Posts

Crazy World: Pope Francis May Push Gay Civil Unions, American Academy Of Pediatrics Says Gay Marriage Good for Kids

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Patrick Semansky/AP

Pope Francis pushed civil unions for gays in 2010 as cardinal

By Cheryl K. Chumley. Gay rights supporters may have found a friend in Pope Francis.

Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio — now Pope Francis — came out in support of civil unions for gay couples in 2010, Newser reports. It was during a time of spiritual chaos in Argentina, as the church there was battling attempts to legalize gay marriage. And Cardinal Bergoglio came forward with what he described as the “lesser of two evils” solution, Newser reports.

“He wagered on a position of greater dialogue with society,” his authorized biographer says, in the Newser report. He publicly criticized the gay marriage bill winding through Argentina’s legislature, but quietly supported same-sex union rights.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gay marriage is good for kids: American Academy of Pediatrics.

By Cheryl Wetzstein. The nation’s largest pediatricians’ group said Thursday that it supports gay marriage, noting that, to a child, the parents’ sexual orientation is not as important as other elements related to family well-being.

If a child has two living and capable parents who want to marry, it is in the best interests of the child that legal and social institutions allow and support the parents to do so, “irrespective of their sexual orientation,” the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) said in its new policy statement.

Therefore, AAP “supports marriage equality for all capable and consenting adults, including those who are of the same gender, as a means of guaranteeing all federal and state rights and benefits and long-term security for their children.”

Adoption placements and foster parenting also should be conducted without regard to sexual orientation of the parents, the academy added.

The announcement comes less than a week before the U.S. Supreme Court considers two cases that will determine whether the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8, which each define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, are constitutional.

Read more from this story HERE.

Rush Limbaugh: Gay Marriage and Freedom

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Rush Limbaugh

[Transcript from Limbaugh’s show yesterday] I’ll tell you, there’s something else I’d like to spend some time on today and develop further if it works out. I’m making no commitments. Hillary Clinton has come out today for gay marriage. I warned you about this months ago.

This issue has now catapulted to the top seemingly of everybody’s list. It’s stunning the way this has happened. In the millennial generation, 25 and under, it’s all that matters. Gay marriage. Young conservatives 30 and under, 35 and other, Manhattan bar scene conservative: Gay marriage, all that matters. People are willing to leave the party if the party doesn’t change its mind, and you know how it’s happening? Not just on the basis that love is a wonderful thing and who are we to say somebody could or could not love somebody.

It’s also coming under the umbrella of freedom. This is something that concerns me, because I think “freedom” is being misapplied or maybe incorrectly defined. Freedom does not mean hedonism. Freedom does not mean the sybaritic pursuits, “Just do what you want.”

RUSH: One of the things here that the left does, that the Democrat Party does, is they pretend to be the party of freedom and liberation. You talk about marketing? What a masterful marketing trick they have pulled off here, with the notion that they are the party of freedom and liberation when, in fact, it’s just the opposite. You see, the left’s big lie is that government frees people and that only government can liberate people, when really it’s just the opposite.

That’s why the left is constantly looking for new groups that they can cast as victims. I mean, we acknowledge that the left seeks to victimize everybody. But many people think that it’s so that they can provide benefits and grow the welfare state — and that’s, in part, true. But there’s another hideous reason for trying to put so many people into different groups of victims, and it is that those groups need protection. From whom? Mean-spirited, extremist, radical, right-wingers!

Read more from this story HERE.

Portman’s Gay Marriage Stance Sparks Conservative Backlash

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: US Mission Geneva

Sen. Rob Portman on Friday became the first Republican in the Senate to support gay marriage — and his switch set off harsh words from many conservatives.

“Sen. Portman is a great friend and ally, and the speaker respects his position,” Michael Steel, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, told Politico. “But the speaker continues to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said that it was Portman’s “prerogative” to change his views on same-sex marriage, but that the traditional definition of marriage won’t change “no matter what politicians decide.”

“I don’t think they have the power to change what is a religiously inspired definition,” the Georgia GOP leader told CNN.

And Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said to cheers at the Conservative Political Action Caucus in Washington: “Just because I believe that states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot.” In an essay published on Friday in the Columbus Dispatch, the Ohio senator said that his reversal was based on him and his wife, Jane, learning two years ago that their son, Will, 21, was gay.

Read more from this story HERE.

