Category Archives: Marriage & Family

Care: Lady Howe said, “My Bill will help parents protect their children from access pornography by requiring internet Service Providers and Mobile Phone Operators to block pornography at the network level unless the customer buying access to the internet or mobile network is 18 or over and asks them to remove the block through an opt-in mechanism.”

News-Leader: The ACLU said the Camdenton R-III School District has agreed to stop blocking the sites, submit to monitoring for 18 months to confirm compliance and pay $125,000 in legal fees and costs.

Jennifer Roback Morse at The Blaze: Redefining marriage raises questions that deserve to be fully aired. Trying to discredit skeptics changes the subject. Equating all disagreement with evidence of bias lowers the intellectual level of the discussion. These rhetorical tactics do not do the gay lobby any credit. In fact, responsible people of all parties should shun these strategies and make room for honest debate on this momentous question of changing the fundamental structure of our most important social institution.

NECN.com: North Carolina, the last state in the South without a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, can play a key role in the national debate over the topic, a prominent Southern Baptist leader told an audience in Wake Forest on Wednesday. Richard Land, president of the convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission . . .

Washington Post: . . . the poll by the independent firm OpinionWorks found that 43 percent of registered voters would vote to make same-sex marriage illegal, while 40 percent would vote to make it legal.

Houston Chronicle: “Parents claim in court that their son’s fourth-grade teacher at Houston’s Trinity Lutheran School had her class exchange letters with an accused child molester without telling them, and he shared the letters with other jail inmates convicted of sex crimes against children, the Courthouse News Service is reporting.”

AP: A West Texas jury has found a former lieutenant to polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs guilty of bigamy . . .

HSLDA reports on the case of Scott and Jodi Ferris.

Daily-Jeff.com: Gay marriage advocates submitted close to 2,400 petition signatures to state officials, with hopes of launching a drive to place the issue before voters in a coming general election.

San Francisco Chronicle: said Catherine Bessant, global technology and operations executive at the Charlotte, N.C., lender, in a video posted to YouTube this month. “Amendment One has the potential to have a disastrous effect on our ability to attract talent and keep talent in the state of North Carolina.”

Education News: Alabama’s ‘Education Options Act’ moves through public committee hearings as Governor Bentley pushes his education reform agenda.

Education News: South Carolina seeks to expand charter schools and give all students, whether homeschooled or chartered, access to sports as traditionally educated children.

Seattle Q13 Fox News (includes video): Last week Gov. Christine Gregoire was livid with the senate Republicans and their three Democratic supporters for reintroducing this idea.

NY Times: That lunch was a milestone in the dramatic evolution of a behind-the-scenes fund-raising network whose goal is to legalize same-sex marriage from coast to coast. This emerging group of donors is not quite like any other fund-raising network that has supported gay-related issues over the past 40 years. They come from Hollywood, yes, but also from Wall Street and Washington and the corporate world; there are Republicans as well as Democrats; and perhaps most strikingly, longtime gay organizers said, there has been an influx of contributions from straight donors unlike anything they have seen before.

AP: . . . citing the behavior of aggressive parents who swarmed into the tiny park last year, determined that their kids get an egg.

Baptist Press: Utah Gov. Gary Herbert vetoed a bill that would have prohibited sex education classes in public schools from teaching alternative lifestyles and giving detailed information about intercourse and contraception.

CNN: A federal immigration court judge in San Francisco put a deportation proceeding on hold Friday for a gay California man who is an undocumented immigrant and married to a U.S. citizen, the couple’s attorney said.

USA Today: The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles’ decision to rescind an Indiana gay rights advocacy group’s specialty license plates has created a statewide battle among state officials, conservation groups and gay rights organizations.

Washington Post: Obama’s top political advisers have held serious discussions with leading Democrats about the upsides and downsides of coming out for gay marriage before the fall election, a Democratic strategist who has discussed these matters directly with Obama’s campaign inner circle tells me.

Washington Blade: A gay former judge running for the office of Delaware Insurance Commissioner and a gay Realtor running for the State Senate in a district that includes the popular gay resort town of Rehoboth Beach . . .

Seattle Times: A national group opposed to gay marriage called Wednesday for a boycott of Starbucks in response to the company’s public support of a new same-sex marriage law in Washington state.

Huffington Post: “In all of his teachings about multiple things -– he never said that gay people should be condemned. I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies.”

NY Times: Senator James S. Alesi, one of four New York State Republicans who voted in favor of same-sex marriage last year, is unlikely to receive the nomination of the main Republican committee in his district, setting the stage for a difficult re-election race that could have implications in the fight for control of the State Senate.

One News Now: Starbucks officials see no impact of the company’s decision to endorse a same-gender “marriage” bill passed by lawmakers in Washington state.

HSLDA reports (includes audio).

AP: . . . administrators removed him as student body president after he promoted changes aimed at making the prom more inclusive to gay students.

Chicago Tribune: The former leader of a polygamist sect charged with marrying two women on the same day will go on trial in Texas on Wednesday, putting a spotlight on the rarely prosecuted crime of bigamy.

Charlotte Observer: Charlotte Bishop Peter Jugis and his Raleigh counterpart have criticized President Barack Obama’s opposition to the upcoming N.C. marriage amendment, calling his comments last week “a grave disappointment.”

UPI: Officials in a Delaware school district said a girl who was suspended last week for dyeing her hair pink is being allowed to return to class.

HSLDA: This coming Monday, March 26, the U.S. Supreme Court will notify HSLDA whether it has decided to hear the Loudermilk case concerning a homeschooling family’s right to home privacy.

WAVE3.com (includes video): Just how committed are you to your marriage? A new bill up for debate in Montgomery right now would give engaged couples the option of making it harder on themselves to get a divorce.

NHPR (includes audio): And today, communities of women are championing polyamory as an alternative lifestyle. Libby Copeland traces the pro-female history of polyamory for Slate.

NY Times: The conference, one of the largest ever gatherings of gay donors, is being organized by the Gill Action Fund, one of the country’s leading gay political organizations, which has played a quiet but pivotal role at the state level in recent years on gay marriage and other issues, including working to defeat lawmakers who oppose gay marriage.

Des Moines Register: Hundreds of conservative Christians crowded the Iowa Capitol this morning in favor of advancing a proposed state constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage.

Lisa McGirr at NY Times: In many of America’s once pristine suburbs, harbingers of inner-city blight — overgrown lots, boarded up windows, abandoned residences — are the new eyesores.

Tennessean: Tennessee lawmakers backed away from controversial legislation that would have further restricted discussions about homosexuality before high school, presumably ending the two-year battle over how much schoolchildren should be told.

Washington Post (AP): Maryland’s same-sex marriage debate may end up being decided in the voting booth, but Gov. Martin O’Malley told a conference on Catholicism and homosexuality Friday that he believes voters will come down on the side of human dignity.

Boston Globe: The House is voting this week whether to repeal New Hampshire’s gay marriage law and replace it with the civil unions law the state had in effect in 2008 and 2009.

ThirdCoastDigest.com: U.S. Rep. Tom Petri is proposing marriage as a means for low-income individuals to break the cycle of poverty. Petri (R-WI) is introducing a bill that will offer incentives for low-income people to work and marry, which he says they now evade to receive tax and government-supported benefits.

KCRG.com: Proponents of traditional marriage say they plan to keep the political heat on state lawmakers even though the chances of forcing action on a constitutional amendment to let voters decide whether marriage should be defined as only between one man and one woman likely will not get debated in the Iowa Senate this session.

Boston Herald: “While the president does not weigh in on every single ballot measure in every state, the record is clear that the president has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same-sex couples,” said Cameron French, his North Carolina campaign spokesman.

Jamie Whyte at WSJ (via Google): Even a strict separation of state and culture would probably fail to completely eliminate cultural conflict. “Live and let live” is a fine sentiment but not one that comes easily to us humans, whose social dispositions still seem to reflect our tribal ancestry. That is a pity. But the proper response of government officials is not to take sides in these tribal conflicts. It is to stop anyone from winning by force rather than by argument or good example.

Thomas Messner at the Heritage Foundation: As the U.S. Supreme Court recognized long ago, “the public is deeply interested” in maintaining the institution of marriage, because “it is the foundation of the family and of society” and without it “there would be neither civilization nor progress.” Marriage remains just as important to society today. Efforts to defend the core meaning of marriage as having something to do with mothers, fathers, and children should be coupled with efforts to strengthen marriage in general.

Harry R. Jackson, Jr. at Townhall: The largely white religious right is literally becoming a melting pot of diversity as far as this marriage issue is concerned. Huge numbers of blacks and Hispanics of faith are starting to feel that there is a “not so subtle” media attack on the nation’s most fundamental institutions. They realize that many movies and TV sitcoms have gone out of their way to express support of “so called” gay rights.

NCPA Policy Digest: One of the primary arguments made by opponents of school choice programs is that by allowing students to leave public schools, the fiscal security of those schools will inherently be made worse. In supporting this point, they emphasize that if a student leaves a school, many fixed costs still remain that will become more expensive per student, says Benjamin Scafidl, a fellow with the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.

http://www.denverpost.com/legislature/ci_20075397

Huffington Post: While many high-profile figures have publicly advocated for including strong language in the platform, the Obama campaign and the allied Democratic National Committee are searching for ways to split the difference: showing support for equality but stopping short of a full-fledged endorsement.

One News Now: Pro-family groups are ready to gather petitions to force a citizen vote to overturn the legalization of homosexual “marriage” in Washington.

Newark Post Online: The president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, Helen Foss, submitted a letter this week to Education Secretary Dr. Lillian Lowery asking that the Newark Charter School not be permitted to expand on the grounds of under representing minorities and low-income students due to its policy of not providing free and/or reduced price lunches to its students.

Texas Pastor’s Council: An inter-ethnic, inter-denominational coalition of pastors has called Mayor Annise Parker’s call for legalization of same-sex marriage a “declaration of war on the traditional family” and are condemning her actions in the strongest terms. Parker recently joined other mayors at a press conference in Washington D.C. and on Tuesday joined activists protesting in front of the Harris County Clerk’s office in support of this effort.

Christian Civic League of Maine: The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) uses member resources to advocate same-sex marriage and pro-homosexual military policy.

Seattle Post Intelligencer: The state’s Catholic hierarchy, in carefully weighted words, has weighed in to support a signature gathering campaign for Referendum 74, which would force a statewide vote on recently passed marriage equality legislation.

AP: Senate Democrats fired the latest political shot in what they’re calling the Republican “war against women” . . .

Findlaw: Charlize Theron’s adoption as a single parent may not have been possible even as recently as the 1970s, when such adoptions were illegal in some states. But that’s changed, and now single-parent adoptions are allowed in every U.S. state, according to the University of Oregon’s Adoption History Project.

Windy City Media Group: On Friday, a Delaware Superior Court in Wilmington issued a stipulated order that respects the private communications of a Delaware same-sex couple married in California prior to the effective date of Delaware’s civil union law . . . The case is Theil v. Dentsply Intern’l, Inc. and Dentsply LLC . . .

One News Now: Greg Baylor of Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) . . . “What’s really a head-scratcher is the fact that … Florida allows students to attend other religious schools in the state and still give them this grant,” he notes. “So it’s sort of perplexing why Florida is drawing this distinction between Florida Christian College and the other religious schools in the state.”

PR Newswire: H8SUX.com, a gay activist and T-shirt website, launched today and released its first viral video campaign targeting school kids with an offer of a free “OK4U2BGAY” T-shirt.

Yujhan Claros at the Huffington Post: It’s time for the minority of Americans who cannot say “I do” to be granted full participation in American society. Marriage equality is the only way to reverse the wrongs that have resulted from the identification and subsequent persecution of homosexuals. With equal protection under the law, we can hope that society will become more accepting and that fewer LGBT people will senselessly die because of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

Brian Palmer at Slate: In his victory speech, he thanked his family, including the home-schooled children who have been traveling with him for at least a part of his nine-month campaign for the nomination. How many vacation days is a home-schooled child allowed to take?

LifeSiteNews: “It’s just dehumanizing. And I have to honestly say, I think this era of porn is at least partially responsible for it,” Welch said of rampant sexual addiction. “Where is the anticipation and the personalization? It’s all pre-fab now. You have these images coming at you unannounced and unsolicited. It just gets to be so plastic and phony to me.

Washington Post: Opponents of same-sex marriage on Wednesday announced the launch of a widely expected petition drive, vowing to derail Maryland’s new gay nuptials law at the ballot box in November.

Echo Press: In March 2011, a school employee informed R.S.’s mother, S.S., that a parent of a boy had contacted the school and reported that her son and R.S. had been discussing sex via computer.

Morning Sentinel: The Maine House of Representatives unanimously voted this morning to indefinitely postpone the bill, which has the effect of sending it directly to voters.

WCNC.com: Although the rest of the South, often referred to as the Bible Belt, has adopted such a ban, the survey found 54 percent of Tar Heel residents interviewed opposed the constitutional amendment. It found that 38 percent supported it.

One News Now: A lesbian couple from Pennsylvania legally “married” in Canada and then settled in Illinois. Then one partner — Sarah Farley — died of cancer, leaving her retirement fund to her parents. However, the surviving lesbian — Jennifer Tobits — then sued, claiming a legal right to the fund, even though same-gender “marriage” is not legal in either Pennsylvania or Illinois.

NY Daily News: An ACLU lawyer is sticking up for a Boston-area high school student who was told by her vice principal to cover up her “All The Cool Girls Are Lesbians” t-shirt.

CNN: If the bill is signed by Gov. Gary Herbert, Utah’s teachers will not be allowed to inform students about contraceptives, “the intricacies of intercourse,” homosexuality, or sexual activity outside of marriage.

SCOTUS Blog: The legal struggle over same-sex marriage in California presents important questions of constitutional law, democratic process, and federal court procedure. More than three years after California voters amended the state constitution to overturn a court ruling permitting same-sex marriage, the legal status of that referendum, known as Proposition 8, remains uncertain. The present stage for this drama is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, but this is much like a pre-Broadway theater tryout with a Supreme Court run waiting in the wings.

NCPA Policy Digest: Across the United States, public high schools in struggling small towns are putting their empty classroom seats up for sale, says Reuters.

NY Daily News: Cardinal Dolan revealed for the first time that the Catholic Church was caught flat-footed on last year’s gay marriage vote in New York — insisting it was “burned” by Senate Republicans who claimed it didn’t have a prayer.

Chicago Tribune: Just as President Obama’s top campaign advisors are arguing that the prolonged GOP primary is raising controversial issues that will alienate the eventual GOP nominee from independent and swing voters in the fall, Democrats are facing a similar quandary.

MinnPost: And in the 2010 referendum, voters did repeal it by a margin of 53-47 percent. Advocates of marriage equality believe that sentiment has shifted in favor and successfully petitioned to have the question on the ballot again this year. Public Policy Polling last week released a Maine poll that covered the question and reported its results thus . . .

Eve Tushnet at First Things: An older man I know once remarked that in his experience, there wasn’t much point in arguing that divorce was wrong. What he’d come to believe was that—especially when the couple had children—divorce was simply impossible. These two people would continue to remain yoked to one another’s lives, their memories, griefs, resentments as intertwined as their laddering DNA.

Cathy Youn at Newsday: The doomsayers may exaggerate, but the cheerleaders are misguided. It’s great news that more women are economically self-sufficient. But there are at least two major reasons the rise of single motherhood should not be hailed as a victory for female autonomy. One is children. The other is men.

R.J. Snell at The Public Discourse: Unless we ask the “what” and “why” in ethical debate, we aren’t doing ethics. Debating ethics requires intellectual conversion and thus a commitment to intelligible reality.