Tag Archives: Topic: Homosexual Agenda

Washington Post: The Senate Judicial Proceedings committee heard testimony this week on a bill that would prohibit discrimination in public accommodations, housing and employment based on “gender identity,” which would take its place alongside race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation and disability.

Chicago Tribune: Gay marriage in Delaware is inevitable, the state’s Governor Jack Markell said on Friday,a day after neighboring Maryland became the eighth U.S. state to legalize marriage for same-sex couples.

Washington Blade (“the newspaper of record for the LGBT community.”): The Washington Blade received statements from the offices of 21 Democratic senators — including Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) — expressing support for including a marriage equality plank in the Democratic Party platform. The Blade solicited statements from all 53 Democratic senators and will update this article as more senators respond.

Baltimore Sun: “The way forward is always found through greater respect for the equal rights of all,” said O’Malley, giving brief remarks before signing the legislation. “If there is a thread that unites all of our work here together, it is the thread of human dignity. … Let’s sign the bill.”

NewsObserver.com: Voters will see this on the ballot: “Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State.”

MetroWeekly: Public Policy Polling new polling released today shows Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) having improved in a match-up against her closest possible Senate competitor, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R) — although the changes are within the margin of error and continue to show a nearly tied race between the two.

KTVA.com (includes video): Those who oppose Proposition Five say a new report shows faith-based organizations would be forced to go against their beliefs if the ordinance is passed. The report is by Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian organization based in Arizona . . . “People will understand that there is a lot more to it than just equal access,” said Jim Minnery of the Alaska Family Council.

Jackson Sun: Haywood County High School’s principal has resigned after a national civil rights organization said she made anti-LGBT remarks and threatened to expel gay students.

ADF seeks to intervene on behalf of Hawaii Family Forum to defend marriage against lawsuit

Family Research Council Washington Update: First they were “cowards.” Now, suddenly, “they are bigots and haters–they who stood tall against discrimination, who marched and sat in, who knew better than most the pain of being told they were less than others. They are black men, successful ministers, leaders of their community… who have stood on the front line of the campaign against same-sex marriage,” the Washington Post explains.

AP: The Washington-based campaign’s directors voted to hire Chad Griffin, 38, to replace outgoing president Joe Solmonese . . .

SCOTUS Blog: UPDATED 7:20 p.m. This post has been updated with the filing of a second brief opposing en banc review, by the city and county of San Francisco. That brief, too, is linked in the post.

The Rainbow Times(Student government vote bars Chick-fil-A eatery at local Mass. university) : For more than two weeks, critics, including students, faculty, staff, and alumni, denounced Chick-fil-A, citing the company’s substantial financial contributions to a host of anti-gay organizations as good reason to deny the chicken-chain a franchise at the school’s student center.

DNJ.com: The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Tennessee sent a letter to the superintendent of the Haywood County school district superintendent after receiving reports that a high school principal said gay students are “not on God’s path” and threatened to expel them if they publicly showed affection for members of the same sex

BBC: In the House of Commons, Peter Bone urged the Church of England to block the plans, as it believed marriage had to be “between a man and a woman”.

Washington Times: For the armed service’s most tradition-bound service, the one that most opposed lifting the ban last year, the transition seemed complete when a spokeswoman at Marine Corps Base Hawaii told a local TV station, “It’s your typical homecoming photo.” The gay rights movement is applauding . . .

AP on Google: With Maryland poised to legalize gay marriage, some conservative opponents and religious leaders are counting on members of their congregations, especially in black churches, to upend the legislation at the polls this fall.

Wall Street Journal: . . . voters overwhelming support Republican Gov. Chris Christie’s call to put the issue up for a public referendum, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday . . .

Mary Nurrenburn at Pasadena City College Courier: Does any one group or person have the right to dictate who is allowed to get married? Religious organizations such as The National Organization for Marriage and Alliance Defense Fund wants the public to believe that same sex marriage is unconstitutional. On the ADF website it states that it stands, “to protect the freedoms our forefathers intended” and that it aims to “preserve marriage as being between one man and one woman.”

F.E. Cornejo at Pasadena City College Courier: DOMAWatch.org, a site devoted to providing legal information to uphold the tradition of marriage states . . . Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the Christian based legal counsel institution that represents Protect Marriage, has a clear stance. “With God’s grace, ADF and our allies will continue to fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary, to uphold marriage as the union between one man and one woman.” This past weekend, ADF established National Pray for Marriage Day . . .

AP: Two new bills introduced into Liberia’s legislature would make the country the latest on the African continent to punish homosexuality with possible jail time.

Peter Sprigg at the Washington Times: Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr called it “reprehensible,” “deplorable” and “disgusting.” . . . Perhaps the flier triggered anger because it calls into question a widespread myth – that people are “born gay.”

ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence at the Santa Fe New Mexican: Santa Fe hairdresser Antonio Darden decided he can no longer in good conscience cut the hair of Gov. Susana Martinez because she does not support redefining marriage to include same-sex couples.

Christian Institute: The former MP said if the Prime Minister “insists on pushing ahead” with the change then there should be a referendum on the issue.