Which 80 Prominent Republicans Just Signed A Legal Brief Proclaiming Gay Marriage Is A Constitutional Right?

/12 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APAs the gay marriage debate continues to heat up, prominent Republicans — and some surprising names at that — are emerging to voice their support for same-sex unions. Following a blistering loss in the 2012 presidential election, discussion about social issues, particularly gay rights, has emerged as a potentially-problematic area for right-of-center politicians. And in an era colored by increasing support for homosexual marriage, the pressure is mounting.

This week, more than 80 prominent Republicans, including top advisers to President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress signed a legal brief that proclaims gay people have the right to marry under the U.S. Constitution. The document will be submitted to the Supreme Court this week, where it is purportedly intended to add to the voices that will be heard during two upcoming gay rights cases, The New York Times reports.

Next month, the High Court will hear a battle over Proposition 8, California’s controversial law banning same-sex unions. Additionally, a separate case concerning the Defense of Marriage Act will be argued. The legal brief could have an impact on conservative justices who support traditional marriage, but who are also sympathetic to gay marriage arguments surrounding equal rights.

Many of the names on the document argue that legalizing same-sex unions advances conservative values by expanding personal freedom and supporting family structures. The Times has more about some of the surprising names who are accepting this view:

Among them are Meg Whitman, who supported Proposition 8 when she ran for California governor; Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Richard Hanna of New York; Stephen J. Hadley, a Bush national security adviser; Carlos Gutierrez, a commerce secretary to Mr. Bush; James B. Comey, a top Bush Justice Department official; David A. Stockman, President Ronald Reagan’s first budget director; and Deborah Pryce, a former member of the House Republican leadership from Ohio who is retired from Congress.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pro-Gay Marriage Ads Feature Obama, Bush, Cheney, Powell (+video)

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Daily Caller The Gay Marriage advocacy partnership Respect for Marriage Coalition launched a $1 million national advertising campaign featuring a bipartisan group of political heavyweights pushing for gay marriage Wednesday.

The campaign features past statements from President Barack Obama, former first lady Laura Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Colin Powell all voicing their support for same-sex couples to wed.

Respect for Marriage Coalition’s message is set to appear in the coalition’s nationwide television, print — including full-page ads in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post — and online ads.

The ads rely on past clips of interviews and speeches from Obama, Bush, Cheney and Powell.

The organization uses a clip of Bush on CNN saying, “When couples are committed to each other and love each other then they ought to have the same sort of rights that everyone has” and Powell, also on CNN, saying, “Allowing them to live together with the protection of law, it seems to me is the way we should be moving in this country.”

See video:

Read more from this story HERE.

Feds OK First Burial Of A Veteran’s Same-Sex Spouse In A National Cemetery

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: The U.S. Army The government has cleared the first burial of a same-sex spouse of a veteran in a national cemetery, but it’s far from certain how easy it will be for other gay military couples to win the same benefit.

Who gets buried where is one of the practical decisions that the federal government is grappling with following repeal of the military’s don’t ask, don’t tell policy.

At first glance, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s decision to grant burial to a same-sex spouse in Oregon represents a big departure from past federal policy. In 2004, the VA warned the state of Massachusetts that burying the same-sex spouse of a veteran in a state veterans’ cemetery could lead to the federal government taking back nearly $12 million in grant money.

Then in 2008, the National Cemetery Association published a directive stating that individuals in same-sex civil unions or marriage are not eligible for burial in a national cemetery or state veterans cemetery that received federal money. Those directives were based on the language of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines a spouse as a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife. The law is being challenged before the Supreme Court.

Then along came retired Lt. Col. Linda Campbell and her spouse, Nancy Lynchild. Campbell, with help from Oregon officials, pressed the VA to allow Lynchild to be buried at the VA’s Willamette National Cemetery.

Read more from this story HERE.

Pope On Gay Marriage: ‘People Dispute the Idea That They Have a Nature’

/2 Comments/in , /by

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The pope pressed his opposition to gay marriage Friday, denouncing what he described as people eschewing their God-given gender identities to suit their sexual choices — and destroying the very “essence of the human creature” in the process.

Benedict XVI made the comments in his annual Christmas address to the Vatican bureaucracy, one of his most important speeches of the year. He dedicated it this year to promoting traditional family values in the face of gains by same-sex marriage proponents in the U.S. and Europe and efforts to legalize gay marriage in places like France and Britain.

In his remarks, Benedict quoted the chief rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, in saying the campaign for granting gays the right to marry and adopt children was an “attack” on the traditional family made up of a father, mother and children.

“People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being,” he said. “They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.”

“The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man’s fundamental choice where he himself is concerned,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Many Black Americans, Seeing No Good Choice, May Stay Home November 6

/3 Comments/in , /by


The pastors say their congregants are asking how a true Christian could back same-sex marriage, as President Barack Obama did in May. As for Republican Mitt Romney, the first Mormon nominee from a major party, congregants are questioning the theology of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its former ban on men of African descent in the priesthood.

There’s no question which candidate is expected to win the black vote. In 2008, Obama won 95 percent of black voters and is likely to get an overwhelming majority again. But the nation’s first African-American president can’t afford to lose any voters from his base.

“When President Obama made the public statement on gay marriage, I think it put a question in our minds as to what direction he’s taking the nation,” said the Rev. A.R. Bernard, founder of the predominantly African-American Christian Cultural Center in New York. Bernard, whose endorsement is much sought-after in New York and beyond, voted for Obama in 2008. He said he’s unsure how he’ll vote this year.

It’s unclear just how widespread the sentiment is that African-American Christians would be better off not voting at all. Many pastors have said that despite their misgivings about the candidates, blacks have fought too hard for the vote to ever stay away from the polls.

Black church leaders have launched get-out-the-vote efforts on a wide range of issues, including the proliferation of state voter identification laws, which critics say discriminate against minorities. Last Easter Sunday, a month before Obama’s gay marriage announcement, the Rev. Jamal-Harrison Bryant of Baltimore formed the Empowerment Network, a national coalition of about 30 denominations working to register congregants and provide them with background on health care, the economy, education and other policy issues.

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrats Drop “God” From Party Platform

/10 Comments/in , /by

Photo credit: kevin dooley

Guess what? God’s name has been removed from the Democratic National Committee platform.

This is the paragraph that was in the 2008 platform: “We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.”

Now the words “God-given” have been removed. The paragraph has been restructured to say this: “We gather to reclaim the basic bargain that built the largest middle class and the most prosperous nation on Earth – the simple principle that in America, hard work should pay off, responsibility should be rewarded, and each one of us should be able to go as far as our talent and drive take us.”

The Brody File has calls into DNC to explain why God’s name has been dropped from the platform. Some critics will suggest that when you have planks in your platform that support abortion rights and gay marriage then it’s no wonder that God’s name would be dropped as well.

Delegates will vote on the platform on Tuesday.

Read more from this story HERE.

15 Groups press Fox, Bill O’Reilly to drop “Gay” radical commentator

/2 Comments/in , /by

Individuals representing a wide range of pro-family organizations have signed a request to Fox News talk show host Bill O’Reilly to stop using homosexual activist Wayne Besen as a commentator on his program.

“When Fox News provides a forum to a radical homosexual activist known for employing inflammatory and hateful language in the service of promoting lies, the network becomes complicit in the damage done to the victims of Wayne Besen’s and the SPLC’s smear campaigns,” said the statement signed today by Mathew D. Staver of Liberty Counsel, Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern, Diane Gramley of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania and others.

“We ask the News Corporation, Fox News, and Bill O’Reilly to find more ethical spokespersons for the liberal view of sexuality. In their infamous Washington Post ad accusing FRC of hateful values, Besen and the SPLC claim that ‘words have consequences.’ Yes, they do. And Besen’s may lead to violence,” the statement said.

Others signing included David Smith of the Illinois Family Institute, Laurie Higgins of Illinois Family Institute, Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel Action, Denise Shick of Help 4 Families, Regina Griggs of Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX), Arthur Goldberg of Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing, Greg Quinlan of Pro-Family Network of Ohio, Pastor John Kirkwood of Grace Gospel Fellowship, Brian Camenker of MassResistance, Peter LaBarbera of AFTAH, Scott Lively of Defend the Family International, Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt of The Pray In Jesus Name Project and Linda Harvey of Mission America.

The group’s letter explains that Besen, who founded the pro-homosexual Truth Wins Out, has gone so far in his activities to oppose the traditional family supporters that in 2009 he used a bullhorn to harass Christians inside a Boston church.

Read more from this story HERE.