wrestling 'sleeper hold' led to wife's death, officials say.  A Washington woman who strangled her cheating wife last month, briefly assumed the woman's identity in a bid to fool cops and then tried to explain the death as the result of a "sleeper hold" while the pair were wrestling, officials said.  Ateerraka Scotland, 27, of Redmond, Wash., is accused of killing her wife, Tiffany Scotland, 26, in their apartment on March 29.  Scotland was charged Monday in King County with second-degree murder and had bail set at $3 million.

Did PC allow abusive lesbian couple to adopt (and kill) six black children?  What we had here was a lesbian couple virtue-signaling with six adopted black children, who used them publicly for political purposes and then abused them back home, before eventually driving them all off a cliff in a Thelma and Louise-style dramatic climax.  The question it raises is why a couple like this was permitted to adopt six innocent black children, why they were able to use and showcase them for political purposes, and why authorities failed to act quickly to shut the whole thing down when the first evidence of child abuse surfaced.  The result is a terrible apparent murder-suicide that's now on their hands, quite possibly as a result of political correctness — a willingness to ignore red flags because the white flags of P.C. were already flown.

Sperm Donors, Lesbians And Law Suits, Oh My!  In a report published at the Daily Beast you can read about a lesbian couple who made use of a sperm donation from a mutual friend to conceive a child.  This isn't all that unusual in the United States these days, including for traditional, heterosexual couples.  So the happy spouses were set for a bright future and a growing family, right?  Yeah... not really.  Things didn't work out very well at all.  The donor (and biological father) decided approximately seven months after the child was born that he wanted to be "more involved" in the baby girl's life.  With that, he went to court and sued for visitation rights.  This has dragged on for more than two years in the courts and now a judge has ruled against the biological father, saying that he can't even demand a paternity test to prove that he's the one who did the deed.

Lesbian couple sues Health Department after foster care application rejected.  Fatma Marouf, 41, and Bryn Esplin, 33, married in 2015 and decided to settle in Fort Worth, Texas, the following year.  Marouf is a law professor at Texas A&M and director of its Immigrant Rights Clinic, and Esplin is a bioethics professor at the university's medical school.

T-Mobile and Leftism.  Tabula rasa, or the mind as a blank slate, is central to the progressive creation mythos.  This fallacy asserts that everything human beings think, say, and do derives from what they learn in the environment, as controlled by society.  For example, an application of tabula rasa trending now is that male babies become boys and female babies become girls mainly because society tells them they have to, and requires they be given "gendered" clothes and toys.  This thesis is so at odds with natural phenomena it must be deemed insane.  Tabula rasa is dear to the left because it minimizes individuality and personal responsibility, while emphasizing the differences among groups rather than within groups. [...] Of course, "love who you want" is a dog whistle for the "LGBT" entitlement, and especially for same-sex marriage.

Bermuda becomes first jurisdiction in the world to repeal same-sex marriage.  Bermuda has become the first jurisdiction to legalise and then repeal same-sex marriage, in what critics have called an unprecedented rollback of civil rights by the British territory.  Bermuda's governor has signed into law a bill reversing the right of gay couples to marry, despite a supreme court ruling last year authorising same-sex marriage.  Walton Brown, Bermuda's minister of home affairs, said the legislation signed by Governor John Rankin would balance opposition to same-sex marriage on the socially conservative island while complying with European court rulings that ensure recognition and protection for same-sex couples in the territory.

The Whore of Babylon Dances the Night Away.  I spent a restless night last night — thoughts of how far down the sewage tank this nation has gone — thinking of how polluted this nation has become and how the perverts — the Sodomites — the Lesbians — the child molesters — have infected this nation and so many in it How wicked — vile — deceitful — degenerate — depraved — Like Nineveh, like Rome — sin fills the air and open rebellion against God is everywhere. [...] If you are attending one of the many churches that allows the perversion of the pulpit with the preaching of Sodomy as being acceptable then YOU are siding with Satan.  If you have a Lesbian or Sodomite or Child Molester occupying any office in your church then you are condoning SIN.

Englewood neighbors shocked after woman murders her wife, confesses to 911.  An Englewood woman is behind bars, accused of murdering her wife and then confessing the crime to a 911 dispatcher.  Throughout the day on Monday [12/18/2017], crime scene technicians combed through a house on Overbrook Road in Englewood.  There's still a lot of evidence to recover two days after the department received a strange phone call.  On Saturday afternoon [12/16/2017], 48-year-old Jessica Winkler called 911 and confessed to killing her wife, 51-year-old Rhiannon Layendecker.

The Case for the Baker in the Gay-Wedding Culture War.  [Scroll down]  Live and let live would have been a far better response.  The baker's religious convictions are not trivial or obviously in bad faith, which means to say he is not just suddenly citing them solely when it comes to catering to gays.  His fundamentalism makes him refuse to make even Halloween cakes, for Pete's sake.  More to the point, he has said he would provide any form of custom-designed cakes for gay couples — a birthday cake, for example — except for one designed for a specific celebration that he has religious objections to.  And those religious convictions cannot be dismissed as arbitrary (even if you find them absurd).  Opposition to same-sex marriage has been an uncontested pillar of every major world religion for aeons.

Rosie O'Donnell's ex-wife's death officially ruled a suicide.  The District Nine Medical Examiner's Office confirmed on Wednesday [11/29/2017] to Us Weekly that Michelle Rounds committed suicide at her Florida home on Sept. 11.  The cause of death is listed as intoxication by amitriptyline, clonazepam and quetiapine — which are all prescription medications — the magazine reports.  In late September, Page Six confirmed that Rounds' body had been found surrounded multiple pill bottles.

The Truth Behind 'Transgender' Deaths.  The headline in the largest newspaper in my state declared, "Violence against transgender people at all-time high in Georgia, nationally."  Evidently an annual "all-time high" when it comes to the murder of individuals in the U.S. who choose to live a gender lie is 25.  After the 11th death, which occurred in May of this year, one news outlet quoted a "transgender" activist declaring, "We are facing a national epidemic of violence [against 'transgenders']."  More American Christians were recently killed in a single day as they peacefully gathered to worship their Creator.  Following this horrific event, virtually no one in the mainstream American media wanted to talk about how Christians in the U.S. are suffering an "epidemic" of violence or even that we are merely increasingly under attack.  To further the perverse LGBT agenda, the liberal American media would rather promote a lie than reveal the plight of Americans who seek the Truth.  Of course, an agenda built on lies must be furthered with lies.

Senators: Why is Air Force punishing colonel over his religious views on marriage?  A group of prominent U.S. senators is coming to the defense of a highly decorated Air Force colonel who could be booted out of the military over his religious views on same-sex marriage.  Col. Leland Bohannon, an experienced combat pilot, was suspended from command and orders were handed down recommending he not be promoted after he refused to publicly affirm the same-sex spouse of a retiring subordinate.

Air Force punishes colonel who refused to affirm gay marriage, attorney says.  The Air Force has punished a highly-decorated and respected colonel after he refused to publicly affirm the same-sex spouse of a retiring subordinate.  Col. Leland Bohannon, who was on the verge of being promoted to a one-star general, was suspended from command and orders were handed down recommending he not be promoted.  "His career is likely over and he will likely have to retire as a colonel instead of as a general," First Liberty Institute attorney Michael Berry told the Todd Starnes Show.

Moonbats Get Ugly to Impose Gay Marriage in Australia.  Only a few years ago, virtually everyone rejected the concept of homosexual marriage.  Even liberals like Barack Obama and Shrillary Clinton opposed it.  Now, not to embrace it is a thought crime that will subject you to outrageous abuse — as farmer and former Australian Liberty Alliance Party senate candidate Kirralie Smith learned after posting a picture of herself with a postal ballot indicating that she is not voting in favor of instituting gay marriage in Australia: [...] Thuggery often works.  Polls indicate that homosexual marriage will get a thumbs-up from the survey.  Legislation will follow.  Christian churches will likely be forced to engage in blasphemy.

More evidence that couples prefer, and do better with, traditional gender roles.  Women in the United States have significantly increased their labor-force participation since days past.  But a new report from Pew Research Center shows that, despite these gains, Americans' view of men as breadwinners hasn't changed.

Activists Threaten to Torch Church for Sign Supporting Biblical Marriage.  An Australian church has received "vicious" threats to its safety after it displayed a sign stating the Biblical position on marriage, which activists claim "cause distress".  Ahead of a postal vote on same-sex marriage, the Bellbowrie Community Church was targeted with threats and abuse after posting the sign, which pointed out that "God designed marriage between a man and a woman."

Leftists Never Fight.  [Scroll down]  California passed Prop 8, with Blacks supporting it at the 70%+ level, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman.  Prop 8 passed with 52% of the voters supporting it.  Yet the Democrat governor and the Democrat attorney general refused to defend the law as they were required by their oath of office.  That alone shows that Democrats are fascists; it's not up to the governor to decide which laws are constitutional or not; that's the job of the courts.  However, the state courts supported the legality of Prop 8.  Not to be deterred, Democrats took it to a federal court where a closeted gay judge who stood to benefit from ruling against Prop 8 suppressed the will of the people of California.

How The Transgender Crusade Made Me Rethink My Support For Gay Marriage.  Over the course of the last few months, whenever I write or tweet anything, on any topic, I usually receive a caustic social media response about my position on transgenderism.  These trolls post links to my tweets about the subject and screenshots, as if showing me my own recent opinion is some sort of gotcha.  These individuals even send tweets to my husband and employers, perhaps in hope that they will use their power over me to get my opinion in check with The Approved Position.

Christian baker Jack Phillips says he lost employees, income after not baking cakes for gay weddings.  The Christian baker bringing his high-profile case before the Supreme Court later this year filed his opening brief with the court on Thursday, telling the justices he has lost 40 percent of his family income and most of his employees since he was forced not to sell wedding cakes to avoid violating his religious beliefs.  The high court agreed to hear Jack Phillips' case in June after he refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in Colorado and was ordered by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission to bake wedding cakes for same-sex couples or else cease baking wedding cakes all together.

Another Bakery Under Attack.  The Daily Caller reports that Eileen Del Rio said the bakery owner, Cathy Miller, refused to make her and her partner's wedding cake because she doesn't condone same sex marriages, Del Rio did note in her Facebook post, however, that the baker offered to make up their order and send it off to another bakery for the wedding day.

Another Bakery Faces Backlash Because It Won't Bake Cake For Gay Wedding.  [Cathy] Miller said she refers lesbian and gay couples to her competitor, Gimmee Some Sugar.  "It has never been a problem," Miller said.  "I'm really hurt by all this.  I don't think we should be picked on because of our beliefs."  A slew of people attacked Miller on social media after the lesbian couples' post went up.

California Lesbian Couple Chemically Alter Their 11-Yr-Old Boy As Prep For Sex-Change Surgery.  I'm extremely disturbed by the fact that two women would adopt a little boy and begin forcing him to become a little girl via hormone therapy at the tender age of 11.  The fact that this is something that human beings would even consider is bothersome to me.  I don't think children at that age are equipped to make life-altering decisions such as this.  They don't have the capacity to understand the ramifications of their actions, which leads me to believe this is something that these ladies wanted for this young boy, potentially before they even adopted him.

Masterpiece Cakeshop Is Fighting for the First Amendment.  For one thing, no matter how many times people repeat it, the case isn't about discrimination or challenging gay marriage.  But when the news first broke, USA Today, for example, tweeted, "The Supreme Court has agreed to reopen the national debate over same-sex marriage."  The headline (and story) on the website was worse; it read, "Supreme Court will hear religious liberty challenge to gay weddings."  Others similarly framed the case.  (And, don't worry, "religious liberty" is almost always solidly ensconced inside quotation marks to indicate that social conservatives are just using it as a facade.)  There is an impulse to frame every issue as a clash between the tolerant and the closed-minded.  But the Masterpiece case doesn't challenge, undermine or relitigate the issue of same-sex marriage in America.  Gay marriage wasn't even legal in Colorado when this incident occurred.

Same-sex married couples can be listed as father, mother on birth certificate, Supreme Court rules.  Arkansas cannot refuse to list both names of same-sex married parents on a baby's birth certificate just because one of them is not a biological parent, the Supreme Court ruled Monday [6/26/2017], in a decision that suggests the extent to which the justices will push their 2015 decision on same-sex marriage equality.  Arkansas had resisted, arguing that the birth certificate was a record of parentage for the child, rather than a document about the marriage.

D.C. Spending $20,000 to Paint LGBTQ Murals on Storm Drains.  The District of Columbia is spending $20,000 to pay artists to paint environmentally friendly, pro-LGBTQ murals on storm drains.  Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled a "rainbow-colored crosswalk" on Friday [6/9/2017] to promote gay pride parades that are taking place in the city this weekend.  Bowser announced storm drains would also be painted by local artists to "celebrate the LGBTQ identity" and the environment.

Pennsylvania supermarket shooter left chilling online trail.  He said he would dress as a woman on Wednesday nights, when his parents went bowling, and secretly wanted a sex change operation.  "I was just a female soul trapped in a man's body my whole life," he said.

Watch Out For Your Children Because The LGBT Is Pushing To Legalize Pedophilia.  Last year, a very disturbing article appeared on Salon.com by a pedophile named Todd Nickerson in which he defended one of the most absolutely indefensible of crimes — pedophilia: [...] Salon deleted the article from its website after significant public outcry.  While on one hand this can be good and understandable, it is also unfortunate because the article is a public reminder and historical marker for our times of the darker side of the LGBT's agenda that is selectively discussed.  Among many goals which the LGBT movement is being used for — which include but are not limited to the abolition of the family, the ushering in of a new totalitarianism in the form of National Socialism, and the public removal of any ideas of Christianity or even God and replacing them with men of power — the LGBT is also being used to push for eugenics in the form of destroying the ability of children to become functioning adults at their earliest stages by normalizing child rape.

In defending gay marriage, Ben & Jerry's boycotts its customers.  A press release by Ben & Jerry's informs customers that the Australia branch of the ice cream giant will not serve them two scoops of the same flavor until same-sex marriage is legalized down under.  In a very real sense, the company is boycotting its customers!

Private College Mandates Staff Signs Document Opposing Gay Marriage.  A private North Carolina Christian college is insisting that its faculty and staff sign a document that opposes same-sex marriage and abortion.  One faculty member says she and eight of her colleagues have refused to sign it and are leaving the school.  News media outlets report that part of Montreat College's "Community Life Covenant" expects those who work there to affirm "the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman" and the "worth of every human being from conception to death."

Tennessee Bill to Protect 'Natural and Ordinary' Meaning of Words Is Veiled Anti-LGBTQ Law, Opponents Say.  What's in a word?  According to a bill passed by lawmakers in the Tennessee Senate Thursday, certain words should only be allowed to have "natural and ordinary" meanings.  In this case, the words in question could be "husband" and "wife."  Tennessee's House Bill 1111 (also known as Senate Bill 1085) has caused quite a bit of controversy for a seemingly slight change to an existing state code.  In layman's terms, the new Tennessee law could make it so that marriage is inadvertently defined as between a man and a woman only — and prevent other currently evolving definitions of gender from being permissible.

Obergefell's Toxic Judicial Legacy.  The cultural, legal, and political consequences of establishing a right to same-sex marriage have dominated discussions regarding Justice Kennedy's Obergefell decision.  Will religious institutions that oppose same-sex marriage lose their tax-exempt status?  What will happen to vendors whose consciences prohibit them from participating in same-sex weddings?  How and when will schools address same-sex marriage?  Those consequences are important and merit serious discussion.  However, another aspect of the case — Justice Kennedy's instructions regarding judges' authority to create new "rights" — will prove equally important in the long run.  In Obergefell, Justice Kennedy did far more than merely discover a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.  He wrote that judges have an ongoing "duty" to identify and protect new "fundamental rights."  He maintained that judges should institute new rights whenever their "reasoned judgment" suggests that it is appropriate to do so.

A New, Ideological Litmus Test for Christian Judges.  On December 2014, a reporter at a local Wyoming paper, the Pinedale Roundup, called the town's municipal judge, Ruth Neely, to ask if she was "excited" to be able to perform same-sex marriages.  (Two months earlier, the state had decided not to defend its same-sex marriage ban after it was struck down by a federal judge.)  In the ensuing conversation and later ones, Judge Neely explained that she'd never been asked to perform a same-sex marriage and mentioned her religious belief that marriage is the union of a husband and wife.  She also made clear that her beliefs would not prevent any same-sex couple in the area from getting married.  (They have not, in fact, done so, either:  To this day, no one has asked her to perform a same-sex wedding.)  Ominously, the reporter later called Judge Neely and offered not to run the story if she would "state a willingness to perform same-sex marriages."  This odd reaction to the judge's response to a hypothetical question was a portent of further trouble.

Bakers Accused of Hate Get Emotional Day in Court.  The ongoing battle between gay rights and religious liberty escalated Thursday as husband-and-wife bakers in Oregon appealed their case after being ordered to pay $135,000 in damages for declining to make a cake for a same-sex wedding.  "Everything up to this point has been administrative hearings," Aaron Klein, co-owner with his wife Melissa of the since-closed bakery, told The Daily Signal afterward.  "Every time we tried to make a constitutional argument it was stomped on, because it was administrative law," he said.  "But now we're finally in a courtroom where the Constitution and due process can be argued on a level we haven't seen before.  I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome."

Washington's Supreme Court Imposes Its Progressive Faith on a Christian Florist.  If you care about the Bill of Rights, the rights of conscience, or even the English language, there's a chance that this morning you felt a disturbance in the Force — as if the Founders cried out in rage and were suddenly silenced.  That disturbance was the Washington Supreme Court's oppressive ruling in State of Washington v.  Arlene's Flowers, a case holding that a florist was bound by state law to use her artistic talents to design floral arrangements to celebrate what she viewed as an immoral event:  a gay wedding.

Oddly enough, media silent about Muslim bakeries that all refused to bake cake for gay couple.  Stephen Crowder (a Conservative humorist and commentator) went to multiple bakeries in Dearborn Michigan and could find a single Muslim bakery that would bake him a wedding cake celebrating gay marriage.  [...] But this post is not about how Muslims are big fat bigots and homophobes for not wanting to bake a cake for a gay couple.  We support the Muslim bakers' rights to refuse service just as much as we support the Christians.  As a matter of fact, I'll take it a step further than Crowder does in his video and say that we believe any private establishment should have the liberty to refuse service to anyone for any reason. [...] No, this is a story about media bias.  You see, when the media baited a Christian pizzeria owner into saying that she probably wouldn't cater a gay wedding, the media went ballistic!

Democrats grill Trump nominees on gay marriage again and again and again.  Senate Democrats are obsessed with sex.  Each of Trump's nominees to the departments of defense, housing, and the Central Intelligence Agency endured a steady bombardment of questions about gay marriage.  It was a needless LGBT hat-trick.  At all three hearings, Democrats demonstrated how their fascination with gay marriage eclipses their interest in military preparedness, urban development, and cybersecurity.  Even more telling, they completely disregarded the president-elect's position on social issues.  Trump might have campaigned against political correctness.  But he didn't run to resurrect the religious right's crusade for traditional marriage.

Donald Trump Declares Gay Marriage Debate 'Settled,' Uninterested in Overturning Supreme Court Decision.  President-elect Donald J. Trump recently stated that he considers the debate over same-sex marriage resolved due to the United States Supreme Court's 2015 ruling legalizing it nationwide.  In a Sunday [11/13/2016] interview with Lesley Stahl of CBS' "60 Minutes" program, Trump was asked about his views on the marriage definition debate.  "It's irrelevant because it was already settled.  It's law.  It was settled in the Supreme Court.  I mean it's done," stated Trump.

Hey Catholics, This Is What Team Hillary Really Thinks Of You.  [Scroll down]  Had this been conservatives talking about some liberal cause celebre, the media and Planet Clinton would be feasting on it and calling for the heads of all involved.  Imagine for a moment if you replaced the actors with conservatives and Catholicism and the conversation topic with Black Lives Matter, LGTB rights, or women.  The rebukes would come fast and furious, and with wicked vengeance.  Another email shows Podesta discussing the groups he founded to incite rebellion and schism within the Church, when confronted with the suggestion of a "Catholic Spring" against church doctrine and leadership in favor of "gender equality."

16 Times Democrats Tried To Prosecute Their Opponents.  [#10] Cake Bakers:  A Denver-area cake baker, Jack Phillips, became an enemy of the state after he refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. [...] [T]he Colorado Civil Rights Commission has mandated that he must bake cakes for all weddings, even those he objects to for religious reasons, and that he must "re-educate" his staff and keep records for two years to prove he's complying with state law.  In an effort to avoid further legal punishment, Philips no longer bakes wedding cakes.

Alabama justice off bench for defying feds on gay marriage.  Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was removed from the bench Friday [9/30/2016] for defying the U.S. Supreme Court on gay marriage, more than a decade after he was ousted for disobeying a federal order to take down a 2½-ton monument to the Ten Commandments.

Family bakery closes after left-wing bullies finally get their pound of cake.  In 2013 a small family bakery in Northwestern Oregon refused to make a cake for a lesbian wedding.  The owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa had no idea that their decision to follow the teachings of their Christian faith would lead to a multi-year legal battle.  It's a battle still being waged.  Aaron and Melissa Klein were eventually punished by the state of Oregon. — The couple was fined $135,000 for refusing to participate in the lesbian wedding event.  It was the price they had to pay for refusing to violate their conscience.

Pope Francis backs opposition to Mexico's gay-marriage proposal.  Pope Francis has voiced support for Mexican bishops and citizens opposing the government's push to legalize same-sex marriage.

So much for "they're just like everybody else."
Minnesota elementary school teacher and his husband killed in murder-suicide after allegations of sex with boys.  A Minnesota elementary school teacher and his husband died in a murder-suicide after a teen boy reported that they had sex with him, documents showed.

Cook County issues 10,000th same-sex marriage license.  As reporters swarmed, the couple said they had no idea they were the 10,000th same-sex couple in Cook County to pick up a marriage license since the clerk's office began issuing them to gay people in early 2014.  Illinois became the 16th state to make gay marriage legal, after then-Gov. Pat Quinn signed the marriage law in November 2013.  Clerk David Orr was on hand to present the couple with a box full of goodies — including an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas, where Aranda is from — and to sing the praises of the law that gives gay couples the same rights as straight ones.

Gay Mafia scores multiple victories in the Culture War on America.  While the attention of most Americans has been on the Republican and Democrat conventions, the Gay Mafia has been scoring major victories in the culture war against American values and traditional Judeo-Christian morality, starting on the final day of the Republican National Convention.  On the last day of the Trump coronation, the RNC showed America how little it cares about social issues when it gave the stage to Donald Trump's good friend, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.  Despite claims by Trump campaign manager, Paul Manafort, that Thiel was there to support Trump the business man, the self-proclaimed homosexual used his stage time to promote so-called equality while bashing Christians and others who object to the LGBT agenda for launching a "fake culture war."

Clinton marches in New York City gay pride parade.  [Scroll down]  Clinton used the occasion to mark last year's Supreme Court decision Obergefell v.  Hodges, which mandated that all states recognize gay marriages.  "One year ago, love triumphed in our highest court," Clinton wrote in a personally signed tweet.  "Yet LGBT Americans still face too many barriers.  Let's keep marching until they don't."

The Editor says...
Sodomy is not love.

How Long Before God Gives America the Sodom and Gomorrah Fate It Is Begging For?  In the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham was told by God that his town would be destroyed due to the decadence prevalent there.  Abraham bargained with God for the righteous and it finally came down God agreeing He would not destroy the city for the sake of 10 men if Abraham could find them.  When he could not find any righteous men (Gen. 18) Lot took his family and fled to the surrounding hills as God rained fire and brimstone down on the evil residents of the towns.  I am at the point of wondering how many righteous men it will take for God to spare this nation the same fate.  1 Corinthians 6:9 says that homosexuals and sodomites will not enter Heaven.  I don't know how many righteous men it will take for God to spare the USA but we are a nation of more than 330 million so the number will be huge I would imagine.

The Questions Liberals Never Have to Answer.  [Question #3]  Why do you support legally persecuting millions of Christians who quite correctly believe that they cannot live in accordance with their faith if they participate in a gay wedding?  Who's a worse person, a Christian cake maker who happily serves gay customers, but believes it's wrong for her to cater a gay wedding or a gay couple that deliberately searches out a Christian cake maker who can't participate in their wedding so they can sue her?  Why should little girls be forced to share a bathroom with grown men who claim they "feel like" women?  What about their safety?  What about the fact that many of them don't feel comfortable sharing a bathroom with someone with male genitalia?  Are you helping people or hurting them by falsely telling them they can change their sex and encouraging them to mutilate themselves through surgery instead of encouraging them to get psychiatric treatment?

Leaked Emails Show Clinton Campaign Struggling Over Gay Marriage Position.  Leaked emails from the account of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta show the Clinton campaign struggling over what position to take on the subject of gay marriage.

The Editor says...
This is what happens when a person has no moral foundation:  He or she goes in search of advice on the safest public position to adopt.  The foolish man's house is built upon the sand.

Why Liberals Are So Obsessed With Racism, Homosexuality and Transsexualism.  Conservatives care about logic.  Liberals care about emotion.  Conservatives care about whether a program works or not.  Liberals care about how supporting a program makes them feel.  Conservatives take the positions they do because they believe they're best for society.  Liberals take the positions they do because they make them feel and look compassionate or superior to hold those positions.  Once you understand those basics, it's very easy to see why both sides hold the positions they do on most issues and to comprehend why there's so little middle ground.  Once you get the mentalities, you can predict where each side will come down on issues.

Thousands leave the Church of Norway.  More people than ever are dropping their membership in the Church of Norway — could the approval of gay marriage be a driving force?  Figures from the Church of Norway show that 4,200 people have withdrawn their membership thus far in 2016, Dagen reported.  The numbers are on the rise, as more people left the church through the first half of April than in any of the year's previous three months.  While an average of 900 people per month dropped their membership in January, February and March, 1,092 have already left the Church of Norway in April.

It Does Matter to Children Whether They Are Raised by Heterosexual or Same-Sex Parents.  Dr. Mark Regnerus is a University of Texas Sociologist who rocketed to fame — or infamy, depending on one's views of homosexual parenting — in 2012 with the publication of his study about how well children are doing.  Regnerus's study was based upon a new data source:  his New Family Structures Study, that involved a sample of 2,988 randomly selected Americans between the ages 18 to 39, including 175 adults with lesbian mothers and 73 with homosexual fathers.  The study investigated the respondents' social and economic behaviors, health behaviors, family of origin, and current relationships.

Republican Donors Plot to Force GOP Platform that Accommodates Same-Sex Marriage.  The Republican Party's wealthy donor class is working behind the scenes as the nomination race rages in the foreground to ensure the Party's platform adopts language that accommodates same-sex marriage.  The American Unity Fund — financed by some of the GOP's biggest donors — has launched what Politico calls "a well-organized, behind-the-scenes effort to lobby convention delegates who will draw up the platform," which they intend will include an accommodation for same-sex marriage.

North Carolina AG says he won't defend law overriding local anti-discrimination rules.  North Carolina's attorney general said Tuesday [3/29/2016] that he won't defend in court a newly enacted state law preventing local governments from passing anti-discrimination rules meant to protect gay, lesbian and transgender people.  Roy Cooper made the announcement one day after a day after gay rights advocates sued the state to seek to overturn the law.  The federal lawsuit lists Cooper among the defendants because of his official position.  Cooper, a Democrat who is challenging Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in the November election, described the law as "a national embarrassment" that conflicted with his own department's anti-discrimination rules and "will set North Carolina's economy back" if it is not repealed.