LifeSiteNews: The New Brunswick Health Department has issued a warning that syphilis is spreading at an increasing rate among the province’s homosexuals and that strategies to prevent infection and reduce risk of transmission by infected individuals seem to be ineffective.

KHOU.com: “Respectfully, if you cannot uphold the Texas constitution, then you should do the honorable thing and step down,” Pastor Steve Riggle of Grace Community Church wrote in an e-mail to Parker’s office.

Telegraph: Dr Rowan Williams said the issue of gay couples becoming married should be addressed through “culture rather than law”.

San Francisco Chronicle: Support for same-sex marriage in California has never been higher, with 59 percent of the state’s voters backing the legalization of gay nuptials, according to a new Field Poll.

ADF Attorney Austin R. Nimocks at Townhall: Throughout the push for the judicial overthrow of California’s marriage amendment, arguments were made about how it was time to quit peeking into people’s bedrooms, or allegedly singling out those who practice homosexual behavior. Sexuality was a private matter, some argued, and that shouldn’t affect public decisions, or so the argument went. However, that was then, and this is now. The Administration Office of the Courts in California is now making sure gays and lesbians are adequately represented on the judicial bench . . .

MyFoxPhoenix: The Human Rights Campaign of Arizona held its annual event for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families on Sunday.

NJ.com: So all involved did what they said they’d do. Nobody blinked. And we have a stand-off. What will happen next? Probably nothing visible for a while.

Appellate Daily: The U.S. Supreme Court may soon have the chance to review conflicting decisions about students who have been expelled from state university counseling programs for requesting not to counsel gay clients or wanting to “convert” them.

ZeeNews.India.com: “New Delhi: Contradicting its earlier stand, Government on Tuesday came out in support of decriminalisation of gay sex, drawing the ire of the Supreme Court which asked it not to make a “mockery” of the system.”

Bangor Daily News: “The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the first of two appeals brought by the National Organization for Marriage over campaign reporting requirements in Maine.”

PennLive.com: “With three “open and out” candidates seeking state House seats this year, chances are better than ever that Pennsylvania’s gay and lesbian community will have its first known voice in the General Assembly at this time next year.”

Business Insider: But the senator’s move may create some waves within the party considering that she also happens to be one of the co-chairs of President Obama’s national reelection committee. As you know, the president has yet to officially support same-sex marriage, though he has softened his stance on the issue.

Baltimore Sun: Though Gov. Martin O’Malley hasn’t even inked his freshly passed law legalizing same-sex marriage in Maryland, a group of faith leaders has already filed paperwork to start a petition drive aimed at repealing it.

AP: Harvard students and faculty are planning a rally to urge administrators to award posthumous degrees to seven students expelled from the Ivy League school in 1920 because they were gay or perceived to be gay.

Ed News: You won’t believe latest intrusion by government. Homeschooling families will soon be forbidden from teaching that homosexual sex is sinful as part of their schooling program, according to the government of Alberta, Canada.

AP: The Indian government Tuesday clarified to the Supreme Court that it accepts a recent ruling legalizing gay sex in the country.

The Republic (The Salina J.): Mott, chairwoman of the Kansas Equality Coalition, is backing a proposal to add sexual orientation and gender identity to protected classes to the city’s equality ordinance.

Huffington Post: A Maryland-based priest is garnering heat in the blogosphere today after allegedly denying communion to a lesbian parishioner attending her mother’s funeral.

Bet.com: Tonya Parker says until same-sex licenses are legal in Texas, she will not sign the forms.

NY Times: The county party’s chairman, Ralph C. Lorigo, said Senator Grisanti had lost its trust after twice telling party executives, in 2008 and 2010, that he was not in favor of same-sex marriage, and then voting last year to legalize it.

Union Leader: The sponsor of a measure to repeal the state’s same-sex marriage law says he plans to propose a floor amendment to try to win over opponents — one that may remove its “religious liberty” clause if that’s what it takes to pass it.

National Catholic Reporter: Opponents, however, are expected to gather the almost 56,000 signatures needed to put the issue to a statewide referendum in November.

Des Moines Register: The poll found that 38 percent favor a legislative initiative to pass a constitutional amendment, while 56 percent are against. Six percent aren’t sure.

One News Now (AP): Three GOP congressional leaders are appealing a federal judge’s ruling that declared a law prohibiting the government from recognizing same-sex marriages to be unconstitutional.

Weekly Standard: In order to make sure gays and lesbians are adequately represented on the judicial bench, the state of California is requiring all judges and justices to reveal their sexual orientation. The announcement was made in an internal memo sent to all California judges and justices.

Melanie Baker at Public Discourse: The law cannot be divorced from reality, from nature. The moment this happens, law becomes arbitrary, the whim of the ruling power: it becomes tyranny.

Mercury News: Moving swiftly, gay marriage foes on Friday appealed a San Francisco federal judge’s order this week finding the federal government’s ban on same-sex marriage benefits unconstitutional.

WABI.tv: Secretary of State Charles Summers announced today that enough valid signatures have been submitted to place “An Act To Allow Marriage Licenses for Same-sex Couples and Protect Religious Freedom” before the Maine State Legislature.