Rep. Honda Introduces Bill to Allow Homosexual 'Partner' Overseas to be Deemed 'Spouse' for Immigration Purposes.  Representative Mike Honda (D-Calif.) reintroduced the Reuniting Families Act (RFA) with added language that would allow homosexuals in the United States to petition to bring their "spouse" here from countries that do not allow same-sex marriage.  Even though the two persons are not legally married, the bill would allow the homosexual partner abroad to be labeled a "spouse" for immigration purposes to expedite the process.  The bill defines the relationship as a "permanent partnership."

Ayatollah Roberts and His Sharia Council.  The gentlemen who wrote the Constitution did not get around to enfranchising women or abolishing slavery, but they snuck in a constitutional right to gay marriage that we've somehow overlooked for 228 years or so:  No mentally functional adult, regardless of his views on gay marriage, should be expected to pretend that that is true.

Do homosexuals want monogamy?  [Scroll down to page 20.]  Despite the pressure from some gay rights campaigners, the debate over the legalisation of homosexual marriage is perhaps at its most heated amongst homosexuals themselves.  The central issue at stake is that of monogamy.  Many lesbians and gay men do not want to be 'restricted' by having to conform to what they see as traditional heterosexual standards. [...] The SIGMA project, the leading research project into homosexual lifestyles in the UK, was conducted by researchers sympathetic to gay rights.  Their main study was funded by the Department of Health and published by the then Government.  This study found that most homosexual men had casual partners, on average seven per year, and claimed:  "There is a widespread expectation among gay men that relationships will not be monogamous since this is widely seen as a means of combining the security of a long term commitment with the excitement of new encounters."  The SIGMA researchers used the term "closed" to describe "monogamy".  Their definition would strike many as extremely weak:  "A relationship was considered closed if the respondent had not had sex with a third party in the preceding month."  Ever since this main study was published in 1992, subsequent SIGMA research has underlined the non-monogamous character of homosexual relationships.

The tyranny of a very small but very powerful minority.  Some people actually believe that the majority rule.  Nope.  Not in America.  Not anymore.  The Census shows that at present, the United States is 77.7% white and that figure includes white Hispanics.  Without them, it's approximately 62%.  All Hispanics number 17% and blacks around 13%.  Although many Americans polled believe that the gay community is around 20%, the actual number is 1.6% and yet the LGBT community wields enormous influence over our culture and has succeeded in tearing down traditional mores of the nation and the world.  Why?  The answer is that this demographic is extremely wealthy and has influence over many spheres in government, entertainment, the media and industry.

The Big Gay Lie.  The simple reality is that the gay lifestyle consists of sex with many strangers and few if any long term, let alone monogamous, relationships.  Less than 1% of gays report, to gay friendly researchers, to having sex with fewer than 5 partners.  On the other hand, 43% report having more than 500 sexual partners including 28% who have had more than 1000 sexual partners.  To put this in context, only 25% of heterosexual men have sex with more than 10 women in their lifetimes; women average 4.7 partners over their lives.  Gay relationships rarely last more than 2 years.  A study of gay "marriages" in Holland found that they last, on average, 1.5 years and that they are not monogamous.  Another study showed that not a single gay couple was monogamous for more than five years.  Straight marriages are far longer lasting and much more likely to be monogamous.

They Said They Would Defend the Family and....  Then came gay marriage.  On this issue there was a lot to defend — indeed, with adoption tied to marriage, the very notion of birthright, heritage, and legacy was at stake — and the pressure was enormous on people to capitulate.  The conservative intelligentsia responded to the explosive debate about gay marriage in three ways.  One group suddenly changed their minds and supported gay marriage, to the delight of the mainstream press and to the considerable advantage of their own pocketbooks.  One group simply pretended the topic didn't exist, so they would neither lose the liberal media's approval nor risk being branded (rightly) as sellouts by the conservative base.  And then another group claimed they were going to defend traditional marriage; they garnered support from good-hearted Christians and then lost gracefully.

Debunking 5 Phony Statistics Liberals Love To Toss Around.  [Phony statistic #4:]  Ten percent of the population is gay:  In actuality, the percentage of gay Americans is tiny.  The survey taken by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked a simple question of 34,557 adults nationwide:  "Which of the following best represents how you think of yourself?"  The five possible answers were straight, lesbian/gay, bisexual, "something else" and "I don't know the answer."  Transgenders, the "T" in LGBT, were not included.  The survey found that a mere 1.6 percent of the adult population self-identifies as "lesbian/gay," and an even smaller 0.7 percent told interviewers they were bisexual.  The bisexuals were outnumbered by the 1.1 percent who didn't know, wouldn't answer or said they were "something else."

Liberals Praise Hillary Clinton's New Ad With Same Sex Couples Kissing.  The Hillary Clinton campaign is out with an ad highlighting her record as an advocate for LGBT rights.  The spot includes images of gay couples kissing each other.  The liberal website Slate praises Clinton for including same-sex kissing in her campaign ad, saying, "Given the distressingly puritanical rules that govern gay PDAs, it's both impressive and heartening that Clinton includes gay kisses in her official campaign spots."

Media Bias That Makes You Sick.  A so-called "Media Activism Research Conference" is being held next year in Canada to expand even further the "progressive" causes available to journalists.  The event is described as a "Gathering for Grassroots and Transformative Media" at Lakehead University and "an opportunity to develop collaborations and networks among anti-capitalist, feminist, anti-racist, trans, queer and Indigenous alternative media activists and activist-researchers by sharing knowledge, skills and experiences on grassroots and transformative alternative media."  Brace yourselves for one of the seminars, which concerns "Queer anarchist autonomous zones and publics:  Direct action vomiting against homonormative consumerism."  According to my research, and I may not have gotten to the bottom of this, it seems as if media activists in Canada are exploring vomiting as a form of social protest against capitalism.

The Editor says...
I guess you'd have to be a public school student to understand how terroristic vomiting on random strangers would make the general public sympathetic to a left-wing cause, or to understand how capitalism is a threat to homosexuals.

Coming Next? Men as Mothers.  There has long been a subversive "anything goes" streak in bioethics. [...] Biologically male mothers would be unethical and immoral from every angle one looks at the issue; whether the potential fatal harm to the man, treating new life as a mere experiment, and the obliteration of the concept of societal norms.

Why Not Three? The Question Gay Activists Cannot Answer.  If marriage is not the union of one and one woman, why limit it two people?  Why, for that matter, require two people?  Why can't you marry yourself? [...] This current, real-life development further underscores how gay activists are making marriage meaningless.

Couple seeks right to marry. The hitch? They're legally father and son.  The legalization of same-sex marriage has given way to a new problem for a Pennsylvania couple, who technically are father and son.  Before states across the country began striking down bans on same-sex marriage and the Supreme Court ultimately decided the issue nationwide, some gay couples used adoption laws as a way to gain legal recognition as a family, and the related benefits such as inheritance and hospital visitation rights.

Clinton cannot tell the truth.  "There was enough political momentum to amend the Constitution of the United States of America," Clinton said, referring to the possible passage of a federal marriage amendment.  DOMA, she argued, was "a defensive action," and "a line that was drawn that was to prevent going further."  There's just one problem with this explanation:  It's a lie.  Buzzfeed's Chris Geidner studied thousands of pages of records from the Clinton White House and found no mention whatsoever of Clinton supporting DOMA on any such grounds.

We warned you it would happen: Look who is demanding "equal rights" now.  Rational adults can respectfully disagree about same sex marriage, just like rational adults can agree that pedophilia is evil.  Actually, you would think that rational adults can agree with that, yet here we are.

Pope held private meeting with same-sex couple in U.S..  The day before Pope Francis met anti-gay county clerk Kim Davis in Washington last week, he held a private meeting with a longtime friend from Argentina who has been in a same-sex relationship for 19 years.  Yayo Grassi, an openly gay man, brought his partner, Iwan Bagus, as well several other friends to the Vatican Embassy on September 23 for a brief visit with the Pope.  A video of the meeting shows Grassi and Francis greeting each other with a warm hug.

DNC Email on LGBT/Same-Sex Marriage: 'Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations'.  Defenders of traditional marriage have long warned about the slippery slope to bigamy and polygamy on which same-sex marriage places the country, but to hear Star Trek star George Takei and the Democratic party tell it, there may be more to come.

Stop Saying Same-Sex Marriage is the 'Law of the Land'.  Ever notice that radical leftists never say, "It's the law of the land" when speaking of a national law they fundamentally disagree with?  Barack Obama and the Defense of Marriage Act is a glaring example.  DOMA was the law of the land, but Mr. Obama's Justice Department refused to enforce the law, and the Department was the only agency responsible for its enforcement.  Curiously, the establishment press didn't draw attention to Obama's blatant dereliction of duty over DOMA. [...] This piece could be filled with examples of President Obama's refusal to uphold the laws of the land (and even to obey direct federal court orders to his administration), but space doesn't permit.

Tennessee judge dismisses divorce case, cites Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling.  A judge in Tennessee has dismissed a divorce case, saying the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage has negated his state's ability to define divorce.  Hamilton County Chancellor Jeffrey Altherton wrote in his decision that he cannot grant Thomas and Pamela Bumgardner's divorce because Obergefell v. Hodges redefines the rules for marriage, and thus the rules for divorce.

Nine Signs of the Impending American Collapse.  Gender has come increasingly to be regarded not as a biological fact but as a social construct, and ultimately as an expression of one's "inner feelings" (as if there were any other kind) and affect-laden sense of sexual or personal identity.  A man is a woman is a trans is a tiger is a wolf — in other words, an idiosyncratic caricature of a normal human being. [...] Such aberrations follow from and go hand in hand with a longstanding, aggressive and doctrinaire feminism that has infected every important social and professional institution, leading to the legal and societal deprivileging and even the feminization of men, who must not only endure institutional inequities but must continually apologize for their existence — another recipe for social and cultural catastrophe.

The Humanist Hoax of 'Gender'.  American society was profoundly reconstituted in the middle of the 20th century.  Humanism replaced Judeo-Christian beliefs as the philosophical foundation of political, social, and cultural life.  Humanism decrees that life at its best is a journey of identity-seeking and self-actualization.  In light of the dogma of self-definition and entitlement, sexuality was decoupled from natural law and sexual behavior from moral law.  The priests of humanism control the gullible by preaching against the self-evident truth of dualistic creation.  Like so many prelates before them, they understand that their power lies in making simple things complicated and obscure.  So the truth of there being but two genders was discarded, and an ever increasing list of categories has come down from on high.  Interestingly, when the priests of humanism wanted to desacralize man-woman marriage, they briefly recognized only opposite or same-sex marriage.  Same-gender marriage was not mentioned, because the idea of same-gender marriage is absurd.

The ridiculousness of 'Parent 1' and 'Parent 2'.  It is political correctness run amok.  That the courts would hold up the preference of the two-percent gay community in place of the zeitgeist of the majority-heterosexual society is an assault on democracy.  It is a linguistic trick to distort the gestalt of the majority.  It is political correctness leading to language perversion.  Communal, communist societies try to destroy the family structure.  Family values are against big bureaucracy and the left coddles big government.  Leftists are afraid of mothers and fathers.  They want robotic parents.  They want "Parent 1" and "Parent 2."

The Cold Civil War.  In the same-sex marriage battle, the left's heroes have consistently been portrayed as committed gay couples whose only desire is to be accorded the same legal status and recognition for their families that straights have enjoyed for centuries but are denied homosexuals.  Although characterized as victims of a religio-conservative conspiracy to oppress, these gay superheroes with super powers that allow them to be just like heterosexual couples, have managed to outwit and out-organize marriage advocates at every turn with a well-thought out, brilliantly-executed game plan that culminated in the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell.

In the Wake of Obergefell, Three New Polls Show Reduced Support for Same-Sex Marriage.  Within the past couple weeks, three separate national polls have been conducted on the issue of same-sex marriage.  Interestingly, each of these three polls shows a decline in support for it.  Both Ipsos/Reuters and Gallup conducted polls in early July — just days after the Supreme Court handed its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.  Both polls found a slight decline in the percentage of Americans who support same-sex marriage as compared to previous polls that each firm conducted earlier this spring.

Two Critical Factors Necessitate a Rehearing of the Gay Marriage Decision.  On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in the Obergefell case, purporting to overturn all state constitutional amendments and laws in your four states defining marriage as a covenant union between two people of the opposite sex.  Since then, numerous efforts have been made, urging each state to file a Petition for Rehearing of that decision, as permitted in the Rules of the Supreme Court before the deadline of Tuesday, July 21, 2015.  Apparently, to date, every such effort has been rebuffed.  In response, several of your offices have stated that such a Petition would be:  (i) unlikely to succeed; (ii) a waste of time:  and (iii) a waste of money.

Every Day, A New Way to Hate.  Unusually slow on the uptick, the neo-puritan elect have yet to coin a term for those who "hate" or "fear" the "transitioning" among us.  "Trannyphobia" might have worked, but the playful term "tranny," which was acceptable until about a week ago, has joined the n-word and the f-word among the unutterable.  Transgender activists will decide on a label soon enough.  The Islamists did.  In one of the more curious twists in recent progressive history, a media savvy cell in America chose to mimic gay activists who had been successfully using the "phobia" trope to defame opponents of their political agenda.  The Islamists saw the same potential in the concept of "Islamophobia."  With the media's help, they could and did tie their struggle to those of other marginalized groups and, in the words of one former activist, "beat up their critics."

The Queering of America.  The U.S. Supreme Court's decision striking down state laws barring same-sex "marriage" is the culmination of a decades-long corrosive process, one that has been methodically guided by a strategic subversive plan.  All moral people are rightly outraged by this official mockery of the natural law, the moral law, and the divine law.  But we should not be shocked or surprised, as the unmistakable signs that this was coming have been ever more obvious with each and every concession to the "gay" lobby and "gay" culture.  This article originally appeared in the June 8, 1998 issue of The New American, 17 years ago.

This might be satire.  Can't really tell.
In Wake of Chattanooga Terror Attack, Provocative Gay Hate-Flag Must Come Down.  The gay rainbow flag is seen by many Christians as a symbol of hate and oppression — and for good reason.  Under that banner, there has been an all-out assault by the media and the Left against our religious freedoms.  Under that banner, on the same day of the Chattanooga terror attack, a Jewish man was physically threatened in person and on social media by Inside Edition's Zoey Tur, a man who identifies as a woman.  Moreover, the defiant act of flying of the gay rainbow flag, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that legalized same sex marriage in all 50 states, is undoubtedly offensive to devout Muslims, and therefore provocative.  It is time to shame and marginalize the gay rainbow flag — this offensive, provocative symbol of hate and oppression must be tossed on the ash bin of history...  Before it kills again.

Loretta Lynch: Same-sex couples to get federal marriage benefits.  Federal marriage benefits will soon be available to same-sex couples nationwide, according to Attorney General Loretta Lynch.  "I directed Justice Department staff to work with the agencies to ensure that the ruling be given full effect across the federal government," including Social Security and veterans benefits programs, Lynch said in a statement Thursday [7/9/2015].  "[W]e have now taken the further step of ensuring that all federal benefits will be available equally to married couples in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories."

Now Democrats Want to Ban the Words 'Husband' and 'Wife'.  Now that compulsory gay marriage is the law of the land thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, liberals are reaching out from that decision to see where else they can force the gay lobby's agenda on the country.  Next up is a war against the words "husband" and "wife" because they are somehow "anti-gay."  California Congresscritter Lois Capps is now leading the charge to try to get the two words expunged from federal law.

Dems declare war on words 'husband,' 'wife'.  More than two dozen Democrats have proposed legislation that would eliminate the words "husband" and "wife" from federal law.  Those "gendered terms" would be replaced by "gender-neutral" words like "spouse" or "married couple," according to the bill from Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif.  "The Amend the Code for Marriage Equality Act recognizes that the words in our laws have meaning and can continue to reflect prejudice and discrimination even when rendered null by our highest courts," Capps said.  "Our values as a country are reflected in our laws.  I authored this bill because it is imperative that our federal code reflect the equality of all marriages."

The Editor says...
When the liberals start deleting words from the dictionary, it will be impossible to teach future generations the difference between right and wrong, or the difference between normal and perverse, because the words that describe perversion will have been outlawed.  The normalization of perversion is not only well underway, it's gaining momentum.

Jimmy Carter: 'I Believe Jesus Would Approve of Gay Marriage'.  Former President Jimmy Carter argued Tuesday Jesus Christ would "approve" of gay marriage if he were around in an interview with HuffPost Live's Marc Lamont Hill.  Carter offered up his support for the recent Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage nationwide, while using Jesus to prop up his reasoning.

Carter: 'I Believe Jesus Would Approve Of Gay Marriage'.  Carter took on the issue from a Biblical perspective and declared that it was his view Jesus would have approved of the gay marriage.  "I believe Jesus would. I don't have any verse in scripture," Carter said.  'I believe Jesus would approve gay marriage, but that's just my own personal belief.  I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don't see that gay marriage damages anyone else."

The Editor says...
Former Sunday School teacher Jimmy Carter seems to have forgotten the story about the woman at the well, among other things.

How Madness Rules Our Age.  When it came to gay marriage, as unbelievable as it may be, the US was late to this psychosis.  Much of Western Europe, much of Latin America, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa all beat us to the punch.  Even Macho Argentina legalized gay marriage in 2010.  Brazil and Uruguay followed suit.  Much of the USA had initially resisted gay marriage.  Judges had to intervene to educate the people.  In Hollingsworth vs. Perry, a federal court overruled a California referendum, Proposition 8, which had defined marriage as between a man and woman, and added such to the California Constitution.  An Arkansas judge would later follow suit in 2014.  Constitutions meant nothing to jurists.  What is amazing is how much of this came from fiat.

The Penumbra School of Law.  In Oregon, a state agency (with the Zimbabwe-like title The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry) in bed with the local LGBT community fined the small baker Sweetcakes $135,000 (forcing it into bankruptcy) for refusing to bake a lesbian couple's wedding cake.  It also banned the bakers from making any statements challenging same sex marriage. [...] A list of these so-called damages, the failure to acknowledge there are other means of obtaining a cake elsewhere along with the agency ban on free speech by the defendants should put to rest any notion that the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry is more than a soviet style show tribunal acting against this week's designated kulaks.

Idaho's Gay Marriage Ban Remains In State Constitution.  Same-sex marriage is now legal in all 50 states, but nestled in the Idaho Constitution remains the provision that defines marriage as only between a man and a woman.

Why Two? The Question Gay Activists Can't Answer.  If marriage is not the union of a man and a woman, then why should it be limited to two people (or, for that matter, require two people)?  Why can't it be one or three or five?  What makes the number "two" so special if it doesn't refer to the union of a male and a female?  I have asked this question for years in various settings, from a campus debate with a professor to social media and from my radio show to writing, and I have not yet received a single cogent answer, since no cogent answer exists.  If "love is love" and "marriage equality" is the mantra, then why can't any combination of loving adults form a "marriage"?

Two Supreme Court Justices Must Go: The Case for Impeachment.  Justice Antonin Scalia said in his dissent in the same-sex marriage case that the ruling was a threat to our democratic form of government and constitutes a "judicial Putsch," or secret power grab.  He didn't just say the majority was wrong or misguided; he essentially said they had conspired to overthrow our form of government.  His position on the Court may have made it impossible to supply specifics.  But one possible explanation of what he meant is that he saw a conflict-of-interest on the part of members of the majority, which required their recusal from the case.  Rather than investigate what Scalia is hinting at, our media have opened fire on Scalia for blowing the whistle on judicial corruption.  In fact, the push for gay marriage has been tainted by lies from the beginning.

Secret White House Gay Wedding Revealed.  Before the White House was bathed in rainbow light to celebrate the Supreme Court's decision to legalize gay marriage nationwide, a secret gay wedding was conducted in the building by former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett.  Lovett, who worked for Obama during his first term, reveals that he used his White House privileges to sneak in a pair of gay men under the guise of giving them a tour, then performed a wedding ceremony in the Rose Garden without the knowledge of the president.

Obama speechwriter reveals secret same-sex marriage at White House.  During a special presentation of the popular live storytelling podcast "The Moth Radio Hour" at this year's Aspen Ideas festival, former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett shared a story about how, years before gay marriage would become legal nationwide, he secretly performed a same-sex marriage at the White House.

The Editor says...
If an unauthorized wedding ceremony takes place in the Rose Garden, and the President doesn't immediately fire everyone who allowed it to happen, then the President is complicit in the event.

Disney Castle Lit up with Gay Pride Rainbow; Social Media Erupts.  The Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World in Florida was illuminated to celebrate the Supreme Court's recent ruling declaring same-sex marriage a constitutional right, prompting celebrations — and complaints.

The Big, Fat, Gay Marriage Post-Mortem.  Hold on.  Couple pieces coming in over the transom ... Let's check them out.  Here's Fredrik DeBoer in Politico claiming that social justice demands we now legalize polygamy.  Here are the mouthbreathers at Gawker doing the same, using Rod Dreher's Law of Merited Impossibility.  Here's the ACLU's Louise Melling declaring that "religious freedom" is nothing more than illegal discrimination.  (Note how the Washington Post headline actually puts scare quotes around the term "religious freedom" in the headline.)  Here's Mark Oppenheimer arguing in Time that we ought to strip all religious groups — not just adoption agencies and schools, but actual churches, too — of their tax exempt status.  Because gay marriage.  (He's willing to let hospitals stay tax exempt, because Obamacare will keep them in line.  So there's that.)  And here's the delightful Felix Salmon, who thinks that Oppenheimer perhaps goes too far, because we need only target religious organizations — and again, he means not just para-church groups, but actual churches — who aren't onboard with "gay marriage."

The Real Goal of the Same-Sex Marriage Movement.  Late last week, after the Supreme Court of the United States declared without any Constitutional basis that the Constitution mandates same-sex marriages be state legitimized across the nation, a disquieting level of triumphalism broke out from coast to coast.  The president shined lights representing the gay pride rainbow flag on the White House — a gross boot-on-the-throat display from an anti-religious leader.  Corporations, undoubtedly fearful of the consequences of ending up on the wrong side of the riotous left, began tweeting out rainbow symbols.  News outlets similarly embraced the rainbow symbol, as though it were uncontroversial to do so; BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, and Mashable all turned their logos rainbow, with BuzzFeed's Ben Smith explaining, "We firmly believe that for a number of issues, including civil rights, women's rights, anti-racism, and LGBT equality, there are not two sides."

Progressive Mass Hysteria.  The idea of gay marriage in 2008 earned unapologetic disapproval from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.  The liberal voters of California twice rejected the idea in statewide plebiscites.  But after years of constant harangues in the media, boycotts, public ostracisms, and ad hominem attacks on the integrity of skeptics, the liberal political establishment — many of whose members are recipients of large amounts of cash from wealthy gay donors — suddenly flipped.  A sort of collective hysteria took over from there.  In 2008 there was common assent on the part of the Democratic party's leadership that the three-millennia-old belief that marriage involved different sexes would prevail, while a separate rubric, "civil union," would be invented for homosexual couples.  But by 2012 that notion was not merely outdated, but taboo.  Almost overnight, supporting the erstwhile Obama position of permitting civil unions but rejecting gay marriage became tantamount to career suicide.

Gay Marriage Still Doesn't Exist, No Matter What SCOTUS Says.  The Supreme Court is wrong. [...] They were wrong yesterday when they announced that the federal government can offer Obamacare subsidies even though the law expressly gives that power to the states.  They were wrong two years ago when they decided that the federal government has the right to force American citizens to buy a product from an insurance company.  They were wrong 40 years ago when they said mothers have a constitutional right to murder their children.  And they were wrong today when they took out their magical magnifying glass and found, perhaps transcribed in microscopic code on the fibers of the Constitution, a mysterious entitlement to homosexual marriage.

Forget A Federal Marriage Amendment and Go For Religious Freedom Acts In All 50 States.  Too many conservatives have refused stand up on social issues and have thus allowed liberals to make their case in a vacuum.  Too many churches have decided they'd rather keep their heads down than stand up for Christian beliefs.  Too many Republicans have played by Marquis of Queensbury rules when it comes to Supreme Court justices while Democrats have played to win.  You'll note that liberal judges always, always, always vote liberally on key issues, regardless of the law, while some "conservative" justices like John Roberts and Anthony "Captain Coin Flip" Kennedy move to the left, even if they have to defy the Constitution to do it.

The Dred Scotting of Religious Liberty.  Writing gay marriage into the Constitution as once there was a Supreme Court decision that attempted to write slavery into the Constitution.  Make no mistake.  Whatever else the five lawyers in black robes thought they were doing with their ruling on gay marriage, they have opened the door — many think the door was already open — for a full-blown assault on religious liberty.

Communists Close Blessed-Historic 'Gay Month'.  "Blessed is he who has no family," Karl Marx wrote to Friedrich Engels, his partner in crime who detested family and marriage so much that he refused both.  The partners were not shy about their thoughts on the family.  In their most famous joint creation, The Communist Manifesto, they wrote of the "abolition of the family."  Subsequent communists in the decades and even centuries that followed would seek to redefine family and marriage, but only now, in America in June 2015, is the fundamental transformation finally poised to succeed, as Anthony Kennedy and the Supreme Court's four liberals have rendered unto themselves a right to redefine something that heretofore had been the province of the laws of nature and nature's God.  Most grateful to Kennedy and the Supremes are their appreciative new comrades in the modern American Communist Party.

The Hidden Message of Same-Sex Marriage.  The road to gay marriage began with feminism.  Feminists argued that there were no important differences between the sexes.  Thus, mothering and fathering were interchangeable.  The word "parent" became a verb.  If mothers and fathers bring nothing unique or complementary to their roles, then it logically follows that two mothers or two fathers should be just as good.  Talk of three or more parents misses the mark.  The relevant number is one.  If fathers are no different from mothers, then single women needn't pause before embarking on "parenthood" solo — and they aren't.  Along with feminism, the past few decades have featured a widespread retreat from the idea of family duty. [...] Marriage today is treated as optional by many parents, just one of many available paths.  As Alito noted in his dissent, fully 40 percent of American births are now to unmarried women.  Additionally, more than half of all children will spend some part of their childhoods in a non-nuclear family.

Some Counties Withholding Same-Sex Marriage Licenses.  Three days after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide, some Texas county clerks are refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.  Several clerk's offices — including those in Hill and Hood counties in North Central Texas, Bastrop and Burleson counties in Central Texas, Jackson County on the Gulf Coast and Odessa's Ector County — said Monday [6/29/2015] they were awaiting forms or legal guidance or simply objected.

Obergefell and the roadmap to drive Christianity from the public square.  First and foremost, this is what lawyers refer to as "dicta."  It is a statement made in an area of law that is NOT being decided and is not binding in any way, shape, or form.  Second, even were it binding it would be irrelevant.  In Kennedy's view, only religious organizations and religious persons would be allowed to dissent.  This means that while your priest or pastor would be able to refuse to participate in a homosexual marriage it is nearly impossible for your actual church to do so.  For religious colleges and universities with faculty and staff members who are not members of the denomination — this would include schools like Georgetown (though in fairness, Georgetown ceased to be a Christian much less a Catholic university years ago) and Catholic University — it would be nearly impossible for them to avoid participating in homosexual marriages.

The Unlikely Turning Point in the Same Sex Marriage Battle.  This past weekend has been heady one for our friends on the soft-core left.  Without ever attending a meeting, let alone a march, or even making a donation, they got to celebrate Obergefell v. Hodges as if it were V-J day.  These are the same people, of course, who protested not a peep in 1996 when Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law, the same people who voted giddily for Barack Obama in 2008 despite his avowed support for traditional marriage, the same people who cannot wait until their next water cooler encounter to dress down some hapless co-worker as a "bigot."  Moral hauteur has never come so cheaply.

Ayatollah Roberts and His Sharia Council.  In the matter of the so-called Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court ruled that the law must not say what it in fact does say because it would be better if it were not to say what it says and were to say something else instead.  In the matter of same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court rules that the law must say what it does not say because it would be better if it were to say what it does not say instead of what it says.  Which is to say, the Supreme Court has firmly established that it does not matter what the law says or does not say — what matters is what they want. [...] The legendary constitutional scholar Barack Obama failed to notice, until the day before yesterday, that the Constitution mandates the legalization of homosexual marriage from sea to shining sea, but, to be fair, that is an easy provision to overlook, even for a mind as keen as Barack Obama's, since the Constitution does not say one word about marriage, much less about the state-level codification of homosexual couplings being a fundamental federal right.

Why Four Justices Were Against the Supreme Court's Huge Gay-Marriage Decision.  [For example,] Chief Justice John Roberts:  Roberts's argument centered around the need to preserve states' rights over what he viewed as following the turn of public opinion. In ruling in favor of gay marriage, he said, "Five lawyers have closed the debate and enacted their own vision of marriage as a matter of constitutional law."  Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas joined him in his dissent.  While Roberts said he did not "begrudge" any of the celebrations that would follow the Court ruling, he had serious concerns that the Court had extended its role from constitutional enforcer to activist.

State Attorneys General Promise to Protect Religious Liberty in Light of Supreme Court Marriage Decision.  Louisiana Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell (R) said the Supreme Court's decision on gay marriage may have "overturned the will of the people" of his state, but he can't find anything in the decision that says the people of Louisiana have to obey it.  So, he didn't plan to enforce it, at least not immediately.  Caldwell pointed Friday [6/26/2015] to the Louisiana constitutional amendment that bans gay marriage.  It was approved by voters in 2004, with 78 percent of those who cast ballots voting "yes."  "(The Supreme Court ruling) takes away a right that should have been left to the states.  Louisiana voters decided overwhelmingly to place in our constitution an amendment that defines marriage as between one man and one woman," said Caldwell.

Elena Kagan 2009: "There is no federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage".  I know, 2009 was then, this is now.  Then she was a nominee for Solicitor General, now she is an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.  Then she was bound to follow the law, now she gets to make it.  Then supporting gay marriage may have sunk her nomination, now public opinion has shifted.

After Gay Marriage Decision, Mississippi May Stop Issuing All Marriage Licenses.  Mississippi is considering pulling the plug on issuing marriage licenses altogether after the Supreme Court struck down bans on gay marriage Friday morning [6/26/2015].  As the state's governor and lieutenant governor condemned the court's decision, state House Judiciary Chairman Andy Gipson began studying ways to prevent gay marriage in Mississippi.  Governor Phil Bryant said he would do all he can "to protect and defend the religious freedoms of Mississippi."  To Bryant's point of doing "all" the state could do, Gipson, who is a Baptist minister, suggested removing marriage licenses entirely.

A detailed explanation of why Christians don't accept gay marriage.  Given the nature of the discussion following the gay marriage ruling last week, one thing that's clear to me as a Christian who opposes gay marriage is that very few secular people — and sadly, by no means all Christians — really understand why Christians take the position we do.  That's why there is so much being said that doesn't really reflect what Christians think.  Some say we hate or we judge.  Others say we are against love.  Some think we're threatened by homosexuals.  Some think we object too vociferously because we secretly want to join their ranks.  Some even claim we don't think God loves gay people.  None of that is true, but maybe it's understandable that you jump to those conclusions if you're not familiar with the Bible or with the details of Christian doctrine.

The False Assurances of Anthony Kennedy and Barack Obama.  Justice Anthony Kennedy, while dictating one of the most sweeping social changes in history in his opinion in the Obergefell v. Hodges case that legalized same-sex marriage across America, waxes magnanimous towards foes of the expansion of the millennia-old definition of marriage.  He said those who believe same-sex marriage is wrong may "reach that conclusion based on decent and honorable religious or philosophical premises, and neither they nor their beliefs are disparaged" in the court's pronouncement.  Likewise, President Obama spoke deferentially of "Americans of goodwill" whose "[o]pposition in some cases has been based on sincere and deeply held beliefs."  But these statements are platitudes at best; more likely, they are simply disingenuous.

What the Gay-Marriage Ruling Means for Education.  Like fascists, Communists, and boy-band producers, the American Left has always believed it could fine-tune human nature if it could only "get 'em while they're young."  That's why the Left works so hard to impose its will on schools and universities.  As John Dewey, America's high priest of educational progressivism, explained in 1897, the student must "emerge from his original narrowness" in order "to conceive of himself" as a cog in the larger social order.  Last week's gay-marriage ruling will yield a new wave of liberal efforts to ensure that schools do their part to combat wrong-headed "narrowness."

Also posted under the acceptance and promotion of homosexuality in schools.

Time for Conservatives to go on the Offensive in the Framing Wars.  The left has figured out how to successfully push through its agenda by using one simple tactic:  demonizing the right.  Even if there is no truth to the cruel labels, the left has figured out they work.  Repeat the words "bigot," "hate," "sexist" and "intolerant" enough and they will start to stick.  It's known as the "framing war," and Republicans aren't very good at it, probably because we're too nice.  We're the party of Judeo-Christian morality, so calling the opposition names isn't considered polite.  Instead, we naively think we can stick to debating the substance of issues and the truth will win out.  We saw how a very small minority within the left, the gay community — less than three percent of the population — was able to implement same-sex marriage.  A small group of radicals labeled anyone who disagreed with their approach as bigots full of hate.

Supreme Court Ruling — Gay Marriage [is] A Constitutional Right.  At current count, 37 states have gay marriage:  8 by legislative action, 3 by popular vote, 26 by court order.

SCOTUS to churches: Hey, no worries, you can still "advocate" for traditional marriage.  On this slender thread does the promise of religious liberty hang.  Justice Anthony Kennedy, in his majority opinion in Obergefell that declares same-sex marriage a constitutional right, barely mentions the means by which most Americans conduct their weddings — houses of worship.  Only on page 27 does Kennedy get around to addressing the connection between church and state, and the assurances in this paragraph are less than compelling, to say the least.

No Societal Transformation without Representation.  It's time to stop playing checkers while the other side plays chess.  Some on the right are saying this illegitimate Supreme Court decision in Obergefell is the law of the land.  Others are saying we should pass a constitutional amendment allowing states to decide marriage issues.  While the first group is clearly not part of the future of the conservative movement, the latter group is wasting our time to focus solely on a constitutional amendment.  There is no way we will ever come close to passing a constitutional amendment with super-majority support in both houses of Congress and successfully ratify it with 38 states on board.  What is eminently more achievable and effective in the relative short-term and in the long-run is for Congress to strip the Judiciary of all jurisdiction over the issue of marriage and other similar societal and political questions.

Fox's Krauthammer: Gay Marriage Ruling a 'Huge Loss' for 'Democracy'.  Speaking on Fox's Special Report Friday evening [6/26/2015], [Charles] Krauthammer called the creation by the court of a constitutional right to marriage regardless of gender or sexual orientation an "invention" akin to "the invention of the right to abortion" that came with Roe v. Wade.  "Whatever you believe about the policy for abortion or here for gay rights," he continued, "the idea that the court should decree that it's a constitutional right, something that had been hidden in the Constitution for over 100 years and that nobody has ever discerned is simply a way of saying that it has been removed from the democratic arena, it can no longer be debated, all the laws are canceled and we are in a new place."

A Question For Those Who Celebrate the Gay Marriage Decision.  What would you think if the Court had decided the opposite?  That is, if the Court had held that same sex marriage is unconstitutional, so that all state laws approving such unions are void, and all court decisions establishing same sex marriage are overruled.  Would you then think it appropriate for "five lawyers," as Chief Justice Roberts put it, to remove this issue from the democratic process and purport to resolve it by judicial fiat?  I am pretty sure you wouldn't.  I am pretty sure that in the face of such a ruling, you would howl with outrage and insist that the issue of same sex marriage be determined by democratic processes.

Politico: Has not the time come for polygamy, social liberals?  Faster than one can say "slippery slope," quicker than the echoes of Chief Justice John Roberts' warnings on the subject could dissipate, Politico Magazine published a rather lengthy appeal to the leaders of social liberalism to use the Obergefell decision to push for a constitutionally-recognized right for plural marriage.

Gay marriage: Why Supreme Court got it wrong.  [Scroll down]  Justice Alito pointed out in the oral arguments that in 1983 the Supreme Court upheld the revocation of the tax-exempt status of a religious organization — Bob Jones University — for prohibiting interracial marriage.  If gay marriage has now been elevated to a civil right on par with interracial marriage, what rationale would government have for not revoking the tax-exempt status of any religious organization that does not recognize same-sex unions?  We don't have to guess about the sociological implications of Friday's decision.  Stanley Kurtz, a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, contends that the legitimization of same-sex unions in Scandinavian countries has caused the heterosexual marriage rate to drop dramatically, while the number of children born out of wedlock has risen, resulting in numerous societal problems.

Supreme Court disavows truth about marriage, pits faith against law.  Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court disavowed the truth about marriage that diverse cultures and faiths around the globe have embraced for millennia:  that marriage is a union between a man and a woman.  Why has this fact been recognized so universally and for so long?  The answer is simple:  the truth about marriage appears unmistakably in the complementary design of man and woman.  Unique among all others, only the intimate relationship of man and woman can create a new life.  And a new life born of a committed man-woman couple finds its natural home in the embrace of its natural parents, giving rise to the family — the fundamental building-block of society. [...] The court's decision is built on the premise that, as a matter of constitutional law, the dignity of human relationships derives largely from government recognition and approval.  That premise promotes a dark and dangerous principle.  It is the flawed notion that the state does not recognize and protect — but rather creates — our fundamental institutions, rights, and relationships.

Kiss America Goodbye: Dysfunctional SCOTUS Rules 5-4 that Immoral Gay Marriage is Constitutional.  Nearly 50 years ago, Ruth Graham, wife of Christian Evangelist Billy Graham once said, "If God doesn't soon bring judgment upon America, He'll have to go back and apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah!"  The touchstone to that eventual Day of Judgment is officially here with this decision of the Supreme Court changing the definition of marriage in America.  This battle was never about equal rights for Homosexuals.  That's a boldface lie by any person who repeats it.  This was about Homosexuals seeking the government's stamp of approval for an illicit life style.  Now they have the government stamp they always wanted for what good it will do them.

Such an amendment already exists.  It's called the Tenth Amendment.
Walker calls for constitutional amendment to let states define marriage.  Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) is calling for a Constitutional amendment to allow states to define marriage and strip the Supreme Court of its authority over the issue after the justices legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.  "As a result of this decision, the only alternative left for the American people is to support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to reaffirm the ability of the states to continue to define marriage," Walker, a likely 2016 contender, said in a statement.

Gay marriage's big benefit is Social Security.  Friday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage will give a huge boost to the retirement security of LGBT Americans.  That will be especially true in the realm of Social Security — where it pays to be married.  The ruling will affect everything from access to spousal pension and retirement accounts, health benefits and more.  But Social Security really is the headliner.  Recognition of same-sex marriage in all 50 states will guarantee access to Social Security's spousal and survivor benefits, which are the most valuable features of the program.  Just how valuable?  Financial Engines, a large financial advisory firm, ran numbers recently for a hypothetical same-sex couple and found that marriage could be worth $343,000 in additional lifetime benefits.

The Editor says...
Exactly the opposite is true:  With more people getting Social Security payments, the Social Security system will run out of money even sooner than it will already.

Polygamy Attorney On Gay Marriage Decision: SCOTUS Opinion 'Resonates With Our Arguments'.  [Scroll down]  Academic Frederick deBoer writes in Politico Magazine how the Supreme Court's decision opens the doors for legal polygamous marriages.  "The marriage equality movement has been both the best and worst thing that could happen for legally sanctioned polygamy.  The best, because that movement has required a sustained and effective assault on 'traditional marriage' arguments that reflected no particular point of view other than that marriage should stay the same because it's always been the same."

'Court is not a legislature': Roberts rips gay marriage ruling, day after he backed ObamaCare.  A day after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts sided squarely with the Obama administration on the health care overhaul, the same jurist came out swinging against the court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.  In his dissenting opinion — which he read from the bench for the first time in his nearly 10 years as chief justice — Roberts charged Friday that the court had no right to intervene in what should be a democratic debate by the people, at the state level, over same-sex marriage.  "This court is not a legislature," he wrote.  "Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us.  Under the Constitution, judges have power to say what the law is, not what it should be."

Gay Activist: Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Was 'God's Intention and God's Work'.  A same-sex marriage activist, whose marriage 11 years ago in Canada was validated Friday by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that all states must recognize gay marriage performed in other states, thanked God Friday [6/26/2015], calling the ruling, "God's intention and God's work."

Scalia zingers in marriage case.  Footnote 22:  ["]If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: [']The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,['] I would hide my head in a bag.  The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.["]

Supreme Court Ruling — Gay Marriage [is] A Constitutional Right.  [Scroll down]  We've seen this problem before — the problem of "creating" Constitutional rights — and Scalia is quick to point it out:  ["]The opinion in these cases is the furthest extension in fact — and the furthest extension one can even imagine — of the Court's claimed power to create "liberties" that the Constitution and its Amendments neglect to mention.["]

SCOTUS declares 14th Amendment requires same sex marriage in 5-4 decision.  [Scroll down]  If history is any guide, the winners of the case will not be gracious in victory, but will push for sweeping changes.  Religious institutions that adhere to the traditional definition can expect to have their tax exempt status challenged, for starters.  Govenrment [sic] contracts, student loans, everything will be challenged.  I have not read the entire decision but wonder if there are any grounds in it on which polygamy can be ruled anything other than a fundamental right.  And after that, incest and every other marriage taboo.  Once marriage becomes a matter of personal gratification, the doors seem wide open.

Same-Sex Marriage: These Are The States Affected by SCOTUS Ruling.  [Scroll down]  One of those states, Texas, was quick to react to today's decision.  The state's Republican governor, Greg Abbott, tweeted this:  "Marriage was defined by God.  No man can redefine it.  We will defend our religious liberties."  Similarly, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal issued a statement saying the Supreme Court's ruling "will pave the way for an all out assault against the religious freedom rights of Christians who disagree with this decision."

Scalia: 'This Court' is a 'Threat to American Democracy'.  In his dissent from the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision [6/26/2015] in Obergefell v. Hodges, which declared that same-sex marriage was a right, Justice Antonin Scalia declared that this Supreme Court has become a "threat to American democracy.  "I write separately to call attention to this Court's threat to American democracy," Scalia said.  "This practice of constitutional revision by an unelected committee of nine, always accompanied (as it is today) by extravagant praise of liberty, robs the People of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776:  the freedom to govern themselves."

Gay marriage legalized nationwide in 5-4 Supreme Court vote, Scalia seethes.  By a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court Friday [6/26/2015] struck down four state marriage laws, paving the way for gay marriage to be legal in all 50 states.  The ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges said the 14th Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between people of same-sex, and also recognize same-sex marriages from out of state.  The 14th Amendment, with its equal protection and due process clauses, prohibit the "unjustified infringement of the fundamental right to marry," said the majority opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Obama hails gay-marriage ruling as a 'victory for America'.  President Obama, who opposed same-sex marriage until three years ago, hailed the Supreme Court's ruling to legalize gay marriage Friday [6/26/2015] as "a victory for America."  "When all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free," Mr. Obama said in the White House Rose Garden.  "This ruling will strengthen all our communities.  America should be very proud."  He called the decision "a victory for gay and lesbian couples who have fought so long for their basic civil rights."

Central Committee on a Roll.  Word is getting around that the Central Committee today [6/26/2015], by a 5-4 decision, has discovered and will impose on the country a constitutional right to homosexual marriage in all 50 states. [...] Of late, the cultural left has been enjoying success after success, with the help of the legal profession, which, from law schools through the SCOTUS, has been slowly but systematically replacing law with left advocacy.  What the cultural left wants is what the law is, and what the cultural left doesn't like ist verboten.  Expect more.

How the Redefinition of Marriage Serves Leviathan.  The most serious and, to my mind, persuasive philosophical and moral arguments against same-sex marriage have been mounted by Robert P. George, Ryan Anderson, and Sherif Girgis in What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense.  Such arguments are essential to ongoing debate about marriage in this country, not only for those of us who believe that the union of man and woman simply is the definition of marriage but also for those who think that the judicial redefinition of marriage represents a usurpation of politics.  One crucial argument, however, has been curiously absent.  It takes a step back from the question of sexuality and the right to certain benefits under law.  One reason why marriage is not mentioned in the Constitution is that the Founders recognized that the institution of marriage was a common good of the society and prior to politics.  Put differently:  Constitutional silence on marriage indicates a commitment to limited government that has so far eluded our debates about marriage in this country.

Over 300,000 Rally in Rome Against Gay Marriage.  Hundreds of thousands of people travelled from all over Italy and Europe yesterday [6/20/2015] to protest against the proposed legalisation of gay marriage, and the teaching of 'gender theories' in schools.  Gathering in the San Giovanni Square in Rome, with estimates of participants running from 300,000 to a million people, the protest put the 'anti-Austerity' protests held in London on the same day to shame, for sheer volume of people and absence of criminal behaviour.

Texas Supreme Court upholds divorce of same-sex couple.  The Texas Supreme Court effectively upheld the Austin divorce of a same-sex couple Friday [6/19/2015], turning away Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and arguments that the state can't dissolve a marriage it didn't recognize in the first place.

Conservatives and the Marriage Debate.  The same-sex "marriage" vote in Ireland marks the largest victory for the LGBT movement thus far.  It's quite a feather in the gay boa — an apparent success in yanking one of the most heterosexual cultures on earth out of the closet.  In truth, the vote was very likely a rebuke to the Catholic Church, which in Ireland, as everywhere else in the industrialized West, hired a lot of gays to act as priests, who exploited numberless teenage boys for sexual purposes, and then did nothing about it.  The Irish Church tried to coast through the crisis, and this is its reward — a fitting one.

Wasserman Schultz to officiate gay wedding beside Supreme Court.  With the Supreme Court poised to rule on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage this month, Democratic Party boss and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Monday plans to demonstrate where she stands on the issue:  She will be the first voting member of Congress to officiate a gay wedding.

From Communists to Progressives, the Left's Takedown of Family and Marriage.  Today's leftists should understand that they are the new One Percenters.  They stand against the literal 99%-plus of humans who ever bestrode the planet, who never conceived of marriage as anything beyond man and woman. [...] Efforts to fundamentally transform family and marriage have been long at work, but never (until now) accepted and pushed by the mainstream.

Indiana Democrats Are Worried Their Candidates Aren't Pro-Gay Marriage Enough.  Public opinion is moving so quickly on gay marriage that even its supporters are struggling to keep up.  Such in [sic] the case in Indiana, which was at the center of the national LGBT-rights debate this spring after a "religious freedom" bill was met with overwhelming opposition from voters and business leaders.  In a state where same-sex marriage only become legal in 2014, this year's backlash against the measure was an unpleasant surprise for state Republicans, including Gov. Mike Pence, whose image and approval suffered in the wake of the controversy.

Domestic violence a 'silent epidemic' in gay relationships.  Domestic violence has become a "silent epidemic" in the gay and lesbian community despite being the subject of increasing scrutiny in heterosexual relationships, according to the AIDS Council of NSW.  Roughly one in three lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) couples experience domestic violence.

Judge Roy Moore: Impeach Ginsburg for Marrying Two Men Ahead of SCOTUS Ruling on Gay Marriage.  On May 17, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg officiated the marriage of two men and used the occasion to cite her constitutional right to do so.  In June, the high court — including Ginsburg's vote — will announce its decision on whether homosexual marriage is guaranteed by the Constitution.  That's grounds for impeachment, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore told CNSNews.com in an exclusive interview.  "She's basically thumbing her nose in front of the other justices that she's going to say what she wants to say and do what she wants to do, and she's going to ignore the rules of ethics," Moore said, adding that judges are bound by those rules.

Ireland becomes first nation to legalize same-sex marriage.  Same-sex couples will soon be able to walk down the aisle in the Emerald Isle.  Voters in Ireland overwhelmingly chose to change their nation's constitution Friday [5/22/2015], becoming the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage through popular vote.

Researcher Behind Fabricated Gay Marriage Study LIED About Funding.  Michael LaCour, the University of California-Los Angeles graduate student responsible for a now-widely discredited study on attitudes towards gay marriage, apparently lied about the funding grants given for his fraudulent research.  In fact, according to The New Yorker, LaCour received no funding at all for the study — which was published last December in Science magazine and discredited earlier this week — into whether views on same-sex marriage change due to interaction with gay individuals.

What's Behind Big Science Frauds?  In December, Science published a paper claiming that people could change their minds about same-sex marriage after talking for just 20 minutes with a gay person.  It seemed too good to be true — and it was.  On Wednesday [5/20/2015], the journal distanced itself from the study, after its accuracy was disputed, and one of the authors could not back up the findings.  News organizations, which had reported on the study, scrambled to correct the record.

What the Faked Gay Marriage Study Says About Academia and the Media.  Codifying gay marriage has never been about canvassers, gay or straight, persuading Americans.  Voters, after all, rejected same-sex marriage in California, Wisconsin, Oregon, and other blue states only to watch judges order them to embrace it.  America's evolution on gay marriage came as a conversion by the sword.  A gay guy's door-to-door pitch influences voters on the question about as much as a front-porch visit from the neighborhood Jehovah Witness peddling a subscription to The Watchtower sways religious convictions.

Presiding at Same-Sex Wedding, Ruth Bader Ginsburg Emphasizes the Word 'Constitution'.  [Scroll down]  But the most glittering moment for the crowd came during the ceremony.  With a sly look and special emphasis on the word "Constitution," Justice Ginsburg said that she was pronouncing the two men married by the powers vested in her by the Constitution of the United States.

What If Islamic Terrorists Attacked A Gay Wedding In The Name Of Allah?  What would happen to all these people insisting, "I'm all for freedom, but..."?  What would happen to their sudden respect for religious sensitivities?  How would they deal with it if the brutal murder of gay people we're seeing in the Middle East was brought right to their doorstep?  How would they reconcile the cognitive dissonance caused by two of their favorite groups of pet victims colliding in such an inconvenient fashion?

Key Questions and Remarks From the Supreme Court Oral Arguments on Marriage.  Tuesday's oral arguments at the Supreme Court were excellent.  There were so many good points made about what marriage is and why redefining marriage would cause harms.  This litany of harms stands in stark contrast to the outrageous lower court rulings that had declared no rational basis to state marriage laws defining marriage as it always had been in America: a union of husband and wife.  Most importantly, it was clear that the nine Supreme Court justices do not have any greater insight on ideal marriage policy than do ordinary American citizens.  And the Constitution itself is silent about it.  So the justices should uphold the authority of citizens and their elected representatives to make marriage policy in the states.

American Jacobins: Sexual Revolutionaries Prepare the Battlespace for a De-Christianized America.  In yesterday's oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges (better known as the "gay-marriage case"), the solicitor general of the United States committed a classic "Kinsley gaffe":  He accidentally told the truth.  Normally, in any argument about the next legal step of the sexual revolution, the accusation or even implication that there's a slippery slope is grounds for outrage.  Not only shouldn't we explore the legal implications of expanding the definition of marriage, the very attempt is homophobic.  Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Gallup: Less Than 1% of Adult Population Part of a Same-Sex Couple.  According to a recent Gallup survey, of the total U.S. adult population (approximately 243 million U.S. adults), less than 1 percent, only .8 percent (approximately 2 million U.S. adults), are part of a same-sex couple. [...] Gallup's survey also has statistics for "All others."  "All others" account for the estimated 241,000,000 U.S. adults (99.2%) that are not either married with a same-sex spouse or unmarried and living with a same-sex domestic partner.

The End Game Becomes More Clear.  Though you don't need a rainbow sticker on the back of your car to tell the world you are black, the gay rights movement is intent on equating the struggle for black civil rights with their own quest to redefine marriage.  And it was abundantly obvious yesterday [4/28/2015] that the Supreme Court recognizes this would be a redefinition of the institution.  What also became obvious was that legal recognition of gay marriage is not the end game for the militant gay rights movement.  Christianity itself must be made to care.  Churches, religious private schools, private universities, and charitable organizations will be forced to give up their tax-exempt status or embrace Sodom writ large.  President Obama's Solicitor General all but admitted it to the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court asks why it should redefine marriage to include gays.  Justices were fractured Tuesday over fundamental questions of society, child-rearing and equal treatment under the law as the Supreme Court struggled with whether the Constitution guarantees same-sex couples the right to marry or if voters should still have the power to say what marriage means within their own state borders.  Justice Anthony M. Kennedy appeared poised to be the court's key swing vote yet again, peppering both sides with tricky questions, though he saved his most probing ones for defenders of traditional marriage, questioning why same-sex couples didn't deserve the same "dignity-bestowing ... ennoblement."

How Long Does America Have?  The riots followed a weekend in which GoFundMe shut down a fundraising page for a Christian-owned bakery that was hit with a huge fine for refusing to serve a gay wedding.  GoFundMe has said its policy precludes raising money "in defense of formal charges of heinous crimes, including violent, hateful, or sexual acts."  The key word here is "hateful":  if you can expand or contract that word at will — which many people in this country can and do — you can accomplish anything.  Every week this country is consumed in a new distended orgy of polarized, mutual hatred, set against the backdrop of outrage mobs, race riots, shuttered businesses, scandals, Twitter-induced career ruination, gleeful smear parties, and partisan hackery.

High stakes as Supreme Court considers same-sex marriage case.  When a federal judge declared same-sex marriage legal in Florida last year, it should have changed the way Bruce Stone does his job.  The estate-planning lawyer had for years helped gay couples patch together legal documents to try to approximate some of the protections enjoyed by heterosexual spouses.  But with the Supreme Court set to decide later this year whether that court decision and others ought to stand, Stone isn't taking any chances.  He is still writing up power-of-attorney forms and setting up trusts out of state, and he has some stark advice for his gay clients:  "Do not get married here in Florida."

Citizens, Not Judges, Should Determine Future of Marriage.  As the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments about gay marriage Tuesday, it's important to realize what the justices are actually being asked to settle.  Here's the bottom line:  Whatever people may think about marriage as a policy matter, everyone should be able to recognize the U.S. Constitution does not settle this question.  Unelected judges shouldn't insert their own policy preferences about marriage and then say the Constitution requires them everywhere.  There simply is nothing in the Constitution that requires all 50 states to redefine marriage.

Latino Democrat: 'Marriage Between a Man and a Man Is Not Biblical'.  Speaking at the March for Marriage rally in Washington, D.C., on April 25, New York State Senator Ruben Diaz (D-South Bronx) spoke in favor of traditional marriage saying, "Marriage between a man and a man is not biblical," and, "It doesn't matter what the Courts say.  Christ lives."  He also questioned why Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Elena Kagan, each of whom has officiated at same-sex marriage ceremonies in the past, have not recused themselves from Obergefell v. Hodges, the same-sex marriage case that comes before the Supreme Court on Tuesday [4/27/2015].

Gay marriage advocates expect Supreme Court to rule in their favor.  Advocates on both sides of the gay marriage issue prepared Sunday for High Noon — at 10 a.m. Tuesday [4/28/2015].  At that hour, perhaps the nation's most contentious political issue will get its day in court, as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments in four cases that gay marriage advocates say will go down in history as landmarks of anti-discrimination law.

Steny Hoyer: Same-Sex Couples Are Endowed 'By God' With Right to Marry.  Citing the Declaration of Independence, House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (Md.) argued on the House floor yesterday [4/23/2015] that same-sex couples are endowed by "their Creator — by God" with a right to marry.

Hillary Clinton pushes Supreme Court on same-sex marriage.  As recently as a year ago, Hillary Clinton was sparring with a public radio host about her position on same-sex marriage, defending her past reticence to discuss the issue and falling well short of full-throated support.  Now, in a markedly new position, Clinton is offering just that, calling gay marriage a right afforded by the Constitution.

My Father Was Gay. Why I Oppose Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage.  As a dependent child and teen, I was not allowed to say anything that would hurt the feelings of the adults around me.  If I did, I could face ostracism or worse.  During my twenties, I achieved both academic and career goals, but for a long while, I denied the impact my childhood had had and lied to protect my father and his partners.  In 1991, my father died of AIDS.  None of my father's partners/ex-partners are still alive.

Top Law Firms Won't Represent Traditional Marriage at Supreme Court.  Major American law firms apparently believe that some people do not deserve legal representation.  This may be seen in the amicus briefs filed in the upcoming Supreme Court case that is widely expected to impose gay marriage on the entire country.  In the blizzard of amicus briefs filed for and against the Supreme Court, not a single major firm has introduced a brief in defense of traditional marriage, according to The New York Times.

America's Decay Is Speeding Up.  Whatever one's position on same-sex marriage, one must acknowledge that at the core of the argument for this redefinition of marriage is that gender doesn't matter.  Marriage is marriage, and gender means nothing, the argument goes.  So, too, whether children are raised by mother and father or two mothers or two fathers doesn't matter.  A father has nothing unique to offer a child that a mother can't provide and vice versa.  Why?  Because — for the first time in recorded history — gender is regarded as meaningless.

The Brutality of Obama and the Left.  Lastly, Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Indiana.  The pizzeria's owners were threatened and intimidated by leftist and homosexual jackboots and fellow travelers.  Threatened because they answered a reporter's question consistent with their religious beliefs.  Where was Obama's and Holder's outrage at the violence done to small business owners exercising their rights to conscience and religious freedom? [...] The left doesn't really want a free people.  It wants power — power to radically change America.

Indiana and the culture wars.  If I visit a kosher restaurant and order a pork chop, am I being discriminated against when the waiter says they don't serve pork?  If an establishment requires that men wear jackets and women dress in what that establishment defines as an "appropriate way," does that constitute discrimination?  When I visit the Vatican, the Swiss Guards won't let me in if I'm wearing shorts.  They offer a cover-up.  It is the same for women, if they bare too much flesh.  Is that discrimination?  What about the sign "no shoes, no shirt, no service"?  Is that bigotry against the shoeless and shirtless?  Should the government force any of these entities to violate their standards?

An opposing viewpoint from the libertarian perspective:
Indiana and the Constitution.  The Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2015 is constitutionally infirm and legally troublesome.  The circuitous constitutional route that brought about this statute began in 1990 when the Supreme Court ruled that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment may not be used as a defense to violating the general laws of the land.  In Employment Division v. Smith, a small group of Native Americans who had been fired from their jobs because drug tests revealed their use of peyote made applications for unemployment compensation, which the State of Oregon denied.  They appealed and claimed that their use of peyote, a hallucinogenic drug, could not be the basis for firing them from their jobs because it was a sacrament in their religion.

The Democrats are lying: Republicans are not bigots.  [Scroll down]  In a private bill-signing ceremony, several supporters of Governor Pence's who strongly define marriage as between a man and a woman surrounded him as he put his signature on the new law.  All of a sudden — instant crisis and scandal:  Republicans are bigots and against the LGBT community.  Based on no facts, no evidence, nothing other than Democrat opponents asserting this as the truth.  And Republicans largely cowered in response.

Carly Fiorina Skewers Apple CEO Tim Cook Over Ridiculous Indiana RFRA Hypocrisy.  Former Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fiorina on Thursday [4/2/2015] blasted Apple CEO Tim Cook's opposition to Indiana's religious freedom law as "hypocrisy."  Fiorina, a potential 2016 GOP presidential contender, said Cook had a double standard and cited Apple's operations in other countries with controversial laws about gays and women in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.  "When Tim Cook is upset about all the places that he does business because of the way they treat gays and women, he needs to withdraw from 90% of the markets that he's in, including China and Saudi Arabia," Fiorina argued.  "But I don't hear him being upset about that."

'Another Kristallnacht': Forbes Writer Compares Indiana to Nazi Germany.  The Indiana religious freedom law merely gives the Faithful, including Indiana's many religious gays, legal standing in a dispute involving competing rights.  Far from a license to discriminate, the law merely gives the Faithful recourse in a lawsuit involving competing rights.  No outcome or victory is guaranteed.  The government is the ultimate arbiter.

Arkansas governor says he won't sign religious liberty bill, asks lawmakers to change it.  Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said Wednesday morning he will not sign a controversial religious liberty bill, saying he wants lawmakers to recall the bill and change it so that it more closely resembles federal law.  "This is a bill that in ordinary times would not be controversial," he said during a news conference.  "But these are not ordinary times."

Gay Marriage Isn't About Justice, It's About Selma Envy.  Why do so many young adults paint absurd caricatures of Christians who request government protection of their religious freedoms, arguing their true goal is to ban gay men from sitting at the local lunch counter?  Why do they spread falsehoods about legislation, insisting that bills like the one recently signed by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence will unleash a Republican-led Jim Crow revival aimed at the LGBT community?  Why do so many people, Gen Xers and younger, invent a monster of anti-gay bigotry and keep screaming the monster is real despite a mountain of contrary facts standing before them?  The answer is "social studies."  My generation engages in straw men, misinformation, and lies because, in every year of social studies class, we studied the civil-rights movement not as history, but as hagiography.

George Will To Apple CEO On 'Horrible' Indiana: But You Do Business In Homophobic Saudi Arabia?  George Will blasted Apple CEO Tim Cook Tuesday [3/31/2015] on "Special Report" for his continued critique of the Indiana religious freedom law while he does business with Saudi Arabia.  The syndicated columnist told host Bret Baier that while Cook believes Indiana is a "horrible" place, he opened up Apple operations in the Middle Eastern nation which continues to persecute individuals for being gay.  Will sarcastically added that "the selective indignation" on Cook's part is "wonderful."

Limbaugh: Indiana Outrage Is the New 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot'.  Rush Limbaugh took on the backlash to the controversial Indiana religious freedom law today and compared it to the liberal reaction to Ferguson and how people ran with "hands up, don't shoot."  Limbaugh said that just like with the lie of "hands up, don't shoot," the liberal media is going wild about discrimination when really, he said, the law is just about saying "the freedom of religion clause in the First Amendment has been affirmed."

The Left wages total war; and then plays victim.  On one side is the CEO of the world's largest company, the president of the United States and a growing chunk of the Fortune 500.  On the other side is a solo wedding photographer in New Mexico, a 70-year-old grandma florist in Washington and a few bakers.  One side wants the state to conscript the religious businesswomen and men into participating in ceremonies that violate their beliefs.  The other side wants to make it possible for religious people to live their own lives according to their consciences.  Yet somehow, the Left and most of the mainstream press paint the current skirmishes over religious liberty as conservative offensives.

How do 'religious freedom' acts encourage discrimination?  The federal RFRA was passed in 1993, in response to a Supreme Court decision holding that Native Americans weren't exempt from anti-drug laws barring the use of peyote, even for religious ceremonies.  In response, Congress passed a law barring the government from putting a burden on religious practice without a compelling state interest.  If someone feels their religious rights have been violated, they can go to court and make their case.  That's it.  Jim Crow laws forced people to discriminate.  RFRA doesn't force anybody to do anything.

Media Fail: Arkansas Passes Religious Liberty Bill.  A religious liberty bill similar to the one causing a phony uproar in Indiana this week was just passed by Arkansas lawmakers Tuesday [3/31/2015] and serves as yet another sign of the left-wing mainstream media's waning power to intimidate and bully.  Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said he is going to sign the bill, which will then offer the Faithful the same legal civil rights protections offered in 20 other states.  One of the primary reasons the media joined the political left in a coordinated and massive bullying misinformation campaign against Indiana was in an obvious attempt to intimidate other states from passing similar laws that give a legal standing to people of all faiths.  The fact that Arkansas moved forward unafraid shows that the heyday of the mainstream media is coming to an end.

Two Years Later, You'll Still Be Made to Care.  The media have long served to push along the leftwing agenda.  Their reporting on Indiana is a greater mythological fiction than how they view Jesus.  In light of the press's advocacy, not reporting, in the last twenty-four hours in defense of hypothetical gays shut out of hypothetical businesses, it is worth revisiting the genesis of "You Will Be Made to Care."

An amusing struggle as the press tries to explain why RFRA is different from all those other laws.  It took some prodding from conservative outlets, but the media has at long last begun to grudgingly admit that virtually identical laws are on the books in nearly two dozen other states and on the federal level, many bearing the signatures of Democrats.  This has left liberal opponents sputtering and side stepping [...]

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and America's new culture war.  Mike Pence is the first victim of America's new culture war.  The Republican governor of Indiana thought he was doing what 19 other states and the federal government had done — without inciting national controversy — by signing a new religious freedom law.  When charges that the law opens doors to discrimination against gays and lesbians came, his technical arguments about what is and isn't allowed under the law were feeble in the face of outrage.  Pence found himself confronting a new political reality in a country where battles over gay rights now appear to have a clear winner.

Walmart attacks Arkansas religious freedom bill for sending 'wrong message'.  Walmart, the US's largest private employer, came out swinging on Tuesday against state legislation legalising discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, calling the move against its "core basic beliefs".  The retail giant is headquartered in Arkansas which on Monday followed Indiana in passing a bill — HB 1228 — that allows individuals to discriminate against LGBT people if they feel doing so would "substantially burden" their religious freedom.

Dr. Ben Carson: 'Absolutely Vital' Americans Stand Up For Indiana's Religious Freedom Law.  Speaking about the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act — which has drawn fire from the left — [Dr. Ben] Carson said the First Amendment is one of the basic pillars and a founding principle of the nation.  "It is absolutely vital that we do all we can to allow Americans to practice their religious ways, while simultaneously ensuring that no one's beliefs infringe upon those of others.  We should also serve as champions of freedom of religion throughout the world," Carson tells Breitbart News.

Mike Pence slams liberals as he stands by 'religious freedom' law.  Indiana Gov. Mike Pence continued to defend the state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act on Tuesday [3/31/2015], slamming the way liberals and some in the national media have characterized the law.  "I stand by this law, but I understand that they way that some on the left and frankly, some in the national media have mischaracterized this law over the last week might make it necessary for us to clarify the law through legislation," the Republican governor said in an interview on "Fox & Friends" from Indianapolis.

You Don't Need a Rainbow Sticker to Let People Know You're Black.  The Supreme Court, in Perry Educ. Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n, 460 U.S. 37 (1983), ruled that for a state to restrict content based speech, it must have a compelling governmental interest.  But the Court subsequently ruled that the free exercise clause, also in the First Amendment, need not fall under the compelling governmental interest" standard.  President Bill Clinton and a near unanimous Congress disagreed and passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  31 states similarly moved to protect religious practice and 20 have explicit copies of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  Indiana is the latest.

Selective Outrage over Religious Freedom.  Liberals are in a lather over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act signed into law by Indiana Governor Mike Pence.  The bill was passed by the people's representatives in the state legislature by a vote of 63-31, and then signed into law by the governor.  Listening to the outcry, one would think Indiana adopted Mein Kampf as its governing charter. [...] This is true March Madness.  A kneejerk politically correct response without any thoughtful examination of the facts.  Much like the bogus "Hands up don't shoot" meme, which was built on lies and false rumors.

All the lies told about an Indiana law.  From the furor, the boycotts, and the threats launched at the state of Indiana last week, one might get the impression that Gov. Mike Pence, R, had just signed a law that effectively legalizes discrimination against gays and lesbians.  After all, as the New York Daily News headline put it, the law "effectively legalizes discrimination against gays, lesbians."  This is nonsense and a cardinal example (pun intended) of the lack of respect for the truth among certain crusading liberal journalists and editors.  In the real world, Pence signed a religious freedom law that is similar to those of 19 other states, some of which also ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.  That should have been the first clue.  The second is that the law Pence signed is not very different from the one in Illinois that Barack Obama voted for as a state senator.

Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Explained.  The first RFRA was a 1993 federal law that was signed into law by Democratic president Bill Clinton. It unanimously passed the House of Representatives, where it was sponsored by then-congressman Chuck Schumer, and sailed through the Senate on a 97-3 vote.  The law reestablished a balancing test for courts to apply in religious liberty cases (a standard had been used by the Supreme Court for decades).  RFRA allows a person's free exercise of religion to be "substantially burdened" by a law only if the law furthers a "compelling governmental interest" in the "least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest."  So the law doesn't say that a person making a religious claim will always win.

Pence: 'This Avalanche of Intolerance That's Been Poured on Our State Is Outrageous'.  Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) says his state has been hit by an "avalanche of intolerance" ever since he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act last week.  "George, look, the issue here is, you know, is tolerance a two-way street or not?" Pence told ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday [3/29/2015].

Apple's Rotten Reaction To Indiana's Religious Freedom Law.  The overreaction by politicians and advocacy groups to Indiana's religious freedom law is distressing enough.  Worse is the fact that big companies are now amplifying the disinformation campaign.

Indiana Becomes Apoplectic Moonbat Magnet.  It appears Indiana has become the epicenter of all things dangerous and scary for the progressive left.  "BIGOTS" they shout!!  The polar ice-caps are melting, planets have fallen askew, random rainbow monkeys are rushing toward the alarm.  Everyone from Miley Cyrus to heads of other states are shocked, shocked, that a religious freedom law would pass.

Eroding Freedom in the Name of Freedom.  When the federal government adopted a religious protection act in 1993, same-sex marriage was not on the horizon.  An informal coalition of liberals and conservatives endorsed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act because it seemed to protect members of vulnerable religious minorities from punishment for the exercise of their beliefs.  The federal legislation was set off by a case involving Native Americans who were fired and denied unemployment benefits because they took part in ceremonies with peyote, an illegal drug.  Twenty states, including Indiana last week, have since passed their own versions of religious freedom laws.

Indiana Governor: This Is the Same Religious Freedom Law Obama Voted for in Illinois.  In an appearance on ABC's This Week, Indiana governor Mike Pence defended his state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act by noting that Barack Obama had voted for the same law as an Illinois state senator.

Indianapolis Star Front Page Scolds Religious Freedom Law.  The Tuesday [3/31/2015] print edition of the Indianapolis Star will devote its entire front page to Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) — not a news article but an editorial attacking the measure.

19 states that have 'religious freedom' laws like Indiana's that no one is boycotting.  Indiana has come under fire for a bill signed Thursday by Gov. Mike Pence (R) that would allow businesses to refuse service for religious reasons.  The NCAA has voiced its concern ahead of Final Four in Indianapolis next week, there are calls to boycott the state, and Miley Cyrus has even weighed in, calling Pence a name that we can't reprint on this family Web site in an Instagram post.  But Indiana is actually soon to be just one of 20 states with a version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, or RFRA, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

34,000 Black Churches Break Ties With Presbyterian Church USA.  The National Black Church Initiative (NBCI), a faith-based coalition of 34,000 churches comprised of 15 denominations and 15.7 million African-Americans, has broken its fellowship with Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) following its recent vote to approve same-sex marriage.  The Presbyterian General Assembly, the top legislative body of the PCUSA, voted last June to revise the constitutional language defining marriage.  This arbitrary change of Holy Scripture is a flagrantly pretentious and illegitimate maneuver by a body that has no authority whatsoever to alter holy text.

Texas Sues U.S. to Block Family Medical Leave for Same-Sex Couples.  The rule, which the Labor Department is scheduled to put into effect March 27, requires businesses, to observe the marriage laws of states where their employees were married — not where they currently live — in applying the Family and Medical Leave Act.  In other words, under the rule, businesses in Texas and other states that don't recognize same-sex marriage are required to grant medical leave to same-sex couples married in other states that do recognize it.

Cogs in the Gay Marriage Machine.  The true Achilles heel in Big Gay is what gay families do to the most vulnerable people in society — children.  While I oppose gay marriage, like fellow COG Katy Faust, I couch my opposition in a defense of children's right to a mother and father.  My opposition to gay marriage has become stiffer because I've noticed how stealthily the ligbitists moved adoption and artificial reproduction "rights" into the legal arguments over gay marriage.  The most important case to be heard before the Supreme Court in April is DeBoer v. Snyder, a case in which two lesbians claim they need to be legally married so they can automatically adopt each other's children.  Religious, natural-law, and gender-complementarity arguments are totally valid, but they simply aren't as urgent and don't make ligbitists as nervous.

Woman raised by lesbian moms comes out against gay marriage.  A woman raised by two lesbians has provoked controversy after publicly announcing that she is against gay marriage because she says she missed out on having her father in her life when growing up.  Heather Barwick, a 31-year-old mother-of-four from South Carolina, says her mother left her father when she was 2 or 3 so that she could move in with the woman she loved.

Dear Gay Community: Your Kids Are Hurting.  Same-sex marriage and parenting withholds either a mother or father from a child while telling him or her that it doesn't matter.  That it's all the same.  But it's not.  A lot of us, a lot of your kids, are hurting.  My father's absence created a huge hole in me, and I ached every day for a dad.  I loved my mom's partner, but another mom could never have replaced the father I lost.

Largest Presbyterian Denomination Gives Final Approval for Same-Sex Marriage.  After three decades of debate over its stance on homosexuality, members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted on Tuesday [3/17/2015] to change the definition of marriage in the church's constitution to include same-sex marriage.  The final approval by a majority of the church's 171 regional bodies, known as presbyteries, enshrines a change recommended last year by the church's General Assembly. The vote amends the church's constitution to broaden marriage from being between "a man and a woman" to "two people, traditionally a man and a woman."

Bill Takes Marriage Out Of State's Hands.  Oklahoma House Bill 1125 was drafted to take away the issuing of marriage licenses by county clerks and hand the job over to clergy, essentially removing government from the marriage process altogether.  Authored by State Rep. Todd Russ, the bill passed one week ago with 67-24 House member approval.  Now it's up to the state senate to pass it as law.

More Than 300 Republicans Call on Supreme Court to Recognize Gay Marriage Nationally.  More than 300 veteran Republican lawmakers, operatives and consultants have filed a friend of the court brief at the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage late Thursday [3/5/2015].  The amicus brief, organized by former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, was filed for the four same-sex marriage cases the Court will hear on April 28 that could legalize the unions nationwide.  In 2013, Mehlman marshaled a similar effort for the case that overturned California's Proposition 8, which had banned same-sex marriage in the state.

Patriots Among 379 Companies to Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage.  With Super Bowl XLIX in the rear-view, the Patriots have turned their eyes to their next battle:  marriage equality.

Coke, Delta tell Supreme Court to back gay marriage.  A handful of Georgia businesses signed on Thursday [3/5/2015] a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of gay marriage.  Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines and Cox Enterprises were among 379 companies and organizations around the country urging the court to strike down bans restricting same-sex unions.  AT&T, whose mobility unit is based in Atlanta, also signed the brief.

Alabama Supreme Court halts same-sex marriage.  The Alabama Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the state's probate judges to stop issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, saying a previous federal ruling that gay-marriage bans violate the U.S. Constitution does not preclude them from following state law, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Alabama Court Orders a Halt to Same-Sex Marriage Licenses.  The Alabama Supreme Court on Tuesday night [3/3/2015] ordered probate judges around the state to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, ruling in direct opposition to a federal judge that the state's ban on same sex marriage did not violate the United States Constitution.  In a 7-to-1 decision, the court ruled that "Alabama law allows for 'marriage' between only one man and one woman," and that the state's probate judges "have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to this law."

Sources Near Jeb Bush Say He's "Evolving" On Gay Marriage And Might Just Embrace It.  ...should the Supreme Court make it the law of the land in June, which they, you know, probably will.  So [he is] not a "moderate" Republican but a liberal one.  Ah, whatever, that's fine.  I suppose I should credit him, at least, for being somewhat honest about it.  Well, if the party is craving a liberal candidate, he would be a decent choice.

Obama's Quiet Change To The Definition Of 'Spouse' Is Going To Have Far-Reaching Consequences.  The Obama administration re-defined the word "spouse" Tuesday [2/24/2015] to include gay couples.  The Department of Labor quietly issued a new 52-page regulation, to be published in the Federal Register Wednesday, updating the term "spouse" to include gay couples so that gays now get job-protected leave from work to care for their gay partner or partner's children or parents under the Family and Medical Leave Act.  The new definition applies to all gay couples who were legally married in states where gay marriage is legal, regardless of whether or not they now live in states where gay marriage is not legal.  The IRS also adopted this "place of celebration" definition of residency after the Defense of Marriage Act was struck down at the Supreme Court.

Same Sex Marriage and Dred Scott.  America is at a constitutional crossroads.  The federal courts are threatening radically to revise the family law of all fifty states.  There is no Constitutional justification for them to do so.  If we don't stop them the American experiment will be at an end.  We will lapse back into government by an insular aristocracy, exactly what we waged the Revolutionary War to escape.

Children of Same-Sex Couples: A Turning Point.  [Scroll down]  The gay community raised us, sometimes with love, and often with a bit of inconsiderate self-interest.  Too many of us were asked to keep secret how hard the whole experience was. Many times siblings turned against each other based on which brother or sister "broke ranks" and decided to speak the truth while others played along to keep Mom and Mom or Dad and Dad happy.  After decades of decrying the pain of "the closet," the gay community remains largely unwilling to uncover the true feelings of the children raised in their midst.  It's like saying, "I can't live a lie but my kids must."

Ginsburg's Astounding Indiscretion.  "Ruth Bader Ginsburg Thinks Americans Are Ready for Gay Marriage" is the title of this Bloomberg article on an interview with Ginsburg yesterday [2/11/2015]. [...] How can Ginsburg possibly think that it's proper judicial conduct for her to speak out on this issue while the marriage case is pending before the Court?  If she had any sense of her duty to maintain both the appearance and the reality of impartiality, she would recognize that she is now obligated to recuse herself from the case.  But of course she won't.

Supreme Court Justice Says Americans Ready to Accept Gay Marriage.  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn't think there would be widespread backlash if the high court decides to legalize same-sex marriage across the country this year.  "I think it's doubtful that it wouldn't be accepted," Ginsburg said in an interview with Bloomberg.  "The change in people's attitudes on that issue has been enormous."

He's a Raging Partisan.  President Obama's claim to have disapproved of gay marriage until he changed his mind in 2012 has been exposed as a lie.  It was a small, politically expedient lie, but it got a lot of attention last week.  Meanwhile a bigger lie hovers over the Obama presidency like an avenging angel, unseen and unheard.  The bigger lie wasn't a fleeting comment.  It was the crux of Obama's presidential campaign.

Brian and Barack: Lies, damned lies, and journalism.  The most telling point about David Axelrod's revelation that Barack Obama fibbed about his position on marriage to get himself elected is not what it says about politics or even the president.  It's what it says about American journalism.

Supreme Court set to condone homosexual marriage.  On Monday [2/9/2015], a majority of the Supreme Court allowed homosexual marriages to take place in Alabama despite that state joining three others in appealing rulings that have required states to perform and recognize homosexual marriages despite the will of the people.  What makes this significant is that is serves as a signal that the upcoming cases on homosexual marriage are pro forma, a farce, a charade designed to let the rubes think they've been heard while the big brains on the Supreme Court tell us what is best for us.

Obama Misled the Nation in 2008 about Same-Sex Marriage.  This flashback is particularly appropriate seeing as today marks eight years to the day since Obama declared his candidacy for the White House in 2007.  On that cold Illinois day, Obama promised an end to "the smallness of our politics" and "our chronic avoidance of tough decisions."  But within months of his utterance of those words, members of his own campaign team were counseling him to do just that on the subject of marriage — avoid it, and then mislead people in the same small and petty way as every other politician before him.  Obama did just that throughout the '08 campaign and throughout his first term until his vice president forced his hand in 2012.

Clarence Thomas faults Supreme Court for refusing to block gay marriage in Alabama.  The most prominent sign that the Supreme Court is poised to recognize a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry nationwide came Monday from an unlikely source: conservative Justice Clarence Thomas.  The court is months away from hearing arguments in a landmark case about whether states are free to ban such unions.  But Thomas said a majority of the justices may have already made up their minds, as reflected by the court's "indecorous" decision Monday morning [2/9/2015] allowing same-sex marriages to proceed in Alabama.

Clarence Thomas: 'Another Example of This Court's Increasingly Cavalier Attitude Toward the States'.  In a dissenting opinion joined by Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice Clarence Thomas excoriated his fellow justices for refusing to temporarily stop enforcement of a federal district judge's ruling that overturned the marriage laws of the state of Alabama and ordered Alabama to recognize as legal "marriages" unions between two people of the same sex.  On Jan. 23, U.S. District Judge Callie Granade ruled that Alabama laws limiting marriage to the union of one man and one woman violated the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the law.  Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange petitioned the Supreme Court to prevent the judge's decision from going into effect until the Supreme Court itself issued its ruling on same-sex marriage — which the court will do this term.

Judicial defiance in Alabama: Same-sex marriages begin, but most counties refuse.  On the day that same-sex unions became legal in Alabama, local officials in dozens of counties on Monday [2/9/2015] defied a federal judge's decision and refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, casting the state into judicial chaos.

Alabama chief justice orders state judges to defy feds on gay marriage.  Alabama's chief justice on Monday [2/9/2015] ordered state judges to defy a federal ruling that overturns the state's voter-approved ban on gay marriage, even as pro-gay groups celebrated the failure of the Supreme Court to intervene as a signal the justices will decide in their favor in this summer's highly anticipated decision.  Most of the state's counties, with the backing of Alabama's governor, refused or held off on issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

LensCrafters Offers Nine Marital Status Choices.  If you list your marital status as "Interlocutory," LensCrafters wants you to feel included.  Polygamists, too.  Today at LensCrafters I was handed an iPad and instructed to "update my medical history" prior to my eye exam.  Purportedly for the sake of greater efficiency and accuracy, I was confronted with screen after screen of repetitive requests for information, most of which should have already been in their database. [...] In addition to the repetitive requests for my address and phone number(s!!) were more intrusive demographic questions, including an inquisition about my race and ethnic background.  And right there on the very first screen was a mini-interrogation about the intimate details of my marital status.  Am I married?  Divorced?  Widowed?  Never Married?  Interlocutory?

Supreme Court Declines to Block Gay Marriage in Alabama.  Gay couples got married in Alabama on Monday despite a last-minute push from the state's chief justice to stop them.  The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a federal court order from January requiring the state to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Marriage Cop.  Does Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz approve of your marriage?  It may depend upon the religion of you and your spouse!

AL chief justice: Rulings don't require judges to issue gay marriage licenses.  Following the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to deny Alabama's request to keep a stay in place on U.S. District Judge Ginny Grenade's ruling that would lift the ban on same sex marriage in Alabama, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore addressed the judicial offices that will likely be most impacted by this ruling:  Alabama's probate judges.

This is a byproduct of same-sex marriage:
Houston woman marries herself in elaborate ceremony.  A woman who vowed that if she didn't find love by the time she turned 40 married herself earlier this month in a lavish ceremony here in Houston, according to reports.  Yasmin Eleby married herself at the Houston Museum of African American Culture on January 3 in a lavish ceremony with 10 bridesmaids in attendance, plus family and other guests on hand to celebrate the event.  For this ceremony, Eleby's minister sister performed the spiritual service, as it's not legal to marry yourself.

The Editor says...
What does that mean?  It isn't legal, unless your sister officiates?

Federal judge strikes down Alabama bans on same-sex marriage.  A federal judge struck down two Alabama laws banning same-sex marriage Friday [1/23/2015], making it one of dozens of states where it is now legal for gays and lesbians to marry.

Gay couples' children oppose same-sex marriage, tell of unpleasant upbringings.  Most of the children of gays and lesbians who have filed court briefs in same-sex marriage cases say their parents' inability to marry has deprived them of legal protections and hampered them from living their otherwise typical lives.  But four adult children of gay parents — acting as a "quartet of truth" — have submitted briefs to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opposing same-sex marriages, with several saying that growing up under the rainbow was neither normal nor pleasant.

New Tiffany Engagement Campaign Features Same-Sex Couple.  Tiffany & Co. is featuring a gay couple in its latest engagement campaign for the first time, joining an array of other businesses that have tacitly expressed support for same-sex marriage through advertising.

Jeb Bush calls for 'respect' of same-sex marriages.  Jeb Bush, a likely Republican presidential candidate, called for "respect" of same-sex marriages on Monday as his home state of Florida began allowing gays to wed following a court ruling.  Bush, a former governor of Florida, said in a statement that even those like him who oppose same-sex marriage must "respect the rule of law" now that the state's ban on gay marriages has been ruled unconstitutional.

Jeb Bush on gay marriage: Ought to be a 'state decision'.  Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Sunday that gay marriage should be a "state decision," weighing in on the thorny social issue that could figure prominently in the 2016 GOP presidential nominating contest.  "It ought be a local decision.  I mean, a state decision," Mr. Bush told the Miami Herald.  "The state decided.  The people of the state decided.  But it's been overturned by the courts, I guess."

Federal judge's ruling makes Florida the 36th state where gay marriage is legal.  US District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a clarifying order on New Year's Day that all of Florida's county clerks have a legal duty to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples seeking to wed.  The couples can wed as soon as Tuesday [1/6/2015].

Thousands quit Lutheran church in Finland after its Archbishop came out in favour of same-sex marriage.  Thousands of people have resigned from the Lutheran church in Finland after its Archbishop said he rejoiced "with my whole heart" following the government vote to legalise same-sex marriage.  According to Finland's YLE, between the time that the vote went through on Friday [11/28/2014] and midnight on Saturday almost 7,800 people had resigned from the church using an online system that aims to ease people's resignation.  Each person who resigns their membership also resigns their commitment to pay taxes to the church, which is the Lutheran church's main source of income in Finland, YLE reports.

Judges Strikes Down Arkansas, Mississippi Gay Marriage Bans.  Federal judges on Tuesday struck down same-sex marriage bans in Mississippi and Arkansas, opening the door to gay nuptials in the Deep South.  If their decisions stand, they could bring the number of states that allow gays and lesbians to wed to 37.  U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves in Mississippi said the state's gay marriage ban violated same-sex couples the rights guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The Missing Word in the Immigration Debate.  [Scroll down]  Note the strident insistence with which liberals demand that we say "reproductive rights" instead of "abortion", "gender" instead of "sex", and "undocumented" instead of "illegal".  Each of these word choices hides some aspect of an issue that liberals want to keep hidden. [...] Similarly, by insisting that homosexuality is a matter of "gender" preference, liberals try to divert attention away from the fact that the primary objection most people have to homosexuality concerns certain grotesque sexual acts.

Uncommon Common Sense on Marriage.  Three months to the day after hearing oral arguments on cases out of four states (Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee), a three-judge panel issued a 2-1 ruling on November 6 upholding the states' rights to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.  The ruling also upheld their right to refuse recognition to marriages from other states that violate that definition and overturned lower court decisions in six separate lawsuits.  The ruling greatly increases the likelihood that the Supreme Court will take a case that allows it to rule on whether the Constitution permits states to maintain the natural and historic definition of marriage.

Appeals ruling voids 300 gay marriages, Michigan argues.  A federal appeals court ruling last week that upheld Michigan's ban on gay marriage invalidates the unions of 300 same-sex couples who received marriage licenses in March, attorneys for the state argued in legal briefs filed Friday [11/14/2014].  The weddings were performed by county clerks March 22, a day after U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman struck down the state's same-sex marriage ban.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor Stops Same-Sex Marriages In Kansas For Now.  Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, in a filing with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, has asked the Supreme Court to stop same-sex couples from being able to marry after 5 p.m. CT Tuesday [11/11/2014].  After the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the state's request for a stay last week, Schmidt had said he would be asking for a stay from Sotomayor — who hears procedural requests like this from the 10th Circuit.

Why the Supreme Court May Have to Rule on Gay Marriage.  The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld same-sex marriage bans in four states on Thursday [11/6/2014].  By creating a "circuit split," where different federal appeals courts have ruled in opposite directions on marriage equality, the ruling virtually guarantees Supreme Court's intervention to resolve it.  The 2-1 decision is the first by a federal appellate court to uphold same-sex marriage bans since the Supreme Court's rulings in summer 2013 in United States v. Windsor, which overturned the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and Hollingsworth v. Perry, which left standing a lower-court ruling that overturned California's same-sex-marriage ban.

Joy, Dismay as 2 Sides Assess Gay-Marriage Ruling.  One side was euphoric, the other dismayed, but both foes and supporters of same-sex marriage swiftly turned their attention to the U.S. Supreme Court after an against-the-grain appeals court ruling upheld bans or restrictions on gay marriage in four states.

Gay marriage bans in four states upheld on appeal.  The 2-1 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit reversed district court rulings that had struck down gay marriage bans in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.  More important, it gives Supreme Court justices an appellate ruling that runs counter to four others from the 4th, 7th, 9th and 10th circuits.  Those rulings struck down same-sex marriage bans in Virginia, Indiana, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Utah, Idaho and Nevada, leading to similar action in neighboring states.

City of Houston Retreats: Withdraws Subpoenas for Pastors' Sermon Notes, Private Messages.  On October 29 the city of Houston withdrew its subpoenas for pastors' notes and communications. On October 15 Breitbart News reported that the City of Houston subpoenaed the sermon notes and private communications of five city pastors to see what — if anything — they might have said to congregants about the city's "Bathroom Bill" or Mayor Annise Parker (D), presumably in search of material expressing religious views critical of homosexuality.

Black Pastor on Gay Mayor's Attack on Christian Pastors: 'Truly the Next Civil Rights Movement'.  The Reverend Bill Owens, founder and president of the Coalition of African American Pastors, said the attack on Christian pastors by the openly gay mayor of Houston, who subpoenaed their sermons and other communications after they opposed a city ordinance that allows transgender people to use any public restroom, signals the need for "the next civil rights movement."  Owens, speaking from Houston, told CNSNews.com that he and other pastors in his coalition held a press conference on Tuesday [10/28/2014] to support the Houston pastors and express their concern about this threat to religious liberty.

Sally Kohn Shows How the 'Liberals' Got So Illiberal.  Just as I was writing about the importance of the right to be wrong, along comes The Daily Beast's Sally Kohn to demonstrate exactly my point with a strident anthem of illiberal liberalism.  If gay marriage is "the end zone dance of the culture wars," then Kohn spikes the football.  "Don't wanna marry everyone who are entitled to marry legally under the law?  Then don't run a wedding business."  Her premise is that the state has unlimited license to run your life unless you make a plea for some kind of special exemption.

Fighting Back against LGBT Fascism: What You Can Do.  Since the story broke about the Human Rights Campaign's slanderous persecution of the very people their group was designed to protect — bisexuals and children of same-sex couples — I have received a great deal of support from people.  While it was nerve-wracking to have the truth about the 26 months of harassment by GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, Scott Rosenzweig, Jeremy Hooper, and a host of other totalitarians circulate at my job, it has been healthy.  My colleagues and students had no idea about the extent of this campaign of suppression, censorship, and harassment.  Now they know the truth behind those equals-sign bumper stickers.

WNC magistrate resigns, objects to same-sex marriage.  Swain County Magistrate Judge Gilbert Breedlove resigned Monday [10/20/2014] because of his personal objection to same-sex marriage.  "It was my only option," said Breedlove, 57.  "We were directed we had to perform the marriages, and that was just something I couldn't do because of my religious beliefs."  Breedlove has been a magistrate for nearly 24 years.  He started in 1990 and became ordained as a pastor in 1997.  "I was Christian when I started," said Breedlove.  "Then, the law didn't require me to perform something that was against my religious belief.  Now that law has changed its requirements."

Same-sex marriage gets another big boost from the Obama administration.  Midway through his first term, President Obama said he was "unwilling to sign on to same-sex marriage primarily because of my understandings of the traditional definitions of marriage."  As a US Senate candidate he had declared his belief that "marriage is between a man and a woman."  But Obama also mused that "attitudes evolve, including mine," and it seems now that that evolution has occurred at head-snapping speed — prompted by others in his administration, including Vice president Joe Biden (who apparently got out ahead of his boss on the issue) and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Traditional marriage wins a round in court.  Good news turns up when and where it can.  On Tuesday [10/21/2014], a federal judge appointed by President Carter bucked the latest fashion among his colleagues, and upheld marriage as a contract between a man and a woman.  Elsewhere in the country federal judges have leaped to impose homosexual marriage on the states by overturning laws, constitutional amendments and other policies endorsed by a vote of the people.

Federal civil rights official calls Houston pastor subpoenas 'abuse of government power'.  A member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in a letter Wednesday [10/22/2014] called Houston Mayor Annise Parker's subpoena of church pastors "an abuse of government power" and urged the mayor to withdraw the court documents.  Commissioner Peter Kirsanow said that the subpoenas, even after being amended to remove a request for church sermons, still appear to be "a blatant attempt to punish these pastors for expressing their religiously based political views."

Twitter blocks petition supporting Houston pastors.  Twitter is in business to boost numbers.  Angering a huge swath of their users wouldn't be good for business.

America's Number One Vote Suppressor?  When he was first running for statewide office in Illinois, state Sen. Barack Obama said he could not support marriage for same-sex couples because "I am a Christian."  When, just four years later, in 2008, he was asked about this issue at Rev. Rick Warren's Civic Forum, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama said marriage was between one man and one woman and that "God is in the mix."  If you like your God, you can keep Him.  As for President Barack Obama, he has moved on. [...] In just six years, President Obama has gone from opposition to counterfeit marriage to full-throated endorsement of it.

Houston's First Amendment Problem.  The recent questionably unconstitutional moves by the Houston city council to subpoena the sermons of five area ministers, as well as internal correspondence dealing with social issues, should have the American Civil Liberties Union and everyone else who believes in free speech and religious freedom up in arms.  We as Americans must guard every aspect of our Constitution and recognize when it is being threatened.  One of the great dangers in America today is extreme intolerance in the name of tolerance.  For example, in this Houston case, it is presupposed that the pastors in question may have said something that was objectionable to the homosexual community.  In order to prove that we are tolerant of the homosexual lifestyle, we as a society allow gays to be intolerant of anyone who disagrees with them in any way.

Sermonizing Pols.  In a time of triumphant secularism, politicians treat the religious with increasing contempt.  It was only a matter of time before headlines about government demanding the sermons of pastors appeared in the United States.  Seeing themselves as superior to the religious, secularists feel entitled to bully pastors who impede their political plans. [...] The openly lesbian Houston mayor Annise Parker clearly adheres to secularist philosophy.  Outraged that pastors would dare challenge her transgender bathrooms ordinance through a referendum drive, she unleashed lawyers on them.

ACLU not happy with Houston Mayor Annise Parker.  Following a brutal battle over a city ordinance which many believed was an egregious encroachment of local government into the territory of religious freedom, Parker, Houston's first openly gay mayor, subpoenaed the full text of sermons mentioning her name or anything having to do with homosexuality.  Right leaning citizens weren't the only ones to shirk from Parker's drastic and seemingly vindictive actions.  The ACLU and other liberal leaning organizations expressed grave concern with Parker's unprecedented overreach.

This Lesbian's Daughter Has Had Enough.  My name is Rivka Edelman, and I am the product of same-sex parenting.  Recently I published an essay on Public Discourse about the ruthless misogyny that pervades LBGT culture.  I pointed out it that it can and will victimize women and children with impunity and then, in America's narcissistic fugue, get hailed as brave and heroic.  Since my essay was published, there have been hundreds, maybe thousands, of posts calling me a liar or trying to shame, discredit, intimidate, and threaten me.

Christians Can't Accept Houston's Intimidation Tactics Without Protest.  Perhaps seeing the totalitarianism of extremist wings of the gay rights movement has soured some people on efforts to change marriage law — or at least given people pause about the tradeoffs involved with redefining marriage or enacting broad legislation around sexual or gender identity.  We've all seen the stories about lawsuits against small business owners.  The boycotts against companies for harboring employees who haven't jumped on the bandwagon and therefore believe marriage is essentially built around sexual complementarity.  The public outrage of enthused mobs believing themselves to be on the right side of history.

Sen. Cruz criticizes Houston over sermon subpoenas.  Houston city attorneys are no longer seeking through subpoenas sermons from five pastors who publicly opposed an ordinance banning discrimination against gay and transgender residents.

The mainstreaming of liberalism.  By way of illustration, let's go back to the year 1964 and assess the attitudes of Americans toward ideas that since that time have crept into the mainstream.  Many of those ideas, viewed from this perspective, would have to be seen as radical.  Take, for example, homosexual marriage.  Without getting into the question of whether government-sanctified same-sex marriage is a healthy or unhealthy cultural development, there can be no dispute that, 50 years ago, this idea was considered radical, almost unthinkable.

Liberty Law School Dean: Gay Marriage 'Beginning of End of Western Civilization'.  Mathew D. Staver, dean of the Liberty University School of Law, said that efforts to change the definition of marriage to include same-sex "marriage" would be like trying to re-define the law of gravity, adding that, if it were tried, it would mark "the beginning of the end of Western civilization."  "We've never been in this situation before," Staver said in a speech at the American Decency Association 2014 Summer Conference in Grand Rapids, Mich.  "We will not be able to escape the coercive nature of this issue.  It is cataclysmic in its change-effect.  It is, I believe, ultimately the beginning of the end of Western civilization, if we adopt this as a country."

Vatican backtracks on gay tolerance comments after angry reaction from bishops.  The Vatican appears to have backtracked on their unprecedented positive comments on homosexuality after a furious reaction from conservative Catholics.  On Monday [10/13/2014], Hungarian Cardinal Peter Erdo read out an interim report at the Synod's General Congregation that declared homosexuals had "gifts and qualities to offer" and even raised the prospect of the Catholic Church recognising the positive aspects of same-sex relationships.  The church, it added, must welcome divorced people and recognise the "positive" aspects of civil marriages and even Catholics who live together without being married.

Religious Venues To Be Used For Converting Civil Partnerships To Gay Marriages.  The government has altered plans to allow gay couples to convert their civil partnerships to marriages, by allowing the conversion ceremony to take place at a range of venues including churches, synagogues, meeting houses, hotels and other registered venues.  Previously, the plans only included provision to convert the status of the partnership at a registry office.  In order to avoid the "quadruple lock" put in place to appease religious opponents of gay marriage, only registrars will be able to perform the ceremony.

Some Mormons Pushing Church On Gay Marriage.  Court decisions this week paving the way for same-sex marriage to become legal in dozens of states, including Mormon strongholds like Utah, Idaho and Nevada, have emboldened a growing group of Latter-day Saints who are pushing the conservative church to become more accepting of gay members.

Federal judge rules Alaska's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.  A federal judge ruled Sunday that Alaska's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, paving the way for same-sex couples to begin marrying in the state for the first time.  The state quickly said it would appeal the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess, despite recent higher court rulings striking down similar bans around the country.

The Seven Sacraments of Liberalism.  [#5] Same-sex Marriage:  Liberals want same-sex marriage because traditional marriage is oppressive to women.  Besides, gender makes no difference anymore.  The new gnosticism teachers that women are, through no fault of their own, victims.  Women are men who have been born unfortunately disfigured.  So, liberals must make up for that.  One way to do that is to allow anyone to marry whomever they choose, since we are all men, anyway.

Our Judicial Dictatorship.  Do the states have the right to outlaw same-sex marriage?  Not long ago the question would have been seen as absurd. For every state regarded homosexual acts as crimes.  Moreover, the laws prohibiting same-sex marriage had all been enacted democratically, by statewide referenda, like Proposition 8 in California, or by Congress or elected state legislatures.  But today rogue judges and justices, appointed for life, answerable to no one, instruct a once-democratic republic on what laws we may and may not enact.  Last week, the Supreme Court refused to stop federal judges from overturning laws banning same-sex marriage.  We are now told to expect the Supreme Court itself to discover in the Constitution a right of men to marry men and of women to marry women.

The Semblance of Normalcy.  It is not just that gay rights activists want "the rights everybody else has."  The strong undercurrent to that is that gay rights activists want all the semblances of normalcy.  To take the long time social stigma out of being gay requires that gay men and women are able to lead their lives exactly as everyone else.  In effect, it is to make being gay just a different version of normal.  Marriage is but one part of it.  The march toward normalcy now must get even more shrill with more people being forced to care because of American views on homosexuality as reflected in a new Pew poll.

Cultural double standard: Michael Sam, Tim Tebow and free speech.  Once, Social Security was the "third rail" of politics.  Touch it and face political death.  Now it is homosexuality.  Criticize anything gay people do and you risk ostracism, fines, suspension or loss of your livelihood.

Domestic Violence More Common Among Same-Sex Couples.  Domestic violence, also known as intimate partner violence, is defined as the physical, sexual or psychological harm caused by the current or former intimate partner.  Since the 1970s, concern regarding the issue began in response to the women's movement.  Most of the traditional studies looked at the abuse women faced from men in heterosexual relationships.  But, the latest study by Northwestern Medicine scientists found that domestic violence is more common among same-sex couples and excess stress raises the risk of this abuse.

Why There is No Such Thing as a "Gay Marriage".  Conservatives who know the definition of marriage continue to use the phrase gay marriage, thus giving life to something that doesn't exist every time they use it.  If gay marriage were in fact a marriage, it would be called a marriage, and not a gay marriage.  This term is meant to destroy the meaning of marriage so that it never again only means between a man and a woman.  We are fighting a language war here.  To win it, we have to change our language.

Roe and Gay Marriage.  The campaign for gay marriage targets the exact same things that abortion did:  tradition, middle-class values, the family.  Abortion was part of a large-scale effort by the "Dead Souls" — the upper-class elites — to destroy lower-class attitudes, traditions, and beliefs, above all involving religion and the family, that were thought to be holding back progressive social evolution.  The same motive can be seen here.  Marriage has no actual place in homosexual culture.  It never has.  If marriage were of such overwhelming importance to homosexuals, they would have, at some point in the last several thousand years of civilization, created some institution of their own to reflect it within their ranks.  There is no sign in the historical record that this has ever happened.

11 Reasons the left has not won the culture war.  Let's start with the biggie:  same-sex marriage.  Yes, polls show gay marriage is breaking out all over, but when put to a vote same-sex marriage has lost (even in California) much more often than not.  Furthermore, gay marriage is not being legalized through popular opinion or demand, it is being legalized through activist judges.

Stop Crying over Mozilla and Start Fighting Back.  When you see a movement as unprincipled and ruthless as the gay lobby is, you must be clear that you have an enemy.  The gay lobby is not your friend.  Any friendliness from them is likely manipulation and subterfuge.  Remember:  your end goal is to pour burning coals on his head [Romans 12:20], not to have tea and crumpets and reminisce about the good old days when you were classmates at Dartmouth.  When they invite you to dinner with the kids they conceived with a surrogate, they are trying to brainwash you, as they've already brainwashed the kids.  Remember that.

'An Important Step In Our Nation's Journey'.  The president of the United States (who never bothered to issue a statement on the death of Navy Seal hero Chris Kyle), did find the time to put out a congratulatory statement:  "The President congratulates Michael Sam, the Rams and the NFL for taking an important step forward today in our Nation's journey."  Where is the nation journeying?  Are we journeying to a place in which a player is fined and suspended and sent to sensitivity training for saying, "OMG" on Twitter in reaction to something he finds offensive?  To one where you will be forced to bake the cake, provide the flowers, and take the photographs for events you find morally objectionable or be financially ruined if you refuse?

Chuck Todd: Should Conservatives 'Surrender In the Culture Wars?'.  Last week, the Supreme Court declined to hear several Appeals Court cases on gay marriages, which resulted in bans on gay marriage being struck down in numerous states across the country.  Following the Supreme Court's decision to punt on the issue of gay marriage, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd saw this as a sign that social conservatism was declining [...]

Despite Supreme Court nondecision, state opposition to gay marriage remains.  Despite a rebuff from the Supreme Court, officials in states that oppose gay marriage vowed Tuesday [10/7/2014] to keep up the fight, with at least three court battles scheduled before the end of the month.  That determination came even as gay marriage supporters racked up another win Tuesday, as the 9th Circuit Court issued a ruling knocking down marriage amendments in Idaho and Nevada.  In line with a string of other lower-court rulings, the court found that Idaho and Nevada's laws restricting legal marriage to one man and one woman violate the 14th Amendment on the basis of equal protection.

Bobby Jindal: I agree with Ted Cruz on gay marriage.  Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La., on Tuesday [10/7/2014] said that he agrees with potential 2016 presidential rival Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on the issue of gay marriage, which is back in the news because of the Supreme Court's decision on Monday to reject requests from five states aimed at keeping bans on same-sex marriage in place.  "I certainly agree with the senator," Jindal said during a Tuesday conference call, in response to a question from the Washington Examiner.  "I think he has proposed, he is already proposing some legislation on this, I certainly agree with the senator.  I do believe marriage is between a man and a woman."

Ted Cruz to introduce constitutional amendment on gay marriage after Supreme Court ducks appeals.  Typically when social conservatives start talking up amendments aimed at gay marriage, they're thinking of a substantive change — namely, a new law of the land that says marriage involves one man and one woman and no other combination.  Once that's in the Constitution, even courts can't mess with it.  (I think!)  As The Atlantic notes, though, Cruz's proposed amendment isn't substantive.  It's procedural.

Explosion Of Sexually Transmitted Infections In London's Gay Community.  Whilst gay and bisexual men represent less than 4 percent of London's population they are responsible for 84 percent of syphilis cases and 65 percent of gonorrhoea cases in the capital.  A new study from Public Health England (PHE), reported on by Pink News, suggested that around a quarter of all reported cases of sexually transmitted infections (STI) are diagnosed in gay men.

U.S. Supreme Court declines to intervene in gay marriage cases.  The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday [10/6/2014] declined to take up the hotly contested issue of gay marriage, a surprise move that will allow gay men and women to marry in five states where same-sex weddings were previously banned.

Suit: Black donor's sperm sent to white woman.  A white Ohio woman is suing a Downers Grove-based sperm bank, alleging that the company mistakenly gave her vials from an African-American donor, a fact that she said has made it difficult for her and her same-sex partner to raise their now 2-year-old daughter in an all-white community.

The Editor says...
Perhaps the ostracism exists because the all-white community doesn't appreciate having lesbians raise children in their neighborhood.

Gay-Marriage Support Falling.  The Pew Forum just released a fascinating new poll on religion in public life.  Among the headlines:  72 percent of Americans say the influence of religion on politics is declining, and the vast majority of these people say that's a bad thing.  Most Americans do not want churches to endorse candidates for office, though support for the idea is growing, rising from 24 percent in August 2010 to 32 percent today.  By a wide margin, Americans are more likely to see the Republican party (47 percent) as friendly to religion than they are the Democrats (29 percent), but it is noteworthy that less than half of Americans see the GOP as religion friendly.

Oregon GOP Senate Candidate Unveils Pro-Gay Marriage Ad.  The ad, from the campaign of Dr. Monica Wehby who is challenging incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley, prominently features a gay couple — Ben West, of Portland, who filed a lawsuit in 2013 with partner Paul Rummell to overturn Oregon's same sex-marriage ban that went into effect in 2004.  Their case was combined with other Oregon couples who also sought the right to marry after the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act in 2012.  Oregon's same-sex marriage ban was later ruled unconstitutional.

CDC: Gay Population 2.3%; Thanks to Media, Americans Think Number is 13 Times Higher.  Everyone knows there are gays and lesbians in everybody's family.  And no office would be complete without a sassy gay character.  And just about every other kid in high school is wresting with his sexuality.  I know.  I watch TV.  Except it isn't true, and the Centers for Disease Control just proved it.  A new comprehensive study by the CDC with over 33,000 participants has confirmed earlier estimates; less than 3 percent of the U.S. population self-identifies as gay, lesbian or bisexual.  Earlier, much smaller-scale surveys have put that number at 4 percent.

Judges are not 'neutral umpires'.  In the last two years, 14 lower federal courts have ruled on the constitutionality of gay marriage bans, with all finding that the U.S. Constitution forbids prohibitions against same sex marriage.  Of the 16 judges who have ruled for gay marriage, 13 were appointed by Democratic presidents.  On the opposing side, all three dissenting judges were appointed by Republicans.

Religious organizations urge Supreme Court to settle gay marriage question.  The Mormon church and four other religious organizations are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and settle once and for all the question of whether states can outlaw gay marriage.

Justice Kagan Performs Her First Same-Sex Wedding.  Justice Elena Kagan has officiated for the first time at a same-sex wedding, a Maryland ceremony for her former law clerk and his husband.

Court rules gay marriage bans in 2 states unconstitutional.  A U.S. appeals court in Chicago ruled Thursday [9/4/2014] that gay marriage bans in Wisconsin and Indiana violate the U.S. Constitution — thereby bumping the number of states where gay marriage will be legal from 19 to 21.

Justice Department Promotes Lawyer Who Argued Same-Sex Marriage Case.  A senior Justice Department lawyer who defended same-sex marriage, President Obama's health care law and the government's right to collect bulk phone records has been promoted to the department's No. 3 position, officials said Friday [9/5/2014].  As acting associate attorney general, the lawyer, Stuart F. Delery, will oversee civil rights, antitrust and environmental cases, among other matters, the Justice Department said.  He is replacing Tony West, who announced this week that he was leaving the department.

You can vote all you want, but it won't matter.  Judges will decide what's best.
US Judge Strikes Down Florida Gay Marriage Ban.  A federal judge on Thursday [8/21/2014] declared Florida's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, joining judges across the country who have sided with gay couples wishing to tie the knot.

Federal appeals court may be roadblock to gay marriage cases in four states.  If the issue of same-sex marriage is on an expressway to the Supreme Court, Wednesday was rush hour in a federal appeals court here.  In an unprecedented and marathon hearing, tag teams of attorneys for four states told an appellate panel why voter-approved prohibitions in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee should be honored.  All the while, plaintiffs and their families filled row after row of a huge, ornate courtroom, arms around one another, occasionally shushing babies and listening for their names to be mentioned.

Utah asks high court if states can block same-sex unions.  Utah asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday [8/5/2014] to decide whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marriage or whether it is up to states to allow or prohibit such unions.  Virginia, which said it did not want to be left behind, indicated it would file a similar request later this week.  An appeals court in Denver struck down Utah's ban, while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, ruled in the Virginia case, saying that marriage is a fundamental right that may not be withheld from gay couples.

Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds registry for same-sex couples.  The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday [7/31/2014] upheld a 2009 law that establishes a registry for same-sex couples, saying it does not violate an amendment to the state's constitution banning gay marriage.

U.S. appeals court strikes down Virginia's gay marriage ban.  A U.S. appeals court on Monday struck down Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional, the latest in a string of court rulings across the country to back gay marriage.

Politics of gay marriage snare Marco Rubio, David Jolly.  The increasingly delicate politics of gay marriage emerged Wednesday [7/23/2014] as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio defended "traditional" marriage while accommodating other views during a speech and U.S. Rep. David Jolly came under withering attack in Pinellas County for coming out in support of same-sex couples' right to wed.  Jolly, a Republican like Rubio, said this week that while he personally believes marriage should be between a man and woman, he thinks Florida should allow same-sex marriage.

The Editor says...
If you think marriage should be between a man and a woman, why would you support anything else?  This is what's known as playing on both sides of the fence."

10 states join Indiana's appeal of federal judge's same-sex marriage ruling.  The attorneys general of 10 states have joined in Indiana's appeal of a federal judge's ruling that found the state law banning same-sex marriage unconstitutional.  In a filing this week, the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Utah filed a friend of the court brief alleging it is not the judicial branch's role to determine whether same-sex marriage should be permitted.  "The moral, political, and social issues surrounding this case are profound and profoundly important," says the brief filed by Colorado Solicitor General Michael Francisco. "However, they are distinct from the purely legal principles that this court can address."

Oklahoma's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional, federal appeals court rules.  A federal appeals court on Friday [7/11/2014] struck down Oklahoma's ban on same-sex marriages.  The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the ban violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law for everyone.  "States may not, consistent with the U.S. Constitution, prohibit same-sex marriages," the judges wrote.  The court stayed its opinion, putting it on hold pending an expected challenge.

Florida Court Overturns State's Same-Sex-Marriage Ban.  A judge in Florida overturned the state's ban on same-sex marriage on Thursday [7/17/2014].  The ban had been approved by 62 percent of voters in 2008.  "The court is aware that the majority of voters oppose same-sex marriage, but it is our country's proud history to protect the rights of the individual, the rights of the unpopular and rights of the powerless, even at the cost of offending the majority," Monroe County Circuit Judge Luis Garcia wrote in his opinion.  Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi filed an appeal almost immediately.

Appeals court strikes down Oklahoma gay marriage ban.  The decision by a three-judge panel in the 10-year-old lawsuit is likely to give the Supreme Court a choice:  It can use either Utah or Oklahoma as its foil for judging the constitutionality of all such bans, or it can wait for more cases headed its way from Virginia and elsewhere.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit also has jurisdiction over Colorado, Kansas and Wyoming, as well as New Mexico, where same-sex couples already can marry.  Its precedent applies to all those states, but the court blocked its ruling from taking effect while Oklahoma considers an appeal.

Truth Telling and the Abuse of Language.  It was only a couple of years ago that the world sported only two genders of human beings — male and female.  Now Facebook allows folks to self-identify into 50 possibilities, only two of which are truly genders.  I find this particularly perplexing.  Do we have gender designations for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, the transgendered who dress in drag but haven't had surgery, the transgendered who have had surgery but it didn't go well?  Do we differentiate between the men who have become women and the women who have become men?  The 97% of us who are not confused about all of this are now called cisgendered instead of straight.  Governor Brown in California has ruled against the use of the terms husband and wife in public documents.  What will go next, mother and father?

Taking the New Sexual Fascism Seriously.  There is a mass movement aimed at stifling the autonomy of natural relationships — friendships, familial love, romantic love, human reverence for the divine — and subverting such relationships to the punitive power of an intrusive state.  It is as sweeping and menacing as past isms, including fascism, to which it reveals a number of striking resemblances.  It is difficult to comprehend, partly because it operates so often with emotional subterfuge, and partly because it is unprecedented.  It is less nationalistic than past fascisms, though more invasive and consuming because it polices interpersonal relationships and interior thoughts in a way that earlier police states did not.  I have come to realize, though, that it is violent, even though we tend not to think of the movement as violent because many still stereotype gays as delicate, and the violence is usually carried out through the seemingly legitimate auspices of the state.

DOJ Set to Fight Gay-Marriage Bans in Supreme Court.  The Justice Department is set to urge the Supreme Court to uphold a lower-court ruling and block states from banning same-sex marriage, Attorney General Eric Holder said.  The nation's top law enforcement official's remarks come just days after Utah officials announced they will ask the Supreme Court to overrule a lower court that concluded gay couples can legally marry in the state.  Last month, a federal appeals court ruled that a state ban on gay marriage, approved by Utah voters in 2004, was unconstitutional, finding that states cannot keep two people from marrying simply because they are of the same sex.

Republican governors signal shift on gay marriage in bid to attract voters.  While the Republican Party's religious conservatives continue to fight against same-sex marriage, its governors appear to be backing off their opposition — in their rhetoric, at least.

Indiana agencies told to ignore gay marriages.  A federal judge in Indianapolis struck down the state's gay marriage ban as unconstitutional that day, leading to hundreds of same-sex marriages around the state.  But an appeals court stayed that ruling three days later after an appeal from the state attorney general's office.

Utah to Appeal Gay Marriage Ruling to High Court.  Utah is going directly to the nation's highest court to challenge an appellate ruling that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry, the state attorney general's office announced Wednesday [7/9/2014].

California Removes 'Husband' and 'Wife' from California Marriage Law.  One word can make all the difference when it comes to definitions.  Exhibit A:  exchange the words "husband and wife" for a more inclusive term, and you have the phrase "I now pronounce you spouses."  In the state of California, they are paying special attention to keep their vernacular as progressive as possible.  Governor Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill Monday [7/7/2014] to formally make marriage gender-neutral to reflect the state's allowance of same-sex unions.

Those Poor Little Gays: The World Is Saying No.  Same-sex parenting is an abusive practice whereby two gay adults contrive to deprive a helpless child of the love and support of a mother or father. [...] We aren't fooled by this silly trick of trying to say that orphans being raised by their grandmothers are the same thing as two lesbians who manufacture a child using DNA they got from a fertility clinic.

Second Employee Alleges Chase Bank Surveyed Staff's LGBT Loyalty.  A second source has confirmed that JP Morgan Chase has asked each of its employees whether they are "an ally of the LGBT community," which employees have taken as a veiled threat.  Each year JP Morgan Chase sends its employees a survey asking questions related to management and other non-controversial issues.  A longtime Chase employee told Professor Robert George of Princeton that the survey this year included the following questions for the first time: [...]

Letting the IRS Get Away with It.  Someone at the IRS leaked the donor lists to a man called Matthew Meisel, a gay activist in Boston.  Meisel in turn passed it on to the gay group Human Rights Campaign (whose president was a national co-chair of the Obama re-election campaign), and HRC in turn published the list of donors, which was subsequently re-published by The Huffington Post.  There's no secret about why they'd do such a thing.  As we know, if you disagree with progressive orthodoxy, you have no right to host a cable-TV home-decor show or give a commencement address at an American university or be a beauty-queen contestant.  But that's not enough for these groups.  If you're not a public figure, if you're just a Californian who puts up a yard sign or a bumper sticker on Proposition Eight, your car will be keyed and your house defaced.

NH Supreme Court: Lesbian can claim parental rights.  The New Hampshire Supreme Court said Wednesday [7/2/2014] that a lesbian can claim parental rights to a child born to her former partner.  In the unanimous decision, the five-member court overturned the rulings in Derry Family Division court and ordered the judge to decide whether the non-biological parent — referred to in the court case as Susan B — had taken enough actions to qualify as the child's parent.  If judged a parent, the Supreme Court said Susan can intervene in adoption proceedings that her former partner — Melissa D — and Melissa's husband have initiated.

Federal Appeals Court: Gays Have Right to Marry.  A federal appeals court ruled for the first time Wednesday that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry, extending the movement's legal winning streak and bringing the issue a big step closer to the U.S. Supreme Court.

IRS Admits Wrongdoing, to Pay $50,000 in Leaking of Marriage Group's Tax Return.  Two years after activists for same-sex marriage obtained the confidential tax return and donor list of a national group opposed to redefining marriage, the Internal Revenue Service has admitted wrongdoing and agreed to settle the resulting lawsuit.  The Daily Signal has learned that, under a consent judgment today, the IRS agreed to pay $50,000 in damages to the National Organization for Marriage as a result of the unlawful release of the confidential information to a gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, that is NOM's chief political rival.

Catholic Bishop: Marriage is 'First Domino of Civilization'.  In response to a federal judge's ruling that Wisconsin's ban on homosexual marriage was unconstitutional, Bishop Robert Morlino, head of the Catholic diocese of Madison, Wisc., said the judge had "shaken one of the most precious and essential building blocks of our civilization," and that when this "first 'domino' of civilization'" — man-woman marriage — is toppled, then "all subsequent 'dominos'" of civilization fall.  The bishop also said that in felling this first domino, "everything that is good, true, and beautiful, which is rooted in the natural family, is seriously threatened."

Methodist pastor who was defrocked over gay wedding is reinstated.  A Pennsylvania pastor who broke church law by presiding over his son's same-sex wedding ceremony and then became an outspoken activist for gay rights can return to the pulpit after a United Methodist Church appeals panel on Tuesday overturned a decision to defrock him.  The nine-person panel ordered the church to restore Frank Schaefer's pastoral credentials, saying the jury that convicted him last year erred when fashioning his punishment.

U.S. Rep. Sean Maloney Marries Same-Sex Partner.  New York's first openly gay member of Congress has married his longtime partner.

Presbyterians Become the Silly Church.  [T]his week, the 1.7 million member PCUSA suffered a meltdown, authorizing clergy to conduct same sex unions, reaffirming its commitment to largely unrestricted abortion rights, and voting to divest from three firms doing business with Israel.  The church's redefinition of marriage, by a 71-29 percent vote, got the most attention, although it was anticlimactic.  Sexual liberalism captured the denomination in 2010, when the PCUSA voted to abandon its expectation of monogamy in marriage and celibacy in singleness for its clergy.

Black Pastor on Obama: 'This is the Most Immoral President We've Ever Had'.  The "March for Marriage" is Friday [6/20/2014] in Washington, D.C., and Reverend Billy Owens of the Coalition of African American Pastors (CAAP),talked with TPNN's Tim Constantine about the event, Barack Obama, and the moral decay in America.

Rep. Tim Huelskamp: 'We'll Win Fight for Marriage Like We're Winning Fight for Life'.  Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) doesn't believe the fight for marriage between one man and one woman is over.  He says this fight is important in many ways and plans to be among the many faith and government leaders to speak out in support of traditional marriage at the 2014 March for Marriage in Washington, D.C., on June 19th.  In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, the conservative congressman talked about the meaning of marriage between a man and a woman for all Americans.  "The fight for marriage isn't over at all, despite what the media want us to believe," Huelskamp said.

Hillary Clinton Snaps at NPR Host Over DOMA, Same-Sex Marriage.  Hillary Clinton snapped at radio host Terry Gross of NPR during a Thursday [6/12/2014] interview on the air about same-sex marriage.  Gross persistently prodded the former First Lady, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State on the issue, repeatedly asking her to clarify her position about when and why she decided to support same-sex marriage.

Dissolving the Institution of Marriage.  For years, opponents of same-sex marriage fretted that the unleashing of gay nuptials would open the door for all types of sexual decadence.  Last presidential cycle, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum was panned heavily for comparing gay marriage to polygamy at a New Hampshire stop on the campaign trail.  After a college student questioned his vigorous opposition to same sex couples being wed, Santorum responded in turn:  "If it makes three people happy to get married, based on what you just said, what makes that wrong?"  The remark was met with boos from students and condemnation from the liberal press.  Less than two years later, Santorum ran a victory lap after a federal judge struck down a ban on polygamy in Utah.

Graham: 'True Followers of Jesus... Cannot Endorse Same-Sex Marriage'.  Rev. Franklin Graham, son of world-renowned evangelist Billy Graham, said that "true followers" of Jesus "cannot endorse same-sex marriage" regardless of what President Barack Obama, the Congress, the Supreme Court, or the media say about the issue, adding that marriage was "settled by God Himself" and cannot be modified by man.  "True followers of Jesus Christ, whose salvation is based entirely upon God's Word, cannot endorse same-sex marriage, regardless of what our President, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the media or the latest Gallup poll says about the matter," said Rev. Graham in his May 2014 column for Decision magazine.

Archbishop Cordileone Responds to Nancy Pelosi's Assault on March for Marriage.  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) joined other California politicians and leading gay rights advocates in harshly criticizing San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone for participating in the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C., on June 19th.  As SFGate reports, in a letter to Cordileone, Pelosi, a self-proclaimed Catholic who supports abortion on demand and same-sex marriage — both of which are against the teachings of the Catholic Church — described the March for Marriage event as "venom masquerading as virtue" and said the participants show "disdain and hate towards LGBT persons."

Pelosi Warns SF Bishop Not to March for Traditional Marriage.  In an astonishing challenge to traditional Catholic doctrine, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, nominally Catholic, has taken to telling San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone that he should not attend the National Organization for Marriage's June 19 march on the Supreme Court in Washington D.C.  Cordileone is scheduled to be a featured speaker at the event, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which is consistent with his championing of Proposition 8 in 2008.  Cordileone helped raise $1.5 million for the initiative, which intended to ban same-sex marriage in the state.  He once said, "The ultimate attack of the evil one is the attack on marriage."

Wisconsin AG Seeks Stay Halting Gay Marriages.  Same-sex couples began getting married in Wisconsin on Friday [6/6/2014] shortly after a federal judge struck down the state's gay marriage ban and despite confusion over the effect of the ruling.

HHS Extends Head Start Participation to Same-Sex Marriage Families.  The administration for children and families, part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), issued guidance in a memo on Wednesday [6/4/2014] regarding application of the federal government's policy on same-sex spouses/marriages to all Head Start and Early Head Start programs. [...] HHS instructed all grantees and delegate agencies in the memo to ensure that "[f]amily support and parent engagement activities should be inclusive and supportive of single, coupled, and married LGBT parents":

Judge strikes down Wisconsin gay marriage ban.  A federal judge struck down Wisconsin's ban on same-sex marriage on Friday, ruling it unconstitutional.  It wasn't clear whether U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb's 88-page ruling cleared the way for same-sex marriages to begin immediately.  But the ruling makes Wisconsin the 27th state where same-sex couples can marry under law or where a judge has ruled they ought to be allowed to wed.

GOP Sen. Hatch: Gay Marriage Will Be 'Law of the Land'.  During an appearance on Salt Lake City's Doug Wright Show, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said gay marriage was "going to be the law of the land," and that anybody who thought otherwise wasn't paying attention.  A district judge recently invalidated Utah's prohibition on gay marriage.  "Lets face it," Hatch said.  "Anybody that does not believe that gay marriage is going to be the law of the land just hasn't been observing what's going on...  The trend right now in the courts is to permit gay marriage and anybody who doesn't admit that just isn't living in the real world."

The nation's last unchallenged state same-sex marriage ban is about to lose that status.  "There will be a case filed challenging North Dakota's same-sex marriage ban," says Joshua Newville, a Minneapolis-based civil rights attorney who filed a suit Thursday [5/22/2014] against South Dakota's ban on behalf of same-sex couples there.  Newville is in talks with advocates and attorneys in North Dakota and confirmed that either he or another attorney will bring a lawsuit against that state's ban within six to eight weeks.

Notre Dame Denies Pro-Marriage Club Official Status.  The University of Notre Dame has denied official recognition to a student club that supports traditional marriage.  On April 30, the university's Club Coordination Council (CCC) voted not to approve the application of Students for Child-Oriented Policy (SCOP) for official club status.  SCOP's Facebook page identifies it as "a group of undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Notre Dame who are focused on the debate about marriage taking place in Indiana."

Pope Francis Against Gay Adoption.  Although Pope Francis was praised for his "who am I to judge?" comment about gay individuals and was named Person of the Year by the homosexual magazine The Advocate in 2013, the Pope has rejected the idea of same-sex marriage as an "anthropological regression" and stressed that when it comes to adoption, "every person needs a male father and a female mother."

Gay groups target lesbian Democrat in Prop 8 Revenge.  Gay and lesbian activist groups are working hard to defeat an experienced candidate who is running for District Attorney in Sacramento — despite the fact that she herself is a lesbian with a stack of law enforcement endorsements.  The reason:  they want to punish her for not speaking out against Proposition 8, the now-defunct constitutional amendment enshrining traditional marriage in California, when it was an active issue on the ballot in 2008.

Christian Brotherhood an Impeachable Offense; Gay Incest Celebrated.  Just in the last week, in the latest blitz of gay über alles, at the provocation of groups like GLAAD and Right Wing Watch, a newspaperman was sacked in Iowa and an entire show on HGTV was canceled because of editors and two handsome blond brothers adhering to the millennia-old strictures about chastity.  If you are a pair of gorgeous brothers dedicating your life to building homes for the poor, but you criticize homosexuality, you must be stripped of your life's work and publicly humiliated.  But if you are a pair of gorgeous brothers who decide to have unprotected anal sex with each other in front of the camera, the gay community will shower you with praise.

Nintendo Apologizes for Not Allowing Same-Sex Marriage in Game.  Nintendo has apologized for not allowing same-sex marriage in one of its simulation games after online and social media campaigns criticized the company for alienating sexual minorities.  Tomodachi Life, to be released for the Nintendo 3DS console in June in the United States, allows users to control an avatar and interact with other players online.  In the virtual world, characters called Miis can start romantic relationships and marry as long as they are from the opposite sex.

The Editor says...
They must apologize for that?

California Bill Allows 'My Two Dads' on Birth Certificates.  In the most recent California effort to "modernize" family convention, the state Assembly on Thursday passed AB 1951, a new bill that would allow all California parents to list themselves as "mother," "father," or "parent" of a child in order to reflect same-sex marriages, according to a report from the Associated Press.  The bill passed by a vote of 51-13, with several Republicans voting in favor.  No Republicans spoke in opposition.

Being black and being gay are not the same thing.  Much is being made of HGTV's decision to cancel a previously announced new series, "Flip it Forward," because its stars, twin brothers David and Jason Benham, had expressed their faith-based, pro-life values and belief that marriage should be between one man and one woman.  Many in the media have called their beliefs anti-gay and similar to race-based bigotry.  [...] HGTV is a private entity that can make whatever decision it chooses regarding its network and business operations, however, it has become extremely disturbing to me that media personalities and social groups have equated the Benham brother's support for traditional marriage to racism.

Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, announces divorce from husband.  Retired Bishop Gene Robinson announced that he is divorcing partner Mark Andrew in an email to the Diocese of New Hampshire Saturday and an article for The Daily Beast.

The Editor says...
Which is it, AP?  Partner or husband?

Wyden: 'If Folks Dont Like Gay Marriage, They Simply Shouldnt Get One.  As a federal judge heard arguments on Oregons ban on same-sex marriage last Wednesday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) called the ban "discrimination," adding, "If folks dont like gay marriage, they simply shouldnt get one."

The Editor says...
Flippant comments of this sort are all very amusing until one finds himself forced to provide photography, a chapel, or a wedding cake for a homosexual wedding.

Fed. Judge Rules Ohio Must Follow Other States' Marriage Laws Instead of Its Own.  So long, Ohio.  According to a federal judge Monday in Henry v. Himes, the U.S. Constitution now requires that the laws of one state automatically supersede those of Ohio, whether or not Ohio approves.  The circumstances surround same-sex marriage, though the precise legal issue is one that has been flying below the radar for some time — the recognition by one state of another state's same-sex marriage.

Jars of Clay's Christian Fans Lash Out after the Lead Singer Tweets for Same-sex Marriage.  The group's lead singer Dan Haseltine has caused a mini firestorm among his evangelical base of supporters this week by issuing a series of tweets in support of same-sex marriage.  His move comes just weeks after World Vision, a major Christian charity, had to walk back its brief decision to not discriminate against perspective employees who were LGBT.  Like World Vision, Haseltine quickly had to reckon with a pretty strong backlash in the wake of his public engagement with the subject.

Mozilla, Duck Dynasty, Chick-fil-A, and the politicization of everything.  Would you boycott a family dinner because your grandfather holds some politically incorrect views about welfare recipients?  Or, would you uninvite a neighboring family from attending a block party after learning that they attend an evangelical church that upholds a traditional definition of marriage?  Most reasonable people would say "no," adhering to the old adage that it's rude to talk politics in polite company.  Unfortunately, this rule of etiquette that has governed civil society for ages seems to be quickly evaporating in the world of commerce, as highlighted by the now notorious case of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich.  This impolite seed should be quickly uprooted before it sprouts into a world where everything is politicized.

Ex-GOP chairman counseled Obama on gay marriage switch.  Former Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman advised the White House on how President Obama should announce his support for gay marriage.  A Harvard classmate of Obama's, Mehlman told the president over a White House lunch that it was politically viable to reverse his position and support gay marriage, according to a report in The New York Times.  Mehlman, who managed George W. Bush's reelection campaign and came out as gay in 2010, told Obama that the American public viewed him as an idealist willing to put politics aside, and that endorsing same-sex marriage would reinforce that image.

Uninstall Firefox.  The left is out to crush individuals and companies with whom it differs.  This is especially so today on the issue of same-sex marriage.  Perhaps the most dramatic example of this took place last week.  The governing board of the widely used browser, Firefox, forced the company's CEO, Brendan Eich, to resign. [...] All these years, the left, after coining the term "McCarthyism" in order to disparage the right, had fooled most people into believing that it is the right that suppresses liberty.  The truth, of course, has been the opposite.

Mobzilla: The Purging of Brendan Eich.  According to Open Secrets, John Lilly made a political contribution to candidate Barack Obama's presidential campaign in the amount of $2,300.  Lilly quietly stepped down under his own accord as Mozilla's CEO in 2010.  So why was Lilly, who donated money to an anti same-sex marriage campaign, not singled out, but incoming/outgoing Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich was forced to resign when it was revealed that he donated to Proposition 8 in California in 2008, the exact same year Barack Obama stated he believed marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman?  Why did Mozilla spare John Lilly but sacrifice Brendan Eich at the altar of rabid progressive mob who claims to be all inclusive and tolerant of free speech?  Because this has nothing to do with gay rights or gay marriage.  This is about Barack Obama and his culture of activism.

Media Lynch Mob Takes Down Mozilla CEO & Ignores Alleged Terrorist Gun-Running Democrat Leland Yee.  It appears that the "red line" for LGBT and progressive activists' outrage is being a successful businessman versus a Democrat politician.  After a $1,000 donation in 2008 to support Prop 8 in California, Mozilla's CEO Brendan Eich was railroaded out of the company at the speed of an Apple Mac Pro on steroids.  The New York Times is still criminalizing Eich's personal political views.

Firefox users: We sent you a little message today.  Today, users of the Firefox web browser were given a message when accessing most of [the] Front Page content at RedState.  They were told that this site could not be displayed, because of a conflict with the values of the Mozilla corporation, and they were suggested to visit another site.  We put that message up, because we wanted to remind people that the totalitarian impulse of the Mozilla corporation is real, and if you haven't been Made to Care yet, you will be soon.  Send a message that you won't take it lying down.  Get another browser.

Judge to end Ohio ban on recognizing gay marriage.  A federal judge said Friday that he will order Ohio to recognize out-of-state gay marriages, a move that would strike down part of the state's ban on gay marriages but stop short of forcing it to perform same-sex weddings.

Google executive resigns from World Vision board to protest gay policy.  World Vision had announced last month that its American branch would begin hiring people in same-sex unions who dedicate their lives to God.  Just two days later, the group reversed the decision under pressure from evangelical leaders.  "The board acknowledged it made a mistake and chose to revert to our longstanding policy requiring sexual abstinence for all single employees and faithfulness within the Biblical covenant of marriage between one man and one woman," the group said in a statement.

The Editor says...
The problem with "hiring people in same-sex unions who dedicate their lives to God" is that there are no such people.  Homosexuality is still just as wrong as it was a hundred or a thousand years ago.  The Bible makes it abundantly clear that anyone whose life is dedicated to God will have nothing to do with homosexuality.

HHS updates Medicare enrollment rules for same-sex couples.  The Obama administration on Thursday [4/3/2014] announced that it was updating Medicare rules to allow partners in same-sex marriages to apply for benefits during special enrollment periods.  The Department of Health and Human Services said that the Social Security Administration would now be able to take applications for special enrollment periods for Medicare Part A and Part B and reduce late penalties for some eligible same-sex couples.  The move is the latest step taken by HHS after the Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a key part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

World Vision reverses decision to hire Christians in same-sex marriages.  Facing a firestorm of protest, the prominent Christian relief agency World Vision on Wednesday reversed a two-day-old policy change that would have allowed it to hire Christians in same-sex marriages in the US.

Gay marriage supporters eye Republican backing.  Are Republicans starting to change their position on same-sex marriage?  Some gay marriage supporters think so.  "A 55 percent majority support marriage equality," states a report accompanying a new TargetPoint-GQRR poll.  "While young people are at the vanguard of change, this survey also shows increased support among older voters, Catholics, non-college educated voters, and Republicans."  The poll results were presented at a Thursday [3/27/2014] kickoff event of Americans for Marriage Equality, a bipartisan group formed with the support of the Human Rights Campaign, a major gay rights organization.

Holder says feds will recognize Michigan gay marriages despite state decision.  Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday [3/28/2014] that the federal government will recognize about 300 same-sex marriages performed in Michigan before a federal appeals court halted them, despite a decision by Michigan's governor not to recognize those unions.  The decision means federal benefits will be extended to those couples — including the ability to file taxes jointly, get Social Security benefits for spouses and request legal immigration status for partners.  "These families will be eligible for all relevant federal benefits on the same terms as other same-sex marriages," Holder said in a statement.

Gay weddings halted in Michigan after 300 marriage licenses issued.  Same-sex weddings in Michigan were abruptly halted Saturday [3/22/2014] when a federal appeals court put on hold a lower court ruling that declared the state's ban on gay marriages unconstitutional.  The appellate court order came Saturday afternoon, after Michigan officials had issued at least 322 marriage licenses to gays and lesbians who jumped at the chance to be among the first same-sex couples in the state to wed.

U.S. Judge Strikes Down Michigan's Ban on Gay Marriage.  A federal appeals court has suspended gay marriages in Michigan, putting on hold a decision by a lower court judge who had struck down the state's same-sex marriage ban.

5 Big Wins for Militant Gay Pressure Groups.  This has become the raison d'etre of many in the gay rights movement:  destroying the businesses of those who refuse to abide by their standards of conduct, all in the name of tolerance.  And they've been tremendously successful at it.  Here are the top five recent instances of successful gay intimidation of business: [...]

GOP donors join push for gay rights bill.  A deep-pocketed group of Republican donors and former GOP lawmakers is joining a gay rights coalition to push the U.S. House to vote on a bill banning workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.  "America is a place where the freedom to be who you are shouldn't be a barrier to your ability to get a job and provide for your family," said Paul Singer, a billionaire hedge fund founder and big Republican donor.

Poll: Growing Number of Young Republicans Support Gay Marriage.  A poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center has found that support for gay marriage is increasing in those who identify as Republicans under the age of 30.  61% of those polled who lean towards the party are in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage while only 35% oppose it.  This is in stark contrast to Republicans over the age of 50 — only 27% of that audience support it.  Pew also found a record high percentage of Americans — 54% — support allowing gays to marry.

The Editor says...
That's because "a record high percentage of Americans" watch too much television and never go to church.

Indefensible.  [Scroll down]  Consider that under longstanding practices an attorney general, the nation's chief law enforcement officer, must carry out even those laws he disagrees with as a matter of policy.  He must also defend laws against constitutional attack so long as there are reasonable, or nonfrivolous, grounds for doing so, a very low bar.  Further, he must see to it that the arguments in behalf of a constitutionally challenged law are advanced vigorously, even if he doesn't agree with those arguments.  In 2009, in litigation over the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage for purposes of federal law as "the legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife," the Justice Department made a workmanlike defense of the statute.  As the litigation proceeded, however, the quality of the department's defense of the statute deteriorated in virtually every respect.

Engineering Children for Gay Granddads.  Any infertile couple working with a reputable adoption agency knows that the window of opportunity for adopting newborns closes as you approach forty years of age.  After that, you're cut off and must start considering adopting older children.  In fact, agencies prefer that there be a comfortable distance between you and the big four-oh.  But for white gay males, there are no rules, only endless options for accessorizing their lives with human beings they have the means to acquire.  They choose to purchase children because they are unwilling to create children in the natural way, and are unwilling to commit to a woman in order to form a family to nurture children.

Texas Officials Blast Gay Marriage Ruling.  Texas' ban on gay marriage was struck down by San Antonio-based federal Judge Orlando Garcia today [2/26/2014].  The judge suspended his ruling, however, meaning that the ban will remain in place until a secondary ruling by an appeals court later this year.  Federal judges have the right to suspend a law if it is believed to cause significant suffering for the plaintiffs.

Eric Holder's Arizona.  Eric Holder's liberal chickens are coming home to roost in Arizona.  And in a West Hollywood gay bar.  The Los Angeles Times is helping.  While a Harvard student demands an end to academic freedom.  All of this in the name of the religion of liberalism.  Let's start with the attorney general of the United States, who has made it abundantly clear that a state attorney general who doesn't like his or her state's gay marriage law doesn't have to enforce it.

Eric Holder To State Attorneys General: You Don't Have to Enforce Laws You Disagree With.  Attorney General Eric Holder is taking the lawless attitude of the Obama administration and passing it down to state attorneys general.  Yesterday [2/24/2014] during an interview with The New York Times, Holder said state attorneys general do not have to enforce laws they disagree with, specifically when it comes to the issue of gay marriage.

Lawless Eric Holder advises State A.G.s that they may disregard state laws.  A state attorney general is sworn to uphold and defend the laws of the state the AG serves.  If he/she can't do that, resignation makes sense.  Better yet, stay and uphold the oath of office by defending the law competently in an appeal.

The other shoe drops for gay marriage.  It should come as no surprise that attorneys general in six states, have refused to enforce state laws upholding traditional marriage or that federal judges in Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia have overturned voter-approved laws defining traditional marriage as between one man and one woman.  And, it should come as no surprise that Attorney General Eric Holder — who at one time fulfilled his constitutional duty to enforce DOMA before he refused to continue doing so — now advises state attorneys general to follow his lead and decline to defend state laws they believe are unconstitutional (like laws prohibiting gay marriage or upholding traditional marriage).

Federal judge strikes down Texas gay marriage ban.  The state's gay marriage ban was challenged by two gay couples — one seeking to marry in Texas and one seeking to have their marriage, which was performed in Massachusetts, to be recognized.

Judge orders Kentucky to begin recognizing gay marriage.  A federal judge in Kentucky took a final step Thursday forcing the state to begin recognizing same-sex marriages performed outside the state.  U.S. District Judge John Heyburn was following through on his ruling earlier this month that found a portion of the state's constitution, which bans the recognition of gay marriage, violates the U.S. Constitution.  On Thursday, the judge wrote the amendment was unlawful and "void and unenforceable."

Razing Arizona: Conservatives Succeed at Failing Again.  Perhaps Arizona governor Jan Brewer was sincere when saying that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (SB 1062) she vetoed yesterday [2/26/2014] could "create more problems than it purports to solve."  After all, observers such as Napp Nazworth at The Christian Post contend that SB 1062 might actually — contrary to all the hysteria — have made it harder for most business owners to refuse service to homosexuals.

Catholic League Pres Challenges Chris Cuomo: Where Are 'Examples of Gay People Being Persecuted?  In the wake of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's veto of a controversial bill which would have preserved religious freedom by allowing business owners to deny proving certain services to gay and lesbian people, Catholic League President Bill Donohue sat down with CNN's New Day host Chris Cuomo to debate the merits of the law.  Donohue asserted that the Arizona bill had been mischaracterized by opponents and asked Cuomo to demonstrate for him where gay people were being persecuted.

7 Myths About Arizona's Religious Freedom Law.  [Arizona Governor Jan] Brewer stated that the bill "could divide Arizona in ways we could not even imagine and no one would ever want."  Of course, her veto of the bill is even more divisive, given that it now sends the message that it is open season on private religious business owners who wish to live out their religious principles throughout their lives, not just within the four walls of their churches or homes.

NFL could pull Super Bowl if Arizona religious rights bill passes.  Call it what you want — anti-gay or religious rights — but if Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signs a controversial bill, you might not be calling Arizona the home of the 2015 Super Bowl.  The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, S.B. 1062, is the current controversy du jour out of Arizona, and the National Football League is with the opposition.

Hillary Clinton lauds Arizona governor after she vetoes controversial bill.  Hillary Clinton has praised the governor of Arizona after she vetoed a bill that would have let businesses refuse to serve gays and lesbians on grounds of religion.  The former U.S. Secretary of State spoke to an audience at the University of Miami yesterday, and addressed an estimated audience of 6,100 people.  Highlighting the issue, Mrs Clinton, 66, said that Republican governor Jan Brewer 'recognized that inclusive leadership is really what the 21st century is all about.'

Nine Biased Headlines on Arizona Veto.  SB 1062 simply extended Arizona's RFRA's religious-liberty protections to individuals and businesses being sued by state or local government or private individuals.  It did not create a license for individuals or businesses to refuse service to gay people.  It actually never even mentioned sexual orientation.  It would have protected the right of people not to be compelled to participate in or provide services for events that they object to on religious grounds, including same-sex weddings.  The religious objector, if challenged, would be required to prove in court that his religious freedom was being substantially burdened.

Nine Biased Headlines on Arizona Veto.  Here is a short sampling of some of the worst offenders.

Holder Calls for Scrutiny of Gay Marriage Laws.  Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Monday [2/24/2014] injected the Obama administration into the emotional and politicized debate over the future of state same-sex marriage bans, declaring in an interview that state attorneys general are not obligated to defend laws that they believe are discriminatory.  Mr. Holder was careful not to encourage his state counterparts to disavow their own laws, but said that officials who have carefully studied bans on gay marriage could refuse to defend them.

NYT, federal judge overruling gay marriage ban confuse Constitution for Declaration of Independence.  Both federal judge Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen and the one-time newspaper of record confused the Constitution for the Declaration of Independence during their haste to celebrate the overturning of Virginia's gay marriage ban Thursday night.  "Our Constitution declares that 'all men' are created equal.  Surely this means all of us," wrote Allen in a tautological pronouncement that cited a unilateral assertion of sovereignty penned in response to 18th-century British abuses of power, rather than the supreme law governing the U.S.  The New York Times gave no indication it noticed Allen's glaring error, dedicating most of its 761-word article to sniffing at opponents of same-sex marriage.

Federal judge strikes down Virginia's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.  A federal judge issued a landmark ruling Thursday night striking down Virginia's constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and moving the Old Dominion a step closer to being the first state in the traditional South where such unions are legal.  The 41-page opinion by U.S. District Court Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen ruled that the constitutional amendment and "any other Virginia law that bars same-sex marriage or prohibits Virginia's recognition of lawful same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions unconstitutional."  The ban will remain in effect while appeals are heard.

Neuter Employee Sues Company for $518,682 for Not Acknowledging its Lack of Gender.  It's not gay rights.  It's not even LGBT which includes men who dress up like women.  It's actually LGBTQIA which includes a bunch of people who don't know what they are, including "Queer" and "Asexual". [...] The supervisors chose not to waste everyone's time with the insanity of a crazy person.  And here comes the lawsuit because the catering company chose not to manufacture a single new gender consisting entirely of "Jones".  This whole thing [disproves] the notion that you can just sign on to gay marriage and be done with it.

Justice Department to give married same-sex couples equal protection.  The Justice Department on Monday [2/10/2014] will instruct all of its employees across the country, for the first time, to give lawful same-sex marriages sweeping equal protection under the law in every program it administers, from courthouse proceedings to prison visits to the compensation of surviving spouses of public safety officers.  In a new policy memo, the department will spell out the rights of same-sex couples, including the right to decline to give testimony that might incriminate their spouses, even if their marriages are not recognized in the state where the couple lives.

Federal government to expand recognition of same-sex marriage.  In a new milestone for gay rights, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. will issue a directive Monday [2/10/2014] expanding government recognition of same-sex marriages to all federal courtrooms and prisons, and some federal benefits programs.  The new policy, which Holder plans to announce Saturday night [2/8/2014] at a gay rights dinner in New York City, means the Justice Department will not object if gay or lesbian partners refuse to testify against their spouses in federal criminal and civil cases, and will push for them to be accorded the same rights in Bankruptcy court as other married couples.

Obama administration recognizes same-sex marriages in Utah.  Same-sex marriages performed in Utah will be recognized by the federal government, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday [1/10/2014].  Holder's decision means that the approximately 1,000 same-sex couples married in Utah since December will be eligible for federal tax, estate and other benefits.

Utah gay marriages will be recognized by federal government, attorney general says.  The federal government will recognize marriages performed in Utah after a judge struck down the state's same-sex marriage ban, Attorney General Holder said Friday, noting that the newly-wedded gay couples "should not be asked to endure uncertainty regarding their status" as the legal challenges unfold.  Holder's announcement comes two days after Utah ordered its state offices not to do anything that would acknowledge the more than 1,000 same-sex marriages performed in the state over a nearly three-week period after a federal judge struck down the ban on Dec. 20.  The Supreme Court ordered a stay on those weddings on Monday [1/6/2014] while the state challenges the judge's ruling.

CDC releases updated STD data; syphilis, gonorrhea cases are up, chlamydia numbers are stable.  Wyoming had the lowest rate, at 7.7 per 100,000 people.  The District of Columbia was the highest at 388.7 per 100,000.  Ohio's rate was 142.9 per 100,000.  The number of cases reported in Ohio in 2012 was 16,493, down slightly from 2011.  More than 15,000 primary and secondary syphilis cases were reported in 2012, a rate of 5 per 100,000 people.  The rate increase was solely among men, especially gay and bisexual men who represent an estimated 75 percent of cases.

US judge strikes down Okla. same-sex marriage ban.  A federal judge struck down Oklahoma's gay marriage ban Tuesday [1/14/2014], but headed off any rush to the altar by setting aside his order while state and local officials complete an appeal.

Obama ignores Constitution by recognizing same-sex marriages in Utah.  Demonstrating his disdain for the 10th Amendment and the rule of law, Mr. Holder said Friday [1/10/2014] the federal government would recognize the marriages of homosexual couples who wed during the two-week period such unions were made legal in Utah by a federal judge.  The Supreme Court stayed that ruling on Jan. 6, but Mr. Holder insisted on "confirming" for the purposes of U.S. law that a thousand of those marriages "will be recognized as lawful and considered eligible for all relevant federal benefits."

NY Times and the Left: Champions of Polygamy.  The New York Times, ever eager to push any meme that undermines the Judeo-Christian devotion to traditional morality and the single heterosexual family unit, has progressed from championing LGBT rights to its newest passion:  polygamy.  The Times is not alone; other leftist media outlets such as Huffington Post are leaders in the effort, too.

Kerry 'Deeply Concerned' By Nigeria's Ban on Same-Sex Marriage.  Of all the problems in Nigeria, including the ongoing persecution of Christians by Islamic terrorists, the U.S. State Department on Monday [1/13/2014] condemned the African nation's new law banning same-sex marriage.

Utah Governor's Office Says State Won't Recognize Same-Sex Marriages.  The Utah governor's office said Wednesday [1/8/2014] that the state would not recognize more than 1,000 same-sex marriages performed over the last two weeks as it appealed a legal ruling that had overturned the state's ban on such unions.  The decision came two days after the United States Supreme Court blocked further same-sex marriages while state officials appealed a decision allowing such unions.  The stay effectively reinstated a disputed law that limited marriages across the state to between one man and one woman.

SCOTUS Puts Hold on Utah Gay Marriage.  The Supreme Court has put same-sex marriages on hold in Utah, at least while a federal appeals court more fully considers the issue.

Court stops Utah gay marriages.  The Supreme Court on Monday morning [1/6/2014] put on hold a federal judge's decision striking down Utah's ban on same-sex marriage, thus stopping a wave of such marriages across the state.  The Court's order reinstates the state ban and will keep it intact until after a federal appeals court has ruled on it.  The order appeared to have the support of the full Court, since there were no noted dissents.

The Denaturalization of America.  Homosexual marriage, a passing joke at parties until a few years ago, is now legal in much of the U.S., as in many other Western progressive countries.  Meanwhile, in decisions soon to be upheld by the Supreme Court no doubt, various U.S. jurisdictions have declared that schoolboys who decide they feel more like schoolgirls will be permitted by law to use the girls' locker room, while the actual girls, unprotected by any new laws of their own, will apparently just have to get used to undressing in the company of boys.

ABC, NBC Mum on Why Gay Wedding on Rose Parade Float Wasn't Part of TV Coverage.  The two television networks — ABC and NBC — that covered the 2014 Tournament of Roses parade live on Jan. 1 are not saying why the wedding of two men atop the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's float was not part of their programming viewed by more than 60 million people around the world.  When CNSNews.com asked whether the wedding was covered and, if not, why not, ABC's press office said there would be no official statement about the event and cited technical issues.  NBC did not respond to the questions.

Rose Parade or "Gay Pride" Parade?  You no longer need to live in California to get a taste of our progressive values.  This week, it's coming to a TV set near you.  After more than 100 years of family-oriented entertainment on New Year's Day, the Tournament of Roses Parade has veered off course.  Organizers are allowing progressives to parade their political agendas around and morph a historic parade into an event more closely resembling a gay pride parade than the Rose Parade we have come to know.

Rose Parade Gay 'Marriage' Float Degrades Family Event, Say Conservative Activists.  Two homosexual men will be married on a float in the 2014 Rose Parade on Wednesday, Jan. 1, in what critics are saying transforms the family-friendly event into a vehicle for promoting the gay rights activists' political agenda.  Aubrey Loots and Danny Leclair were chosen by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation by lottery to be married atop a float made to resemble a wedding cake.

The Straight Dope on Homosexuality.  How promiscuous are homosexuals?  Some people argue that except for about 15% who are wildly promiscuous, homosexuals are no different from heteros.  The anti-sodomites like to quote a 1997 study from the Journal of Sex Research that polled 2,583 older homosexuals and found that the most common number of lifetime partners fell somewhere between 101 and 500, and that 10% to 16% reported having more than 1,000.  A 2009 Australian "Gay Census" that was not restricted to age found that a quarter of homosexuals reported over 100 partners and 10% had so many they had "no idea."  The older the men were, the more likely they were to be in the over 100 or "no idea" categories.

Two gay males to get married on 2014 Rose Parade float.  The 2014 Rose Parade will feature two gay males Aubrey Loots and Danny Leclair getting married on one of the floats.  AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the sponsor of this gay marriage Rose Parade float. [...] You can't even get away from progressive liberal indoctrination at a family event like the Rose Parade anymore.

The Editor says...
Get a clue.  It's not "a family event" any more.

Judge Strikes Down Utah Traditional Marriage Laws, Calls Them 'Irrational'.  In his 53-page opinion for Kitchen v. Herbert on Dec. 20, U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby — who was appointed by President Obama in 2011 — compared marriage laws that do not include homosexual pairings to racist laws.  He noted that in its 1967 case Loving v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down as a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment a Virginia law that did not allow a white man to marry a black woman. [...] However, the ruling in Loving does not appear to stand for what Shelby says it does.

Federal Judge: Right to Same-Sex Marriage Is 'Deeply Rooted in This Nation's History and Tradition'.  Judge Robert J. Shelby, whom President Barack Obama appointed to the U.S. District Court in Utah last year, issued an opinion on Friday [12/20/2013] declaring that a right to same-sex marriage is "deeply rooted in the nation's history and implicit in the concept of ordered liberty."  Shelby was confirmed to the federal bench by a voice vote of the Senate on Sept. 21, 2012.  There was no debate over his nomination, and no senator objected to his confirmation.  He has now issued an opinion that could fundamentally alter American law and culture.

May I Point Out That Phil Robertson Was Indisputably Right About One Thing?  The Supreme Court made gay sex a civil right about a decade ago in Lawrence v. Texas — and last week we had a federal judge in Utah use that decision and others to normalize polygamy.  Now he didn't legalize bigamy per se, at least not in the sense that that some combination of three or more individuals can go down to the local courthouse and get a group marriage license.  But what the judge did was declare that as a matter of law it is acceptable for a polyamorous group to set up a household and declare themselves to be in a committed marital relationship. [...] What we would then have is, potentially, legalized polyamorous marriages And to think that a decade ago it was declared to be the height of bigotry to suggest that recognizing gay marriages would lead to the legalization of plural marriages.

Marriage licenses being issued to gay couples in Utah.  A federal judge Friday [12/20/2013] struck down Utah's voter-approved constitutional amendment — which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman — finding that it violates rights to due process and equal protection as set forth in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Polygamy: It's Coming.  In Lawrence v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court, reversing its own then-recent holding in Bowers v. Hardwick, ruled that laws against homosexual sodomy are unconstitutional — even though the Constitution says nothing about sex, let alone sodomy — on the ground that the right of privacy (also never mentioned in the Constitution) protects all consensual, private sexual contact between adults.  Lawrence immediately was seen as a milestone in the campaign for gay marriage.  Some conservatives noted that the Court's rationale would protect polygamy, too, but they were denounced as killjoys.  Lawyers noticed, however.  Soon after Lawrence, several lawsuits were commenced in federal courts asserting a constitutional right to polygamy.

New Mexico Supreme Court: Same-sex marriage legal.  The New Mexico Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in the state Thursday [12/19/2013], declaring in a ruling that it is unconstitutional to deny a marriage license to gay and lesbian couples.

Polygamy and the Marriage Free-fall.  Marriage in America is in a state of free-fall, and it's the confluence of American attitudes and legal rulings that are responsible for helping push it off the cliff.  On Friday night, a George W. Bush judicial appointee, Judge Clark Waddoups, struck down a part of Utah's law against polygamy in a 91-page ruling. [...] Waddoups's ruling can't be viewed in isolation from the events that preceded it, especially the debate over same-sex marriage and the larger effort to undo the norms of family life.  Social change, for good or ill, rarely happens at a single moment in time, but over time as the sum total of a thousand smaller events.  This Friday night in Utah was one such event.

Judge Cites Same-Sex Marriage in Declaring Polygamy Ban Unconstitutional.  In a game-changer for the legal fight over same-sex marriage that gives credence to opponents' "slippery slope" arguments, a federal judge has now ruled that the legal reasoning for same-sex marriage means that laws against polygamy are likewise unconstitutional.  In his 91-page opinion in Brown v. Buhman, on Dec. 13, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups struck down Utah's law making polygamy a crime.  In so doing, he may have opened Pandora's Box.

Same-Sex Weddings 17 Percent of Washington Marriages.  Gay weddings made up 17 percent of marriages in Washington this past year, the first year gay marriages were legal in the state, state officials reported Wednesday [12/4/2013].

Croatians overwhelmingly vote against same-sex marriage in a referendum.  A majority of Croatians voted in a referendum Sunday [12/1/2013] to ban gay marriages in what is a major victory for the Catholic Church-backed conservatives in the European Union's newest nation.

Pennsylvania pastor expects to be defrocked for gay wedding.  Frank Schaefer gets to keep calling himself a Methodist pastor — at least for the next 30 days.  The United Methodist clergyman convicted of breaking church law for officiating at his son's same-sex wedding was suspended late Tuesday [11/26/2013], and ordered by a jury of his fellow pastors to surrender his credentials in a month if he can't bring himself to adhere to the laws of the church's Book of Discipline.

Lawmakers approve gay marriage in Illinois.  Lawmakers approved gay marriage Tuesday [11/5/2013] in a historic vote that saw supporters overcome cultural, racial and geographic divides and put Illinois in line with a growing number of states that have extended the right to wed to same-sex couples.

Obamas 'overjoyed' as Illinois moves to OK gay marriage.  In the wake of the Illinois state House's vote Tuesday [11/5/2013] to approve gay marriage, President Obama said that he and first lady Michelle Obama are "overjoyed for all the committed couples in Illinois whose love will now be as legal as ours."  Mr. Obama's home state is now expected to become the 15th to legalize same-sex unions after the bill heads to the Democrat-controlled state Senate, where the measure almost surely will pass.

Chris Christie drops gay marriage challenge.  Gov. Chris Christie dropped his appeal to legalized same-sex marriages on Monday [10/21/2013], hours after gay couples began immediately taking advantage of a court ruling that compelled the state to become the 14th in the nation to recognize same-sex nuptials.

N.J. offices add hours for marriage sign up.  City halls in several New Jersey cities and towns are adding extra office hours over the weekend to accept marriage license applications now that same-sex marriage has been given the green light by the state's highest court.

Does Faith = Hate?  This summer's Windsor decision from the Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, but it did not declare a constitutional right to gay marriage.  Yet even Maggie Gallagher, the country's most tireless and high-profile opponent of same-sex marriage, now believes such an outcome is a foregone conclusion.  "It's clear that the courts are going to shut down the marriage debate and impose gay marriage uniformly," she says.  "There is not yet a unified sense of where we go from here, except for this:  there is an accelerating awareness that the consequence of marriage equality is going to be extremely negative for traditionalist Christians."

CA Law Extends Insurance to Fertility Treatments for Same-Sex, Unmarried Couples.  A new California law signed by Governor Jerry Brown and set to go into effect in January 2014 gives homosexual and unmarried couples the right to have their fertility treatments covered by insurance.  Heterosexual married couples were already covered.

The Editor asks...
Why would same-sex couples care about feritility?

Brown signs bill to allow children more than two legal parents.  Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Friday that will allow children in California to have more than two legal parents, a measure opposed by some conservative groups as an attack on the traditional family.  Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) said he authored the measure to address the changes in family structure in California, including situations in which same-sex couples have a child with an opposite-sex biological parent.

Pope Francis excommunicates pro-gay marriage priest. He's not the liberal the media wants.  Actually what the Pope was saying was that he wants the Church to talk more about what it's for than what it's against.  But that doesn't mean it won't still be against those things that contradict its teachings and traditions.  Just ask Greg Reynolds of Melbourne — a priest who appears to have been both defrocked and excommunicated because of his radical views on women clergy and gay marriage.

Judge: Civil union doesn't allow Kentucky woman to avoid testifying against same-sex partner.  A Kentucky judge has ruled that the same-sex partner of a woman charged with murder must testify against her and isn't protected by the husband-wife privilege under state law.

Sodomy-based Marriage "legalized" in all 50 states by a Bureaucratic Tyrant.  In an almost unnoticed development, the Labor Department this week ordered all employers in the United States, whether they operate in a state that recognizes gay marriage or not, to give health benefits, pension benefits, and 401(k) privileges to the "spouses" of homosexuals.  Tom Perez, the labor secretary, made it clear that this ruling applies in all 50 states, not just the 13 which have foolishly recognized marriage based on the infamous crime against nature.  Thus same-sex marriage has now been imposed by bureaucratic fiat on the 37 states who have refused to recognize it.

Football analyst fired for criticizing homosexuality.  Fox Sports fired college football analyst Craig James last Monday [9/9/2013] after a video surfaced in which he said he opposed homosexual civil unions.

Gay Inmates in California Can Get Married.  With the demise of Proposition 8 — the gay marriage ban — gay inmates in California can get married to their same-sex partners, the Associated Press has reported.  In an August 30 memo, state prison officials stated that due to the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that "effectively invalidated" Proposition 8, they "must accept and process applications for a same-sex marriage between an inmate and a non-incarcerated person in the community, in the same manner as they do between opposite sex couples."

V.A. to Provide Spousal Benefits to Gays, Administration Says.  The Obama administration on Wednesday [9/4/2013] escalated its effort to dismantle federal barriers to same-sex marriages, announcing that the Department of Veterans Affairs would immediately begin providing spousal benefits to gay men and lesbians despite a federal statute that limits such benefits to veterans' spouses who are "of the opposite sex."

Justice Ginsburg to officiate at same-sex wedding.  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will officiate at a same-sex wedding this weekend in what is believed to be a first for a member of the nation's highest court.

Churches changing bylaws after gay marriage ruling.  Worried they could be sued by gay couples, some churches are changing their bylaws to reflect their view that the Bible allows only marriage between one man and one woman.

California Supreme Court rejects bid to revive Prop. 8.  The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday [8/14/2013] to revive Proposition 8, ending the last remaining legal challenge to same-sex marriage in the state.  Meeting in closed session, the state high court rejected arguments by ProtectMarriage, Proposition 8's sponsors, that only an appellate court could overturn a statewide law.

DOD: Gay Troops Will Get Extra Time Off to Go to Same-Sex Marriage States and Get Hitched.  The U.S. Defense Department announced on Wednesday that it will make "spousal and family benefits" available no later than Sept. 3, 2013, regardless of sexual orientation, for all service members who can provide a valid marriage certificate.  And what about same-sex military couples who live in a state where same-sex marriage is not allowed?  No problem.

Maternity, sick leave for gay spouses OK'd at Labor Dept.  Urged by President Obama to extend sweeping federal benefits to legally married same-sex couples following a court victory for gay rights, the Department of Labor Friday told employees that spousal leave for maternity and long-term illness will be included with other federal benefits like retirement.  Newly-installed Labor Secretary Thomas Perez is moving swiftly to provide benefits to the spouses of gay and lesbian employees now that the Defense of Marriage Act is dead, the result of a June Supreme Court decision.

Federal judge orders Ohio to recognize gay marriage performed in Maryland.  Needless to say, if other courts follow this lead, we'll have coast-to-coast legal gay marriage as a matter of Full Faith and Credit with the only limitation on gay couples their ability to travel to a pro-SSM state temporarily to get hitched. The Windsor decision that the court cites here in support of its ruling held that Section 3 of DOMA, which bars the federal government from recognizing gay marriages performed in pro-SSM states, is unconstitutional.

Leftist law professor says gay marriage likely to lead to legalized incest, polygamy.  In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's two recent rulings validating gay marriage, a Boston College Law School professor has come out and admitted what gay marriage adversaries have long argued:  incest and polygamy are just around the bend.

Forced To Live In Obama's World Of Fantasy.  The most difficult of times are when we are forced to live in the fantasy world of those granted the power to govern.  Obama's primary fantasy is Marxism and it is summed up in his belief that a country prospers when it "redistributes" wealth from those who have prospered to those who may not even wish to work. [...] By Marxist standards, Obama was successful in the way the auto industry, banking sector, and, of course, the nation's health system were essentially nationalized.  Yet another of Obama's fantasies was rubber-stamped by the Supreme Court's decision that Americans are now expected — required — to accept that it is permissible and reasonable for a man to marry a man and a woman to marry a woman.

Playing Fast and Loose with Marriage and the Constitution.  [Scroll down]  Scalia then gets to the rationale behind the high court's declaring DOMA unconstitutional:  "The majority has declared open season on any law that (in the opinion of the law's opponents and any panel of like-minded federal judges) can be characterized as mean-spirited ... It is one thing for a society to elect change; it is another for a court of law to impose change by adjudging those who oppose it hostes humani generis, enemies of the human race."  The high court ruling, therefore, redefines heterosexuals as breeding stock in the service of humanity-extinguishing homosexual, same-sex unions.

Gay divorce, the next frontier.  [I]f Pennsylvania doesn't recognize you as being married, its courts have no authority to divorce you.

Appellate court's decision to immediately permit gay marriages is challenged.  While California county clerks process marriage applications for gay couples Sunday [6/30/2013], attorneys for supporters of Proposition 8 are waiting for a response to the emergency appeal they filed Saturday evening with the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the rule of law has not been followed.

Not So Fast: New Supreme Court Filing as California Jumps the Gun on Gay Marriage.  Lawyers for traditional marriage today [6/30/2013] filed an emergency application with Justice Anthony Kennedy at the Supreme Court, asking him to order that California officials not commence gay marriages unless and until they have the lawful power to do so.  California has jumped to resume what is still illegal activity — which is how the controversy started in California in 2004.

Even Sodom and Gomorrah didn't have parades in the streets to celebrate their perversion.
Candidates Strut Their Stuff at Post-DOMA Pride Parade.  Days after the dismantlement of the Defense of Marriage Act in a landmark Supreme Court ruling, the celebration is still going strong in the streets of New York City.  Thousands of people flooded Fifth Avenue this afternoon, decked out in every imaginable shade, waving rainbow flags in varying amounts of clothing for the city's annual gay pride parade.

Polygamy — another love that now dares speak its name again.  Long ago, and far away, we predicted that once the legal standard for equal protection of the law as to marriage became "love" and consenting adults, without regard to gender, there would be no rational basis upon which to limit the number to two.

Benefits extended to same-sex spouses of federal workers.  Same-sex spouses of federal employees will be able to take advantage of their partner's health insurance and retirement benefits, according to new federal guidance issued on Friday [6/28/2013.  Just two days after the Supreme Court gutted a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government is taking steps to extend benefits to spouses of all of its employees, regardless of their sex.  Elaine Kaplan, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, sent a memorandum to heads of agencies and departments across the federal government outlining the benefits to which same-sex spouses are now entitled. Among those are healthcare coverage, life insurance and retirement benefits.

Nationalized gay marriage, now inevitable.  Under the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriages even in states that have legalized it.  This week, the Supreme Court ruled DOMA unconstitutional.  There are two possible grounds, distinct and in some ways contradictory, for doing so.  The curious thing about the court's DOMA decision is that it contains both rationales.

Worse Than It Sounds, and It Cannot Be Cabined.  These decisions, handed down by the Court today, [...] lay down the predicates for litigation that will clearly unfold now, and with short steps sure to come, virtually all of the barriers to same-sex marriage in this country can be swept away.  Even constitutional amendments, passed by so many of the states, can be overridden now.

ACLU Hires GOProud Director to Propel Same-Sex Marriage Outreach 'Particularly' to Tea Party.  The American Civil Liberties Union has hired the outgoing executive director of Republican gay-rights group GOProud to lead an effort to bring GOPs on the side of same-sex marriage.  Jimmy LaSalvia, the founder of GOProud, will work with the ACLU to do outreach to gay conservatives, "particularly within the Tea Party," the ACLU said.  LaSalvia will be joining another ACLU hire in the $10 million nationwide campaign, Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) senior presidential campaign adviser Steve Schmidt.

Pentagon Extends Benefits to Same-Sex Spouses.  Hours after the Supreme Court ruling, the Pentagon announced that it would move to quickly extend all benefits given to opposite sex spouses to same-sex couples including medical, dental and housing allowances.  Defense officials also said that same sex spouses would have the same rights to be buried alongside war veterans buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Obama calls US 'better off' after Defense of Marriage Act overturned.  President Obama on Wednesday [6/26/2013] praised the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, calling the nation "better off" in the wake of the historic ruling.  "I applaud the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act," Obama said aboard Air Force One, en route to a weeklong trip in Africa.  "This was discrimination enshrined in law.  It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people.  The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it."

The Editor says...
Interesting.  Mr. Obama doesn't like "discrimination enshrined in law."  How does he feel about affirmative action, hate crime laws, and reverse discrimination?

Burial at Arlington Now Among Benefits for Military's Same-Sex Spouses.  Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the Pentagon "welcomes" the Supreme Court's gutting of the Defense of Marriage Act and "will immediately begin the process" of making the same benefits available to all military spouses, regardless of sexual orientation, as soon as possible.  "That is now the law, and it is the right thing to do," Hagel said in a statement issued on Wednesday.  "The policies governing burial at Arlington National Cemetery will apply equally to same-sex and opposite-sex spouses," the announcement said.

National Cathedral Rings Bells to Cheer Gay Marriage.  The National Cathedral is pealing its church bells, along with some other Washington churches, to celebrate the Supreme Court's decisions on gay marriage.

Who Are the Real Bigots on Gay Marriage?  Justice Anthony Kennedy did the cause of gay marriage no favors when he ruled that the purpose of laws that uphold traditional marriage was to "disparage and injure" same-sex couples.  By casting support for traditional marriage falsely as bigotry, he undermined the legitimacy of the holding in the case.  Worse, he implictly excused the real — not imagined — bigotry of some gay marriage supporters against their opponents.

Supreme Court: Defenders of Traditional Marriage are Enemies of the Human Race.  In one fell swoop, the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Windsor killed the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), thereby assuring that same-sex "marriages" recognized under State laws must be treated as marriages under Federal law.  The immediate result of the majority holding is to open up to the partners of same-sex "marriage" thousands of benefits, including estate tax exemptions, social security benefits, the ability to file joint tax returns, and so forth.  But that result is not the worst of it.  What is worse is what the opinion forebodes.

Supreme Court decision triggers massive overhaul of regulations.  The Supreme Court's decision to overturn the ban on federal benefits for gay couples is sure to trigger a mammoth effort to change hundreds of regulations and laws across the breadth of government.  The scope of the high court's ruling goes far beyond Social Security checks and joint tax returns.  Its implications extend to everything from policies at the Pentagon to the immigration reform bill now being debated in Congress.  Within hours of the ruling, President Obama directed Attorney General Eric Holder and other members of his Cabinet to begin poring over relevant federal statutes and regulations that might need to be adjusted in light of the 5-4 decision to strike down a key provision of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Obama: Gay couples no longer treated as 'lesser class of people'.  President Obama placed congratulatory phone calls to the gay rights activists who prevailed in a pair of Supreme Court cases Wednesday, telling them he was proud of their efforts and pleased that the Defense of Marriage Act and a ruling restricting gay marriage in California had been overturned.  "We're proud of you guys, and we're proud to have this in California," Obama told Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, the plaintiffs who challenged California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8.  The call, placed from Air Force One as the president and the first family traveled to Senegal, was broadcast live on MSNBC while the couple was being interviewed.

Utah polygamist family celebrating DOMA ruling, saying it could help in plural marriage cases.  Members of a Utah polygamist family lauded the U.S. Supreme Court's decision Wednesday to strike down a provision in the federal Defense of Marriage Act, saying it's a step toward changing perceptions of people like them as "second-class citizens."

The Editor says...
Of course it will help the polygamists; it will also help the people who want to marry horses and sheep.

Supreme Court strikes down DOMA provision, paves way for gay marriage in California.  In a big day for gay-rights advocates, the Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down a federal provision denying benefits to legally married gay couples and issued a separate ruling that paves the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California.  Cheers erupted on the steps of the high court, as the rulings were handed down.  The latter decision did not speak to the constitutionality of gay marriage bans in California, or in the country as a whole.  The court avoided a broad ruling, and rather, determined that the defenders of California's Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage did not have the standing to appeal lower court rulings against the ban.

Now the defense of marriage begins.  A couple of hours after the decisions were announced, President Obama's Organizing for Action sent an email to supporters stating that the rulings were "a call to action."  "This is a fight we will win," Mr. Obama's team announced.  "We will go state by state if we have to.  And OFA is going to be there every step of the way."  With each court decision in favor of same-sex marriage, the country takes another step away from the vision of our Founders, who understood that American exceptionalism is rooted in Judeo-Christian values — values that include the biblical definition of marriage.  They understood that our freedom is based not on the liberty to do what we please, but on liberty that comes from God, who teaches that only a virtuous people can remain free.

Obama: I won't make churches conduct gay marriages.  President Obama, in his statement hailing the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act, promised that he wouldn't try to force religious institutions to conduct gay marriages.  "On an issue as sensitive as this, knowing that Americans hold a wide range of views based on deeply held beliefs, maintaining our nation's commitment to religious freedom is also vital," Obama said.  "How religious institutions define and consecrate marriage has always been up to those institutions.  Nothing about this decision — which applies only to civil marriages — changes that."

Scalia: 'High-Handed' Kennedy Has Declared Us 'Enemies of the Human Race'.  Dissenting from this morning's opinion on the Defense of Marriage Act, Justice Antonin Scalia — as expected — holds nothing back.  In a ripping dissent, Scalia says that Justice Anthony Kennedy and his colleagues in the majority have resorted to calling opponents of gay marriage "enemies of the human race."

Right revives effort to amend Constitution to ban gay marriage.  House conservatives will seek to reintroduce a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage following the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act on Wednesday [6/26/2013].  Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) said he and other lawmakers would begin efforts to revive the Federal Marriage Amendment in the coming days.

What's wrong with Same-Sex Marriage?  [Scroll down]  Unfortunately, the institution of marriage is currently being attacked by several forces that, deliberately or inadvertently, are destroying it and thereby undermining our society. [...] But whatever the causes, the debasement of the concepts of marriage and family will destroy us.  Lycurgus achieved it in ancient Sparta and produced a nation of racist brutes.  The USSR tried it, with partial success, in the last century and begat a dysfunctional society that is now painfully groping its way back to normality.  These are hardly encouraging precedents.

Next Society-Wrecking Agenda Item: 'Monogamy Is Unnatural'.  Brightening up my Monday morning (not) is an item carried at CNN.com last Friday whose headline basically tells loyal, faithful spouses that they're nature-defying freaks who in the vast majority of cases are ignorantly honoring an institution which doesn't make any sense.  Meghan Laslocky doesn't have the gumption to use those words.  But what else are we supposed to conclude from a column entitled "Face it:  Monogamy is unnatural"?

Holder: More to Be Done for LGBTs, No Matter How SCOTUS Rules on DOMA, Prop 8.  Attorney General Eric Holder hosted a "pride" event for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders at the Justice Department on Tuesday, telling attendees that the homosexual agenda will be a "priority" during the remainder of his time as the nation's top cop.  "The fact remains that across the country far too many LBGT Americans suffer discrimination each and every day," Holder said.

Censoring the 'Anti-Gay' Viewpoint.  The media elites have never been less interested in objectivity than they are right now on "gay marriage."  They don't wear rainbow flags on their lapels when they appear on television, but the coverage speaks for itself. [...] In many corners of the liberal media, the space for a social conservative to argue against "marriage equality" is vanishing before our eyes.  It becomes twice as difficult [as] more and more anchors and reporters come out and declare themselves gay, and then the gay lobby expects those journalists to perform with perfect obedience to their agenda.

Same-Sex Marriage Hits Red Light in Blue Illinois.  What same-sex marriage advocates won in the Illinois Senate on Valentine's Day 2013 was just reversed.  After weeks and months of hard work to accomplish what should have been easy, gay Democrat sponsor Greg Harris could not muster the votes, while Democratic Speaker of the House, Michael Madigan, did not even call for a vote to establish same sex marriage in Illinois.

RI Bishop on Gay Marriage: We've Entered 'Post-Christian Era'.  Bishop Thomas Tobin, head of the Catholic diocese of Providence, said the "gay marriage" bill signed into law in Rhode Island by its governor, Lincoln Chafee, constituted a "new challenge of the post-Christian era into which, clearly, we have now entered."

Rep. Paul Ryan Now Backs Adoption of Children by Homosexuals.  Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), the 2012 Republican vice presidential candidate, used to oppose adoption of children by homosexuals but now says it is okay for gays to adopt kids and that he would vote to support such a policy.  The Catholic faith, which Ryan professes, teaches that such adoptions "are contrary to the divine plan" of God and Pope Francis has said that gay adoption is a form of discrimination against children.

AG: Same-sex marriage benefits unconstitutional.  Local governments and school districts that offer marriage benefits to same-sex partners are violating the state constitution, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott stated in an opinion Monday [4/29/2013].

Has The Gay Marriage Slippery Slope Started? Slate Writer Calls for Legalizing Polygamy.  We are constantly reassured that recognizing gay marriage will not lead to the recognition of other unions, such as polygamous or incestuous ones.  As a conservative who supports gay marriage, and has done so for quite some time, I bought into these reassurances in good faith.  Now I am starting to wonder if I've been hoodwinked.

Fighting for Gay Marriage Involves Lying.  As a skeptic on whether government redefinition of marriage is a good idea, I find the people who have thought quite a bit about it — on either side — far and away the most interesting.  They alone seem to talk about things beyond the cliches.

A Response to Bill O'Reilly on Homosexuality and Marriage.  Bill O'Reilly's cavalier attitude toward something so serious is quite astonishing.  And, as his April 3 nationally televised tussle with conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham reveals, his attitude on this matter is also intellectually superficial.  This is not an issue for Americans of any persuasion to take lightly.  It seems to me that serious fundamental issues of law and justice are involved.

Is Traditional Marriage Toast?  Gay marriage does not mean, at its core, equal access to marriage.  It means the redefinition of marriage, its transvaluation.  It means expanding and swelling marriage until it bursts at the seams, leaving something unrecognizable.

Gay Marriage: Bill O'Reilly Misses the Point.  Before central control out of Washington was imposed in 2003, policy arguments for criminalizing homosexual acts were won explicitly "with that."  And because of "that," the idea of gay marriage has been unthinkable throughout the history of the American nation. [...] Barack Obama was for gay marriage (1996) before he was against it (2004 Senate race; 2008 presidential race) before he was for it again (2012).

Michigan gay marriage backers urged to skip Communion.  A Detroit professor and legal adviser to the Vatican says Catholics who promote gay marriage should not try to receive holy Communion, a key part of Catholic identity.  And the archbishop of Detroit, Allen Vigneron, said Sunday that Catholics who receive Communion while advocating gay marriage would "logically bring shame for a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury."

Definition Of Marriage; What Can We Learn From Islam?  In their eagerness to achieve their goals, the pro gay marriage enthusiasts are marching towards what they perceive as progress and modernity while ignoring lessons from other cultures, history, basic human nature and the horrific and negative unintended consequences of redefining "marriage".

"Married" Homosexuals Go to Trial for Raping Adopted Boys.  Here is something you will be seeing a lot more of, as relentless media brainwashing allows liberals to ram through the homosexual agenda.  But don't expect it to lead off the evening news.

Keywords:  serial rape, incest, sodomy, pedophiles, Mark 9:42, Luke 17:2.
Gay Connecticut couple accused of raping adopted children will face trial.  The case of a same-sex Connecticut couple accused of repeatedly raping and abusing two of their nine adopted boys is headed for trial.  Married couple George Harasz and Douglas Wirth of Glastonbury were supposed to be sentenced Friday [4/5/2013] in Hartford Superior Court under a plea deal, but instead withdrew from their agreement with prosecutors.

How to fight the left-wing hate machine.  Judging from the oral arguments in the two gay marriage cases before the Supreme Court this week, it appears the federal Defense of Marriage Act will be ruled unconstitutional on federalism grounds, and that the court will punt on California's same-sex marriage law, effectively allowing every state to define marriage as it wishes.  That is not good enough for the progressive movement.  Progressives want marriage to be redefined in every state to include same-sex relationships.  And they will not stop there, either.

Judicial Tyranny?  In response to the court's sodomy ruling last term, conservatives are talking about passing a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.  It's really touching how conservatives keep trying to figure out what constitutional mechanisms are available to force the courts to acknowledge the existence of the Constitution.  But what is the point of a constitutional amendment when judges won't read the Constitution we already have?

Media biased against traditional marriage, says advocate.  [Brian] Brown:  "This is the potential Roe v. Wade of our time, and you turn on cable and it's all about Tiger Woods saying winning takes care of everything."  More:  "I think on the cable networks, the coverage has not been great at all.  Even on Fox News, we find it difficult to get broadcast time airing our views."  Though Brown notes that he was on Fox last weekend, his organization and allies are having increasing difficulty getting equal time for their views vis-a-vis opposing ones.

Same-Sex Marriage Threatens Judicial Imperialism.  In the last half-century American society has undergone nothing less than a social revolution.  The left would have us believe this upheaval bubbled up from the masses, but most of the radical change was handed down from on high by elites — in Hollywood, the press, academe, and, not least, the legal profession.  To take one area, censorship of word and image, the hard-charging attorney who in the '50s and '60s litigated smut into art, Charles Rembar, 45 years ago admitted that First Amendment protection of sexually explicit materials was something very new.

Legislating from the Bench on Gay Marriage.  A political legislature known as the U.S. Supreme Court held a purely-legislative hearing about homosexual marriage on March 26.  The hearing debated raw policy preferences and speculated about benefits for and against homosexual marriage.  To anyone trained in the law, it violated almost every law and rule of the U.S. Supreme Court.  Only a lawyer willing to 'tell' on his profession can reveal how disturbing was the High Court's oral argument in Hollingsworth v. Perry.

Obama's Actions Over Law Questioned.  President Barack Obama believes the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, but continues to enforce it.  That stance came in for serious criticism Wednesday from conservative members of the Supreme Court, and led the justices to tackle some thorny procedural questions.

A Social Experiment Without Science Behind It.  The claimed right to same-sex marriage is not in the Constitution or in the court's precedents, so the court must decide whether to impose a new law making marriage into a new and different institution.  The justices are unlikely to take so momentous a step unless they are persuaded that granting this new right to same-sex couples will not harm children or ultimately undermine the health of our society.

Gay Marriage Is the Media's Vehicle, Destination Is to Destroy the Church.  If anyone wants to argue that the same government currently forcing religious institutions to purchase the abortion pill through ObamaCare will not eventually use civil rights violations in order to attempt to force the Church to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies — good luck with that.  But this would have been unthinkable five years ago.

Civil Rights Activist: 'No Comparison' Between Civil Rights, Gay Rights Movement.  Civil rights activist Rev. William Owens, who is founder and president of the Coalition of African-American Pastors, said Tuesday [3/26/2013] there is no comparison between the civil rights movement and the gay community's fight for same-sex marriage.

Conservative justices rip Obama.  The Supreme Court's conservative justices on Wednesday [3/27/2013] were sharply critical of President Obama's approach to a federal law on same-sex marriage.  Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder decided in 2011 that the federal Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional.  They quit defending it in the courts, but directed federal agencies to continue to comply with the law.

'Til the Supreme Court Do Us Part.  America's cultural and media elites are attempting to browbeat the High Court into coercing the country into recognizing same-sex marriage by casting opponents as bigots for holding a position that President Obama held less than a year ago.  This bigotry label apparently applies even to those who favor gay marriage but would rather settle the matter democratically, state to state.

Huckabee: Evangelicals Will Walk if GOP Backs Gay Marriage.  In an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV, former Arkansas Gov. Huckabee — and [sic] ordained Southern Baptist minister — was asked if he sees the GOP ever pivoting and backing gay marriage.  "They might.  And if they do, they're going to lose a large part of their base because evangelicals will take a walk," he responds.

Is It Time to Legalize Heterosexual Marriage?  There is a hollow quality to the current debate over homosexual marriage.  Socially conservative pundits argue that legalization of homosexual marriage would be destructive to the institution of traditional heterosexual marriage.  But nowhere is it mentioned that the institution of traditional heterosexual marriage itself is rapidly becoming an antique, largely due to the proliferation of no-fault divorce laws beginning in the 1970s.

The Price of Gay Marriage: The Galvanic Corrosion of Language.  One of the more incomprehensible aspects of the gay marriage movement has been the spectacle of well-educated academics, plaintiff's lawyers, politicians, judges and Protestant clergymen designing tortured arguments for deconstructing natural law, human biology, the history of civilization, language and logic.  On the other hand, creating a new class of civil rights amidst claims of discrimination is easy when your world view equates justice with moral equivalence, accompanied by enabling the slow corruption of language.

Clintons' Progress.  No progressive 100 years ago could have imagined their ideology and Democratic Party embracing gay marriage.  Woodrow Wilson and William Jennings Bryan are rolling over in their graves.  [In fact], merely a decade-and-a-half ago, the entirety of the Democratic Party supported traditional marriage, codified under law.  And yet, Democrats turned on a dime in faithful obedience to Barack Obama's mountaintop-message sanctifying gay marriage a year ago.

The Editor says...
No progressive 100 years ago could have imagined the word "gay" meaning "homosexual."

Gay marriage? These voices say 'No' and explain why.  At times, it can seem a lonely battle.  Outspent and lately out-hustled by highly organized gay rights organizations, opponents have struggled to get their story out.  They're portrayed as bigots, likened to the racists and sexists of yesteryear.  Some have been compared with hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan.  For men of the cloth such as Roman Catholic Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, nothing could be further from the truth.

The Price of Gay Marriage: The Galvanic Corrosion of Language.  One of the more incomprehensible aspects of the gay marriage movement has been the spectacle of well-educated academics, plaintiff's lawyers, politicians, judges and Protestant clergymen designing tortured arguments for deconstructing natural law, human biology, the history of civilization, language and logic.  On the other hand, creating a new class of civil rights amidst claims of discrimination is easy when your world view equates justice with moral equivalence, accompanied by enabling the slow corruption of language.

New Pope: Same-Sex Marriage 'A Machination of the Father of Lies'.  In 2010, [Pope Francis] wrote, "Let's not be naïve, we're not talking about a simple political battle; it is a destructive pretension against the plan of God.  We are not talking about a mere bill, but rather a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God."

Rob Portman's gay marriage epiphany.  You've probably heard that Sen. Rob Portman reversed his position on gay marriage, citing the fact that he recently found out his son was gay.  Not everyone on the left is celebrating Portman's epiphany.  In fact, some observers are calling it selfish.

Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman reveals son is gay, flips to support gay marriage.  A top GOP senator's announcement that he now backs same-sex marriage after learning his son is gay has again stirred the political pot on a contentious issue bedeviling Republicans as they try to reach a younger generation of voters.  Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, who was a finalist to be Mitt Romney's running mate last year, said he wants "all of my children" to benefit from marriage like he has.

The Editor says...
It's your son who's headed the wrong way, Senator.  You should change your son, not your position.  If you want to "reach out to younger voters," tell them about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.  It's not pretty.  Moral standards don't change, even if you discover that your family members are immoral.

DOJ: Children Do Not Need — and Have No Right to — Mothers.  The Obama Justice Department is arguing in the United States Supreme Court that children do not need mothers.  The Justice Department's argument on the superfluity of motherhood is presented in a brief the Obama administration filed in the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which challenges the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the California ballot initiative that amended California's Constitution to say that marriage involves only one man and one woman.

It's too bad we can't impeach Bill Clinton again.  In a Washington Post op-ed, Bill Clinton argues that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which he signed into law, is unconstitutional.  This raises an obvious question:  Why did Clinton sign an unconstitutional piece of legislation into law?  As slick as he is, Clinton can't provide an answer.

Obama's Random Mutations.  Barack Obama's position on gay marriage hasn't so much "evolved" as revolved.  In 1996, as a state Senate candidate in Illinois, he told Outlines (which became the Windy City Times), a gay magazine based on Chicago's North Side, that he supported "legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight any effort to prohibit such marriages."  Even some on the left acknowledge that he and his aides have been lying about his supposed evolution on gay marriage for years.

Heterosexuals Need Not Apply: DOD Extends Benefits Only to Gay Unmarried 'Partners'.  Outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has unilaterally issued a directive stating that the U.S. military will now extend certain benefits to unmarried domestic partners that were formerly reserved for married couples — but will only do so if the domestic partners certify in writing to the Department of Defense that they are of the same sex.  Heterosexual unmarried partners do not qualify for the benefits — and thus are treated unequally by Panetta's directive on the basis of their sexual orientation.

Florida judge approves birth certificate listing three parents.  A Florida judge has approved the adoption of a 22-month-old baby girl that will list three people as parents on her birth certificate — a married lesbian couple and a gay man.

Selective enforcement.  A military chaplains' advocacy group criticized President Barack Obama earlier this week for suggesting his administration might ignore provisions of a new law that offers religious liberty protections to service members.  The protections, approved by Congress as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, guarantee chaplains will not be forced to perform "marriage" ceremonies for same-sex couples or be punished for refusing to do so.

Same-sex marriage affects everybody.
Oregon AG Investigates Baker's Refusal to Make Wedding Cake for Lesbians.  The Oregon attorney general's office is investigating a Portland-area bakery after a lesbian couple filed a complaint alleging that the owner discriminated against them when he declined to make a wedding cake for their same-sex "marriage."  Aaron Klein, who owns and operates Sweet Cakes by Melissa bakery along with his wife in Gresham, Ore., said he received notice of the complaint last week from the Oregon Department of Justice.

Obama calls Conscience Clause for Military Chaplains "Ill-Advised".  Religious liberty advocates are concerned after President Obama said a conscience clause that would allow military chaplains to opt-out of performing gay marriages is "unnecessary and ill-advised."  "Every member of our armed forces should be able to serve without surrendering their beliefs," said Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty.

The Editor says...
"Every member of our armed forces" is a group that includes the chaplains.  What about "surrendering their beliefs"?

Pope says future of mankind at stake over gay marriage.  "In the fight for the family, the very notion of being — of what being human really means — is being called into question," the Pope said in Italian during an end-of-year speech.  "The question of the family ... is the question of what it means to be a man, and what it is necessary to do to be true men," he said.

New Jersey Liberal Threatens to Kill Republicans.  Anyone who has observed the hateful rhetoric that Democratic politicians and media figures have directed at Republicans over the last few years must have wondered whether Democrats' over-the-top hate speech would lead to violence.  So far, mercifully, it hasn't; not lethal violence, anyway.  But a pro-gay marriage activist named Ronnie McMillian, from Hawthorne, New Jersey, shows how liberal loyalists can be whipped into a homicidal frenzy by liberal hate speech.

Seattle Sets Up Five 'Chapels' For Same-Sex 'Weddings' Inside City Hall.  Citizens of Seattle, Washington not only voted to have the state redefine marriage to be between members of the same sex, but now they have erected special "chapels" inside Seattle City Hall to accommodate homosexuals who are all too happy to pervert not only sex, but now the institution of marriage.

Marriage and Self-Government.  On Friday afternoon [12/7/2012], the Supreme Court announced that it will hear arguments in two cases that are at the center of the same-sex-marriage controversy.  One concerns the power of people in the states to govern themselves on the question, the other the complementary power of Congress to define "marriage" for purposes of federal law.

Supreme Court will hear gay marriage cases.  The Supreme Court will take up California's ban on same-sex marriage, a case that could give the justices the chance to rule on whether gay Americans have the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals.

Supreme Court takes no action on same-sex marriage cases.  The court's nine justices met in private last Friday [11/30/2012] to consider whether to review challenges to the U.S. Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal benefits to married same-sex couples, and to California's gay marriage ban, known as Proposition 8.

West Point chapel hosts first same-sex marriage.  Penelope Gnesin and Brenda Sue Fulton, a West Point graduate, exchanged vows in the regal church in a ceremony conducted by a senior Army chaplain.

Washington State to Eliminate "Bride" & "Groom" on Marriage Certificates.  The words "bride" and "groom" — along with "husband" and "wife" are about to become archaic language in Washington state as officials prepare to remove the terms from marriage and divorce certificates.  Tim Church, a spokesman for the Wash. state Health Department, told Fox News they will likely be removing those words in favor of more gender neutral terms.

"Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment."*

"The goal of the radical homosexual agenda is to eliminate any and all laws regulating consensual sexual conduct.  This would mean the elimination of laws banning polygamy as well as those that ban sex between adults and minors."

- Mathew D. Staver,   
President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel   

"Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor [the] covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God."

- I Corinthians 6:9-10