One News Now: One Christian pediatrician is raising ethical concerns with parents allowing children who believe they were born the wrong gender to undergo hormone treatments, and later surgery to physically change their gender.

Boston.com: Meanwhile, Liberia’s former first lady, Senator Jewel Taylor, submitted a bill last week that would prohibit same-sex marriage and make homosexuality a first-degree felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The Times and Democrat: Dozens of colleges have scrutinized how on-campus Christian groups operate after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed a law school to deny funding to a Christian group that would not admit gays. The 2010 ruling touched on gay and religious rights on campus, and the tension is now at the center of a handful of disputes at colleges.

The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, acting on behalf of more than half of America’s uniformed chaplains, is expressing concern about the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent refusal to defend the Department of Defense against a lawsuit concerning benefits for same-sex couples in the military.

Justin Dyer at Public Discourse: Many expect that the Supreme Court will soon overturn the traditional marriage laws remaining on the books in forty-three states, a prospect that would have been unthinkable only a decade or two ago. What happened?

Trayce Hansen at Christian Civic League of Maine: Men and women bring diversity to parenting; each makes unique contributions to the rearing of children that can’t be replicated by the other. Mothers and fathers simply are not interchangeable. Two women can both be good mothers, but neither can be a good father. So here are five reasons why it’s in the best interest of children to be raised by both a mother and a father:

One News Now: “The people of California deserve to have their marriage amendment defended before the full appeals court. The panel’s ruling mischaracterized the purpose of marriage, failed to faithfully and fairly interpret the Constitution, and disregarded every relevant appellate and Supreme Court precedent in American history,” Raum comments. “Marriage is too valuable to be redefined by two San Francisco judges in a case funded by Hollywood millionaires.”

CNN: The Maryland Senate voted Thursday evening to legalize same-sex marriage, the latest sign of growing national recognition of such unions among gay and lesbian couples.

MPRNews: “A lawsuit brought by three same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses in Hennepin County may be headed to the Minnesota Supreme Court on a technical matter.”

Christian Century: As the only Southern state without a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage, North Carolina is the next battleground, with religious groups on both sides bracing for a high-stakes fight on May 8.

LifeSiteNews: A 14-year-old homeschooler who testified before the Maryland state senate against a bill redefining marriage has been the subject of cyberbullying, vicious name-calling, and death threats.

Fox News: The Alliance Defense Fund filed suit Tuesday on behalf of Geneva College, a Christian-affiliated school in Pennsylvania. The ADF also filed suit over the weekend on behalf of Louisiana College, a private Baptist institution. Separately, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has filed suit on behalf of four groups . . .

Cal. Catholic Daily: The people of California deserve to have their marriage amendment defended before the full appeals court,” said ADF Senior Counsel Brian Raum. “The panel’s ruling mischaracterized the purpose of marriage, failed to faithfully and fairly interpret the Constitution, and disregarded every relevant appellate and Supreme Court precedent in American history. Marriage is too valuable to be redefined by two San Francisco judges in a case funded by Hollywood millionaires.”

Family Research Council: For the homosexuals in OutServe, the basic goal is OutCry. Since the overthrow of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the organization of “actively serving LGBT personnel” has planted 42 chapters on military bases–all with the common goal of tearing down the Defense Department’s (and by extension, society’s) marriage policies from within.

The Public Discourse: Lawmakers must look past the “equality versus religious freedom” standoff, and consider the substantive merits of each particular case.

SCOTUS Blog: Giving gays and lesbians a higher level of constitutional protection against discrimination, a federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act’s ban on federal benefits as it applied to a same-sex couple who are legally married in California.   The 43-page ruling . . .

Concurring Opinions: The Stanford Law Review Online has just published an Essay by Yale’s William N. Eskridge Jr. entitled The Ninth Circuit’sPerry Decision and the Constitutional Politics of Marriage Equality. Eskridge provides an accessible summary of the opinion and defends the judgment against detractors who claim it went too far—or didn’t go far enough

NECN.com: Baltimore County has become the fourth local government in the state to approve a measure protecting transgender people from discrimination.

CBS: Former Senator Alan Simpson had some choice words for his one time colleague, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.

Huffington Post: Maryland Del. Wade Kach (R-Baltimore County) is a key reason the state is on its way to becoming the eighth in the U.S. where same-sex marriage is legal.

NY Times: It’s true that for all its socioeconomic costs, the decline of marriage hasn’t led to immiseration and upheaval on a grand scale. But at the very least, it’s been associated with a growing happiness gap between the well-educated and the poor (35 percent of Murray’s “Fishtown” whites called themselves “very happy” in 1970; by the mid-2000s it was more like 17 percent), and a decline in female happiness overall.

MauiNews.com: Gov. Neil Abercrombie on Tuesday told a federal court that Hawaii law denies federal constitutional rights to same-sex couples who want to marry.

USA Today: Superior Court Assignment Judge Linda Feinberg is allowing the suit against the state to include a previously dismissed argument that New Jersey’s marriage laws deny equal protection under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution